The Outer Limits 1995 series.

[Gingerbread Demon]

This is a little hidden gem I just discovered. I never really cared for it that much when it was on TV but now having the full set I find myself enjoying this series. Currently on season 2 and some of the episodes are really great.

Like Trek they have 40 odd minutes to tell a story but the thing I find with some of the stories is that they are good, really and feel like they could have been longer IMHO.

For instance Worlds Apart was a story I really liked and it felt like had it been a two parter which was very rare in this series it would have been great. I felt they had a really good story to tell but didn't get to tell it all, or finish it properly and I wanted the astronaut rescued.

 

[TRON JA307020]

This is a little hidden gem I just discovered. I never really cared for it that much when it was on TV but now having the full set I find myself enjoying this series. Currently on season 2 and some of the episodes are really great.



Like Trek they have 40 odd minutes to tell a story but the thing I find with some of the stories is that they are good, really and feel like they could have been longer IMHO.



For instance Worlds Apart was a story I really liked and it felt like had it been a two parter which was very rare in this series it would have been great. I felt they had a really good story to tell but didn't get to tell it all, or finish it properly and I wanted the astronaut rescued.

It's not a bad little show. Some eps atlre better than others but like you said they are 40 minute episodes so there isn't a huge amount of time invested in each story.

 

[Tosk]

I quite liked the episode with Ezri and the T-1000. And the I, Robot remake with Nimoy being directed by Adam Nimoy.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

I quite liked the episode with Ezri and the T-1000. And the I, Robot remake with Nimoy being directed by Adam Nimoy.

That felt like a short movie....... I loved that version of I Robot.

Oh that one where she was an alien pretending to be human. Odd thing is he plays the same character in another episode the war still going on.

 

[Tosk]

And Nicole comes back later too, but as a different character.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

And Nicole comes back later too, but as a different character.

That's neat

 

[Ethros]

I’ve always remembered that Nicole de Boer episode as having Bruce Boxleitner as her co-prisoner, not Robert Patrick. But looking it up you’re right. I’ve remembered it wrong for 25+ years

 

[Christopher]

It had its points of interest, but I wasn't crazy about it. It was too Luddite, too fond of saying that any attempt at scientific invention or discovery would inevitably doom us, that all curiosity and progress are intrinsically evil. It wasn't science fiction so much as anti-science fiction.

I also thought it was really weird that an anthology series did clip shows tying multiple episodes together. I mean, I get why annual clip shows were a budgetary necessity -- TOL's sister show Stargate SG-1 had the same practice, as did many cable and syndicated series at the time -- but it's strange in an anthology, where installments aren't normally meant to share continuity. Sometimes they planned out an arc in advance, doing multiple episodes with a common element that later tied them together in the clip show, but sometimes unrelated episodes were retroactively tied together in contrived ways.

 

[Tosk]

And it was one of those weird shows that was TV safe for the most part, but then you'd have a "Too Hot For TV!" episode with some quite gratuitous nudity.

 

[Farscape One]

It had its points of interest, but I wasn't crazy about it. It was too Luddite, too fond of saying that any attempt at scientific invention or discovery would inevitably doom us, that all curiosity and progress are intrinsically evil. It wasn't science fiction so much as anti-science fiction.

I also thought it was really weird that an anthology series did clip shows tying multiple episodes together. I mean, I get why annual clip shows were a budgetary necessity -- TOL's sister show Stargate SG-1 had the same practice, as did many cable and syndicated series at the time -- but it's strange in an anthology, where installments aren't normally meant to share continuity. Sometimes they planned out an arc in advance, doing multiple episodes with a common element that later tied them together in the clip show, but sometimes unrelated episodes were retroactively tied together in contrived ways.

Regarding the clip shows... while I agree, especially at the time it aired, that it was contrived to have the multiple episodes be interconnected, it's no different than what BLACK MIRROR did with all the background things clearly indicating many (if not most) episodes take place in the same world.


Regarding the Luddite opinion... I can see why some get that feel from the show, but I always took it as waltzing into unknown technology or discoveries carelessly or with bad intentions usually results in bad things. I felt the message was more 'explore and create, but tread carefully'. It's not that different from BLACK MIRROR... the main difference is BLACK MIRROR shows how very easily technology can be perverted into bad things. (Which happens in real life quite often, and still does now more than ever.)

 

[Farscape One]

This is a little hidden gem I just discovered. I never really cared for it that much when it was on TV but now having the full set I find myself enjoying this series. Currently on season 2 and some of the episodes are really great.

Like Trek they have 40 odd minutes to tell a story but the thing I find with some of the stories is that they are good, really and feel like they could have been longer IMHO.

For instance Worlds Apart was a story I really liked and it felt like had it been a two parter which was very rare in this series it would have been great. I felt they had a really good story to tell but didn't get to tell it all, or finish it properly and I wanted the astronaut rescued.

You have all 7 seasons????

How? I only have season 1, which was (as far as I know) the only official release of THE OUTER LIMITS. I know the other seasons exist, but I don't know if they were actual releases or just those mockups that people create.

I'm genuinely curious, because it irritated me to no end that I could never complete thst series on dvd.

 

[Christopher]

And it was one of those weird shows that was TV safe for the most part, but then you'd have a "Too Hot For TV!" episode with some quite gratuitous nudity.

It was a Showtime series originally, so they put in adult content to justify being on paid premium cable, like Game of Thrones and the like would do later. But they shot tamer alternate versions of the nude/sex scenes for the commercial-TV versions that were put in syndication a year behind the Showtime airings.

Stargate SG-1, which was from the same producers, worked the same way in its first five seasons, getting syndicated a year behind the cable airings. But they only put a nude scene in the pilot movie, since the showrunner fought against putting in any more. And the nude scene was removed from the later re-edit of the pilot.

Regarding the Luddite opinion... I can see why some get that feel from the show, but I always took it as waltzing into unknown technology or discoveries carelessly or with bad intentions usually results in bad things. I felt the message was more 'explore and create, but tread carefully'.

I didn't get that impression. I think there were a fair number of episodes where the characters' intentions were good but the technology or discovery still turned out destructive. And a "tread carefully" message would only work if at least some episodes showed scientific progress as a positive, and they hardly ever did on that show.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

You have all 7 seasons????

How? I only have season 1, which was (as far as I know) the only official release of THE OUTER LIMITS. I know the other seasons exist, but I don't know if they were actual releases or just those mockups that people create.

I'm genuinely curious, because it irritated me to no end that I could never complete thst series on dvd.

I bought my set off Amazon US a week or two ago and it arrived here last week.
You can also buy the full set all seven seasons via viavision direct, they are the people that make the dvd sets. The version Amazon sells is the Viavision set

 

[Farscape One]

I bought my set off Amazon US a week or two ago and it arrived here last week.
You can also buy the full set all seven seasons via viavision direct, they are the people that make the dvd sets. The version Amazon sells is the Viavision set

Are the episodes the unedited Showtime version or the edited syndicated version?

(Seasons 1-6 were on Showtime, but season 7 was on SciFi. I don't think there was an edited version of season 7, since it originally aired on SciFi Channel.)

 

[Farscape One]

It was a Showtime series originally, so they put in adult content to justify being on paid premium cable, like Game of Thrones and the like would do later. But they shot tamer alternate versions of the nude/sex scenes for the commercial-TV versions that were put in syndication a year behind the Showtime airings.

Stargate SG-1, which was from the same producers, worked the same way in its first five seasons, getting syndicated a year behind the cable airings. But they only put a nude scene in the pilot movie, since the showrunner fought against putting in any more. And the nude scene was removed from the later re-edit of the pilot.




I didn't get that impression. I think there were a fair number of episodes where the characters' intentions were good but the technology or discovery still turned out destructive. And a "tread carefully" message would only work if at least some episodes showed scientific progress as a positive, and they hardly ever did on that show.

There were some that ended on a good note.

Like "THE SECOND SOUL", if I remember the title correctly. Aliens came down and were becoming part of our society by taking dead people and using them as hosts. They were building something in a warehouse, and the lead character was suspicious... but it turns out the aliens were simply recreating a visual representation of their homeworld so their children, who will be fully human from that point on, would know their history and where they came from. And were grateful that humanity gave them a second chance at helping to keep their species existing.

I think that's a good, positive message.

 

[Christopher]

Which is why the show came to Showtime rather than HBO.

I don't know if there's some modern-day difference between HBO and Showtime programming that you're referring to, but I don't think there was much difference between them in the '90s. I didn't subscribe to either, but as far as I was aware, they both offered similar programming, generally stuff that was more adult than commercial TV censorship would allow. (Although it was Cinemax that had the reputation for tending toward softcore porn.)

 

[Farscape One]

Ah, yes. Skinemax, as it was called.

 

[Christopher]

Excepting BAND OF BROTHERS and THE PACIFIC, most of HBO's most-adult shows revel in the freedom of bringing on questionable role models and unuplifting behavior.

Even in the '90s?

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

Are the episodes the unedited Showtime version or the edited syndicated version?

(Seasons 1-6 were on Showtime, but season 7 was on SciFi. I don't think there was an edited version of season 7, since it originally aired on SciFi Channel.)

The Viavision set is unedited.

There were some that ended on a good note.

Like "THE SECOND SOUL", if I remember the title correctly. Aliens came down and were becoming part of our society by taking dead people and using them as hosts. They were building something in a warehouse, and the lead character was suspicious... but it turns out the aliens were simply recreating a visual representation of their homeworld so their children, who will be fully human from that point on, would know their history and where they came from. And were grateful that humanity gave them a second chance at helping to keep their species existing.

I think that's a good, positive message.

Yeah that one so far is one of my favourites. I'm near the end of season 2

 

[Anwar]

I suppose what drew me to this series was how it wasn't afraid to go for the unhappy, dark ending. Of course over the last 10 years we've had so much grimdark stuff that it's lost its edge but for the 90s that was something more unique.

Contrary to popular opinion the show only had truly dark endings 1/3 of the time. The rest were either happy or "in the middle".