The Man Who Was Never Born

This episode explores the notion of killing evil before it has a chance to grow into a menace for mankind--sort of like if you could go back through time to kill Hitler. The show begins with an astronaut from 1961 landing in the future only to find that the planet has been decimated and what people are left are hideous creatures. One named Andro explains that all this was caused by a scientist who accidentally created a plague and wiped out most everyone on the planet. So, using the ship, Andro returns to the 1960s to kill the man who would one day destroy mankind. However, because he's so ugly, he's able to use cool psychic powers to make others think he looks just like Martin Landau! And, it turns out, he's arrived just in time to possibly prevent the scientist's parents from ever marrying! Overall, a very intriguing episode that only has one fault--the ending and the bride's reaction to Andro is just too weird and hard to believe. Still, it's a cool episode and one well worth your time. As usual for this series, it's well written and insightful. See this one.

An astronaut unwittingly travels to a future Earth, where he encounters a future Earth dweller, a mutation, The astronaut pleads for The Dweller, Andro the return to Earth's present day, and correct the path.

Wow, this was an incredible episode, incredibly imaginative and thought provoking, The man who was never born delivers on every level, it hits hard, delivering a warning to the future, and poses one huge question, could you take someone's life away, knowing they were going to cause untold misery in the future ahead?

Great mix of sci fi and drama, the characters are so well drawn, so well rounded, that the story somehow has a real meaning.

Martin Landau delivers an outstanding performance, Shirley Knight and Conrad Hall are tremendous in support, credit to the makeup team Herr also, they did an impressive job on Landau.

It is very, very well produced, I loved the contrasting filming styles, especially the soft focused shots.

9/10.

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.

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!

When I saw this episode as a teenager, a hundred or so years ago ;) when it originally aired back in the 60s, I knew that Martin Landau was destined for greatness. I was blown away even then!

It took him a few decades but when he won that Oscar for his part in the movie "Ed Wood," I definitely thought of his incredible acting job in this long ago episode of "The Outer Limits." "The Man Who Was Never Born" is just the best... Landau's performance made you want to weep for the tragic character he portrayed with such beauty and depth.

You know it's a strong performance when you as the viewer are made to care so much about the character, even though his extreme ugliness makes him something less than a feast for the eyes!