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: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6302032156
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #466,151 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars At their best when things were worst, February 7, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Outer Limits: Feasability Study [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Joseph Stefano suggested that A Feasibility Study was the most humanistic of Outer Limit Episodes. He's probably right. In a series in which aliens were actually the more sympathetic characters in many cases, here they are decidedly malignant. The Luminoids abduct an entire neighborhood from Beverly Hills (though their ship looks as though salt should be pouring out of it), and bring the unsuspecting inhabitants to their world so that humans can serve as their slaves, and do their physical labor. The Luminoids suffer from the effects of a progressive disease that turns them into immobile stone-like lumps. The title refers to their effort to see if a small sample of humans will prove resistant to the disease and make planet-wide abduction and slavery feasible. While some of the initial human abductees accidentally get exposed to the disease and contract the disorder, it seems enough would survive to make the experiment work, UNLESS, someone spits in the test tube. That's the ultimate decision/solution that confronts the humans. They know they can't save themselves, but they can make the experiment fail by intentionally exposing themselves to the disease.
While some of the dialogue and interaction is schmaltzy, especially the overly-intellectualized discussion about bringing more children into a troubled world, there are also brilliant moments in the screenplay. The interaction between Ralph and Rhea (David Opatashu and Joyce Van Patten) is both grating and comical ("Really, Ralph!" "When you say that, it sounds like 'Mealy Mouth!'"). The whole experiment and abduction plan are exposed when a teenaged Luminoid disobeys orders and snoops around, acting just like a whiny Earth adolescent.
The final moments of the episode, where the gathered inhabitants all agree (some more reluctantly than others) to take the suicidal step of exposing themselves intentionally to the disease to spoil the experiment is one of the most moving I've ever seen on television. I first saw it in the OL's first run in 1964, when I was 5. The scene in which Sam Wannamaker says, "I'm going to take my wife's hand. Won't someone please take mine" is still moving, nearly 40 years later. Stefano's opinion about this being the most humanistic episode of the OL (though ironically the decision is reached in a church, and the first person to take the hands of the afflicted, outside of their spouses, was the priest)is exemplified by the final narration from the control voice: "It could have happened anywhere. It did happen here. It would have happened everywhere, had they been less brave. Had they been less-human". Bravo!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good one., November 22, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Outer Limits: Feasability Study [VHS] (VHS Tape)

People on a six-block area are transported to another planet to become slaves for an alien race. Good acting, and the haze-like effect over the neighborhood creates a gloomy atmosphere that makes it feel as if they really are on another world. One of the better episodes of this series.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Also Known As: The smoke machine worked overtime, August 17, 2000

By 

Peter Shelley "petershelley" (Sydney, New South Wales Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Outer Limits: Feasability Study [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This is one of the more reflective of the episodes, as opposed to one featuring monsters. In fact, writer Joseph Stefano called it the most humanitarian of the series. That's not to say that there aren't monsters because there are. It's just that they are not the focus. Perhaps Stefano should have modified his position by saying he tried to make it the most humanitarian, for an episode of the Outer Limits, since no episode I've seen can be taken that seriously. The feasibility study is undertaken by Luminoids, who have stolen a neighbourhood block and brought it back to Luminos to see whether earthlings are suitable for (consensual) slave labor. The Luminoids have enclosed the block in a vaporous fog and the images of rolling dark clouds are very beautiful, especially a shot of them enveloping a church steeple. Composer Dominic Frontiere also provides some eerie discordant incidental music, in addition to his repertoire of bombast. And the introductory dialogue between Ralph and Rhea Cashman is unusually funny for this kind of show. The less said about the first scene between Sam Wanamaker and his wife Phyllis Love, the better. The tone of the episode changes when the Luminoids themselves make an appearance. The premise actually recalls the "Monsters are due on Maple Street" episode of The Twilight Zone, except here the reaction to the threat is different. I found the idea of the Luminoids needing slave laborers a bit odd. I mean, what for? They claim that their lack of mobility has made their minds evolve to levels far beyond mankind, but if this is so, one would think neighbourhood-napping and slavery to be definitely regressive behaviour. Unless the Luminoids world, outside the area they have transplanted the block onto, is a decidely more happening place than the barren wasteland we see. The human response is decided upon in the church hall, though it seems rather undemocratic, and who voted Sam Wanamaker in charge anyway? Of interest is something mentioned in the Outer Limits Official Companion by David J Schow and Jeffrey Frentzen. They claim that Stefano altered the performance of Joyce Van Patten (she plays Rhea) in the editing room because of her incompetence. Perhaps he should have taken a second look at Wanamaker and Love, since they both give very strange performances, even in the context of an Outer Limits episode. But it is amusing to see how the Luminoids change Love's wardrobe when they Love-nap her.