The Outer Limits

Cliff Robertson stars as Allan Maxwell, a radio station owner who plunders his station's resources to build and a three-dimensional television receiver capable of displaying deep-space radio signals. These strange radio waves suddenly take the form of a "galaxy being" composed of pure energy, whose own curiosity has led it to Earth. The alien's strange form and deadly radiation trigger a tide of panic and violence. Only Maxwell can avert a showdown--at the possible cost of his own life!

Grimly concluding that a common enemy, not love, is the only hope in unifying the warring nations of Earth, a group of scientists sets out to secretly create the ultimate global threat -- an all-powerful alien monster. But can fear save the world? Robert Culp stars as the idealistic scientist chosen to undergo the painful and bizarre mutation from human to "Thetan." Leonard Stone, Martin Wolfson and Geraldine Brooks also star.

Donald Pleasence ("Escape From New York") is Harold Finley, an unassuming college professor who invents a device capable of controlling the entire electro-magnetic spectrum. Implanted in his brain, the device gives Finley the ability to mentally direct this unlimited energy source. When a storm-like cloud of electricity attacks his sharp-tongued wife and domineering school dean, he realizes the device has unleashed his subconscious thirst for revenge—with uncontrollable and deadly results.

A benign and brilliant scientist (Edward Mulhare) discovers a way to accelerate human evolution. David McCallum (super-agent Illya Kuryakin from "The Man From Uncle") plays the bitter young coal miner who is miraculously transformed into the man of the future. As a result of the experiment, the size of his brain grows grotesquely, a "sixth finger" appears, and he becomes the possessor of tremendous mental powers! It would seem that no gift comes without a cost....especially in the Outer Limits.

A time-and-space traveler journeys into the future where the bacterium invention of a crazed twentieth century scientist has turned humans into mutants. Accompanied by the ghoulish Andro (Martin Landau), the astronaut races back in time to kill the scientist and save the future of the world. But only Andro survives, and he arrives before the scientist is born. Disguising his disfigurement, he must convince the mother-to-be to abort her wedding in order to change the course of destiny.

"It's like a drug, a horrible drug!" So Colonel Grover describes O.B.I.T., a hellishly precise surveillance machine of questionable origin. Uncovered at a Defense Department research center, O.B.I.T. proves to be an insidious instrument that breeds fear and hostility. Both cautionary tale and tight courtroom drama, this haunting episode explores the fear and hostility that result when all privacy is eliminated...and all secrets are revealed. Jeff Corey and Peter Breck star.

A snowbound outpost isolated from the world-at-large where a handful of people maintain constant alert against enemy attack...a crazed Army major haunted by the ice-encrusted ghost of a soldier he left to die...a machine that swaps minds between two bodies. These are just some of the elements that comprise this eerie, psychological thriller starring Harry Guardino, Gary Merrill, Ivan Dixon, Joe de Santis, James B. Sikking and Sally Kellerman in one of her earliest television appearances.

Two unidentifiable rock samples in Dr. Temple's (Barry Atwater) geology lab conceal protoplasmic alien invaders -- hideous life forms capable of entering and controlling a human "corpus." Enter Paul Cameron (Robert Culp), who, thanks to a metal plate in his head, can telepathically hear the rocks communicating....and plotting their evil take-over of the world. What ensues is one of the most twisting, turning episodes ever to come from the darkest reaches of the Outer Limits.

Martin Sheen is part of a six-man multinational strike force captured on the planet Ebon and made prisoners of war. The Ebonites brutally interrogate their prisoners with torture, drugs and vivid hallucinations. After painful "exploratory interviews," the group is allowed basic necessities and the "respect due a conquered enemy." This leads the prisoners to conclude that there is a traitor among them...someone who must be killed! James Shigeta and Ed Nelson also star.

Writer-producer Joseph Stefano creates both a macabre parable of the destructive potential of nuclear energy and a pulsating tale of terror taken to the extreme. Featuring an understated performance by Ed Asner, the story begins in a top-secret research facility with a cleaning lady determined to vacuum up an innocuous ball of dust stuck in a corner. From this humble origin is spawned a most lethal monster -- an Energy Creature -- with an all-consuming appetite for human life.

In the second episode ever produced, series creator Leslie Stevens both writes and directs a fascinating, highly charged tale that explores the concept of alternate dimensions. Hoping to make spiritual contact with his dead son, wealthy industrialist Dwight Hartley (Barry Jones) holds a séance. When two scientists in attendance (Mark Richman and Nina Foch) expose the medium to be a fake, Hartley is driven to fund his own experiments in prying open the door to "the borderland."

An enormous, prehistoric, amphibious monster is discovered in a small Central American country. A U.S. corporate mercenary (Ralph Meeker) wants to take it back to the States for study. But the country's ruthless dictator (Henry Silva, in an outstanding performance) is determined to keep the creature to attract the tourist trade. Who will be the victor? The smart money is betting on the monster...and the Outer Limits.

They creep. They crawl. They kill. With the rulers of the planet Zanti threatening total annihilation unless they are allowed to exile their criminals to our world, Earth officials have no choice but to transform a remote section of the desert into an alien penal colony. But when a psychopathic intruder (Bruce Dern) stumbles across the sealed facility, he unleashes a torrent of screeching, scurrying space critters who demonstrate to the military just what the word "invasion" really means.

Convict Chino Rivera (Henry Silva) has choice: life in prison or be a guinea pig for a scientific "inhabitant exchange" between Earth and the planet Chromo. Already, a Chromite -- a grotesque, jellied mass with crab-like claws and a slavering maw -- has been teleported to our planet and is roaming the laboratory compound. But when Chino discovers that the alien is hungry for something other than scientific knowledge, he finds the fate of the Earth might just be in his own hands.

Murder and its threat to the galaxy at large prompts a visit to Earth by Inspector Phobos (Barry Morse), a by-the-book Martian administrator. Staying with his "field man" Diemos (Carroll O'Connor), whose post is a seedy pawnshop, he is befuddled by the illogicality of this strange local custom that only seems to happen on Earth. Using a Martian device to examine a forthcoming murder, Phobos' compassion leads him to tamper with events -- and elicit from Mars the frantic alarm: "Fatal error!"

In one of the most eccentric of all "Outer Limits" episodes, writer Joseph Stefano weaves a wonderfully weird tale of invading aliens, marital fidelity, and sexual dementia that will leave your mind racing for explanations! Early film star Miriam Hopkins (1932's "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde) returns to the screen to give a show-stopping performance as an overly ripe flapper who will stop at nothing to complete her long overdue wedding night scenario. John Hoyt (Star Trek's "The Cage") also stars.

In the garden of entomologist Ben Fields (Philip Abbott), a queen bee transforms into an exotic, raven-haired young woman (Joanna Frank), and immediately aims her stinger at Fields, determined to turn him into a human drone. When Fields' wife (Marsha Hunt) attempts to get rid of the "enchanting child," she realizes too late that when you anger one bee...you anger them all. This fascinating episode takes a new and frightening look at the innocent little creatures that buzz around our gardens.

A loner in enemy territory, secret government agent Spain (Don Gordon) infiltrates the ranks of the Invisibles -- a subversive, underground society of the nation's power brokers who are possessed by alien parasites. Pushed to the razor's edge of endurance, Spain fights a brutal, suspense-laden battle against the spread of the alien infection. Considered one of the series' most unnerving episodes. Tony Mordente, George MacReady, Neil Hamilton and Richard Dawson also star.

Martin Landau stars as an inventor named Richard whose new laser machine fails to impress his father -- costing him a high-level position at his company. When his wife Judith (Sally Kellerman) finds out, she vents her frustration by firing a laser gun at the invention and accidentally intercepts an outer space alien. The device the alien uses to travel between worlds is seen by Richard as the ultimate defense weapon. To Judith, it means her husband's chairmanship of the Bellero Corporation!