The Outer Limits Season 1 (1963)
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The Outer Limits Season 1 Review
The Outer Limits is a science fiction television show which first season premiered in 1963. It’s a very good, mostly satisfactory series.
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“We now return control of your television set to you,
until next week, at the same time when the Control Voice
will take you to… The Outer Limits.“
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First and foremost, this show was obviously influenced by ‘The Twilight Zone’ which is definitely much superior mostly because it’s more engaging, more thrilling and overall much more sophisticated and unforgettable in its stories. But The Outer Limits itself is rather good and it certainly makes for one fine viewing.
It’s a very well shot show with excellent black-and-white photography and it’s mostly well scripted and directed. The emphasis on some hard sci-fi was great to witness. I also loved its score and how they each episode brought a big name acting-wise for the story. That was excellent. I just wish that the episodes were shorter as a 51-minute runtime led to a significantly reduced entertainment factor.
The first season has 32 episodes with the first one being The Galaxy Being. It’s a strong alien tale with particularly effective characterization and dialogue. It was an intriguing beginning of the show with some amazing VFX for its time. The Hundred Days of the Dragon is much weaker and overly political in its plot.
The Architects of Fear is also political and mostly forgettable whereas The Man with the Power features a great, although somewhat underutilized premise. The Sixth Finger is very strong and emotionally powerful whereas The Man Who Was Never Born is a particularly pleasing visually and conceptually tale with some excellent cinematography at display.
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O.B.I.T. and The Human Factor are both overly familiar and mostly far from memorable. Corpus Earthling is excellent and particularly original in its parasitic alien forms. Nightmare is a representative for the show episode which is overly political and sociological, but mostly a fine dystopian episode with some excellent dialogue and themes. It Crawled Out of the Woodwork is intriguing, but rarely truly great.
The Borderland is fine, but typical. Tourist Attraction is a particularly effective adventurous SF tale with excellent scenery in particular. The Zanti Misfits has its moments, but is mostly overly familiar for this show. The Mice is actually an effective dystopian tale which is definitely quite menacing in tone. Controlled Experiment is one of the weakest episodes here as comedy is not what this show could or should do.
Don’t Open Till Doomsday is a moving tale so well acted by Miriam Hopkins and it was wonderful seeing her in here. ZZZZZ is a particularly authentic tale with the bee villain being exceptional. The Bellero Shield is also very emotional with amazing character interactions and dialogue plus I loved how feminist it was. As for The Invisibles and The Children of Spider County, they unfortunately weren’t available for viewing.
Now this is the strongest time for the season with the next four episodes all being stellar. Specimen: Unknown is a terrific tale of a deadly alien flower, Second Chance is again a highly emotional, dialogue-driven morality tale, Moonstone is also very complex in its story and morals whereas The Mutant is particularly entertaining in its plot, action and memorable setting. The Guests sounds intriguing, but unfortunately I couldn’t find anywhere to watch it.
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Fun and Games is a familiar, but obviously still effective tale of humans serving as TV entertainment for alien beings. The Special One is also familiar in its plot, but admittedly so well made overall. A Feasibility Study is overly typical, Production and Decay of Strange Particles is quite boring and The Chameleon is overly political.
But The Forms of Things Unknown is easily one of the standouts of the season featuring a powerfully acted, morally ambiguous and very creepy tale which is admirably led by two brave women. The cinematography here is even artistic in quality.
In the end, the first season of The Outer Limits is a long season filled with its fair share of forgettable and typically plotted episodes, but it also has many classic, highly memorable and effective episodes that are definitely worth seeing.
Worst Episodes: Controlled Experiment and Production and Decay of Strange Particles.
Best Episodes: The Bellero Shield and The Forms of Things Unknown.
