New outer limits discussion, + is it generally easy to get a non-scifi person into some episodes?

[hxclespaulplayer]

I'm a sucker for anthology series, particularly sci-fi ones. A lot of the episodes just seem to have fantasy/supernatural elements in a contemporary setting.

I just can't get into the old series, and this is coming from someone that loved the original twilight zone. So, what do you think of it? There's very little discussion of the new series online aside from imdb user reviews.

 

[Mudd]

What's the new Outer Limits, the show from the 90s?

 

[hxclespaulplayer]

Yes, a lot of the episodes wouldn't be out of place in a non-scifi drama from the same period. They had arcs for some episodes too. My favorite is probably the time traveler who goes on trial for arriving in an alternate postwar earth with anti-technology laws.

 

[Tosk]

I quite liked "Quality of Mercy" and the remake of "I, Robot" but I don't remember too many others. I did find their occasional attempts at gratuitous nudity to be a little on the nose.

 

[Christopher]

My main problem with the Showtime Outer Limits was how Luddite it was. Most of its episodes were variations on the theme that "Every attempt at scientific progress or invention is evil and will bring down horrific consequences!" It wasn't science fiction so much as anti-science fiction.

One weird thing about it was that it's perhaps the only anthology series I've seen that had clip shows. Like most cable shows of its era, it was obligated for budgetary reasons to do one clip episode per season, which is very strange in an anthology, where the stories have no shared characters or continuity. They'd retroactively pretend that a set of unconnected episodes were actually in a common universe and do a frame story somehow tying into their common theme. Although there was at least one case where they actually did feature the same high-tech corporation behind the events of multiple episodes and then tied it all together in the clip show.

 

[Mudd]

The show was not that much fun because after a while the reflexive "shock endings" of so many episodes were paranoid: hope is false, you will be misled and betrayed, we're all doomed.

It became monotonous.

 

[Anwar]

The idea that it was all bad endings is erroneous, about 1/3 of the episodes had bad endings. The other 1/3 were Bittersweet and the last 1/3 were normal endings.

Funny how rewatching the X-Files I can see the common music styles and filming techniques in both shows now.

 

[Awesome Possum]

I liked the semi trilogy involving a time traveler. The first is the better and focuses on a man trying to prove an old man is the Nazi who ran a concentration camp who killed his father's first wife and daughter. He gets help from the time traveler is giving him proof. There's another about two Civil War re-enactors getting sent to the war.

 

[Christopher]

It's just so weird to see any kind of continuity within an anthology. I can't think of any other examples. The Twilight Zone and the original Outer Limits never had sequels or recurring characters or clip shows (althought TZ did a couple of backdoor-pilot epiosdes that never went anywhere).

 

[Starbreaker]

I watched a bunch of these as a kid but I don't remember most of them.

 

[JD]

It's just so weird to see any kind of continuity within an anthology. I can't think of any other examples. The Twilight Zone and the original Outer Limits never had sequels or recurring characters or clip shows (althought TZ did a couple of backdoor-pilot epiosdes that never went anywhere).

I know it's not quite the same thing since it does season long stories instead of single episodes, but there has been some crossover between different seasons of American Horror Story, several characters have appeared in multiple seasons, and the eighth season featured characters from several past seasons.