Customer Reviews

Outer Limits: Probe [VHS]

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

 

 

Hardly an extraordinary entry, but a good enough one.

Four people in a plane blown off course by a hurricane wake up in their life raft - on solid ground. In a closed environment. With alien writing on the walls, and decidedly odd, mechanized things being done to them. It doesn't take them long to realize they've stumbled into an automated alien space probe, apparently analyzing samples from planets in our solar system.

The story is padded by one of OL's many unnecessary monsters, though it is used to passable enough effect - in this case, an oversized microbe that got out of its Petrie dish and is threatening other specimens in the jar.

The better part of the story is the credibly handled attempt by the stranded wayfarers to communicate with the alien race that designed the probe. If for no other reason, this one is worth watching for the nice speech at the end, when the seemingly only surviving crewmember passionately pleads with the alien computer for help, breaking down in frustration at its endlessly blinking lights and repeated patterns, crying, "Are you all machine? No humanity? Can you hear me? Can you help me?"

Cheap, pretty static in the action department, definitely talky, but not bad. Fairly interesting throughout, with a satisfying and optimistic conclusion.

It is hard to watch many of the second season episodes of this fine series. The producers just could not put a great episode together. The quality of the first season shows simply would not be duplicated in the shortened season number two. Some episodes were well written, but suffered from laughable production values. Others featured interesting characters, but were torpedoed by lame direction. None could capture the awe-inspiring style of the first season episodes. I believe that "The Probe" was one of the last episodes made. Mark Richman (the man with two left hands from "Borderland"-an excellent episode) stars in this tale of plane-wrecked castaways trapped in a large alien space probe. The sets are interesting, special effects are good but something just doesn't quite seem right. It seems to suffer from a lame story. The characters have no depth, no reason to care about their fate. This really could have been made much better with some of the character developement of the first season shows. It still ranks as one of the best season two shows as far as interesting potential. The "bear" here was the same monster used in a Star Trek episode two years later. It looks like a giant "Mountan Bar" left out in the sun to partially melt. The best thing I can say about "The Probe" is...well, there are at least a dozen Outer Limits shows that are worse.

One of the last of the classic Outer Limits episodes, this one suffers from a ten minute story stretched into one hour.

Here goes;

A cargo plane gets caught in a typhoon and is forced to ditch. The survivors then find themselves inside a huge alien probe. Trying to find an exit, one of the crew is killed by a monster/large killer organism that roams around the ship.
Though automated, the creators of the Probe realize that humans are aboard and they manage to get them outside (and to safety) before the Probe destroys itself.

The basic problem here is that the inside of the Probe is obviously a large set, thus killing any interest in the story (what little of it there is). Admittedly, there is a nice forced perspective shot of the survivors 'staring up' at a large beaker and weight measuring device.

Mark Richmond of "The Borderland" fame tries his level best to yell his way through this tale. The rest of the crew remains anonymous, 'cept for Tigh Andrews (I'm guessing his name) of Mod Squad fame, who has only a short scene before dissapearing after the first commercial break.

There is also a really nice blooper. The opening shot shows a DC-3 that's all silver with (what looks like) an Air Force symbol on the side. However, when we see the close-ups during the storm, the DC-3 is suddenly blue with a white streak down the side (not to mention, it's obviously a model).

I definately would not recommend "The Probe" as there are much better selections out there.

The second season of Outer Limits is often dismissed by serious fans as a disaster best forgotten. The crew, visual style, all had changed. However, allthough not at all like the original series, it stands out on its own thanks to classics like "The inheritors" and "The demon with a glass hand".
The majority of the 17 second season episodes are, however, mediocre and some are downright awful. The Probe, the very last episode, is one of the worst. There is enough plot to fill ten minutes, and the cast fills the time by going through some absurd, senseless dialogue. It seems like it was written overnight. The story premise itself (an alien probe examining earth) isn't that bad and could have been the basis for a great story.
Sad to see Mark Richman so lost..he was great in "The Borderland". It's also unbelievable that writers Seeleg Lester & Sam Neuman were also behind the awesome "The Inheritors". I bet they wrote this turkey in a hurry.