MovieChat Forums > The Outer Limits (1963) Discussion > If i love twilight zone , will i enjoy t...

If i love twilight zone , will i enjoy this?


Twilight zone is hands down in my top 5 favorite shows. Im surprised i havent seen even 1 episode of this show. i was wondering if fans of twilight zone enjoy this show?

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Some episodes were weak, many were good some were outstanding in spite of some noticeable flaws. One strong part was the highly imaginative 'creatures' developed for the program. It is also pure science fiction instead of fantasy.

One that I believe was truly horrifying was O.B.I.T. because it addresses the same thing we are going through now with our loss of privacy and it ain't funny.

Demon With the Glass Hand was from a great story by Harlan Ellison that is truly memorable. Where did the human race go? I believe it was a two-parter.

Fun and Games - Nick Adams and a woman are put on an alien planet to compete in arena games against some pretty ugly primitive beings.

The Sixth Finger - A Welsh coal miner is launched by a scientist into an advanced mental state, far above the human level. His body also changes as he evolves. People are terrified by his power, some to death. David McCallum does a terrific acting job in spite of being weighed down by a large head.

The Man With the Power - A meek man is given immense power controlled by his mind. But his mind, like most people's, has really nasty thoughts.

ZZZZZZZ - A somewhat weak story where Joanna Frank plays one of the sexiest and most seductive roles seen on TV as the humanized queen of a hive of bees.

The Man Who Was Never Born - A mutant man from the earth's destroyed future comes back to kill a man in order to prevent the downfall of civilization. AMAZING performance by Martin Landau.

Soldier - Michael Ansara plays a warring soldier from the future who was raised by the State, for the State and finds himself in a modern city.

I, Robot - A mechanical man is blamed for the death of his creator, Leonard Nimoy as a reporter and an old lawyer try to defend him.

The Zanti Misfits - Not so good story about an alien invasion with a twist at the end. For 1963 the stop-action antagonists were at least creepy and possiblly terrifying depending on your feelings about crawly things.






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I'd like to chip in by confirming what several other posters have said. Both series are good and at times, great. TOL is darker, always serious and tries to put over a message. In addition, it was always science fiction. TZ was often just cute or humorous and although a number of episodes were science fiction, most were not. In that sense and in not always being serious and message driven, it had more variety.

Also, I have to strongly disagree with the poster who said the episodes could have been done better in 30 minutes. While it is true that they could have been condensed in such a way, that doesn't mean it would have been a good idea. A lot of these stories needed time to breathe and stretch out. It is a very moody series and once a mood is set, it should marinate for a while and sink in. Resolving it quickly is a cheat and not satisfying to the viewer unless of course one has a limited attention span.

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I'm a lifetime fan of TZ- and have always considered OL to be a cheap knockoff wannabe of TZ. TZ gave us in depth analyses of the most relevant issues of out rimes- prejudice, man's inhumanity to man- cruelty- war, the government, censorship, his topics were always deep and were basically morality plays.
OL tried to revive itself in the 70s- and was cute, and fun, but not especially edifying.
You would probably like Night Gallery!

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Your analysis of The Outer Limits is bizarrely inaccurate, vantikaci, and it's telling that you make the claim that OL "tried to revive itself in the 70s". There was no such attempt in the 70s for The Outer Limits, but there WAS for The Twilight Zone. And it was called...NIGHT GALLERY!

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i was wondering if fans of twilight zone enjoy this show?


Absolutely... this show dealt with a ton of great concepts, and is in many ways very similar to Twilight Zone.

If you like hard sci-fi, you'll probably prefer it to TZ.

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I like both. They're both good series.

Also, if you like anthology style shows, check out Alfred Hitchcock Presents, and Rod Serling's follow up to The Twilight Zone, Night Gallery

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TOL typically had a deeper moral message and than TZ,and the format was more SF. The Outer Limits was way ahead of its time and has never been replicated....so that says something about the writers.

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Remember when President Reagan mused about how the world would come together if we all faced an enemy from another world? I thought he might have been inspired by the Outer Limits episode "The Architects Of Fear". Although he didn't seem to grasp the irony of the scenario presented by the episode...part of the closing narration was: "Scarecrows and magic and other fatal fears do not bring people closer together. There is no magic substitute for soft caring and hard work, for self-respect and mutual love"

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The Outer Limits was far superior to Twilight Zone imo.

My 10 favorite episodes are:

Soldier - w/ Michael Ansara
Demon With A Glass Hand - w/ Robert Culp & Arlene Martel
The Inheritors - w/ Robert Duvall, James Shigeta, & Morgan Brittany
Behold, Eck! - w/ Joan Freeman
Keeper Of The Purple Twilight - w/ Warren Stevens & Gail Kobe
Cold Hands, Warm Heart - w/ William Shatner & Malachi Throne
Second Chance - w/ Simon Oakland, Don Gordon, & Mimsy Farmer
The Sixth Finger - w/ David McCallum & Jill Haworth
The Man Who Was Never Born - w/ Martin Landau & Shirley Knight
The Chameleon - w/ Robert Duvall

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Seems to me that anyone who loved the original TZ and is looking for something in a similar vein to enjoy would be delighted to begin exploring the original TOL.

There seemed to be a measure of insecurity and defensiveness about those who felt the need to trash the original TOL in order to hold up the original TZ as a great TV series. It showed in how bizarrely inaccurate and often absurd their criticisms were. And it was so unnecessary. The outstanding quality of the original TOL in no way diminishes the classic status of the original TZ. I've always felt the two complimented each other in rather fascinating ways.

I suspect those on this thread who attacked TOL are just a vocal minority of TZ fans anyway. Most of the people I know who loved the one also loved the other. Including me.

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Rod Serling described his show thusly: a third of the eps were great; a third were average; a third were crap. I would break down The Outer limits as such: half were great; 40% average; 10% crap.

The unholy triumvirate:
The Bat, the Trek, the Bond

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One can argue the various best episodes. Many in the above list would be in my list, if I explicitly wrote such a list. Among my own favorites is Expanding Human, which is another variant of the Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde story. As a side point of exposition, the character Harry Okata provides a poetic and compelling explanation of the use of consciousness expanding drugs.
[Note: I do not endorse nor have ever used any illicit drug, but if there were drugs that did what Mr. Okata describes, I might consider it. And, no, LSD is a hallucinogen rather than an expander, in case anyone wants to offer it as such.]

Three of the characters in this episode later appear in (original series) Star Trek episodes, one as the major character Scotty.

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It's kind of the "nerdy teen" companion to Twilight Zone, which is a true family show.
It's the next step up.....

"We will bury you"-NIKITA KHRUSHCHEV

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I've been watching scifi for 40 years and I don't know where some of the negative commentors got their opinions. I agree with seashellz. This is some of the best scifi around. Stephen King thought so, too, or that comment wouldn't be on the cover of the DVD set. Watch them for yourself to form your own opinion. That's the best way. Some obviously like it, while some don't. For example, even though The Guests rated at IMDb as a 7.8, some still don't understand it. If you turn on your eyes and ears, you will experience one of the deeper episodes.

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Most defiantly!

Laugh while you can, Monkey Boy!

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