December 10, 2024: Our Outer Limits rewatch continues with season 1, episodes 17-20!

Season 1, Episode 17, “Don’t Open Till Doomsday”.
This episode was first broadcast January 20, 1965.

In the original script, the alien in the box (who fans affectionately named Turdo) has a pretty good reason for wanting to destroy the universe. He/It explains: “Your universe intrudes on our void. We saw the need to un-create it.”

Actress Miriam Hopkins, who played Mary Kry, was Margaret Mitchell’s first choice to play Scarlett O’Hara in Gone with the Wind (1939). She turned down the role of Ellie Andrews in It Happened One Night (1934), a role that eventually went to Claudette Colbert who won a Best Actress Oscar for her performance. Hopkins had a long-running feud with Bette Davis and, years after Hopkins’ death, Davis remarked that, while she was a good actress, she was nevertheless a “real bitch”.

Hopkins was, apparently, not that far removed from the character she portrayed in the episode. According to 1st AD Claude Binyoin Jr.: “I got a call that Miriam didn’t want to come down to the set. I had to go up to her apartment and convince her to come. She didn’t feel like working that day. And there she was, with cold cream on her face, and it was one of those weird moments, like a bad dream, trying to convince this star who was fading in and out of the real world that it was very necessary for her to come to the set because there were a lot of people depending on her. She was unhappy with her life, and I was afraid she might decide to end it all any moment. I really didn’t know. But she was a lovely person, never angry at any point. She had those problems, and depressions, partly because she was once quite beautiful, and it was hard for her to deal with the fact that those days were over for her. “

John Hoyt, who played Emmet Balfour, made two Twilight Zone appearances, the first in “The Lateness of the Hour” and the second a more memorable turn as an undercover Venusian in “Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up”.

Many have interpreted the episode as a commentary on repressed sexuality. In The Outer Limits Companion, author David J. Show describes: “The alien is a mad amalgam of phallic/vaginal symbol ogy, the physical nexus for the sexual fears that pervade the scenario.” And writer Joseph Stefano confirmed this interpretation: “It’s one of the most overtly sexual shows of them all,”he once said. “Most of it is conscious and deliberate, but there certainly are a lot of undercurrents in my writing that I don’t become aware of until after the fact.“

I…guess. While I did respect the, shall we say, “less straightforward” narrative of this episode, I was still left with too many questions at the end for me to be wholly satisfied with “Don’t Open Till Doomsday”. Who was that old lady in the wheelchair and what was her connection to the whole set-up? Why would Balfour, after getting zapped by the alien the first time, readily admit his ruse in front of the alien instead getting out of the damn room first and out of the line of fire? What exactly was Mary Kry’s deal with the alien? And how old is the bride-to-be? There’s a scene in the car when she reminds her prospective husband that it’s illegal to be married before the age of consent. THAT was undoubtedly the creepiest part of this episode.

Season 1, Episode 18, “ZZZZZ”

This episode was first broadcast January 27, 1965.

According to producer Joseph Stefano: “”I commissioned ‘ZZZZZ’ because of Joanna Frank. There was something about her face I thought would photograph beautifully, and so I had Meyer Dolinsky do the script. That business at the end with the wedding veil was mine; it worked even though there was nothing terribly original about the story.“

Meyer Dolinsky’s first draft was markedly different from Stefano’s rewrite, focusing on Ben’s infidelity. Said Dolinsky: “I wrote it from Francesca’s point of view. The beekeeper falls i n love with Regina and rejects his own wife before finding out at the last minute that the girl is a bee.” At which point Ben shoots Regina. “I had a high degree of temptation going, with Ben having the hots for this young chick. Stefano reversed all that. My own thinking was it was because he was married, and I wasn’t.” Furthermore: “I did not agree with his ending; in fact, I tried to get him to cut it. It went on interminably, this long, moral speech which I felt was unnecessary.” I totally agree with Dolinsky. His version would have been more daring. Ben’s ham-fisted speech at episode’s end is a real clunker.

Actress Joanna Frank, who played Queen Bee Regina, recalled she received little support from episode director John Brahm: “I didn’t get much direction except for once – the scene where I embrace the tree. He (Brahm) just said ‘Go with your feelings” and I went crazy overplaying it.”

As for her character’s buxom appearance, there is this amusing admission: “I’ve always been rather, how you say, well-endowed. But for some reason I can’t remember, I stuffed my bra ful l of nylon stockings for that show. There was a scene where I was lying on a table , and [actor Conrad Hall] complained that he couldn’t see my face! He said, ‘Can you do something about your, uh, tits?’ And I started pulling out stockings and going, ‘How’s this?’ And then I’d puJl two more out… I remember the casting director saying to me, ‘We were really thinking of a strawberry blonde for this.’ I had some thought that Regina had to be bigger than life, so between padding my bra and the false eyelashes, that was my conception of a bee.“

I wish they had filmed Dolinsky’s first draft because, to be honest, I enjoyed the sheer ridiculousness of this episode and solely bumped on the story elements that, it turned out, were added by Stefano. I thought Joanna Frank’s performance weirdly perfect for the role, and I loved the way Regina dispatched of Francesca Fields as I did that moment Regina topples off the balcony and frantically flutters her arms. Also was very pleased with the ending that sees Regina fly off to, presumably, more virile victims.

This one isn’t highly ranked among the Outer Limits fandom but, right now, it’s sitting in my Top 10.

Season 1, Episode 19, “The Invisibles”

This episode was first broadcast February 3, 1965.

This episode was likely based on Robert Heinlein’s “The Puppet Masters”.

The exterior shots of the barracks were not a set. They were actual WWII barracks.

Writer-Producer Joseph Stefano considered this episode one of his favorites: “Everyone is so good in it. The way Gerd shot it was disturbing; it’s a tight, tense show, and even today, watching a scene by itself makes me uncomfortable. The effect is one of overall, pervading evil.“

Not everyone involved in the production felt the same way however. Network censor Dorothy Brown called to express her concern. According to Stefano: “It unnerved and unsettled her. When she saw the rough cut, she said, ‘I don’t know what to do about this; this film bothers me and I can’t tell you why, or what to cut.'”

Director Gerd Oswald had not so fond memories of Brown, referring to her as “the real monster on Outer Limits!” Said Oswald: “Some of the notes she wrote Joe were so ridiculous you just wouldn’t believe it; objections to anything that might be too gory or spooky. Her superior at ABC was a guy named Adrian Samish, who was a total terror. Stefano threw him out of his office once.” Perhaps not surprisingly, Samish would later be promoted to president of ABC.

Recalled Stefano: “We fought continually with the censors. I used to put things into scripts knowing they’d be taken out, just to save other things from cutting. Normally, we’d get three and four page lists of things that ‘had to go’. The signals were all crossed. I’d get a call from the network heads, saying, ‘Let’s have more monsters ; we love this ; do more of that. ‘Generally, it would be the very thing Dorothy Brown hadn’t wanted me to do. And every time you get a letter from Continuity it still doesn’t mean they’ll okay the show even if you make the changes. It’s all ‘subject to final viewing’. My ace in the hole was to refuse to air the show. My objective became not to get caught and crushed between the censors and the network heads. So, I’d argue with Dorothy up to a certain point and then say, ‘Well , then, let’s just pull the show’.’ Then all the phones would start ringing. As soon as everybody heard that, they’d get time-conscious and eventually the show would come back okay. They’re weird people.“ This incident reminded me of a personal experience involving a Stargate: Atlantis episode called “The Tower”.

Shades of the goa’uld! I really did like the set-up but can’t say I was enamored of the execution, especially that climactic moment when the injured Spain drags himself along with the wigged crab in cold pursuit. I also laughed at the scene in which General Clarke takes the time to explain the dastardly plan to Spain and, once done, realizes Spain has already left. On the plus side, I really liked the performance of a young Richard Dawson, credited as Dick Dawson.

Speaking of which, I wonder if what may have made the network censor uneasy, that certain something she couldn’t quite put her finger on, may have been the episode’s much discussed homoerotic subtext. Some of the imagery and dialogue was considered pretty bold for the era. Thoughts?

Season 1, Episode 20, “The Bellero Shield”

This episode was first broadcast February 10, 1964

The Control Voice’s closing narration is the shortest of any episode at only 19 words.

This was Chita Rivera’s acting debut. She was a close friend of writer-producer Joseph Stefano who said: “I put the Chita Rivera character in. Without shoes. No one would’ve written that part but me.” (Yep. A real trailblazer). While Rivera accepted the role, she reportedly lobbied to play the part of Judith Bellero.

John Hoyt and Sally Kellerman would appear as USS Enterprise personnel in each of the Star Trek pilots: Hoyt as Dr. Philip Boyce in The Cage (1966) and Kellerman as Dr. Elizabeth Dehner in Where No Man Has Gone Before (1966).

At this point in his career, actor Martin Landau was teaching an acting class and was ever-mindful of his students whenever he accepted a job.: “I was in plain view of all of my students. If my work didn’t reflect the level of commitment and excellence that I insisted on from them, they’d have thought me a hypocrite, untalented and phony. They watched me like hawks. It made me practice what I preached, kept me on my toes.“

John Hoyt, who played many an alien on the show, recalled: “the awful discomfort of my makeup and costume . For two days I could see only with great difficulty, and it was impossible to eat or drink. My young son, who came on the set late, refused to believe [I] was his father. In distress he kept asking, ‘Where’s my dad?'”

The production went back and forth on how to achieve a glowing effect for the alien, finally deciding on putting some vaseline on the camera lens. Director of Photography Conrad Hall revealed: “The light reflected through the vaseline and spread out in emanating rays. I was careful not to use too much vaseline, so you don’t realize that the creature alone is out of focus.” I don’t know if it was wholly successful. It looked more like a focus issue to me, especially when other characters strayed too close to the shmear.

I quite liked this episode, from its fairly contained story to its affable alien, the strange relationship between Judith and Mrs. Dane, and the fourth act twist that, had this been a Twilight Zone, would have ended the episode. Martin Landau was great as was Neil Hamilton who puts in his second Outer Limits guest appearance in a row. This episode felt like a companion to the similarly themed “The Galaxy Being”.

What did you think?

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