Search - The Outer Limits (The Original Series) - Volume 3 on DVD

Outer Limits Season Two Review (Vol. 3)

indijo | Asteroid in Deep Space | 02/15/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"There's something about the original Outer Limits series that can never quite be captured by science fiction producers of the 21st century, as if a rare window were opened during an odd little era in the 20th century, a window to the unknown that can never be opened again. Why was the Outer Limits canceled during its second season? There's no way anyone who lived during that time and saw the series will agree that it had anything to do with low ratings. No, it wasn't low ratings that killled the original Outer Limits series, so what was it?

Call me a conspiracy theorist, but I think its possible they were getting too close to the truth about some things, maybe too close for any semblance of comfort, such that the mighty authoritarian keepers of the zoo known as human civilization might have decided to put a lid on it before it went any further. But that's just my theory, for what it's worth.

That note aside, Season Two may not have had anything quite like Season One's "The Galaxy Being", "The Sixth Finger", "The Man Who Never Was", or "Controlled Experiment", but it's ability to explore the boundaries of human speculation continued quite well, by delving into some equally odd and mysterious subjects, such as the far-future post-nuclear wastelands in "Soldier", the realm of an intelligent two-dimensional being accidentally caught in the 3-dimensional world of humans (Behold, Eck!), human scientific experimentation with organic and synthetic mind-enhancing drugs (Expanding Human), an experiment to create a planetary microcosm of life similar to primeval Earth (Wolf 359), a speculative projection upon the possibility of how premonitions may occur during a sudden snap-shot stop-action upon reality (The Premonition), and a close encounter with an alien probe by humans lost in a storm at sea (The Probe).

All ten other episodes are equally entertaining, in the atmosphere of unknown mystery that exists now in a long forgotten era, somewhere quite beyond the dog-eat-dog rat-race known all too well by the vast majority of humans. I was a bit disappointed by the typical 50s outer-space attitude of "The Invisible Enemy", but i suppose that's because I've been spoiled by Star Trek. While old space-ships in retro series suffer the wear and tear of future upgrades, other areas of science-fiction weather the changes fairly well. "Soldier" still does well, despite the rather ancient looking armor that the future soldier was wearing. "Behold, Eck!" would have no problem in any era, as would "Expanding Human", or "Keeper of the Purple Twilight", etc...

The concept of "The Inheritors" still does well, up until the point at which we see the space-ship, which seems like a big project that was scaled down to a low-budget, unfortunately, which might also explain why the series didn't quite complete its second season. "I, Robot" really isn't all that bad, despite the early concept of a mechanical man, since after all, the idea of a robot has always been evolving and an early version might just have been created during that era.

I can't quite decide which are my favorites, since I enjoy them all so much, but I suppose "The Premonition" ranks highest, as I've always been fascinated by the concept of time and how the human consciousness relates to it through reality. I also really enjoyed "Behold, EcK!", because the concept of an intelligent 2-dimensional being is also quite fascinating. "Wolf 359" was also one of the most unique sci-fi concepts I've ever seen in any sci-fi series and the strange creature that evolved out of the experimental culture was truly an epitome of mystery in the unknown.

All I can say is, despite some of the earlier bad reports about this package, I have no problems with it. All the Dvds are working quite well, no flaws on any of them. I was slightly confused by some errors in the packaging details, but that has no effect upon the condition of the discs, which appear to be fine. My tiny bit of advice about future improvements with this package would simply be to include a play-all function on the discs, if they are ever reformatted. I love sci-fi serial Dvds with the "play-all" option, because I can just let them all play through the afternoon or night without having to reset them. It makes sci-fi "marathons" so much easier that way. I love science-fiction marathons on a long weekend.

Finally, I'd like to thank the other reviewers for the warnings about this product. Luckily, I purchased the entire first season in one box set during a local 2-for-1 sale on Dvds, so I didn't bother with the volumes and rather than purchase season 2 in the box-set, I did a careful study of each package deal and thanks to the warnings, realized it was safer to go with Volume 3, rather than the season 2 box-set."