Ode to "The Outer Limits" (1995-2002)

When I was young, I fell in love with a little show airing repeats on the SciFi Channel (and a then-brand-new 7th season) called "The Outer Limits." An anthology show that nowadays feels like "Black Mirror" with no budget and lots more aliens, it has aged extremely well, thanks mostly to the amazing writing and wildly effective twist endings.

For a while now, the entire 152-episode series has been available on Roku. Over the past few months I have watched the entire series, remembering only a handful of episodes but falling in love with the aesthetics, the ideas, and the extreme-Canadianness of the entire show. There are certain episodes that you can tell were filmed on a budget of mostly nickels, shot entirely in houses or soundstages with minimal special effects.

As with any great show from the 90s, there are lots of terrible episodes. I don't want to call out the writers and actors who clearly put a lot of work into crafting a 44-minute episode of television that sucked, so instead I have crafted a list of my absolute favorite episodes. There are plenty of Top 10 lists out there including episodes I've omitted but as far I'm concerned this is the definitive list of the most entertaining episodes to watch.

My criteria in creating this list was simple: Would I watch this episode again? Yes. If it's not an episode I'd watch again, or one I can barely remember, you won't find it here. But if you are interested in exploring this show, start with these.

The episodes are listed in the order they aired. In terms of sheer quantity of bangers, Seasons 2 and 6 were my favorite, but the best episodes overall were in seasons 4 and 5.

Season 1

"Pilot" - "The Sandkings" is a two-parter that kicks off the whole thing. Beau Bridges steals some microscopic Martian eggs and develops an epic God complex. Absolutely incredible start to the show that acts as a great taste of things to come.

"Valerie 23" - William Sadler is a wheelchair-bound scientist given a "companion robot" who becomes Lifetime Movie of the Week-style obsessed with him. It's a fun episode that introduces how the show views artificial intelligence and robots and, thanks to the Season 4 sequel episode "Mary 25", gains even greater esteem on a rewatch, though as you'll see below "Mary 25" is way better (and one of my favorites overall).

"Quality of Mercy" - Universally beloved like few episodes are, it lives up to the hype. The twist still hits, especially as it leads into its own sequel episode in Season 2.

"The New Breed" - Nanobots gone wild. This episode is the one that sticks out the most from my youth and was probably my first introduction to body horror. The practical effects remain incredible. Just watch.

Season 2

"Stitch in Time" - Widely regarded as the best episode of the series, and the only one to win an Emmy for Acting, the cat and mouse story of a time traveling murderer and the FBI agent on her trail is wonderfully written and executed, with a fantastic ending (that sets up its own sequel in the Season 6 finale, which you won't find on this list). Just a perfect 40 minutes of TV.

"First Anniversary" - I've gone back and forth on whether or not to include this episode on this list because it's not exactly a strong one, but then I remembered the monster reveal at the end and I would definitely see it again. 

"Inconstant Moon" - Michael Gross notices the world is ending while no one else does and parties it up. What would you do if you only had twelve hours to live? One of those episodes where the producers told the writer, "We got $9 in the budget this week" and they delivered.

"The Deprogrammers" - Brent Spiner guest stars in this story of human slaves plotting a rebellion against their alien oppressors. Can a person, once made a slave, ever truly be free?

"The Light Brigade" - A sequel to "Quality of Mercy", the less said about it, the better. Watch them back-to-back for a real kick in the ass. This episode's twist ending does not quite exceed that of "Quality" but it is still a whopper.

"Vanishing Act" - Jon Cryer is a man abducted by aliens and forced to live every day in ten year increments. It's a sweet little episode that squeezes every ounce of family drama it can out of its premise.

"The Sentence" - The only season finale that was not a clip show, this episode features David Hyde Pierce as the warden of a virtual prison. It is the most "Black Mirror"-esque episode of the show, almost to the point where you wonder if the latter's episode with a similar premise was more than an homage.

Season 3

"The Camp" - A story of rebellion and resistance in an alien concentration camp.

"The Awakening" - A woman who can't experience emotions is given a chip implant to allow her to do so, and that's the most normal thing that happens in this episode. A wild, wild ride.

"Feasibility Study" - An entire neighborhood is kidnapped by aliens as part of an experiment. Some very good, very gross body horror.

Season 4

"In Another Life" - A suicidal man is recruited by his parallel universe self to kill another parallel self on a killing spree murdering parallel selves. 

"Mary 25" - Elite, elite episode. I loved it so much. An excellent, at-times shocking portrayal of an abusive husband combined with a great story warning of the dangers of AI and one of the biggest twists of the entire series, which effectively casts the entire episode in an amazing new light? Wow. Just wow. I should watch it again now.

"Lithia" - Another top tenner for me, maybe top five? In a world where all the men have died, women run a peaceful society based on cooperation. When a man who was cryogenically frozen wakes up, he almost immediately screws everything up for everyone. Why are men?

Season 5

"Tribunal" - A Holocaust survivor uses a time travel device to get revenge on his concentration camp guard. A fan favorite for good reason.

"Deja Vu" - Kevin Nealon's Groundhog Day. 

Season 6

"Breaking Point" - A guy who invents a time machine goes back in time to stop himself from killing his wife. 

"Simon Says" - Bro. What an episode! A guy builds a robot to replace his dead son and things, as one might expect, go wrong. Another beautifully shocking ending.

"Down to Earth" - The Outer Limits version of a comedy episode. Reminded me of one of those funny X-Files episodes, in all the best ways.

"Decompression" - A time traveler tells a presidential candidate to jump out of a plane to save the future. Believe her or nah?

"Abbadon" - A group of space explorers awakens the body of a frozen terrorist in space and shit hits the fan.

"Zig Zag" - A freedom fighter battles an oppressive government in a story told backwards.

Season 7

"Family Values" - The cucking of Tom Arnold by his helper robot.

"Think Like a Dinosaur" - I love Enrico Colantoni so it was great to see him reckon with a complex moral dilemma concerning the sacrifices necessary for human progress.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

"New Years Kiss"

 My story "New Years Kiss" - https://roifaineantarchive.wixsite.com/rf-arc-hive/post/new-years-kiss-by-alex-j-barrio - was in Issue 34 of Roi Faineant and is now housed in the archive, which you can access via this link. This story was written in the days following New Years 2023. The characters of "Blue Dress" and "Freckles" are based on real people. Though exagerrated, I did become a nervous wreck around the real Blue Dress, who I met at an actual party this year. I'm proud of this story because I feel like it adequately captured my feelings in the exact moment that I felt them. The shock of seeing someone so attractive it turns you into a puddle is such a wonderful feeling!  For those wondering, I have not spoken to Blue Dress since New Year's Day and I don't know if she has read the story, but if she does I hope she likes it and knows that it is pure fiction. 
Read more

1001 Tanka Introduction

For years I've run a poetry Twitter called @1001Tanka, with the goal of writing 1001 Tanka poems and eventually collecting them into a book. I still have a long way to go. As Twitter collapses, I thought this was as good a time as any to begin migrating those poems over here. Traditional Japanese tanka poems consist of 31 syllables written in a single, unbroken line. In English translations, the tanka tends to take on a five-line form. Midway through a tanka poem, there's a change in perception. In a sonnet, it's called the volta. In a haiku, there's typically a "turn" between lines two and three. As with a sonnet, the change occurs as a transition from examining an image to examining a personal response. Many of my Tanka poems do not fit neatly into that definition. Rather, I like to use the restrictions imposed by the 5-7-5-7-7 syllable format to explore my emotions in a snapshot, like a picture of my feelings. Many of these poems are written on the spot, wi...
Read more