The Outer Limits (1995 TV series)

For the original series, see The Outer Limits (1963 TV series).

The Outer Limits (1995)
The Outer Limits opening title (2002)
Genre	Science fiction Dark fantasy
Starring	Various
Narrated by	Kevin Conway (control voice)
Music by	Daryl Bennett Jim Guttridge
Country of origin	United States Canada^[1]^[2]
No. of seasons	7
No. of episodes	154 (list of episodes)
Production
Running time	43–44 minutes
Production company(s)	Alliance Atlantis Communications Atlantis Films Showtime Networks Trilogy Entertainment Group CFCF-TV CanWest Global Communications Global Television Network The Movie Network SuperChannel
Distributor	MGM Domestic Television Distribution MGM International Television Distribution
Release
Original network	Showtime (1995–2000) Sci Fi (2001–2002)
Audio format	Dolby Surround 2.0
Original release	March 26, 1995 – January 18, 2002

The Outer Limits is a Canadian-American television series that originally aired on Showtime, Syfy and in syndication between 1995 and 2002. The series is a revival of the original The Outer Limits series that aired from 1963–65.

Distinct from The Twilight Zone in that the stories were more science fiction based, and less dark fantasy/science fiction as was the case with The Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits is an anthology of distinct story episodes, sometimes with a plot twist at the end. The revival series maintained an anthology format, but occasionally featured recurring story elements that were often tied together during season-finale clip shows. Over the course of the series, 154 episodes were aired.

History

After an attempt to bring back The Outer Limits during the early 1980s, it was finally relaunched in 1995. The success of television speculative fiction such as Star Trek, The X-Files, and anthology shows such as Tales from the Crypt convinced rights holder Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to revive The Outer Limits. A deal was made with Trilogy Productions, the company behind such cinema hits as Backdraft and Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. The show would run on the pay-TV channel Showtime (Trilogy, a Los Angeles- and Canada-based company, is credited with creating the 1995 series).^[1]^[2]^[3]

The episodes appeared in syndication the following season (the same arrangement as MGM/Showtime series Stargate SG-1 and Poltergeist: The Legacy). It continued on Showtime until 2001, when Sci Fi quietly took over production for the seventh and final series. As a result that series, unlike the previous ones, was completely free of any swearing or nudity. It was canceled in 2002, after a total of 154 episodes—far more than the original incarnation of the show. In the revived show, the Control Voice was supplied by Kevin Conway. The new series distanced itself from the "monster of the week" mandate that had characterized the original series from its inception; while there were plenty of aliens and monsters, they dramatize a specific scientific concept and its effect on humanity. Examples of this include "Dark Rain" (biochemical warfare causing worldwide sterility), "Final Exam" (discovery of practical cold fusion power), "Stitch in Time" (a time traveler tinkers with history), as well as two episodes revolving around a human mutation known as Genetic Rejection Syndrome (humans mutating into violent creatures) as a result of an outlawed eugenics attempt to create superior children.

Production

The series was filmed in Vancouver, British Columbia. Stories by Harlan Ellison, A. E. van Vogt, Eando Binder, Larry Niven, Richard Matheson, George R.R. Martin, Stephen King, and James Patrick Kelly were adapted with varying degrees of success, including Sci-Fi airings. The series contained an underlying story arc about mysterious or extraterrestrial forces, including open-ended storylines that were related to each other in the clip shows at the end of the season.

Leslie Stevens was a program consultant for the first four seasons (until his death), while Joseph Stefano served as an executive consultant and later senior advisor throughout the whole series. Stefano also remade his episode "A Feasibility Study", retitling it "Feasibility Study" for the third season. Mark Mancina and John Van Tongeren composed new music different from that of Dominic Frontiere and Harry Lubin. They scored ten episodes for the first season. The musical theme for the modern Outer Limits series is credited to Mark Mancina and John VanTongeren. However, the same music is used in The Ambush, a theme in the soundtrack of Dune 2000.^[4]

In most seasons there was a clip show that intertwines the plots of several of the show's episodes (see "The Voice of Reason" for an example). At each commercial interval, the Control Voice can be heard saying "The Outer Limits...please stand by". The voice repeats this phrase upon return from the television ads. The surreal images from the opening are mostly the work of Jerry Uelsmann.

A number of episodes from seasons 1–6 feature nudity and adult content; though originally broadcast uncensored, those episodes have been edited for commercial syndication.

Episodes

Further information: List of The Outer Limits (1995–2002) episodes

DVD releases

Six themed DVD anthologies of The Outer Limits, with six episodes each, were released by MGM in the US: Aliens Among Us, Death & Beyond, Fantastic Androids & Robots, Mutation & Transformation, Sex & Science Fiction and Time Travel & Infinity. These DVDs all contain the original uncut episodes, as originally aired. The Aliens and Sex titles were also released by MGM in the UK.

Season 1 was released uncut and with extra features on DVD in the US (MGM, 2005), UK (MGM, 2007) and Germany (Fox/MGM, 2008). Because sales of the set did not meet expectations no further seasons were released.

In 2010 Canada's Alliance Home Entertainment released all seven seasons on DVD. Season 1 mirrored the content of the earlier MGM set, while season 2 was also uncensored, with the exception of one episode, "Paradise".^[5] Seasons 3–6 all contain numerous censored episodes and are of noticeably poorer visual quality than the first two.^[6]^[7] Season 7 contains the original unedited episodes, as unlike the previous seasons, it was produced with no nudity or swearing.

In 2013 TGG Direct released the seventh season in the US, again unedited but of marginally inferior visual quality than the Alliance season 7 DVDs.^[8] The 5-disc set is titled The Outer Limits: The Complete Final Season, and in 2014 it was split and re-released as 3-disc Volume One and 2-disc Volume Two sets.

DVD name	Ep#	Release date
The Complete First Season	22	May 4, 2010
The Complete Second Season	22	May 4, 2010
The Complete Third Season	18	June 1, 2010
The Complete Fourth Season	26	July 6, 2010
The Complete Fifth Season	22	August 3, 2010
The Complete Sixth Season	22	September 7, 2010
The Complete Seventh Season (final)	22	October 5, 2010

DVD name	Ep#	Release date
The Final Season	22	December 3, 2013

References

1 2 "MGM Worldwide Television and Trilogy Entertainment Group enter exclusive, multiyear television deal.". 1997-02-07.
1 2 "Speakers – Toronto Screenwriting Conference". 2011. Archived from the original on January 18, 2012.
↑ "Pen Densham". Retrieved July 16, 2015.
↑ "The Outer Limits Trivia Facts". Archived from the original on December 24, 2013. Retrieved July 16, 2015.
↑ http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/reviews/Outer-Limits-New-Season-2/9876
↑ Gord Lacey. "DVD reviews". TVShowsOnDVD.com. Retrieved 2012-08-17.
↑ Sparky. "Customer Review". Amazon.com. Retrieved 2016-11-03.
↑ Buck Naked. "Customer Review". Amazon.com. Retrieved 2016-11-03.

External links

The Outer Limits at the Internet Movie Database
"The Outer Limits: Season 7 (SCI FI original episodes)". scifi.com. Archived from the original on February 19, 2003.

The Outer Limits episodes

1963 series
(episodes)

Season 1	"The Galaxy Being" "The Hundred Days of the Dragon" "The Architects of Fear" "The Man with the Power" "The Sixth Finger" "The Man Who Was Never Born" "O.B.I.T." "The Human Factor" "Corpus Earthling" "Nightmare" "It Crawled Out of the Woodwork" "The Borderland" "Tourist Attraction" "The Zanti Misfits" "The Mice" "Controlled Experiment" "Don't Open Till Doomsday" "ZZZZZ" "The Invisibles" "The Bellero Shield" "The Children of Spider County" "Specimen: Unknown" "Second Chance" "Moonstone" "The Mutant" "The Guests" "Fun and Games" "The Special One" "A Feasibility Study" "Production and Decay of Strange Particles" "The Chameleon" "The Forms of Things Unknown"

Season 2	"Soldier" "Cold Hands, Warm Heart" "Behold, Eck!" "Expanding Human" "Demon with a Glass Hand" "Cry of Silence" "The Invisible Enemy" "Wolf 359" "I, Robot" "The Inheritors" "Keeper of the Purple Twilight" "The Duplicate Man" "Counterweight" "The Brain of Colonel Barham" "The Premonition" "The Probe"

1995 series
(episodes)

Season 1	"The Sandkings" "Corner of the Eye" "Under the Bed" "Dark Matters" "The Conversion" "Quality of Mercy" "The New Breed" "The Voyage Home" "Caught in the Act" "The Message" "I, Robot" "If These Walls Could Talk" "Birthright" "The Voice of Reason"

Season 2	"Stitch in Time" "Resurrection" "Unnatural Selection" "I Hear You Calling" "Mind Over Matter" "Beyond the Veil" "First Anniversary" "Straight and Narrow" "Trial by Fire" "Worlds Apart" "The Refuge" "Inconstant Moon" "From Within" "The Heist" "Afterlife" "The Deprogrammers" "Paradise" "The Light Brigade" "Falling Star" "Out of Body" "Vanishing Act" "The Sentence"

Season 3	"Bits of Love" "Second Thoughts" "Re-Generation" "Last Supper" "Stream of Consciousness" "Dark Rain" "The Camp" "Heart's Desire" "Tempests" "Awakening" "New Lease" "Double Helix" "Dead Man's Switch" "Music of the Spheres" "The Revelations of Becka Paulson" "Bodies of Evidence" "Feasibility Study" "A Special Edition"

Season 4	"Criminal Nature" "The Hunt" "Hearts and Minds" "In Another Life" "In the Zone" "Relativity Theory" "Josh" "Rite of Passage" "Glyphic" "Identity Crisis" "The Vaccine" "Fear Itself" "The Joining" "To Tell the Truth" "Mary 25" "Final Exam" "Lithia" "Monster" "Sarcophagus" "Nightmare" "Promised Land" "Balance of Nature" "The Origin of Species" "Phobos Rising" "Black Box" "In Our Own Image"

Season 5	"Alien Radio" "Donor" "Small Friends" "The Grell" "The Other Side" "Joyride" "The Human Operators" "Blank Slate" "What Will The Neighbors Think" "The Shroud" "Ripper" "Tribunal" "Summit" "Descent" "The Haven" "Deja Vu" "The Inheritors" "Essence of Life" "Stranded" "Fathers and Sons" "Star Crossed" "Better Luck Next Time"

Season 6	"Judgment Day" "The Gun" "Skin Deep" "Manifest Destiny" "Breaking Point" "The Beholder" "Seeds of Destruction" "Simon Says" "Stasis" "Down to Earth" "Glitch" "Decompression" "Abaddon" "The Grid" "Gettysburg" "Nest" "Final Appeal"

Season 7	"Family Values" "Patient Zero" "A New Life" "The Surrogate" "The Vessel" "Mona Lisa" "Replica" "Think Like a Dinosaur" "Worlds Within" "In the Blood" "Flower Child" "Abduction" "Lion's Den" "The Tipping Point" "The Human Factor" "Human Trials"

Saturn Award for Best Network Television Series

Star Trek: The Next Generation (1988)
Star Trek: The Next Generation (1989/90)
Dark Shadows (1991)
The Simpsons (1992)
Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman (1993)
The X-Files (1994)
The Outer Limits (1995)
The X-Files (1996)
Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997)
The X-Files (1998)
Now and Again (1999)
Buffy the Vampire Slayer (2000)
Buffy the Vampire Slayer (2001)
Alias (2002)
Angel / CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (2003)
Lost (2004)
Lost (2005)
Heroes (2006)
Lost (2007)
Lost (2008)
Lost (2009)
Fringe (2010)
Fringe (2011)
Revolution (2012)
Hannibal / Revolution (2013)
Hannibal (2014)

Saturn Award for Best Syndicated/Cable Television Series

The Outer Limits (1996)
The Outer Limits (1997)
Babylon 5 (1998)
Stargate SG-1 (1999)
Farscape (2000)
Farscape (2001)
Farscape (2002)
Stargate SG-1 (2003)
Stargate SG-1 (2004)
Battlestar Galactica (2005)
Battlestar Galactica (2006)
Dexter (2007)
Battlestar Galactica (2008)
Breaking Bad (2009)
Breaking Bad (2010)
Breaking Bad (2011)
The Walking Dead (2012)
The Walking Dead (2013)
The Walking Dead (2014)

Showtime original programming

Former

1980s debuts	33 Brompton Place Bizarre Brothers Shelley Duvall's Faerie Tale Theatre It's Garry Shandling's Show OWL/TV The Paper Chase Super Dave Tall Tales & Legends Nightmare Classics Thunderbirds 2086

1990s debuts	Beggars and Choosers Beverly Hills Bordello The Busy World of Richard Scarry Chris Cross Dead Man's Gun The Hoop Life Linc's The Outer Limits OWL/TV Poltergeist: The Legacy Ready or Not Red Shoe Diaries Rude Awakening Stargate SG-1 Total Recall 2070 Women: Stories of Passion

2000s debuts	American Candidate Barbershop: The Series Big Brother: After Dark Body Language Brotherhood Californication The Chris Isaak Show Dead Like Me Deeper Throat Dexter Elite Xtreme Combat Family Business Fat Actress Free for All Going to California Full Color Football: The History of the American Football League Huff Jeremiah Kama Sutra The L Word Lady Chatterley's Stories Leap Years Lock 'N Load Masters of Horror Meadowlands Nurse Jackie Odyssey 5 Out of Order Penn & Teller: Bullshit! Queer as Folk Queer Duck Resurrection Blvd. Secret Diary of a Call Girl ShoMMA ShoXC Sleeper Cell Soul Food Tracey Ullman's State of the Union The Tudors The Underground This American Life United States of Tara Weeds

2010s debuts	Beach Heat: Miami The Big C The Borgias Dave's Old Porn The Green Room with Paul Provenza Happyish House of Lies Inside NASCAR La La Land Look: The Series Masters of Sex Penny Dreadful The Real L Word Roadies Time of Death Web Therapy

Current

The Affair (since 2014)
Billions (since 2016)
Dark Net (since 2016)
Dice (since 2016)
Episodes (since 2011)
Gigolos (since 2011)
The Franchise (since 2011)
Homeland (since 2011)
Inside Comedy (since 2012)
Inside the NFL (since 2008)
Polyamory: Married & Dating (since 2012)
Ray Donovan (since 2013)
Shameless (since 2011)
60 Minutes Sports (since 2013)
ShoBox: The New Generation (since 2001)
Showtime Championship Boxing (since 1986)
Submission (since 2016)

Upcoming

I'm Dying Up Here (TBA)
Twin Peaks (2017)

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