Customer Reviews

The Outer Limits: Volume 1

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

The first season of "The Outer Limits" was the best. Sure the second season had some classic episodes (among them "Solider" and "Demon with a Glass Hand" which inspired James Cameron to come up with "The Terminator". I'd give the shows here 5 stars but 0 stars to MGM for this reissue. Why? Because these are the exact same digital transfers as last time. They haven't been enhanced with any thing AND there are no extras. I'd average that out to 2 stars for this set.

Don't get me wrong--the first season was terrific for the most part. This set (like the first season set) features the moving "The Man Who Was Never Born" with Martin Landau as a scarred victim of a viral holocaust who is given the chance to go back in time and prevent the birth of the man who created his sterile world. Featuring a rich score by the late Domninic Frontiere (among his best), this was "The Outer Limits" as its best. Also we get "The Galaxy Being" with Cliff Roberson who unwittingly brings an alien creature he has been communicating with from a world made of anti-matter into ours causing destruction and death. David McCallum in "The Sixth Finger" about the results of an experiment to push humanity to evolve to the next level but how, in the process, we lose the essence of what makes us human.

"The Zanti Misfits" like much of Stefano's work provides a neat allegory about human nature. We also get "The Borderlands" and many other classic episodes mixed with claptrap like "Human Factor" but almost everything here is terrific even if we're only getting half a season at a higher price than before.

Why not include a commentary track from surviving actors or David J. Suchow the author on the definitive book on "The Outer Limits"? Because MGM is convinced that you'll buy this set and the second one coming out in August AND pay more in the process because they've split them up. Heck, the least they could have done was got rid of those dreadful dual sided discs. Nope. These are dual sided as well.

So what do you get? 16 episodes--half the first season of the series. In August you can get the second half of the first season. I'm at a loss here--why release the exact same thing as before only in a different package? The only reason is so that retailers (such as Best Buy) who return things after a limited shelf life will carry this again. If you're going to do this at least give us some extras (a featurette on the visual effects, vintage interviews with the late Joe Stefano or Leslie Stevens, commentary tracks with Suchow discussing the making of the episode.

The show deserves 5 stars but Sony/MGM deserves 0 stars for this reissue. Get this instead. The Outer Limits - The Original Series, Season 1

This "redundant" DVD re-release is absurd and unfair and doesn't do justice to the show. It's a disgrace and a real swindle that a major and "wealthy" Studio release a vintage show in two volumes. With today's technology, you could, at least, obtain a complete restoration from the original 35 mm prints. The first DVD release was cheaply cleaned up and featured no extras and worst: no language options. I advise all "Outer Limits" diehard fans to read a full account of the lowdown first DVD edition by getting this publication serving as an evidence for the future: "Video Watchdog", n° 89 and n° 102, November 2002 and December 2003, articles by "Outer Limits" expert David J. Schow. I reject this vulgar 2007 DVD edition that deserves to be dumped into the "Pit" (Cf. "It Crawled out of the Woodwork")! I believe that the right action from the Studio would be to re-release the entire season in one single set including:
- 32 restored copies
- the two "restored" alternate pilots ("Please Stand By" and "The Unknown")
- restored trailers and promos
- audio commentaries by expert David J. Schow
- interviews with "Outer Limits" cast and crew
- isolated scores
- languages options (dubbings and subtitles: English, Spanish, French)



"When this passion called aspiration becomes lust, then aspiration degenerates, becomes vulgar ambition, by which sin the angels fell."
--End Narration from "The Bellero Shield".

MGM splits the first season in half. You get 2 double sided discs, same format as the first release. No extras. I can only assume the episodes are NOT remastered. What is the point? True fans bought the first set. Casual fans will probably seek out their favorite episodes. What are the odds their favorites fall within the first 16 episodes?

This set makes no sense whatsoever. Without ANY additional attractions, I don't see why anyone would buy this.

Hilarious. You get less content for roughly the same price as the entire "first" first set. Yea, ok, sure. If the Outer Limits were a comedy I could at least say this is ironic, but for now I'll stick with MORONIC.

this review is towards the re release and in no way shape or form about the legedary original 1963 outer limits television show.in 2002 mgm released the outer limits complete first season and later presented the complete second season.now on the re release of 2007 the seasons are broken up in parts.not only that they are using the same double sided discs as well.at least the packaging on the 2002 sets were in plastic cases,the re release of 2007 are in card board cases.the outer limits is truly worth the money and time but as far as buying the sets you are better off with the 2002 sets complete seasons,this re release is nothing more than a money making scheme.this 2007 re release is without a doubt a waste of money.....

I'm only giving this two stars because it is a great show. Other than that, there is no reason to buy this collection. You're getting half of season one, with no extra features. Instead, spend another ten- twenty dollars or so, and buy the 2002 release of the entire first season, still available on Amazon. The folks at MGM are pulling a scam in my opinion by releasing this new set...it's called "spend as little money as possible in the hopes that new fans of the seies will buy this not realizing it was already released in 2002" Shame on MGM

If this was a re-mastered re-issue of the show, it might be worth the cost or the re-dip, but it isn't. The first DVD box sets of the original two seasons were grainy and nowhere near the quality of the new, definitive "Twilight Zone" sets (or "The Naked City," for that matter), but at least they were complete and sensibly-priced. Still, I can't NOT give it 5 stars, because even if someone just starts with this cynically-marketed set, they will discover the best gothic horror sci-fi series ever on television, and that's something. The rest of us will just wait for the Blu-ray "definitive" complete series box set.


Hollywoodaholic: Confessions of a Screenwriter

This is a re-packaging of the Original Series Season 1 box set. It includes only the first two discs with the first 16 episodes.

Only for those who don't want to buy an entire first season!

Disc 1
1. The Galaxy Being
2. The Hundred Days Of The Dragon
3. The Architects Of Fear
4. The Man With The Power
5. The Sixth Finger
6. The Man Who Was Never Born
7. O.B.I.T.
8. The Human Factor

Disc 2
9. The Corpus Earthling
10. Nightmare
11. It Crawled Out Of The Woodwork
12. The Borderland
13. Tourist Attraction
14. The Zanti Misfits
15. The Mice
16. Controlled Experiment


Five Stars because the first season of the original series was great!

This was my intoroduction to sci-fi when I was in 2nd grade. Certain episodes were so vivid that they etched themselves permanently in my memory. Upon watching them again, I see how they are also emotionally appealing and surprisingly sophisticated, both in their science and in the lack of "feel good" deus ex machina endings that mar so many otherwise excellent Star Trek stories.

I think by far the best story of this lot is "The Man Who was Never Born", which exudes a kind of timeless anguish. It still moves me to think of the deformed Landau, who was truly brilliant. But the "Architects of Fear" is also wonderful, with the good man sacrificing himself in vain and communicating his love to his wife from his horribly altered form. They are both tragedies with grand conceptions behind them, truly unique. "The Galaxy Being" and "The Sixth Finger" are also deeply affecting and believable in their way. These are all timeless themes in hard sci-fi, done extremely well.

There are some bad episodes too, but overall the good ones are worth the price of admission. I do not see why some reviewers are angry at the format of splitting season 1 into 2 volumes - it doesn't cost more.

Warmly recommended as a piece of TV history that still stands on its own as outstanding hard scifi.

Disc 1 Side A

The Galaxy Being
A radio station engineer uses an experimental receiver to contact an extraterrestrial being, but the radioactive alien poses a deadly threat when it is inadvertently tele-ported to Earth.

The Hundred Days Of The Dragon
A sinister foreign power replaces the President of the United States with its own agent via the use of a powerful drug allowing the skin to be molded into any likeness.

The Architects Of Fear
A noble scheme goes horribly awry when a group of scientists plans an elaborate hoax designed to frighten and ultimately unite humankind.

The Man With The Power
An experimental brain surgery gives a mild-mannered professor telekinetic powers and unleashes the dark side of his unconscious mind.


Disc 1 Side B

The Sixth Finger
There are unforeseen consequences when a brilliant but guilt-ridden scientist performs an evolutionary enhancement procedure on an embittered miner.

The Man Who Was Never Born
A horribly mutated man from Earth's bleak future travels back in time in an attempt to alter the past and save mankind from its hideous fate.

O.B.I.T.
The suspicious murder of a security guard sparks an investigation unveiling an insidious and far-reaching monitoring device, the ramifications of which are truly frightening.

The Human Factor
A remote outpost in Greenland is endangered when an experiment is disrupted, causing the mind of a psychiatrist to be switched with that of a madman.


Disc 2 Side A

Corpus Earthling
A doctor with a steel plate in his head questions his own sanity when he begins hearing the conversations of a strange race of alien rock creatures intent on conquering the world.

Nightmare
A band of Earth soldiers is captured and ruthlessly tortured---both physically and psychologically---by their alien captors.

It Crawled Out Of The Woodwork
An incredible being made of pure energy imperils the staff of a a research laboratory and hides a deadly secret.

The Borderland
A man hoping to contact his dead son becomes involved in an experiment designed to open a gateway to the fourth dimension.


Disc 2 Side B

Tourist Attraction
The capture of a dolphin-like creature stirs up trouble in a small republic as the country's dictator plans to use the thing to attract tourists.

The Zanti Misfits
Exiles from the planet Zanti arrive on Earth, and a startling truth is uncovered when two human renegades invade their privacy.

The Mice
A convicted felon volunteers for an interplanetary cultural exchange program and chaos ensues when a bizarre alien materializes here on Earth.

Controlled Experiment
Two Martians conduct an investigation at the scene of a murder to try to determine why humans kill one another.