Nightmare

US soldiers are sent to an alien planet as POWs.

First viewed in the 1980s when I was very young, I was turned off by the "stage show" feel of this hour but always liked Time Tunnel's Whit Bissell appearing as a General...again.

Viewed again this year when I am older...now I love it. I love everything about it! The sets, the aliens costumes, the tone, Martin Sheen, Whit Bissell, the beginning/closing narration and the well matched music score.

The IMDb has revealed that a third season classic Star Trek got some ideas from this hour. I will need to re-watch that Trek!

This episode has horror and effectiveness, and yet is so simple. There is hardly any set or decoration. A couple of quite bare rooms and little more than scene cubes on a bare sound stage floor for the prisoner of war camp. The "enemy" was in make-up, yet there were just two of them. Everyone else was in off the shelf uniforms or costumes. There were very few props and almost nothing in special effects.

In this day where CGI can make anything appear, what made the episode so effective? To begin with, a wonderful cast. A young Martin Sheen played a pivotal role. Sad, wise looking John Anderson was under the alien make-up. Their talent helped. But that wasn't all.

The story resonated within us. It showed the true monster and enemy of mankind - man himself. Every inch of it lead to that final, wonderful last decision.

See this for yourself if you ever can.

I have always liked good science fiction. The Outer Limits is one of the best of the science fiction series. These 1960's episodes were shot in B&W which added to their moodiness and effectiveness.

In "Nightmare," a group of soldiers land on planet Ebon to fight. They are captured and become POW's. Their alien interrogator uses all sorts of mind bending, hallucination type of devices to extract information from these POWs.

This is a VERY powerful episode. It depicts the brutality of POW interrogations. I think this episode, along with the movie 36 Hours (1965), should be MANDATORY viewing by anybody undergoing POW resistance training.

The ending of this Outer Limits episode will blow you away.

Set In the future, Earth is at war with the planet Ebony, A small unit of soldiers travel to Ebon to fight, but their rocket is shot down, and taken to a POW camp.

The Ebonites are very well designed, they've got plenty of powers and abilities, they made for an interesting foe.

I think this rates as one of the best episodes I've seen so far, I thoroughly enjoyed it, and arguably this is the most ambitious one so far.

Several impressive elements here, I loved the visuals, the sets, the ebonites, but best of all was the atmosphere of stress and paranoia, credit to the writer, this was a quality story.

Prisoner of War camps were very much still fresh in the minds of many people, several wars still in the recent past, this would have resonated with many viewers, it's a powerful story.

9/10.

This is quite a good study in human nature and includes some fine acting performances, including one by Martin Sheen. A group of intergalactic warriors are put in a prison camp on a remote planet and interrogated by the aliens there. Their understanding is that they are at war with these folks and the revert to the old name, rank, and serial number stuff. Unfortunately for them, the tactics employed are those often used. Divide and conquer, keep them guessing, turn them against each other. The aliens have a kind of want/weapon that can steal a person's speech or make them blind, or whatever is necessary to put them in a weakened position. The neat thing about this episode is that there is a kicker her which I will not mention. The interaction among the players is quite realistic and the audience is left out of the loop for most of the show. This is as much a psychological drama as it is science fiction. Well written and well presented.