'Quality of Mercy' and 'The Light Brigade'... - The Outer Limits (1995) Discussion

[–] Taffybird 15 years ago

The Light Brigade was the first episode I ever saw, and the one that really sticks in my mind. The most devastating, sickening twist ever!

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[–] omega2064 15 years ago

Quality of Mercy and several other episodes were what pretty much turned me off this series. To date nearly every episode I've looked in on has had a negative and/or depressing ending.

This is the exact opposite of the original series which usually ended with a note of hope for humanity.

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[–] WalletGuy 15 years ago

^I disagree. I have seen almost the entire series and its more like a third happy endings, a third depressing endings, and a third in the middle. If the main character dies but accomplishes his goal or if its an open ending (which the OL had plenty of) then I would put it as a middle ending. People just tend to remember the depressing ones more because they usually had shocking twists. And if most of the "bad ending" episodes ended happily they would have sucked. Sometimes a happy ending just doesn't fit a story. It works both ways, a bad ending for an episode like the Conversion would have just been dumb.

There is hope for humanity even in the depressing endings... learn from the mistakes of these fictional characters so that they don't happen in real life!
And if you can't take a downer ending then go watch Spielberg's Amazing Stories.

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[–] tempests98 11 years ago

People just tend to remember the depressing ones more because they usually had shocking twists.

I disagree, the New Outer Limits explored many themes, but overall had a more negative depiction and perspective on humanity.

There just aren't that many shows on TV that suggest humanity should be or will be decimated or wiped out, and this show visited and revisited that theme.

It was refreshing from the standpoint that it was unique, as stated there aren't many shows that do this. But there were times nearing its run on Showtime, where dark endings seemed to be forced, especially season six, and I can't think of a better example than Final Appeal, where they blew up a cold fusion bomb just for the hell of it..

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[–] jerome_george_davis 8 years ago

You think Amazing stories had all positive endings? Poor Stephen King would probably disagree... seeing as he ended up a vegetable.

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[–] xian_ef 13 years ago

Life is supposed to have sad endings sometimes.
All the bs Hollywood throws at us with happy endings (aka beauty and the beast scripts, loser becoming hero scripts and so on) is what turns me off from movies.

(I am not saying Beauty and the Beast is a bad movie or it has a bad script... it was actually quite good; i was merely referring to the recycled script that usually turns into trash almost every time from B-rated or even A-wannabe movies)

Give me a movie like The Shining, Fallen, Frailty or Gladiator over Independence Day or Salt any-ol'-day.

But that is just my opinion :)
I love the (often predictable) plot twists that just teach us to learn from our mistakes... The Message was a great episode, don't get me wrong ... but just sayin' :)

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[–] puirt-a-beul 15 years ago

I've just seen "The Light Brigade" for the first time, and yeah it was clever. For me the most depressing thing about it was Wil Wheaton (aka Wesley Crusher)'s acting. (Sorry, good luck to the guy, but he's really a dreadful actor, and he killed the horror at the end of the story.)

But I liked the fact they'd brought Skokes back, this time with even a further twist. Nice idea.

You might very well think that. I couldn't possibly comment.

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[–] pninson 15 years ago

I recently watched "The Light Brigade" and "The Message." Whereas "Light Brigade" has a downbeat ending, "The Message" is just the opposite.

One of the problems I have with modern films is that Hollywood has become so risk averse that tragedy, as a dramatic genre, is virtually dead. Even Puccini's La Boheme, adapted as "Rent," is twisted into a smiley-face ending.

At least Outer Limits mixes it up. This has the salutary effect of creating suspense. You don't know how the show will end.

The original series had a few downbeat episodes, as did the original Twilight Zone. Some of the stories were heart-warming and sweet, and some were chilling. Nice to have some variety.

We report, you decide; but we decide what to report.

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[–] puirt-a-beul 15 years ago

Great post, pninson. Thanks for giving me (us) something to contemplate.

I've never seen the film of "Rent", so I have no idea how it ends. I saw the stage production and didn't stay till the end. I got as bored with it - largely because every singer was trying to turn his or her song into *the* show-stopper of the night, one after the other - as I get with shows like "Idol" (in my case, "Australian Idol") where so many of the numbers are oversung and elaborated beyond the ability of the melody to support, almost regardless of the song's genre. In reflection of one of your points, too much "big" and "up" gets tedious so quickly, and makes it hard to discern any light and shade.

You might very well think that. I couldn't possibly comment.

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[–] zeta1983-1 15 years ago

Personally I think stories that end negatively, adds realism IMO. Probably why I like this series and the Twilight Zone. Plenty end positively and hopefully though, like "The Camp" which I watched earlier today.

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[–] I_hatenazis 15 years ago

I completely disagree, I thought that 'Wes' was perfect in that episode. He portrayed the perfect naive, idealistic tool that he was. The fact that he was the annoying problem solver in Star Trek NG made it even better.

Regarding the ending, I love that the Outer Limits has a mixture of good and bad endings because it makes their episodes unpredictable and exciting. However, they tended to be more negative then positive, I'd day 70% bad (or mostly bad) to about 30% good and their bad endings are absolutely crushing. The Outer Limits was the sci-fi show that excelled in character development and I always wanted things to work out well for the characters and groaned when it did not.

"I Hate Trolls"

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[–] grumpy_otter 15 years ago

It's funny--I tend to think of OL as having mostly happy endings. I guess because even the "bad" endings have a strong message.

Or maybe because I cry like a baby every time I see Tribunal.

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[–] jerome_george_davis 8 years ago

The Two Part Final Appeal, The Voice of Reason, Mona Lisa, The Human Factor, Birthright, Think Like a Dinosaur, Straight and Narrow, are just a few of the needlessly "Bad Endings".

Yes, some endings like Replica, Rule of Law, and Time to Time were positive, others like Trial by Fire, Lion's Den, and "I, Robot" had appropriately sad/negative endings, and some like The Vessel, Worlds Apart, Nest, I Hear You Calling, and Something About Harry were a mix of bittersweet with the ending both part positive and part negative... but the endings predominantly were either partly or totally negative ones, especially the ones that used clips from other episodes.

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[–] arijanian 13 years ago

What I found most fascinating and sad was that, considering the complexity and realism and human vulnerability of "Bree"'s life story and personality (almost certainly not concocted by an alien intelligence) and the way in which Skokes' likeness and story were later used by the aliens, there almost certainly was a real Bree Tristan at some point, and she was almost certainly very much like the "Bree" we saw.

How long was she tortured and questioned, for them to peel all that detail about her past from her? What was it like, having her DNA and possibly even her flesh harvested for that Mata Hari skin-suit of theirs? Did she know how they planned to use what they took from her? Did she despair, in her final moments? Or is she still alive, somewhere, still being interrogated and harvested and used?

It chills the bones to think about it, really.

(And, on a wryly dispassionate note, I can't help tipping my hat to the alien who played "Bree". Dreadful as her motives were from the human perspective, that still took some serious courage to enter the cell of a violent specimen of an alien race and put herself completely at his mercy in hopes of teasing out the right top-secret information.

A few scenes even made me wonder if she was, in some small way, being genuinely influenced by the hormones and juices of that human flesh. She seemed agitated when they talked about losing your sense of species identity, and genuinely passionate when she discussed human emotion and physical sensation. Did she find it to her liking? Did she feel a sense of regret, however small, upon having to let it go...or upon having to let John go? Was she ever attached to him at all, or was it a complete and total act?

I think I'll always wonder.)

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[–] WalletGuy 13 years ago

arijanian: You bring up some fascinating points. Obviously this is mostly speculation from both of us, but its interesting to think about. It's been awhile since I've seen the episode so bear with me.

I definitely agree its possible there was a real Tristan Bree at one point who was like the one in Quality of Mercy, just as there was a real Skokes.
If so, was she tortured and captured? They could have used her DNA and memories. Hard to tell as its never explained in the episode.

I never thought of the alien Bree as being brave before until you put it like that. We'll never know what the alien Bree was thinking as we never see from her perspective. However, I do think that there was some of her that was attached to him and liked being human, even if it was just a residual effect from the original Bree.

And to the people who brought up Wil Wheaton, I thought his acting was fine. I highly doubt that he was cast because of his role was Wesley Crusher on Star Trek, but I do think that it is a parody of the way that character was a brilliant wonder boy, especially early on Next Gen.

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[–] sylvia67 13 years ago

The Deprogrammers was depressing 2... even though the twist was obvious

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[–] tbonesays 11 years ago

Nicole de Bree's last line was "They're changing me back" which means she started out as an alien. I don't know how there could be a real Bree unless they skinned her and then slipped her over a small alien.

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[–] mrjohndoe_1 10 years ago

Interesting points Would like to think that the evil Reptilians from "Quality of Mercy" and "Light Brigade" were ultimately assimilated and destroyed by the Borg….☺

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[–] ydobon-1 12 years ago

First Robert Patrick's character Skokes is tricked into giving away a secret mission to an alien spy about an attack plot to turn the tide of a war that the Earth is losing.

I thought that part was stupid. First of all, even if she wasn't an alien, how did he know that the aliens weren't listening? Every inch of the cell could have been bugged. Second, even if she was human, how does he know that she wouldn't betray him in a desperate attempt to offer the aliens something in exchange for making her human again? Third, how did he know that she hadn't been brainwashed by the aliens?

Finally, if he just wanted to comfort her, why not lie to her about the details? He could have told her the fleet was at a different location and given a different attack date & target. The aliens would know something was coming, but without the details they wouldn't be able to mount a proper defense.

An experienced soldier like Skokes should have known never to give away top secret information while in enemy custody.

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[–] tbonesays 12 years ago

yeah, because the moral is "humans are stupid."

Not that it mattered. We found out in the sequel that one alien ship could destroy an entire human fleet so the ambush wasn't going to accomplish very much.

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[–] ydobon-1 12 years ago

Not that it mattered. We found out in the sequel that one alien ship could destroy an entire human fleet so the ambush wasn't going to accomplish very much.

If the plan had gone the way it was supposed to, the aliens wouldn't have been expecting the attack on their home world and it probably could have succeeded.

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[–] tempests98 11 years ago

First of all, even if she wasn't an alien, how did he know that the aliens weren't listening? Every inch of the cell could have been bugged

Probably because he was allowed to form an escape plan and cut his way out of his cell.

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[–] Joxerlives 11 years ago

Now I always took these eps to be the prequals to 'Demon with a Glass Hand' from the original series. Mankind in the future has been wiped out by an alien race but we leave behind a biological weapon to destroy them and send an android back in time with the memories of the whole human race to rebuild them once again, pursued by the aliens who have taken human form.

Plus remember the Time Travel Bureau?

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[–] I_hatenazis 11 years ago

The Light Brigade is what clued me in that The Outer Limits was an exceptional series. The bottom line is that they broke all the rules. They got you sucked into the desperate plight of few members of a crew making an attempt to save a doomed earth against a devastating alien race. Rather than giving you the standard heroic ending they actually threw a curve ball and broke your heart. However, if you must have the good guys always win in the last 3 seconds ending then yes, I suppose I can endorse your view.

A good Outer Limits episode ALWAYS did good character development where you wanted things to go well with the main protagonists and they mixed up happy, mixed, and sad endings and the sad endings broke your heart.

This was a great episode. It was very dramatic, I was sitting at the edge of my my seat and at the end of the show I said to myself WTF but then I looked back at some of the odd things that I saw and it made sense. Why did the senior office insist on not saving the engineer.

Oh, and on a side note, I loved how Robert Patrick's character looked at Bill Wheaton's character and said, 'I am glad that He is on our side (referring to God)'. He was clearly indicating the alien's point of view that they were in the right.

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[–] severe_td 11 years ago

As others have pointed out, The Outer Limits' mixture of happy, sad, and neutral endings made the series unpredictable and more exciting to watch.

"The Light Brigade" was also the only Outer Limits sequel that wasn't awful. Every other sequel (usually spawned from good original episodes) was highly disappointing.

"Final Appeal" was a terrible follow-up to the excellent "A Stitch In Time", while "Promised Land" was a boring, preachy continuation of intriguing episode "The Camp". There were other bad sequels, as well, and I'm not even talking about those really bad clip shows (though Final Appeal was one of those, too).

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[–] Tjanssen411 9 years ago

those really bad clip shows

I just watched 'Voice of Reason' (the season 1 Finale) and I kind of liked it...

they fed you more than a few red herrings, and subtle clues and still came through with a twist... my biggest complaint is that the episodes they 'flashbacked' too were all fairly recent (ie all 5 of the immediately previous episodes were featured... it left me feeling like they were coming up on a deadline and were an episode short, so they cribbed together the clip show from the most recent scripts.

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[–] spaltro_m 9 years ago

Voice Of Reason was one of the better episodes I thought as well. And the clip shows in the middle actually helped better to tell the story I think.

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