Joe Zabel's 3D Comics Blog

Hopefully everyone who's read The Fear Mongers has picked up on the homages to the classic '60s sci-fi show The Outer Limits. Indeed, it's one of my all-time favorite TV series, along with the The Avengers and The Rockford Files.

The Outer Limits, with The Twilight Zone and Star Trek, was among the first TV shows to treat science fiction seriously and intelligently. But it's value is primarily that it established its own unique fantasy universe that tended to overlap among the best episodes. It was a universe of all-pervasive strangeness. It was also morally a very serious and idealistic universe, where tragedy presided, and the characters were often called upon to make great sacrifices.

Chief credit goes to the following for this superb series--

Leslie Stevens-- Without Stevens there would have been no Outer Limits. He produced and directed the pilot episode, 'The Galaxy Being.' He developed an important aspect of the show's style, the unique depiction of scientific equipment, radio waves and energy, as seen in 'the Galaxy Being' and other episodes. He wrote the unforgettable opening monolog, 'Do not attempt to adjust your television set. We are controlling transmission.' He basically created and spearheaded the concept of the show.

Joseph Stefano-- Without Stefano, the Outer Limits as we know it wouldn't have existed. He brought his sterling rep as the screenwriter for Psycho to the table, which helped get the show on the air. More important, as the show's producer he put his intellectual stamp on it, steering it into the serious and tragic directions that would make it unforgettable. He was intimately involved with each script, rewriting scenes and inventing new scenes. He also contributed a number of original screenplays to the show-- 'A Feasibility Study,' 'Nightmare,' 'The Zanti Misfits,' 'It Crawled Out of the Woodwork,' 'The Mice' (with Bill Ballinger), 'The Invisibles,' 'Don't Open Till Doomsday,' 'The Bellero Shield,' and 'Fun and Games.' His most daring script was 'The Form of Things Unknown,' in which the dialog sounds almost like recited poetry.

Gerd Oswald-- A director with a strong talent for gothic atmosphere, he did many of the best episodes; he was Stefano's favorite director, working with him on 'The Invisibles,' 'Don't Open Till Doomsday,' 'The Form of Things Unknown' and several other of Stefano's episodes. He also directed the notably creepy 'Obit,' 'Corpus Earthling,' and 'The Chameleon'.

Robert Culp-- Lead actor in three of the best episodes, 'The Architects of Fear,' 'Corpus Earthling,' and the Harlan Ellison-scripted 'Demon with a Glass Hand.' During a schizophrenic episode in 'The Architects of Fear,' he mutters, "I am Caliban with a Ph.D... baa baa black sheep have you any Mandrake root? The Solar Spectrum has the shadow of Alexander's horse. Get away from me! Stand back! Do you think your white pudgy hands can hold Odysseus? Prometheus unbound. Tycho's star!'

Dominic Frontiere-- His innovative orchestral scores contributed enormously to the drama and tension of the show, and he had a great talent for weird atmospheric passages that enhanced the show's modest special effects enormously.

Conrad Hall-- As director of photography, he brought a misty, noirish style to the show that gave the episodes the look of art films.

Wah Chang-- The mask maker of The Outer Limits, responsible for some of the most disturbing depictions of alien presence ever captured on film. As an artist, he seemed to understand that the eye is the window to the soul, and the eyes of his creatures were very revealing-- in 'The Chameleon,' innocent, fish-like eyes; in 'Obit,' a glaring, cyclopean eye; in 'The Mice,' no eyes whatsoever.

Harlan Ellison-- Wrote only two episodes, 'The Soldier' and the classic 'Demon with a Glass Hand.' Cemented the reputation of the show as being classically cool.

Favorite episodes--

'The Galaxy Being'-- The premiere episode of the series is quite remarkable. The alien here is an entity unlike anything previously shown in cinematic SF, a very successful special effect created by the simple means of a negative reversal of an actor wearing a dark wetsuit. What's especially notable about this episode is the scene where Cliff Robertson conducts an interview of the alien. The scripting of it is intelligent and daring, and Robertson's performance projects the unimaginable historical importance of the first contact between mankind and an alien race. He even asks the alien if his civilization has the concept of god!

'Obit'-- Probably the strangest and most atmospheric episode, with several scenes depicting people viewed on the O.B.I.T. screen, as if they were floating in a misty alternate universe. Very chilling idea, that a peeping tom device might accidentally detect alien invaders. Also very relevant theme of the devastating effect of political paranoia. An especially dramatic, memorable scene in which an old scientist is interviewed, and is forced to confess about letters he writes and destroys. They are letters to his son. He is dying and is in much pain, and when it is unbearable he writes to his son to come to him. But when he recovers, he destroys the letters, knowing his son has a life of his own and his own family to care for.

'The Architects of Fear'-- Production-wise one of the most ambitious episodes, depicting the gradual transformation of a human into an imitation alien. The monster is only partially and fleetingly shown, an elaborate and very weird costume. The story is the most tragic and downbeat of the entire series-- Culp volunteers for the horrible experiment, only to discover moments later that his wife is pregnant. We see her torment and anguish when she is told the fabricated story that Culp died in a plane crash. Then, in the climax, she must endure his death again in this horrible form, this futile attempt to prevent atomic war.

'The Man Who Was Never Born'-- Martin Landau's performance gave this rather preachy and idealistic episode real conviction and romantic chemistry. Especially notable for the shocking ending, in which Landau vanishes upon his return to the future, because he was 'never born.' He leaves his beloved, Shirley Knight, alone in the space capsule, calling his name in anguish as she drifts away in space.

'Corpus Earthling'-- a silly premise about talking rocks makes a surprisingly effective episode in the hands of director Gerd Oswald and performers Culp and Salome Jens. Exceptionally creepy effect when the aliens materialize as dark amoebas spread across their victims' faces. It may be Jens' most affectionate role, but as in the Frankenheimer film 'Seconds', she is transformed into a creature of horror, devastating the man who loves her. Excellent handling of the downbeat ending in which Culp has regained his sanity but lost his wife.

'Nightmare'-- Astonishingly creepy episode in which space soldiers are captured and tortured by their bat-like alien enemies. Unprecedented horrific violence-- the bones of a soldier's arm are pulverized so his arm hangs like a rag doll. Another soldier is blinded, and then is offered his vision back if he'll look upon the body of a dead soldier. He agrees to the bargain, and what he sees is that the heart has been cut out of the other soldier, leaving only an empty hole. What makes this unimaginable horror so relevant is that it is all nothing but a war game being conducted by human generals with the reluctant cooperation of the aliens!

'Chameleon'-- With a script by Robert Towne, and starring Robert Duvall as a paid government assassin trapped in an existential dilemma. 'I'm nothing more than an instrument for action... Between missions, I cease to exist. I am what I've done, and that's not always very pretty. But being ugly is better than being nothing. I have no one, I care for no one, and I'm cared for by no one. So all I have is what I can do.' Duvall is transformed into an alien to infiltrate a downed flying saucer; he murders one of the friendly, gentle aliens, but in spite of this, the other alien invites him to go along on the trip back. The ending lacks tension and is perhaps too sweet, but Duvall's performance is memorable. Particularly strange is his reaction when he is first transformed-- he gives a strange little laugh, which seems quite weird coming from the outré creature he's become.

'The Invisibles'-- Lovecraftian gothic horror combined with James Bond, in the most action-oriented episode of the series! A government agent infiltrates the society of the Invisibles, whose members carry parasitic crab-like nucleuses on their backs. Spine-chilling scene where recruits must submit to having the nucleuses placed on their bare backs to prove that an immunization drug has worked! Later, the hero gets a sprained ankle, and must limp around for the rest of the episode with his foot at an acute ankle, eventually having to crawl in the dust as one of nucleuses crawls after him!

'The Mice'-- a fairly silly episode, but as a kid, it made a tremendous impression on me. Certainly the strangest and most disturbingly-lifelike of the aliens. A very frightening scene when the creature first appears in the teleportation chamber, then goes berserk and smashes up part of the lab. Also notable for casting hispanic Henry Silva as the lead, and Diana Sands as a black nurse who is implicitly Silva's love interest-- which really suggests the superiority of the first season to the second, in which the producers had paroxysms over the ethnicity of Consuelo Biros (Arline Martel) in 'Demon with a Glass Hand.' Her name was changed from Losada to Biros by the producer, and she had to wear a blonde wig to de-emphasize her ethnicity! Ellison had originally written the part for a black woman.

'The Zanti Misfits'-- the most popular show, and the one people remember most. Has an excellent opening act, introducing the strange idea of aliens establishing a prison colony on Earth. The animated Zantis don't hold up well, though, and the preposterous action scene at the end is quite tedious. Hard-hitting cynicism at the end, though, referring to the human race as 'practiced executioners.'

'The Bellero Shield'-- A very odd episode, damaged by overly-flowery language and too many unsympathetic characters. But the virtuous alien is quite memorable and impressive, and the dilemma of the shield is ingenious and frightening. Quite dramatic when Sally Kellerman discovers that she's trapped behind the shield, and equally effective when she is later freed but, having gone mad, still believes she is trapped, while a spot on her hand glows white with Shakespearean symbolism. One particularly odd scene shows the bare feet of Chita Rivera as she silently waits in a dark corner to be summoned by her mistress Kellerman-- it suggests a strange secretiveness about the entire household.

'It Crawled Out of the Woodwork'-- A tense and well-acted episode. The energy being which is the 'bear' of the episode is a successful effect, but the principle interest is the staff of the institute, all of whom suffered induced heart failure and have been brought back to life with pacemakers controlled by the evil Dr. Block. This makes them a kind of living dead. Particularly tragic is the character of Dr. Stephanie Linden (Joan Lamden), who is forced to be the gatekeeper of the Pit where the energy being resides, and who must lure victims into entering the pit.

'Don't Open Till Doomsday'-- One of the strangest episodes, because the real monster is the elderly Mrs. Kay played by Miriam Hopkins-- there is even a 'shock' scene in which she opens a door and we see her face! Inspired partly by Great Expectations, partly by Sunset Boulevard, it is the story of a woman left at the alter because her groom was captured by a creature in a tiny black box. One suspenseful horror scene where young Melinda Plowman is sucked into the box. Probably the most unpleasant show of the series, but you'll never forget the character of Mrs. Kay!

'Demon with a Glass Hand'-- The second season of the show had a lighter touch and was often silly and preposterous. But this Harlan Ellison-scripted story is arguably the most original and well-directed piece in the entire series, beautifully choreographed in the legendary Bradbury Building (also used for Blade Runner.) Once again a tragic ending-- Culp discovers that he is a machine, and just when he needs friendship and love, his female companion withdraws from him in horror. The ending suggests the troubling idea of being truly alone and without hope in the universe: 'Like the Eternal Man of Babylonian legend, like Gilgamesh, one thousand plus two hundred years stretches before Trent. Without love. Without friendship. Alone; neither man nor machine, waiting. Waiting for the day he will be called to free the humans who gave him mobility. Movement, but not life.'

The factual material for this piece all came from one source-- The Outer Limits Companion by David J. Schow. Highly recommended!



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July 12, 2004-- The Webcomics Examiner second issue premieres today with two new writers added to the roster of contributors. Joining as regular contributors are Michael Whitney, a frequent Comixpedia reviewer, and Bob Stevenson, a co-creator of the Girlamatic series 'More Fun.'

The Webcomics Examiner is a monthly forum of reviews, interviews, and critical articles evaluating webcomics as a fine art. The free-access website is at http://webcomicsreview.com.

The latest issue features an interview with Delineated Life cartoonist William G., and an infinite canvas cover by Examiner Art Director Neal Von Flue. It includes critical reviews of 'True Loves' by Jason Turner and Manien Bothma; Keaner.net by Kean Soo; 'Bell's Home Journal' & 'Lucky 2' by Gabrielle Bell; 'Cat and Girl' by Dorothy Gambrell; 'Achewood' by Chris Onstad; 'Something Positive' by R.K. Milholland; 'Empty Words' by Benjamin Rivers; and 'Moving' by Dan Hernandez.

Press contact: Joe Zabel, joezabel@webcomicsreview.com

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