Customer Reviews

Outer Limits: Keeper of Purple Twilight [VHS]

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"Keeper of the Purple Twilight" is one of the more interesting OL titles to come along.

Big-headed, big handed alien drops in on overacting scientist who's desparately trying to create a new power source. The alien turns into Robert Webber (of "Twelve Angry Men" fame) and gives him the needed calculations in exchange for his emotions. The result is a really cool (though the power source could be a little more portable) disintigrater. Webber then prances with scientist's wife, who seems rather calm around this guy. Even when he shows his true form to her. Realizing that his race is really, really bland, Webber confronts the alien soldiers who are there to pave the way for more emotionless critters to take over earth. In the end, everyone bits the electrons so to speak and the scientist finally learns not to overact.

On the positive side, the alien costumes and make-up are well done. And Webber turns in a pretty good performance given the limitations his character has. Whether Leonard Nimoy drew any inspiration from this to use in "Star Trek" is not really apparent.

This show has "underdeveloped" written all over it. While some scenes work nicely, the overall story lacks any oomph. A product perhaps of the limited budgets for this second season entry. The scientist final use of the disintigrater is rather puzzling since he knows the aliens are still a threat. But I suppose we needed some kind of moral conclusion to this tale.

One interesting note is how the scientist and his wife both enter & exit their cars (in separate scenes) on the passenger side. I don't really know why they would do that.

Overall, this is one of the better OL shows from season two. Worth obtaining if you're trying to complete you collection or you're a really big Robert Webber fan (and let's face it, who isn't?).

Good enough story that falters due to a hackneyed, undeveloped script and wooden performances.

Robert Webber is an alien who takes defense scientist Warren Stevens' emotions into himself for study - but since both actors were cut out of the same oak block to start with, you can barely tell the difference. Gail Kobe, as always, is very appealing as Stevens' fiancee, with the thankless task of having to be warm and sympathetic between the two statue men, somehow credibly loving them both.

What this episode has going for it is great monsters. Two varieties of aliens from the same soulless, insectile civilization are portrayed: the dome-headed Scientific Class, and their stockier, bullet-headed, claw-handed Soldiers. The masks are pretty convincing, and the aliens themselves exceptionally exotic and repulsive.

Like the majority of OL's weakest entries, this one starts out quite well and goes downhill fast. The initial scenes of Webber infiltrating a Department of Defense lab and haunting Stevens are genuinely creepy, but the entire exploration of human emotions plot just doesn't work. This is a good episode if you're in the mood for a cheesy '50s-style monster movie, but as a drama it falls pretty flat.

The title of this episode is a bit obscure but the casting is absolutely brilliant! Having Warren Stevens playing a man without emotion and Robert Webber a being awkwardly learning about emotions, makes use of both actors limitations as performers. I love this series so I'm willing to overlook it's faults (the velour jumpsuits and rubber facemasks) and simply enjoy the tale. Of special note is Get Smart's Chief Edward Platt then billed as Edward C Platt.