THE OUTER LIMITS - Individual Base Card from the Premiere Edition series issued by Rittenhouse in 2002
"The Invisible Enemy" is an episode of the original The Outer Limits television show. It first aired on October 31, 1964, during the series' second season.
Two astronauts on the M-1 spaceship land on Mars in the year 2021; when one goes out to explore he is heard screaming and his last transmission indicates that he had no idea what was happening to him. When the second astronaut goes out to investigate, he too makes a similar transmission. Three years later a second mission, M-2, lands with a crew of four consisting of Major Merritt, Captains Buckley and Lazzari and Lieutenant Johnson. They are tasked both to explore and to determine what happened to the M-1. When Captain Lazzari is sent to explore the ruins of the M-1, he goes behind the ship to examine it and screams in unbearable agony, just like the previous crew. Captain Buckley and Lieutenant Johnson go to investigate and Buckley finds only bloodstains. Johnson, armed with a nuclear bazooka, wanders off and disappears. The two remaining crew are ordered to stay within the confines of the ship in the last hours before take-off. However, Captain Buckley has a vision wherein the planet's deserts appear as sand-filled oceans; he then slips out to examine these "oceans". While exiting the ship he cuts his hand; he rubs the blood onto a scrap of cloth and throws it out into the desert. He learns that a Sand-Beast – a crustacean-like animal that swims through the sands like a shark – is at fault for the deaths. Major Merritt, the leader of the expedition, was asleep when Captain Buckley exited, but goes out to find him and becomes trapped on a rock when the Sand-Beast pursues him. With ten minutes left until lift-off, Captain Buckley creates a distraction by running across the sands; this allows both Merritt and Buckley to reach the shore unharmed. They shoot the Sand-Beast, using the nuclear bazooka Johnson left behind when he was killed. The fatally wounded Sand-Beast submerges beneath the surface, but five other Sand-Beasts, drawn by the noise and blood of their dying kin, soon emerge. The two remaining astronauts realize, "There's a whole army of them". Major Merritt and Captain Buckley communicate with control on Earth that they are coming home.
"'Battle joined. Casualties? Yes. Resolution: Victory, of a sort. A painful step from the crib of destiny. On another day, a friend, perhaps, instead of a deadly peril — part of the saga of the space pioneers."
The episode was based on a short story by Jerry Sohl, 'The Invisible Enemy', which was first published in Imaginative Tales magazine in September 1955. That story takes place on the fourth planet of a faraway star, where the fifty-man warship Nesbitt lands to investigate the disappearance of a number of spaceships sent to the planet. After a ten-man expeditionary team is consumed from inside a forcefield, the ship's computer suggests, unconvincingly, that "invisible" birds are to blame. Twenty-nine more men are killed and a lone survivor, named Lazzari, is found in the desert. The final transmission from his unit: "No! No! They're coming out of the ground!" Lazzari kills himself by smashing his head against a bulkhead and the remaining crew gather outside the ship to give him a military burial. The computer advises against it; the corpse is bloody and blood seems to provoke the attacks. Allison, the civilian computer expert, protests against the burial and is locked inside the Nesbitt by the mission commander. Allison watches helplessly as the funeral party is eaten by "large, heavy, porpoiselike creatures ...swimming up out of the sand as if it were water."
After reading Sohl's first draft based on his short story, ABC decided the monster should appear sooner, so Seeleg Lester rewrote the script. That version involved the ship's crew monitoring the planet's surface with cameras (Lester even talked to Sohl about writing scenes incorporating cameras beneath the sands of Mars), yet with all these cameras operating, the crew still didn't figure out what was killing them. After further rewrites by Sohl, the script was passed to producer Ben Brady, who rewrote the last act into a "calm fourth quarter". Finally, director Byron Haskin rewrote the entire script over a 28-hour period, feeling that the episode would never have aired if he had filmed the script he was given.
Adam West – Major Charles 'Chuck' Merritt
Rudy Solari – Captain Buckley
Joe Maross – General Winston
Ted Knight – Mr. Jerome
Chris Alcaide – Colonel Danvers
Anthony Costello – Lieutenant Bowman
Bob DoQui – Lieutenant Johnson
Peter Marko – Captain Lazzari
Mike Mikler – Captain Thomas
This episode's alternative title is "The Yellow Sands".
The Sand-Beast makes a cameo appearance in the next episode, "Wolf 359".
This episode is erroneously listed on one DVD case ("The Outer Limits Volume Three The Original Series Disc 1 Episodes 33–40") in "The Outer Limits The Complete Original Series Volumes 1–3". The episode is actually only on Disc 2 included in the case for "The Outer Limits Volume Three The Original Series Discs 2–3 Episodes 39–49". The same is true for the next episode, "Wolf 359".
The Outer Limits is an American television series that was broadcast on ABC from September 16, 1963 to January 16, 1965 at 7:30PM Eastern Time on Mondays. The series is often compared to The Twilight Zone, but with a greater emphasis on science fiction stories (rather than stories of fantasy or the supernatural matters). The Outer Limits is an anthology of self-contained episodes, sometimes with a plot twist at the end.
The series was revived in 1995, airing on Showtime from 1995 to 2000, then on Sci-Fi Channel from 2001 until its cancellation in 2002. In 1997, the episode "The Zanti Misfits" was ranked #98 on TV Guide's 100 Greatest Episodes of All Time.
As of April 2019, a new revival was stated to be in the works at a premium cable network.
Each show would begin with either a cold open or a preview clip, followed by a "Control Voice" narration that was mainly run over visuals of an oscilloscope. Using an Orwellian theme of taking over your television, the earliest version of the narration ran as follows:
“There is nothing wrong with your television set. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are controlling transmission. If we wish to make it louder, we will bring up the volume. If we wish to make it softer, we will tune it to a whisper. We will control the horizontal. We will control the vertical. We can roll the image, make it flutter. We can change the focus to a soft blur or sharpen it to crystal clarity. For the next hour, sit quietly and we will control all that you see and hear. We repeat: there is nothing wrong with your television set. You are about to participate in a great adventure. You are about to experience the awe and mystery which reaches from the inner mind to– The Outer Limits. “
Later episodes used one of two shortened versions of the introduction. The first few episodes began simply with the title screen followed by the narration and no cold open or preview clip. The Control Voice was performed by actor Vic Perrin.
The Outer Limits was originally broadcast on the American television network ABC (1963–65). In total, 49 episodes were produced. It was one of many series influenced by The Twilight Zone and Science Fiction Theatre, though it ultimately proved influential in its own right. In the unaired pilot, the series was called Please Stand By, but ABC rejected that title (NBC would later approve the title for their 1979 comedy series). Series creator Leslie Stevens retitled it The Outer Limits. With a few changes, the pilot aired as the premiere episode, "The Galaxy Being".
Writers for The Outer Limits included creator Stevens and Joseph Stefano (screenwriter of Hitchcock's Psycho), who was the Season 1 producer and creative guiding force. Stefano wrote more episodes of the show than any other writer. Future Oscar-winning screenwriter Robert Towne (Chinatown) wrote "The Chameleon", which was the final episode filmed for Season 1. Two especially notable Season 2 episodes "Demon with a Glass Hand" and "Soldier" were written by Harlan Ellison, with the former episode winning a Writers' Guild Award. The former was for several years the only episode of The Outer Limits available on LaserDisc.
Season 1 combined science fiction and horror, while Season 2 was more focused on 'hard science fiction' stories, dropping the recurring "scary monster" motif of Season 1. Each show in Season 1 was to have a monster or creature as a critical part of the story line. Season 1 writer and producer Joseph Stefano believed that this element was necessary to provide fear, suspense, or at least a center for plot development. This kind of story element became known as "the bear". This device was, however, mostly dropped in Season 2 when Stefano left (two Season 1 episodes without a "bear" are "The Forms of Things Unknown" and "Controlled Experiment", the first of which was shot in a dual format as science fiction for The Outer Limits and as a thriller for a pilot for an unmade series The Unknown. Actor Barry Morse, who starred in "Controlled Experiment", states that this episode also was made as a pilot for an unrealized science fiction/comedy series. It was the only comedic episode of The Outer Limits).
Earlier Season 1 episodes with no "bear" were "The Hundred Days of the Dragon" and "The Borderland" made before the "bear" convention was established. Season 2 episodes with a "bear" are "Keeper of the Purple Twilight", "The Duplicate Man", and "The Probe". "Bears" appear near the conclusion of the Season 2 episodes "Counterweight", "The Invisible Enemy", and "Cold Hands, Warm Heart".) The "bear" in "The Architects of Fear", the monstrously altered Allen Leighton, was judged by some of ABC's local affiliate stations to be so frightening that they broadcast a black screen during the "Thetan's" appearances, effectively censoring most of the show's last act. In other parts of the United States, the "Thetan" footage was tape-delayed until after the 11pm/10c news. In others, it was not shown at all.
The series was shot at KTTV (MetroMedia Square) on sound stage # 2. Season 1 had music by Dominic Frontiere, who doubled as Production Executive; Season 2 featured music by Harry Lubin, with a variation of his Fear theme for One Step Beyond being heard over the end titles.
The program sometimes made use of techniques (lighting, camerawork, even make-up) associated with film noir or German Expressionism (see for example, "Corpus Earthling"), and a number of episodes were noteworthy for their sheer eeriness. Credit for this is often given to the cinematographer Conrad Hall, who went on to win three Academy Awards (and many more nominations) for his work in motion pictures. However, Hall worked only on alternate episodes of this TV series during the first two-thirds of the first season. The program's other cinematographers included John M. Nickolaus and Kenneth Peach.
The various monsters and creatures from the first season and most props were developed by a loose-knit group organized under the name Project Unlimited. Members of the group included Wah Chang, Gene Warren and Jim Danforth. Makeup was executed by Fred B. Phillips along with John Chambers.
Many of the creatures that appeared in Outer Limits episodes have been sold as models or action figures in the 1990s and 2000s. A variety in limited editions have been as model kits to be assembled and painted by the purchaser issued by Dimensional Designs, and a smaller set of out-of-the-box action figures sold in larger quantity by Sideshow Toys. The former produced a model kit of The Megasoid from "The Duplicate Man", and both created a figure of Gwyllm as an evolved man from "The Sixth Finger".
The series earned a very loyal audience in the first season. It was so devoted, some people were reported to take a TV set with them if they had to be away from home, so they would not miss an episode (as home video recording did not yet exist). However, the second season fared rather poorly in the Nielsen ratings after moving from Monday to Saturday night, going against Jackie Gleason. Producer Joseph Stefano chose to leave the show after the first year; he realized that competing against the more popular Gleason would kill his show (proven by its cancellation midway through the second season). However, the series retained a following for many years after its original broadcast. Many decades later, horror writer Stephen King called it "the best program of its type ever to run on network TV."
Originally scheduled to air on November 25, 1963, the episode "Nightmare" was delayed until December 2 due to television coverage of the state funeral of President John F. Kennedy.
Like The Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits had an opening and closing narration in almost every episode. Both shows were unusually philosophical for science fiction anthology series, but differed in style. The Twilight Zone stories were often like parables, employing whimsy (such as the Buster Keaton time-travel episode "Once Upon a Time"), irony, or extraordinary problem-solving situations (such as the episode "The Arrival"). The Outer Limits was usually a straight action-and-suspense show which often had the human spirit in confrontation with dark existential forces from within or without, such as in the alien abduction episode "A Feasibility Study" or the alien possession story "The Invisibles". As well, The Outer Limits was known for its moody, textured look in many episodes (especially those directed by Byron Haskin or Gerd Oswald, or photographed by Conrad Hall) whereas The Twilight Zone tended to be shot more conventionally.
However, there is some common ground between certain episodes of the two shows. As Schow and Frentzen, the authors of The Outer Limits: The Official Companion, have noted, several Outer Limits episodes are often misremembered by casual fans as having been Twilight Zone episodes, notably such "problem solving" episodes as "Fun and Games" or "The Premonition".
A few of the monsters reappeared in Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek series later in the 1960s. The moving microbe beast in "The Probe" later was used as the 'Horta' in "The Devil in the Dark", and operated by the same actor, Janos Prohaska. The "ion storm" seen in "The Mutant" (a projector beam shining through a container containing glitter in liquid suspension) became the transporter effect in Star Trek. The black mask from "The Duplicate Man", is used by the character Dr. Leighton in "The Conscience of the King". The Megasoid, from "The Duplicate Man" and the Empyrean from "Second Chance" (1964) were seen briefly near Captain Christopher Pike in other cages in the Star Trek pilot "The Cage".
The process used to make pointed ears for David McCallum in "The Sixth Finger" was reused in Star Trek as well. Lead actors who would later appear in the regular cast of Star Trek included Leonard Nimoy, who appeared in two episodes ("Production and Decay of Strange Particles" and "I, Robot") and William Shatner who appeared (in the episode "Cold Hands, Warm Heart") as an astronaut working on a Project Vulcan. Actors who would subsequently appear in the regular supporting cast of Star Trek were Grace Lee Whitney (episode "Controlled Experiment") and James Doohan (episode "Expanding Human"). Roddenberry was often present in The Outer Limits' studios, and hired several of its staff, among them Robert Justman and Wah Chang for the production of Star Trek.
Harlan Ellison contended that inspiration for James Cameron's Terminator had come in part from Ellison's work on The Outer Limits. Cameron conceded the influence. Ellison was awarded money and an end-credits mention in The Terminator (1984), stating the creators' wish "to acknowledge the works of Harlan Ellison". Cameron was against Orion's decision and was told that if he did not agree with the settlement, they would have Cameron pay for any damages if Orion lost Ellison's suit. Cameron replied that he "had no choice but to agree with the settlement. There was a gag order as well."
Filmmaker Kevin Smith has stated that, before offering him the chance to write Superman Lives in 1996, Warner Brothers offered him two projects: a remake of The Architects of Fear and Beetlejuice Goes Hawaiian. On June 20, 2014, The Hollywood Reporter revealed that Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer was developing a film version of The Outer Limits based on the "Demon with a Glass Hand" episode, with Scott Derrickson and C. Robert Cargill writing and Mark Victor producing.
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