Product Details

• Actors: Vic Perrin, Bob Johnson, Ben Wright, Robert Culp, Robert Duvall
• Format: Black & White, NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
• VHS Release Date: September 1, 1998
• Run Time: 51 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6302048842
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #390,330 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Metamorphosis: Venusian style!, February 20, 2000

By 

"james_m_b" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Outer Limits: Cold Hands Warm Heart [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Brig. General Jeff Barton, (William Shatner), completes a round-trip one man space flight to the planet Venus to promote the feasability of the Mars colonization project "Vulcan". During a break in radio communication Barton encouters an alien being on Venus who manages to infect his body causing him to change gradually into something not entirely human. These changes require him to seek out higher temperatures as though adapting to the climate of planet Venus. Upon discovery of Barton's condition, Dr. Mike, (Malachi Throne), uses blood transfusions and a high temperature pressure chamber to reverse the process. Oddly enough, this is actually a love story focusing on Mrs. Ann Barton, (Geraldine Brooks), and her struggle to win back her husband from both his driving ambition and the alien interloper. Harry Lubin's musical score creates a mesmerizing background for the eerie and suspensful encounter between Barton and the Venusian as the scene with the most dramatic special effects and content. Although conceptually intriguing, this episode is marginal.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Venus Held Me In Her Arms!, March 29, 2002

By 

Bruce Rux (Aurora, CO) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Outer Limits: Cold Hands Warm Heart [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This was Shatner's first famously hammy performance, playing Colonel Jeff Barton, the first astronaut to Venus and back. Sure, he's all smiles and NASA p.r. before the cameras, but behind the scenes, Jeff's having problems. He avoids his wife, can't concentrate, can't sleep, has snappish fits of temper, suffers unremembered terrifying nightmares, and can't keep warm. Soon, his problems run deeper - he's actually physically mutating into something not human. Turns out he met something on Venus, during the eight minute telemetry loss the mission had when he went under cloud cover. He's only now beginning to remember what...

Should have been a winner. Falters due to an unintentionally comedic, melodramatic script, and the actors' obvious discomfort at having to speak such soap-opera lines. It's additionally funny today for reasons the production team could not have predicted: the manned Mars mission Shatner's character tries to sell for NASA after his Venus flight is named "Project Vulcan," prefiguring Star Trek, and at one point he makes a vow to his wife by solemnly lifting his hand and saying, "Promise!" which he did identically, years later, in T.V. promotions for Promise Margarine.

Even turkeys like this one have their good moments, though, and are not total wastes. The being Shatner encounters on Venus is a memorably clever underwater puppet effect that is kind of creepy, accompanied by an eerie, minor-key sort of waltz music, and the scene in which Shatner's wife, Geraldine Brooks, helps rescue him from his horrific condition is often moving.

5.0 out of 5 stars Early Star Trek?, August 3, 2009

By 

Charles Ashbacher (Marion, Iowa United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Outer Limits: Cold Hands Warm Heart [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This is without question one of the best episodes of "The Outer Limits" ever created. William Shatner stars as a decorated astronaut where he was the only crew member of a mission to Venus. Although he returned safely, while there, he encountered a creature and that experience has altered his mind and body. His body now finds normal temperatures to be much too cold, he bundles up, turns on the heat in the middle of the summer and drinks coffee that is boiling hot. Shatner also suffers from recurring nightmares about his encounter.
Shatner is also the primary spokesperson for "Project Vulcan", a plan to colonize other planets and he is working hard in anticipation of his testimony before a congressional committee that will decide whether or not to fund the project. His wife is dutiful and supportive but she becomes frustrated with his work and concerned over the physical and mental alterations.
The doctors are puzzled over his symptoms and when the appearance of his hands is altered, they put him in a space environmental unit in an attempt to cure him. This works and Shatner is generally returned to normal and speaks to the congressional committee.
You can see the genesis of the Captain Kirk character in Shatner's performance here, as many of the mannerisms he exhibits as the decorated astronaut recur in his Star Trek role. I am sure that I was not unique in noting "Project Vulcan" and the identical name of the home planet of Mr. Spock in the original Star Trek series. Given that the name Vulcan has an origin in mythology, it could have been a coincidence, however it is also true that Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry was familiar with television, so there is reason to believe that the selection of the name was no coincidence.