| David Schow's terrific overview of this classic television series is stuffed with illustrations many of them never published before. His critical assessment of the various episodes is always well informed (although there are a couple that I do disagree with very strongly). The most important thing is that this groundbreaking gothic science fiction/horror series is finally being appreciated. The Outer Limits was always a poor cousin to The Twilight Zone; critics preferred Rod Serling's O'Henry like twists and turns in the plot. Twilight Zone was a terrific series but it couldn't touch the one hour (or two hour)format. Likewise, the bulk of the audience preferred Serling's morality plays. What's fascinating is to compare and contrast the two--it's like comparing Steve Spielberg to Terry Gilliam; both are technically adept and brilliant filmakers but Gilliam's films have a dark vision missing, for the most part, from Spielberg's films. Spielberg always feels the need to lighten up even his darkest toned films. Gilliam has no such compunction. Time has been kinder to The Outer Limits than The Twilight Zone. The series had no peer as a 1 hour gothic science fiction/fantasy/horror program. What made the series so appealing and great was the contrast in styles between Leslie Stevens' science fiction plot driven tales and Joseph Stefano's dark character driven morality plays. Their collaboration on the series brought out the best of both writers/producers. Stevens created the series and let writer/producer Stefano do the day to day production of the show for the first season. The bulk of the most powerful episodes are from the first season. Stefano, like Rod Serling, had a hand in a large number of these scripts often writing originals, providing stories or rewriting other writers to make the episode fit the format, improve the drama or characters (or make it affordable to shoot). Schow interviewed all the major participants in the series and has a wealth of memos, original scripts and background information on the show. I'd also recommend the boxset DVD of The Outer Limits. It contains all the first season episodes on 4 two sided double layer discs. There aren't any extras to speak of (which is too bad given that Stefano, Martin Landau, Martin Sheen and many of the actors are still alive). The second season was more difficult for the show; Stefano left in a disagreement over pared down budgets and the demands to modify the series. There were still a number of outstanding episodes. One of the best episodes was Harlan Ellison's Demon with a Glass Hand. Robert Culp gives a startling, powerful performance in this episode. Ellison also contributed Solider (which was radically rewritten by others. It reflects the poor quality control at the time. Still, Solider has a number of interesting ideas and strong performances (chiefly Michael Ansara). The best episodes -- The Galaxy Being, The Man Who Was Never Born, It Crawled Out of the Woodwork, OBIT, Feasability Study,Nightmare, The Chameleon, Demon with a Glass Hand, The Inheritors, The Form of Things Unknown, The Sixth Finger and The Man with the Power all rival the best written shows from the 60's and 70's. The new verison of the series, while it has many admirable moments, is closer to The Twilight Zone in spirit and lacks the sharp, engaging writing/direction of the original series. The direction of The Outer Limits if often overlooked. Gerd Oswald, James Goldstone, Leslie Stevens and others strived to make the series look like short movies. Conrad Hall's and Kenneth Peach's distinctive cinematography created a vaguely European feel to many of these classics. Schow's book is worth it and would make a great three-fer gift with the first disc of the original soundtrack and the boxset. | 
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Expericing the awe and mystery again