December 19, 2024: The Outer Limits rewatch continues with season 1, episodes 25-28!

Season 1, Episode 25, “The Mutant”

This episode was first broadcast March 16, 1964

Series producer Joseph Stefano had this to say about the episode: “‘The Mutant’ was probably the worst show we did. Just terrible. I didn’t care for the cast on it either.”

This episode apparently terrified director Guillermo Del Toro as a child. According to Del Toro, when he saw the mutant, he “started screaming and didn’t stop.”

The name of the show’s production company, Daystar, appears on several boxes as set dressing in various scenes.

The mutated ant that attacks Professor Lacosta is a reuse from “The Zanti Misfits”.

Starting with “The Mutant” all remaining season one episodes were shot in five days instead of six.

The isotope rain effect was achieved by sifting metallic dust through a high-intensity light – a technique later used on Star Trek (1966) for its transporter effect.

Tom Selden, assistant to producer Joseph Stefano, had a run-in with the network while in production on this episode. He recalled: “So I took the call from ABC. And all this asshole wanted to talk about was some network trip that had absolutely nothing to do with what was immediate and necessary at that moment, so I made the choice and told him exactly what I thought: ‘I’m sorry, but I can’t be bothered with that right now. Goodbye.’ That didn’t sit very well with the network and I almost lost my job over that one phone call. It was pretty tense for a few days.”

“The Mutant” started as a story treatment by Ellis St. Joseph (“The Sixth Finger”), was rewritten by Joseph Stefano and Jerome B. Thomas, then re-rewritten by Allan Balter and Robert Mintz (“The Hundred Days of the Dragon”). Sadly, third time was not the charm. Said Stefano: “If you have a good script, you can take away anything you want and it still works. This was not a good script.“

According to Betsy-Jones Moreland who played Judith Griffith, said: “The first night that we were there, my voice went hoarse. I lost my voice from screaming in that cave. I had one hell of a time – it was very cold and very damp. It was very difficult from then on to sound like anything but a frog!“

The mutant eyes were vacu-formed. Dumo Wax was used to arch the actor’s brows into the contours of his head, but the heat at the shooting location, Bronson Canyon, caused the wax to sweat . Eagle-eyed viewers can catch the melted droplets on actor Warren Oates’ face. According to make-up supervisor Fred B. Phillips: “I had to use a strong sealer to keep the eyes from popping off in the middle of a take ” – which they nevertheless did with hilarious frequency.

“l or one of the crew would always come up with these pet names for the “bears ‘ [aka the show’s monsters],” said Joseph Stefano. ” And the right one always stuck.
Because of those eyes, Warren was forever known as the Fried Egg Monster.“

Not a great episode but – let’s face it – we’ve seen worse. Even though the eyes did look silly and the reveal was totally ruined by the episode opening, I did like the idea. And while the demise-in-darkness ending may not have been dramatically effective, I nonetheless did like the idea of the frantic scramble for the light of the candle. Despite Stefano’s criticism, I though the cast did an admirable job with the material.

So, in the end, not a great episode but not bad relative to the preceding installments. Does that make it a Top 10 contender? If this was The Twilight Zone, I’d say no, but given this series, I’m not so sure.

Season 1, Episode 26, “The Guests”

This episode was first broadcast March 23, 1964

The alien creature in this episode is a re-use from “The Mice”.

This episode was based on a pitch by author and Twilight Zone writer Charles Beaumont, its premise markedly similar to his TZ script “Valley of the Shadow” except that, in this case, the town was under the control of a giant brain. Writer Don Sanford was handed the assignment but he totally reworked the original pitch, turning the script around in record time and delivering a first draft that so impressed producer Joseph Stefano that he sent the episode into prep forgetting to add a Control Voice opening and closing.

Reflecting back on the episode, Sanford said: “(It) was such a restriction-less working environment, a one-of-a-kind show. One of the reasons The Outer Limits was so unique was that once the ratings slipped a little, everyone took the ‘magnifying glass’ off them, and they went crazy with these on-the-edge stories, all the oddities they didn’t dare try to slip by the network while the big guys were hovering over their shoulders.” [This echoes my own experience with SG-1’s cancellation and the Teal’c at the Vagina Monologues ending – see pinned tweet in m profile]. According to Sanford: “I still get letters from people about ‘The Guests.’ They see all kinds of deep, subtle meanings . . . things I never intended or hinted.”

Assistant Director Claude Binyon recalled: “We literally built that set with l ights. We used a piece of glass about ten inches by six, representing a set that would have been about eighty by twenty feet. The corridors were painted on the glass. We had to film very carefully, because any camera motion would have caused our set to shake all over!”

Actor Geoffrey Horne, who played Wade Norton in this episode, appeared as a misunderstood Christ-like figure in The Twilight Zone episode “The Gift”.

Gloria Grahame, who played Florida Patton, is perhaps best known for her portrayal of Violet Bick in It’s A Wonderful Life.

Nellie Burt, who played the malicious Ethel Latimer, delivered an equally memorable performance as a wheelchair-bound schemer in “Don’t Open ‘Til Doomsday”.

Vaughn Taylor, who played Randall Latimer, appeared in five Twilight Zone episodes: “Time Enough at Last,” “Still Valley,” “I Sing the Body Electric,” “The Incredible World of Horace Ford,” and “The Self-Improvement of Salvadore Ross”.

An eerily effective outing with some terrific visuals and gothic elements. Starts off strong but grows rather predictable and the alien’s discovery of love and sacrifice felt a little…cheesy. The alien’s decision to self-destruct the house reminded me of the ending of The Simpsons’ first Treehouse of Horrors installment “Bad Dream House”. Not surprising given how often the show drew inspiration from shows like OL and TZ in particular.

All in all, a nice change of pace.

Season 1, Episode 27, “Fun and Games”

This episode was first broadcast March 30, 1964

The first draft of this episode included a U.N. computer expert, a medical missionary, multiple challenges, and a jellyfish monster. Also, the final scene has the alien step into the light, revealing himself to be an intelligent ape. Series Producer Joseph Stefano rewrote the script to make it more producible, lowering production costs, and excising elements he didn’t like (ie. the intelligent ape).

An altered version of the alien mask, minus the bulging eyes and taloned hands, would be reused in Star Trek’s “The Cage” (1966).

This episode’s lava effect was achieved with dry ice and charcoal.

Joseph Stefano deemed the alien actor’s performance disappointing and a new voice actor was brought in to dub all the alien’s dialogue.

Look out, he’s got a boomerang! Did anyone else get a Predator vibe from this episode? Or maybe even a Star Trek Gorn vibe? I like the classic arena premise but I was not a fan of that boomerang. Or our host villain’s ridiculously over-the-top performance, including the villainous laugh. If the finished version was this bad, I wonder what the original performance was like. Also, getting back to that boomerang, how the hell did Laura master its use of it so quickly?

A middling foray for me.

Season 1, Episode 28, “The Special One”

This episode was first broadcast April 6, 1964

Actor Richard Ney, who played Mr. Xeno, was apparently very enthusiastic about the stock market, giving the cast and crew hot stock tips during production. He had married actress Greer Garson who was 12 year her senior and, during divorce proceedings in 1947, it was revealed he had called her “old”. This revelation enraged fans and dealt a devastating blow to Ney’s acting career. He eventually left the business to become a stock broker.

Marion Ross, who played Agnes Benjamin, is of course best known as Mrs. Cunningham from Happy Days.

Edward Platt, who played Mr. Terrence, is best known for his portrayal of The Chief on Get Smart.

Producer Joseph Stefano commented on this episode, dispensing accolades like hot tamales at communion: “I wasn’t too involved in that show. I liked the story originally, but i t did not come off the way I thought it would.“ Too bad he didn’t have the time to rewrite the episode – or direct and act in it.

The episode ran short so Xeno’s death was stretched out to a torturous slow-mo five minutes sequence.

Let’s leave the final word to episode director Gerd Oswald: “It was too pedestrian; not one of my favorites. I’ve only seen it once, and the most interesting thing in it is Richard Ney. “

I don’t disagree with Oswald’s assessment although I found the prologue quite effective (as someone who is afraid of heights). Apparently, some see this episode as a commentary on television (and The Outer Limits in particular) as xenon gas, the element they so desperately crave, is used in plasma t.v.’s which hit the market in 1964.

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