by Natalie Devitt

No matter how much scientists, inventors and aliens try to control all the conditions for the experiments they conduct on The Outer Limits, things almost never seem to go as anticipated, and often result in them veering into much stranger territory. The most recent month certainly did not stray from the usual formula of experiments going wrong. Episodes included the following: aliens teleporting a suburban neighborhood and its residents to another planet to determine whether or not to enslave humans, only for the humans to discover this before the study is completed; an accident occurring during a test in a research facility releases an energy that takes over people‘s bodies; an intelligence agent goes undercover as an alien, only for him to adapt to his alien form a little too well; and two women deal with unforeseen complications when they meet an inventor capable of bringing the man they murdered back to life.

A Feasibility Study, by Joseph Stefano

A Feasibility Study is the story of a group of neighbors that wake up one morning to find that things seem a little off. At first, they notice the unusual weather, then some vehicles have difficulty starting and the phones lines seem to be down. One character tells her husband, "It’s not raining, but it’s doing something, and I’ll bet it’s radioactive." As it turns out, things are much more serious that they ever could have been imagined. Their entire neighborhood, including their homes and everything surrounding them, have been teleported while everyone slept to another planet called Luminos.

The people are imprisoned on Luminos for one reason and one reason only; as the opening narration states: "The Luminoids need slaves, and they have chosen the planet off which those slaves will be abducted." The whole thing is part of a feasibility study to see if humans would make suitable slaves for the Luminoids, who grow mentally sharper but less mobile with age. The only problem is that the inhabitants of the neighborhood realize that they have become "human guinea pigs" sooner than the Luminoids expected.

People always compare The Outer Limits and The Twilight Zone, and though they really are two different beasts, this episode is a real treat for fans of The Twilight Zone because most of the actors in it have made appearance on that show. Such actors include David Opatoshu, who starred in Valley of the Shadow, Joyce Van Patton, who was in last season’s Passage of Lady Anne, and then there is Phyllis Love of Four O’Clock.

A Feasibility Study includes incredibly realistic acting and impressive set design. The episode is also extremely atmospheric, with no shortage of fog. The score has a noticeably different and more experimental quality to it than most other entries in the series. Nowhere is it more effective than in a scene where one of the characters is driving through the fog as an alien hand reaches out and touches his car’s windshield. All of the subplots in the script work together very well, and only help to elevate the main plot. Overall, the episode was a easily one of the high points of the season. It deserves four stars.

Production and Decay of Strange Particles, by Leslie Stevens

Production and Decay of Special Particles involves an accident at a research facility, which ends up allowing an energy alien to possess the bodies of the employees at the facility one by one. The situation is explained as being similar to "a hole torn in the universe.” All of this leaves the head of the facility, played by none other than George McCready, who appeared in The Twilight Zone‘s The Long Morrow and in the vastly superiorThe Outer Limits’s episode The Invisibles to team up with his character’s wife in order to stop the creature, which is characterized as "something from another dimension" and capable of presenting itself in "a human form". He must also prevent it from getting beyond the confines of the property.

I have to admit that, as much as I was excited to see the show really dive into the hard sciences, this episode required a little too much outside knowledge for the average viewer to understand it, much less appreciate it. With little to no explanation, combined with the issue that the episode does not have much going on visually, things begin to drag real quick. In addition to these problems, there is some stock footage awkwardly edited into the episode and plenty of over-acting.

When I was not brushing up on my physics vocabulary, I spent much of the episode watching men in suits barely moving, with constant crackling noises in the background. While I am happy to see the show do something different with an episode more heavily-rooted in science, even if it involves yet another energy being, the episode needed something else to maintain an audience‘s attention. After taking all of these things into consideration, two stars is all that I can give to Production and Decay of Special Particles.

The Chameleon, by Robert Towne

Robert Duvall, who made The Twilight Zone‘s Miniature worth watching, plays Louis, a man with nothing to lose. Louis is hired by his former employer, the CIA, to undergo a dramatic transformation in order to play the role of an extraterrestrial. He is instructed to "become one of them.” He is provided with a cover story, which includes directives like, "once you are with them, you will tell them that you landed long ago on Earth, crash landed. You remember nothing of your origin. What little language you know, you got from humans.”

All of this is being done in order to collect information on an alien spaceship that landed and has already killed the last group of men to patrol the area. It is feared that the aliens in charge of the ship may be carrying "nuclear material,” so people are understandably reluctant to attack the aliens. The only problem is that things go a little "too well.” Louis becomes increasingly difficult to control, and once he is in alien form, his sympathies begin to shift.

Duval brings a vulnerability to the role of a washed up agent before he undergoes the transformation. He then becomes a man-made extraterrestrial, not unlike the man-made creature in The Architects of Fear. The aliens in The Chameleon, are of course odd-looking, with beady eyes and wrinkled faces. They also have veins that bulge out of their bald heads. The major twist with Louis changing sides was interesting enough, but at the end of the day, it is really Robert Duvall’s skills as an actor that earns this episode its three stars.

The Forms of Things Unknown, by Joseph Stefano

Psycho’s Vera Miles plays Kassia, one of two young women who poison the drink of a very unpleasant man named Andre, played by Scott Marlowe in his second appearance on The Outer Limits. Kassia’s accomplice is named Leonora. The ladies stuff Andre’s body into the trunk of a car, and drive around looking for the perfect place to dispose of it. Leonora ends up leading them to a big, old house, where they are told that they are welcome to warm themselves by the fire.

While inside, they notice the sound of several ticking clocks. They are told that the noise comes from "a special room upstairs.” Inside the room is where an inventor named Mr. Hobart "tinkers with time.” His experiments with time have become so sophisticated that he can cause the past to "tumble into the present.” Such experiments could bring Andre back to life, with some pretty disastrous results.

The part of the narrative involving Lenora and Kassia murdering Andre reminded me an awful lot of the 1955 French film Diabolique. Similarities aside, the plot in The Forms of Things Unknown, is a little flimsy. But that almost does not even matter, because the episode’s cinematography and set design are nothing short of perfection. The acting, however, was a little short of being consistently good. That said, Vera Miles delivers a fine performance and has a number of amusing lines. David McCallen returns to the show for another memorable performance after the great The Sixth Finger. Even veteran actor Cedric Hardwicke, who recently appeared in The Twilight Zone‘s Uncle Simon, shows up playing host to all the episode’s craziness. Despite some flaws this hour of the series is still definitely worth the watch. The Forms of Things Unknown earns three and a half stars.

All in all, it has been an interesting month on The Outer Limits.  Most episodes featured the kinds of stories and the quality I have come to expect of this series, while only one entry was a bit of a letdown. With this being the last set of episodes of the season, I have to say it has been a lot of fun watching this show really hit its stride. I cannot wait to see what new creatures and stories are in store for the series in the fall.

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