''The Outer Limits'' is a

television series A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which can be broadcast via over-the-air, satellite television, satellite, or cable television, cable, excluding breaking news, television adverti ...

that originally aired on

Showtime Showtime or Show Time may refer to: Film * ''Showtime'' (film), a 2002 American action/comedy film * ''Showtime'' (video), a 1995 live concert video by Blur Television Networks and channels * Showtime Networks, a division of Paramount Global w ...

Syfy Syfy (formerly Sci-Fi Channel, later shortened to Sci Fi; stylized as SYFY) is an American basic cable channel owned by the NBCUniversal Television and Streaming division of Comcast's NBCUniversal through NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment. Lau ...

and in syndication between 1995 and 2002. The series is a revival of the original '' The Outer Limits'' series that aired from 1963 to 1965. ''The Outer Limits'' is an

anthology In book publishing, an anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler; it may be a collection of plays, poems, short stories, songs or excerpts by different authors. In genre fiction, the term ''anthology'' typically categ ...

of distinct story episodes, sometimes with a

plot twist A plot twist is a literary technique that introduces a radical change in the direction or expected outcome of the plot in a work of fiction. When it happens near the end of a story, it is known as a twist or surprise ending. It may change the aud ...

at the end. The revival series maintained an anthology format, but occasionally featured recurring

story arc A story arc (also narrative arc) is the chronological construction of plot in a novel or story. It can also mean an extended or continuing storyline in episodic storytelling media such as television, comic books, comic strips, board games, vide ...

s that were then tied together during season-finale

clip show A clip show is an episode of a television series that consists primarily of excerpts from previous episodes. Most clip shows feature the format of a frame story in which cast members recall past events from past installments of the show, depicte ...

History

After an attempt to bring back ''The Outer Limits'' during the early 1980s, it was finally relaunched in 1995. The success of television

speculative fiction Speculative fiction is a term that has been used with a variety of (sometimes contradictory) meanings. The broadest interpretation is as a category of fiction encompassing genres with elements that do not exist in reality, recorded history, na ...

such as '' Star Trek: The Next Generation'', ''

The X-Files ''The X-Files'' is an American science fiction on television, science fiction drama (film and television), drama television series created by Chris Carter (screenwriter), Chris Carter. The series revolves around Federal Bureau of Investigation ...

'', and anthology shows such as ''

Tales from the Crypt Tales from the Crypt may refer to: * ''Tales from the Crypt'' (album), by American rapper C-Bo * ''Tales from the Crypt'' (comics), published by EC Comics during the 1950s ** ''Tales from the Crypt'' (film), a 1972 Amicus film starring Ralph Ric ...

'' convinced rights holder

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by amazon (company), Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded o ...

to revive ''The Outer Limits''. A deal was made with Trilogy Productions, the company behind such cinema hits as ''

Backdraft A backdraft (North American English) or backdraught (British English) is the abrupt burning of superheated gasses in a fire, caused when oxygen rapidly enters a hot, oxygen-depleted environment; for example, when a window or door to an enclosed sp ...

'' and '' Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves''. The show would run on the pay-TV channel

(Trilogy, a Los Angeles- and Canada-based company, is credited with creating the 1995 series). The episodes appeared in syndication the following season (the same arrangement as MGM/Showtime series ''

Stargate SG-1 ''Stargate SG-1'' (often stylized in all caps, or abbreviated ''SG-1'') is a military science fiction Adventure fiction, adventure television series within Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's Stargate, ''Stargate'' franchise. The show, created by Brad Wrigh ...

'' and '' Poltergeist: The Legacy''). It continued on Showtime until 2001, when

Sci-Fi Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel universe ...

quietly took over production for the seventh and final season. As a result, that season, unlike the previous ones, was completely free of any swearing or nudity. It was canceled in 2002, after a total of 152 episodes—far more than the original incarnation of the show. In the revived show, the Control Voice was supplied by Kevin Conway. The new series distanced itself from the "

monster of the week "Villain of the week" (or, depending on genre, "monster of the week", "freak of the week" or "alien of the week") is an antagonist that only appears in one episode of a multi-episode work of fiction. A villain of the week is commonly seen in Brit ...

" mandate that had characterized the original series from its inception; while there were plenty of aliens and monsters, they dramatize a specific scientific concept and its effect on humanity. Examples of this include " Dark Rain" (biochemical warfare causing worldwide sterility), "

Final Exam A final examination, annual, exam, final interview, or simply final, is a test given to students at the end of a course of study or training. Although the term can be used in the context of physical training, it most often occurs in the ac ...

" (discovery of practical cold fusion power), " A Stitch in Time" (a time traveler tinkers with history), as well as two episodes ("Unnatural Selection" and "Criminal Nature") revolving around a human mutation known as Genetic Rejection Syndrome (humans mutating into violent creatures) as a result of an outlawed eugenics attempt to create superior children.

Production

The series was filmed in

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

and

Victoria, British Columbia Victoria is the capital city of the Canadian province of British Columbia, on the southern tip of Vancouver Island off Canada's Pacific coast. The city has a population of 91,867, and the Greater Victoria area has a population of 397,237. Th ...

. Stories by

Harlan Ellison Harlan Jay Ellison (May 27, 1934 – June 28, 2018) was an American writer, known for his prolific and influential work in New Wave speculative fiction and for his outspoken, combative personality. Robert Bloch, the author of '' Psycho'' ...

A. E. van Vogt Alfred Elton van Vogt ( ; April 26, 1912 – January 26, 2000) was a Canadian-born American science fiction author. His fragmented, bizarre narrative style influenced later science fiction writers, notably Philip K. Dick. He was one of the ...

Eando Binder Eando Binder is a pen name used by two mid-20th-century science fiction authors, Earl Andrew Binder (1904–1965) and his brother Otto Binder (1911–1974). The name is derived from their first initials ''(E and O Binder).'' Under the Eando nam ...

Larry Niven Laurence van Cott Niven (; born April 30, 1938) is an American science fiction writer. His best-known works are ''Ringworld'' (1970), which received Hugo, Locus, Ditmar, and Nebula awards, and, with Jerry Pournelle, ''The Mote in God's Eye'' ...

Richard Matheson Richard Burton Matheson (February 20, 1926 – June 23, 2013) was an American author and screenwriter, primarily in the fantasy, horror, and science fiction genres. He is best known as the author of '' I Am Legend'', a 1954 science ficti ...

George R.R. Martin George Raymond Richard Martin (born George Raymond Martin; September 20, 1948), also known as GRRM, is an American novelist, screenwriter, television producer and short story writer. He is the author of the series of epic fantasy novels '' A So ...

Stephen King Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author of horror, supernatural fiction, suspense, crime, science-fiction, and fantasy novels. Described as the "King of Horror", a play on his surname and a reference to his high s ...

, and

James Patrick Kelly James Patrick Kelly (born April 11, 1951 in Mineola, New York) is an American science fiction author who has won both the Hugo Award and the Nebula Award. Biography Kelly made his first fiction sale in 1975. He graduated magna cum laude from ...

were adapted.

Leslie Stevens Leslie Clark Stevens IV (February 3, 1924 – April 24, 1998) was an American producer, writer, and director. He created two television series for the ABC network, '' The Outer Limits'' (1963–1965) and '' Stoney Burke'' (1962–63), and ''Sea ...

was a program consultant for the first four seasons (until his death), while

Joseph Stefano Joseph William Stefano (May 5, 1922 – August 25, 2006) was an American screenwriter, known for adapting Robert Bloch's novel as the script for Alfred Hitchcock's film '' Psycho'', and for being the producer and co-writer of the original ''The ...

served as an executive consultant and later senior advisor throughout the whole series. Stefano also remade his episode "

A Feasibility Study "A Feasibility Study" is an episode of the original '' The Outer Limits'' television show. It first aired on 13 April 1964, during the first season. It was remade in 1997 as part of the revived ''The Outer Limits'' series with a minor title chang ...

", retitling it "

Feasibility Study A feasibility study is an assessment of the practicality of a project or system. A feasibility study aims to objectively and rationally uncover the strengths and weaknesses of an existing business or proposed venture, opportunities and threats pr ...

" for the third season.

John Van Tongeren John Warrington Van Tongeren is an American keyboardist and composer for films and television. Biography Van Tongeren's career in the entertainment business began as a keyboardist, with one of his earliest projects being the band Q, featuring ...

and

Mark Mancina Mark Mancina is an American film composer. A veteran of Hans Zimmer's Media Ventures, Mancina has scored over sixty films and television series including ''Speed'', '' Bad Boys'', ''Twister'', ''Tarzan'', ''Training Day'', ''Brother Bear'', ''Cr ...

composed new music different from that of Dominic Frontiere and Harry Lubin.

scored ten episodes for the first season and continued through season 6. The musical theme for the modern ''Outer Limits'' series is credited to John Van Tongeren and Mark Mancina. In most seasons there was a

that intertwined the plots of several of the show's episodes (see " The Voice of Reason" for an example). At each

commercial Commercial may refer to: * a dose of advertising conveyed through media (such as - for example - radio or television) ** Radio advertisement ** Television advertisement * (adjective for:) commerce, a system of voluntary exchange of products and s ...

interval, the Control Voice can be heard saying "The Outer Limits...please stand by". A number of episodes from seasons 1–6 feature nudity and other adult content. Though originally broadcast uncensored, those episodes have been edited for commercial syndication.

Episodes

Home media

Between 2002 and 2006, six themed DVD anthologies of ''The Outer Limits'', with six episodes each, were released by MGM in the US: ''Aliens Among Us'', ''Death & Beyond'', ''Fantastic Androids & Robots'', ''Mutation & Transformation'', ''Sex & Science Fiction'' and ''Time Travel & Infinity''. These DVDs all contain the original uncut episodes, as originally aired, and were collected in a box set, ''The Outer Limits: The New Series'' (2006). The ''Aliens'' and ''Sex'' titles were also released by MGM in the UK and Benelux (2005). *Aliens Among Us **S01E13: "Quality of Mercy" **S02E15: "Afterlife" **S05E04: "The Grell" **S04E06: "Relativity Theory" **S07E09: "Alien Shop" **S02E06: "Beyond the Veil" *Death & Beyond **S01E04: "The Second Soul" **S05E05: "The Other Side" **S03E11: "New Lease" **S05E18: "Essence of Life" **S07E22: "Human Trials" **S04E25: "Black Box" *Fantastic Androids & Robots **S01E18: "I, Robot" **S04E02: "The Hunt" **S02E02: "Resurrection" **S03E07: "The Camp" **S06E12: "Glitch" **S05E03: "Small Friends" *Mutation & Transformation **S01E14: "The New Breed" **S05E14: "Descent" **S04E13: "The Joining" **S03E12: "Double Helix" **S06E02: "The Gun" **S05E17: "The Inheritors" *Sex & Science Fiction **S01E16: "Caught in the Act" **S03E01: "Bits of Love" **S01E02: "Valerie 23" **S05E07: "The Human Operators" **S06E03: "Skin Deep" **S07E12: "Flower Child" *Time Travel & Infinity **S02E01: "A Stitch in Time" **S05E12: "Tribunal" **S06E17: "Gettysburg" **S07E15: "Time to Time" **S05E16: "Déjà Vu" **S07E02: "Patient Zero" Season 1 was released uncut and with extra features on DVD in the US (MGM, 2005), UK (

20th Century Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Dis ...

, 2007) and Germany (Fox/MGM, 2008). Because sales of the set did not meet expectations no further seasons were released. In 2010, Canada's Alliance Home Entertainment released all seven seasons on DVD. Season 1 mirrored the content of the earlier MGM set, while season 2 was also uncensored, with the exception of one episode, "Paradise". Seasons 3–6 all contain numerous censored episodes, Season 7 contains the original unedited episodes, as unlike the previous seasons, it was produced with no nudity or swearing. In 2013, TGG Direct released the seventh season in the US, again unedited but of marginally inferior visual quality than the Alliance season 7 DVDs. The 5-disc set is titled ''The Outer Limits: The Complete Final Season'', and in 2014 it was split and re-released as 3-disc ''Volume One'' and 2-disc ''Volume Two'' sets. Until June 2020, all seven seasons of the series were available uncut on

Hulu Hulu () is an American subscription streaming service majority-owned by The Walt Disney Company, with Comcast's NBCUniversal holding a minority stake. It was launched on October 29, 2007 and it offers a library of films and television serie ...

, until January 2021 and selectively edited on

Amazon Video Amazon Prime Video, also known simply as Prime Video, is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming and rental service of Amazon offered as a standalone service or as part of Amazon's Prime subscription. The service pri ...

and seasons 1-7 are uncut on "The Roku channel" on

Roku Roku ( ) is a brand of hardware digital media players manufactured by American company Roku, Inc. They offer access to streaming media content from online services. The first Roku model, developed in collaboration with Netflix, was introduce ...

devices.

Reception

Tie-in books

Between 1996 and 1997

Prima Publishing Prima Games is a publishing company of video game strategy guides in the United States. Formerly, Prima was an imprint of Dorling Kindersley, a division of Penguin Random House, and produced print ''strategy guides'', featuring ''in-depth walkthro ...

published three books which served as compilations of mostly prose adaptations for episodes from the 1963 and 1995 series. Between 1997 and 1999, a series of books based on the show but aimed towards younger readers was published by

Tor Books Tor Books is the primary imprint of Tor Publishing Group (previously Tom Doherty Associates), a publishing company based in New York City. It primarily publishes science fiction and fantasy titles, and is the largest publisher of Chinese scien ...

, penned by

genre fiction Genre fiction, also known as popular fiction, is a term used in the book-trade for fictional works written with the intent of fitting into a specific literary genre, in order to appeal to readers and fans already familiar with that genre. A num ...

author

John Peel John Robert Parker Ravenscroft (30 August 1939 – 25 October 2004), known professionally as John Peel, was an English disc jockey (DJ) and radio presenter. He was the longest-serving of the original BBC Radio 1 DJs, broadcasting regularly fr ...

. The first, ''

The Zanti Misfits "The Zanti Misfits" is an episode of the original ''The Outer Limits (1963 TV series), The Outer Limits'' television show. It was first broadcast on December 30, 1963, during the first season. In 1997, the ''TV Guide'' ranked this episode number ...

'', was a loose adaptation of the eponymous 1963 series episode, while the second was based on the episode ''The Choice'' from the new series. The other ten books were original stories. #''The Zanti Misfits'' #''The Choice'' #''The Time Shifter'' #''The Lost'' #''The Invaders'' #''The Innocent'' #''The Vanished'' #''The Nightmare'' #''Beware the Metal Children'' #''Alien Invasion from Hollyweird'' #''The Payback'' #''The Change'' Author Stan Timmons also wrote two tie-in original novels in 2003 entitled ''Always Darkest'' and ''Dark Matters'' respectively.

Possible movie and revival TV series

In 2014, it was reported that a feature film directed by

Scott Derrickson Scott Derrickson (born July 16, 1966) is an American filmmaker. He is best known for directing the films '' The Exorcism of Emily Rose'' (2005), ''The Day the Earth Stood Still'' (2008), ''Sinister'' (2012), '' Deliver Us from Evil'' (2014), '' ...

based on the series was in development. As of April 2019, a revival is in the works at a premium cable network.

Theme park attractions

Two identical indoor

roller coaster A roller coaster, or rollercoaster, is a type of amusement ride that employs a form of elevated railroad track designed with tight turns, steep slopes, and sometimes inversions. Passengers ride along the track in open cars, and the rides are o ...

s named The Outer Limits: Flight of Fear opened in 1996 at Paramount's Kings Dominion in Richmond, Virginia, and Paramount's Kings Island in Cincinnati, Ohio. Loosely based on several episodes of ''The Outer Limits,'' both rides are heavily themed to an alien invasion, with riders entering the fictional Federal Bureau of Paranormal Activity and eventually boarding an alien ship. Although the

Paramount Parks Paramount Parks was the operator of Paramount's Kings Island, Paramount's Kings Dominion, Paramount's Great America, Paramount's Carowinds, and Paramount Canada's Wonderland, which annually attracted about 13 million patrons. National Amuseme ...

were purchased by

Cedar Fair Entertainment Company Cedar Fair, L.P., formally Cedar Fair Entertainment Company, is a publicly traded master limited partnership headquartered at its Cedar Point amusement park in Sandusky, Ohio. The company owns and operates eleven amusement parks, nine include ...

in 2006, both rides continue to operate with most of their original theming still intact, minus the ''Outer Limits'' branding.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Outer Limits, The 1990s Canadian anthology television series 1990s American horror television series 2000s American horror television series 1990s American science fiction television series 2000s American science fiction television series 1995 American television series debuts 2002 American television series endings 1990s Canadian science fiction television series 2000s Canadian science fiction television series 1995 Canadian television series debuts 2002 Canadian television series endings American horror fiction television series Canadian horror fiction television series Dark fantasy television series Primetime Emmy Award-winning television series Saturn Award-winning television series Showtime (TV network) original programming Television series reboots Television series by MGM Television Television series by Alliance Atlantis Space adventure television series Syfy original programming English-language television shows 1990s American anthology television series American fantasy television series Television series about alien visitations Canadian fantasy television series Philosophy of artificial intelligence Science fiction anthology television series Television shows filmed in Vancouver Television shows filmed in Victoria, British Columbia