The Man Who Was Never Born

A guy must go back in time to prevent disaster from happening on earth.

Time travel is a theme that I always like. From The Time Tunnel to Star Trek I just can't get enough of it. I personally know Martin Landau from his two seasons of Space 1999 (1975-77) so it is rather pleasing to know his acting range, seen here, is much wider than that seen in Space 1999.

According to the connection section of this episode, Star Trek episode Miri (1966) lifted the "signal from planet" sound effect from this Limits episode. Nice to see the two shows cross over like that.

The Man Who Was Never Born is a fine hour.

One more outstanding example of the equivalence that may exist between OUTER LIMITS and TWILIGHT ZONE series topics and atmosphere. Intelligent story that also may be the DNA of TERMINATOR and BACK TO THE FUTURE movies, where some folks try to change the fate of history. When the Marty Landau's character does his best to change the future of the world, by preventing a wedding, mother and father of a possible evil scientist, I thought of Michael J Fox's character trying to make his parents meet; if not he will never exist....The same process but in reverse; no one seems to have noticed it.

"The Man Who Was Never Born" is a sensitive fantasy about a man named Andro who is caught in a limbo of time and space. In this episode, he traverses through several worlds, searching for a sense of connection, solidity, and resolution, which is frustratingly elusive.

I will not provide more plot details, aside from the fact that the ending is absolutely stunning and unforgettable. Overall, this is one of the greatest Outer Limits episodes. Martin Landau delivers an outstanding performance in the title role with great support by Shirley Knight. Conrad Hall's soft-focus black/white photography and Leonard Horn's incisive direction complement Anthony Lawrence's spare, compact screenplay to create a powerful viewing experience.

It is difficult to imagine that you will not be moved after watching this. 10/10.

Capt. Reardon is flying through space, in the most peculiar way, when he accidentally passes through a time warp(it happens more often than you might think). On the other side, he finds that, 200 years from now, humans look hideous(though they can hypnotize people to not realize this), so he travels back with one of them, Andros, supposing that, and I'm essentially quoting here, "if it will take us one way in time, it may take us the other way, too". With knowledge of what caused the malady, they are determined to fix our future, and maybe inspire a Hollywood director to make his breakthrough feature. This takes off immediately, engaging us in the story and the conflict and keeping to a quite fast pace, with constant developments and numerous scenes of tension and suspense. With only a few characters, all of them get enough screen time and interactions with each other that we know what they're like, and can focus on the central concept(would you kill Hitler before he had done anything?) and relationship(I won't tell you which). This is rather well-produced, in all respects. It's filmed quite competently, except for the one part where the cameraman seems to have a seizure. And the make-up FX, convincingly(seriously, you believe that that's his skin) transforming handsome(well, he was back then) Martin Landau into Quasimodo - without us losing track of it still being him(as mentioned, he can make people think he looks normal) when we see him as the people of today are made to see him. His acting and charm keeps *us* from freaking out at the sight of him, and in general, the performances are good. I recommend this to any fan of time-travel sci-fi. 8/10

This is when and how my love affair with Martin Landau began. I saw this when the Outer Limits series was new...I have NEVER forgotten this episode.

The story is quite interesting and the acting by ALL is top-notch. The set-up and the story line may be read in others' reviews so rent it, steal it just get a hold of a copy..I found mine this day on VHS and it remains as lovely as it was 47 years ago! Oh Heck..I'll give you a few details..It starts out NOT on earth. A spaceman has a conversation with this mutant creature of a man who speaks with style and grace...yep, it's Martin. He, Martin, gets to earth and meets the lovely Shirley Knight...evidently it's his power of suggestion, a hallucination, that changes his ugly self into an eloquent and handsome man. I refrain from saying any more.

WOW the early 1960's were quite filled, thankfully, with such interesting and intellectual programs in this vein. Outer Limits, Twilight Zone, etc, were a grand insight to how the brainy writers and actors appeared and we were treated to same in spades!