'Fun and Games'

Terrif episode-one of my fave's

Love this episode!! The creatures look similar to the Gorn from Star Trek and the plot is very similar to Arena (both from the short story "Arena" by Fredric Brown). Very cool and one of my favorites, maybe only second to "Nightmare".

JESUS IS LORD!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just saw this tonight on a late-night station. I was immediately struck by something I don't want to mention here.... Watch it while swiftly repeating the episode title in your head, and see what comes to mind.

I got money, like Charles Dickens.

Just to say I saw 'Fun and Games' when it first aired and I remember it like it was yesterday. And yeah, the idea has been used a lot since.

I recently caught this episode again and it's one of my favorites. Perhaps this is because of the memories it conjures up: I first saw this more years ago than I like to admit, when I was twelve or so, and it creeped me out. Truth be told, it still creeps me out. It seems to be a variant of The Most Dangerous Game idea, though here with much higher stakes.
But an extra bonus was the noirish visual flourishes, complete with, not necessarily visual, noir tropes : doomed (anti)hero, virtuous heroine, shady characters, rigged card game, pulsating light. In fact this may well be the most film noir-esque episode of Outer Limits ever.
Nick Adams was great as the nervous, sweating, always cranky, not so likeable hero. And leading lady Nancy Malone was good also. I’m surprised she didn’t have more of a career but a check reveals that she was quite active as a TV guest star, especially in the 60s and 70s. I also liked the alien’s stentorian, Orson Welles-like voice. Interesting that the elevated console idea was used a year later in 'Thunderball' in which the SPECTRE Number 1 makes his various proclamations and, more or less literally, pulls the strings.

I've seen Fun And Games a few times, caught it first run (as it were), and I find it highly effective. Like so many first season eps it sort of is and isn't like the rest of the series, by which I mean the inclusion of something very un-Outer Limitsy: the low rent apartment building of the early part of the episode,--and again, at the end--with the Damon Runyon characters around a card table, it plays almost like an episode of Naked City, right down to naked ex-NC regular Nancy Malone in the cast. The Oedipal and childhood trauma stuff with Nick Adams' character was rather awkwardly written, saved by the actor himself, who gave a bravura performance. Great production values, too. The setting was sort of suggestive of the Amazon, but from Hell! Good ending, too; nicely ambiguous. Earth was saved, but what about the Adams and Malone characters? One wants them to meet and hook up in the real world. There's hope but no resolution. The viewer can fill in the blank, as he wishes. Good stuff.