The Children of Spider County

"The Children of Spider County"
The Outer Limits episode
Episode no.	Season 1 Episode 21
Directed by	Leonard Horn
Written by	Anthony Lawrence
Cinematography by	Kenneth Peach
Production code	25
Original air date	February 17, 1964
Guest actors
Lee Kinsolving Kent Smith John Milford Crahan Denton Bennye Gatteys

"The Children of Spider County" is an episode of the original The Outer Limits television show. It first aired on 17 February 1964, during the first season.

Opening narration

"In light of today's growing anxieties, it has become more absolute that the wealth of a nation consists in the number of superior men that it harbors. It is therefore a matter of deep concern, and deeper consequence, when four of the most magnificent and promising young minds in the country suddenly disappear off the face of the Earth..."

Plot

A group of four young prodigies has mysteriously vanished, now all influential figures, and it is noted that they all hailed from the same remote area, Spider County, and that they share the same middle name of Aros, an obscure planet in the Krell galaxy orbiting the Orion constellation. A government agent (Milford) is sent to investigate the one young prodigy, Ethan Wechsler (Kinsolving), who is still in Spider County, having been incarcerated and accused of murdering a young girl's suitor after he telepathically "overhears" an ill-mannered remark made towards her, and following a physical altercation between them where the suitor was killed by Ethan as an act of self-defense. Because of his unique abilities and loner attitude, Ethan is ostracized by the citizens of Spider County, thus compelling his "father" (Smith) to rescue him from his human captors and return him to Aros, together with his fellow prodigies, where they can be honored and revered for their special gifts, and not feared and despised. Following numerous attempts at escape and recapture, Ethan is finally reunited with his "brothers", professes his love for the young girl, Anna Bishop (Gatteys), and his refusal to return with his father to Aros, having enjoyed his life on Earth despite encountering prejudice and mistrust throughout the years. The father reluctantly agrees to his son's wishes and, after Ethan convinces his brothers to remain on Earth with him, the alien patriarch departs for his homeworld in Orion without the passengers he had expected would have, unconditionally, accompanied him.

Closing narration

"The wealth of a nation, of a world, consists in the number of superior men that it harbors, and often it seems that these men are too different, too dreaming. And often, because they are driven by powers and dreams strange to us, they are driven away by us. But are they really so different? Are they not, after all, held by the same things that hold us-by strong love, and soft hands?"

Production

Interiors had to be filmed at the Samuel Goldwyn Studios, as production on 'The Unknown'/'Forms of Things Unknown' pilot/episode was using up the soundstages at KTTV.^[1]

Cast

Lee Kinsolving – as Ethan Wechsler
Kent Smith – as Aable
Dabbs Greer as Mr. Bishop
Bennye Gatteys as Anna Bishop
John Milford – as John Bartlett
Crahan Denton – as Sheriff Simon Stakefield
Joey Tata – as Deputy
Robert Osterloh – as General
Burt Douglas as Man
Roy Engel – as Military Intelligence Officer (uncredited)
Joseph V. Perry – as Mr.Greenbane (uncredited)
William O'Douglas, Jr. – as Aabel in his Alien form (uncredited)

References

↑ The Outer Limits:The Official Companion (1986), p.216

External links

"The Children of Spider County" at TV.com

The Outer Limits episodes

1963 series
(episodes)

Season 1	"The Galaxy Being" "The Hundred Days of the Dragon" "The Architects of Fear" "The Man with the Power" "The Sixth Finger" "The Man Who Was Never Born" "O.B.I.T." "The Human Factor" "Corpus Earthling" "Nightmare" "It Crawled Out of the Woodwork" "The Borderland" "Tourist Attraction" "The Zanti Misfits" "The Mice" "Controlled Experiment" "Don't Open Till Doomsday" "ZZZZZ" "The Invisibles" "The Bellero Shield" "The Children of Spider County" "Specimen: Unknown" "Second Chance" "Moonstone" "The Mutant" "The Guests" "Fun and Games" "The Special One" "A Feasibility Study" "Production and Decay of Strange Particles" "The Chameleon" "The Forms of Things Unknown"

Season 2	"Soldier" "Cold Hands, Warm Heart" "Behold, Eck!" "Expanding Human" "Demon with a Glass Hand" "Cry of Silence" "The Invisible Enemy" "Wolf 359" "I, Robot" "The Inheritors" "Keeper of the Purple Twilight" "The Duplicate Man" "Counterweight" "The Brain of Colonel Barham" "The Premonition" "The Probe"

1995 series
(episodes)

Season 1	"The Sandkings" "Corner of the Eye" "Under the Bed" "Dark Matters" "The Conversion" "Quality of Mercy" "The New Breed" "The Voyage Home" "Caught in the Act" "The Message" "I, Robot" "If These Walls Could Talk" "Birthright" "The Voice of Reason"

Season 2	"Stitch in Time" "Resurrection" "Unnatural Selection" "I Hear You Calling" "Mind Over Matter" "Beyond the Veil" "First Anniversary" "Straight and Narrow" "Trial by Fire" "Worlds Apart" "The Refuge" "Inconstant Moon" "From Within" "The Heist" "Afterlife" "The Deprogrammers" "Paradise" "The Light Brigade" "Falling Star" "Out of Body" "Vanishing Act" "The Sentence"

Season 3	"Bits of Love" "Second Thoughts" "Re-Generation" "Last Supper" "Stream of Consciousness" "Dark Rain" "The Camp" "Heart's Desire" "Tempests" "Awakening" "New Lease" "Double Helix" "Dead Man's Switch" "Music of the Spheres" "The Revelations of Becka Paulson" "Bodies of Evidence" "Feasibility Study" "A Special Edition"

Season 4	"Criminal Nature" "The Hunt" "Hearts and Minds" "In Another Life" "In the Zone" "Relativity Theory" "Josh" "Rite of Passage" "Glyphic" "Identity Crisis" "The Vaccine" "Fear Itself" "The Joining" "To Tell the Truth" "Mary 25" "Final Exam" "Lithia" "Monster" "Sarcophagus" "Nightmare" "Promised Land" "Balance of Nature" "The Origin of Species" "Phobos Rising" "Black Box" "In Our Own Image"

Season 5	"Alien Radio" "Donor" "Small Friends" "The Grell" "The Other Side" "Joyride" "The Human Operators" "Blank Slate" "What Will The Neighbors Think" "The Shroud" "Ripper" "Tribunal" "Summit" "Descent" "The Haven" "Deja Vu" "The Inheritors" "Essence of Life" "Stranded" "Fathers and Sons" "Star Crossed" "Better Luck Next Time"

Season 6	"Judgment Day" "The Gun" "Skin Deep" "Manifest Destiny" "Breaking Point" "The Beholder" "Seeds of Destruction" "Simon Says" "Stasis" "Down to Earth" "Glitch" "Decompression" "Abaddon" "The Grid" "Gettysburg" "Nest" "Final Appeal"

Season 7	"Family Values" "Patient Zero" "A New Life" "The Surrogate" "The Vessel" "Mona Lisa" "Replica" "Think Like a Dinosaur" "Worlds Within" "In the Blood" "Flower Child" "Abduction" "Lion's Den" "The Tipping Point" "The Human Factor" "Human Trials"

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