Search - One Step Beyond on DVD

As Satisfying as Sherlock Holmes

T. Berner | New York, New York | 09/27/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"An evening with John Newland's One Step Beyond is every bit as satisfying as one spent reading Conan Doyle. Just as you don't read Sherlock Holmes for the quality of the prose, you don't watch OSB for the "production values." Instead, what you get in both instances is a warm feeling that, whatever the problems with the world, there is a readily available force (science for Holmes, the supernatural for OSB) which will put everything to right. Each episode has a "One Step Beyond Moment" which sends a shiver of well being through you. These moments can sometimes be quite moving.

This is an important and emotionally peace-inducing message that OSB delivers. These forces unite lovers, warn of pending disasters, bring justice to society. The only time tragedy strikes is when people disregard these warnings. Even the story which I consider the creepiest, The Vanishing Point, where people enter a house and disappear forever, is comforting: the people who disappear (including a Civil War era teacher ostracized for being an abolitionist, a woman facing divorce and, later, her husband accused of her murder)are all unfairly oppressed by society and they find a permanent refuge in the house.

The stories are supposed to be true, carefully vetted by Newland and his staff. This seems to be true, at least with the handful I was able to research independently. The book by the show's advisor, Ivan Klapper's One Hundred Years of the Unexplained, has been out of print (except, according to Amazon, in Japanese) for years now and can not even be found used.

If you want to find the exact moment when the cultural divide began between the rich, neurotic and narcissistic blue states and the middle class, balanced and communitarian red states (or for that matter, when the left evolved from being a progressive force in society to the hedonist and reactionary nihilists they have become), you need only determine the point at which the cultural elites in America began to favor The Twilight Zone over One Step Beyond. The message of the fictional Twilight Zone is that the universe is an evil Hobbesian world where everyone is against you and you'd better live for the moment because the future is unpredictable. The message of the (truthful?) One Step Beyond is that if you tap into the powers of the universe, good will prevail.

You needn't be religious to buy the OSB line, you need only believe in a rational universe. Modern physicists are much closer to accepting the OSB view than are modern social scientists. If you accept the world view of the Twilight Zone, there is no reason to believe in the future, no reason to believe in any selfless act. Survival requires you to hunker down and protect yourself at the expense of all others.

Thus, One Step Beyond is a period piece of a more positive time, but one which still keeps its power today."

Finally...

James Poore | Bangor, ME USA | 11/26/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Finally, a long overdue classic is available on DVD. Instead of relying on the truly fantastic a' la Twilight Zone or Outer Limits, One Step Beyond achieves it's creepiness because of the almost-plausibility of it's stories. Amazing things happening to ordinary people, and they "really happened."

If you are a Rod Serling fan, definitely give John Newland a try!"

When you want downright freaky....

R. Hinton | Oceanside, CA | 07/29/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"In the early sixties, they played this show (reruns, I guess) on Saturdays around noon. I remember thinking how frightening it would have been to see this show at night. When you wanted weird you watched The Twilight Zone. When you wanted weirder you watched The Outer Limits. When you wanted downright freaky you watched One Step Beyond,.. preferrably during the daylight hours."

Get the expanded 12 disc set instead

Paul J. Mular | San Carlos, CA USA | 05/28/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This set is good, but even better is Delta's expanded 12 disc set.

Also check out VCI's One Step Beyond 2-disc set, it has episodes not on Delta's 12 & 8 disc sets.
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