"The Outer Limits" (1995) TV series 1995-2002

User Rating:

7.9/10   

Directors:

Michael Robison
Brad Turner

Writers:

Jonathan Glassner (12 episodes)
Michael Giampa (written by)

Seasons:

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7

Release Date:

26 March 1995 (USA)

Genre:

Mystery | Horror | Sci-Fi | Fantasy | Thriller

Tagline:

There is nothing wrong with your television. Do not attempt to adjust the picture.

Plot Keywords:

Robot | Voice Interface | Flashback Sequence | Scientist | Android

Awards:

Won Primetime Emmy. Another 13 wins & 34 nominations

US TV Schedule:

Mon. Oct. 13

2:00 AM

SCIFI

The Sentence

#2.22

Cast

Kevin Conway

...

The Control Voice / ... (145 episodes, 1995-2002)

Also Known As:

The New Outer Limits (USA) (promotional title)

Runtime:

Canada:50 min | USA:44 min

Country:

Canada | USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

Australia:M (some episodes) | Australia:MA (some episodes) | Netherlands:16 | Canada:PG

Filming Locations:

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Company:

Alliance Atlantis Communications

Trivia:

Lasted longer than the original "The Outer Limits" (1963).

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Crime and Punishment in Suburbia (2000)

Last of the truly horrifying television programs.

The characteristic that differentiated the original Outer Limits program from every other sci-fi show was the substitution of raw horror for the usual happy ending. Alien visitors came not to teach us, learn from us, or be our friends, but to kill us, eat us, or enslave us. Daring scientific experiments led not to spectacular gains in knowledge, but to horrifying consequences that could not be undone. You had episodes where a visiting alien "scientist" really just came to innoculate our water with the aliens' primary food organism, a researcher's scale model of a planet turns out to be complete with it's own miniature malevolent deity, and more than one voyage into space makes the explorers wish they had stayed home. The new Outer Limits often captured this grim vision of the future. You had episodes where people's lives were just an illusion induced by the hallucinogenic venom of alien spiders that were feeding on them, "fertility clinics" implanting women with carnivorous alien embryos, even a space war in which it was realized that GOD HIMSELF was on the side of the invaders, not man. Naturally not everyone has the mental capacity to appreciate such raw horror, so brilliant episodes like these were punctuated by episodes of quasi-intellectual drivel that discouraged new viewers from ever watching a second show. This is a real shame, because many episodes were easily as terrifying as anything in the original series.