Customer Reviews

The Outer Limits: The Man Who Was Never Born [VHS]

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4 star:		(1)
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This episode is a sterling example of how the Outer Limits TV series took sci-fi television to heights that have yet to be surpassed four decades later. Typical of this series, "The Man Who Was Never Born" manages to be frightening while at the same time literate, thoughtful and futuristic -- and yet humane in how the story portrays its characters.

Martin Landau is terrific as "Andro," the mutant human from the future who can influence present day people with hypnotic suggestion. Landau is such a class act; truly one of the best actors of these past forty years. His voice transmits his earnest and gentle character's conflict and confusion in dealing with his own emotions (e.g., love, duty to humanity) and the awesome choices that his situation presents.

I'd like to acknowledge the well-written comments from previous reviewers that spurred my interest in this episode. I must echo their praise and highly recommend this episode.

"Here, in the bright, clustered loneliness of the billion, billion stars, loneliness can be an exciting, voluntary thing, unlike the loneliness Man suffers on Earth. Here, deep in the starry nowhere, a man can be as one with space and time; preoccupied, yet not indifferent; anxious and yet at peace. His name is Joseph Reardon. He is, in this present year, thirty years old. This is the first time he has made this journey alone..." A microbe destroys humanity. Librarian Andro tries to change the past with the help of an astronaut. First-rate actor Martin Landau plays the nostalgic mutant Andro ("It's good to cherish old things... Beauty is always on the edge of being lost."). I like the scene in the library when astronaut Joseph Reardon says : "Melville. Hope proves a man deathless." And when he goes back to the time-portal, turns negative and says : "Find Cabot ! Kill him if you have to ! Kill Cabot !". Baby face Shirley Knight plays innocent Noel who is as gracious as a fairy. I like the whole cinematic aspect of this peculiar episode. Conrad Hall and his uncredited assistant William Fraker makes their most romantic cameraworks. They capture the magic sense of nature : the chase scene, in the wood, shot with a hand-held camera through leafs and trees. There are many reflection shots, for instance : the camera's reflection in the beginning of the wedding. The close-ups of Landau's snake eyes are magnificient when he is paying the landlady with imaginary money. And when he tells his past memories to Noel : the stylish montage (a chiarusco on the face, fade overlaped to fast-moving shiny clouds and the futuristic barren landscape) that cinematographer Nicholas Musuraca uses in "Clash by night". This is also a sensitive tribute to Beauty and the Beast with a sci-fi treatment. "It is said that if you move a single pebble on the beach, you set up a different pattern, and everything in the world is changed. It can also be said that love can change the future, if it is deep enough, true enough, and selfless enough. It can prevent a war, prohibit a plague, keep the whole world... whole."

This Outer Limits episode written by Anthony Lawrence and directed by Leonard Horn, is probably as seminal as The Zanti Misfits, but while this one too features a hideous monster, it also uses Conrad Hall's soft-focus lighting to create a romantic fable. As an inhabitant of the wasteland earth of the future, a vision which predates Planet of the Apes, Martin Landau has the opportunity to travel back in time and change destiny. Landau's English accent and Shakespearean intensity is right for his futureworld character, and when he meets Shirley Knight, together they deliver what are arguably the greatest and most delicate performances ever given in the series. Landau's appearance as one suffering from the side effects of a corrupted biological microbe, with The Elephant Man type cauliflower pistules on his skin, calls to mind the mythic parallels of Beauty and the Beast, The Frog Prince, and The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and Horn provides a smoky forest location. At one point Horn superimposes a belltower with Landau crushing a flower that Knight had held. Knight's wardrobe recalls the heroines of the mentioned tales, and also Alice in Wonderland. Horn gets comic mileage out of Landau's ability to conceal his true appearance with hypnotic suggestion, with the screen dissolving so the onlooker sees Landau without disfigurement, although a continuity error spoils the shock effect of someone opening a door we see being locked. Horn also has Landau smashing a mirror, walking into the camera in his monster guise (pre Cape Fear) for lumbering emphasis, and uses an effective hand-held camera for a chase scene. Even if the spaceship is rather clunky, Knight's wedding veil is used for some kind of ... metaphor, and the last image isn't held long enough for it's full gothic resonance, Dominic Frontiere gives us a redemptive love theme for the doomed couple. The Official Companion tells us that Lawrence final scene was cut because it made the show run overtime. This is a pity since the scene as described offers an ending still downbeat but less cruel as the existing one.

This episode manages to be highly original with some highly unoriginal material--mainly, the "Beauty and the Beast" theme and the ancient sci-fi cliche of saving the future by traveling to the past. "The Outer Limits" had a genius for making the old seem new, and "The Man Who Was Never Born" may be the most distinguished example thereof. The new series, by contrast, achieves exactly the opposite by making newer themes seem old and stale through cliched presentations. Same name, very different series.

Martin Landau is superb as Andro, the sensitive and peace-loving human mutant from the future who hates the task he must carry out. Everyone is top-notch, in fact. The themes within themes make each viewing a new experience.

The masterful direction is by Leonard Horn, who went on to contribute in a major way to the original "Mission: Impossible" series, his finest achievement being that series' "Operation: Rogosh," now available on video.

This is the sixth and one of the best episodes of the series, from start to finish.

Joe Reardon (Karl Held) is an astronaut who somehow passes through a time warp in space, and lands on Earth during the year 2148. He is confronted by another person (Martin Landau), who is genetically mutated for his time. He explains to Reardon that a man named Bertram Cabot Jr. created a microbe that destroyed the entire planet. Reardon decides that he and the creature should travel back in time so that they can prevent Bertram Cabot Jr. from creating the microbe. But, events take a drastic turn when Reardon dies on the way back, leaving the creature to find Bertram Jr. alone. The creature does have an advantage, in that he can hypnotize people to view him as a normal being. Will he be able to find Bertram Cabot Jr. and find him in time or is he in the wrong timeline? Can he stop the events from taking place without keeping his feelings for the woman he loves?

Martin Landau did an amazing job playing Andro, the man of tomorrow with a mission for today. The make-up given for Landau to look like a mutated being looks original and creepy. You can imagine where James Cameron must have gotten the idea to make "Terminator 2: Judgment Day" (since it is somewhat the same storyline: man from the future comes to the present on a mission to destroy a person). But this episode really makes you think of the fact that each and every action that man makes creates a change in effect for the future.

To quote Vic Perrin (The Control Voice): "It is said that if you move a single pebble on the beach, you set up a different pattern and everything in the world is changed. It can also be said that love can change the future, if it clean enough, true enough and selfless enough. It can prevent a war, prohibit a plague, and keep the whole world whole."

Easily one of OL's top five episodes. The effects are rancid, but the story is so well written, acted, and produced, you won't care. It's a study in the suspension of disbelief that will completely draw you in, and leave you with your jaw dropped - it has probably the most haunting ending of any entry in the entire series.

Martin Landau was the ideal choice to play Andro, who travels eighty-five years back in time to prevent a sterilizing and disfiguring biological warfare plague from devastating humanity. Overshooting his mark, he inconveniently falls in love with the woman he must kill (Shirley Knight) in order to achieve his objective. How he resolves the dilemma constitutes the most lyrically poetic of all OL stories, and one not to be missed.

In a nutshell, this one is pure magic. They don't make them like this, anymore.

This is one of the classic episodes of the series (1963) but maintains its freshness and relevance for today's audiences. Don't expect sophisticated special effects, but be ready to challenge your mind with very intriguing questions about the consequences of scientist's arrogance, the possibility of time travel and the paradoxes of it. The sacrifice made by the main character gives to this episode a touch of heroism that makes it difficult to forget. Martin Landau delivers, as usual, a superb performance in this double role.

"The Architects of Fear" and "The Man Who Was Never Born" are the only episodes of the 60's anthology that underneath the otherworldly trappings was a love story.

Martin Landau ("Andro") stars as an Earthman from the future that travels back in time to prevent the birth of a man destined to destroy humanity as we know it. Along the way he falls for "Nicole" (Shirley Knight), the woman that would become the mother of Earth's destroyer. Both actors show why they have been a theatrical and television presence, respectively, for over four decades.

Accompanied by a lush Dominic Frontiere score and superb lighting, the episode is a feast for the ear and the eye.

One thing I liked a lot about Outer Limit was the viewer could never be sure where the story was taking him. Unlike series TV where you might lose a Star Trek private but NEVER a regular, with Outer Limits there were NO REGULARS, so they could tell the tale anyway they wished. They do so here in a great form, as the story keeps twisting in ways one may not expect. This is a very thoughtful episode with many touching moments. And who does not want to root for the beast to win the gal?

A powerful and extremely poignant "Sci-Fi version" of The Beauty and The Beast, on the theme of time travelers paradox, with stellar lead performances by Martin Landau and Shirley Knight, striking make-ups, beautiful cinematography and an unforgettable ending and final shot, but beware: the absolute antithesis of happy-end prime time drama television of all time!