The Man Who Was Never Born

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!

This episode works pretty well, but one can dismantle in a few seconds with a bit of thought. When that Connecticut Yankee of Mark Twain's went back, Twain ignored the implications of the whole scientific world. Here we must recognize those things. An astronaut finds himself 200 years in the future, encountering an Earth that will likely die soon. Some well-meaning biologist has done something that has caused this horror. Because the astronaut has gone through a time warp, he makes the trip back, accompanied by a hideous future denizen, a man of great moral character and sadness over the results of humanities stupidity. As they find their way back to the present, the astronaut disappears because of time factors. The creature, however, manages to land the ship and sets about trying to kill the person responsible for the great calamity. At the very least, to stop his wife from producing an offspring. He barges in using a convenient form of hypnosis, shielding his ugliness, and tries to destroy the relationship and stop the wedding. The story ends about the only way it could because of the messing with causality. It's a really depressing conclusion. I'm still waiting to see if someone can really produce something satisfying when it comes to time travel.

"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.

When the astronaut Joseph Reardon accidentally travels through a time warp, he lands on a devastated Earth in 2148 A.D. He stumbles upon a mutant called Andro that explains that an ambitious scientist called Bertram Cabot Jr. had developed a bacterium that caused a biological disaster and the mankind became infertile mutants. Reardon decides to bring the Andro to 1963 to warn the authorities and prevent the disaster. However, Reardom feels that is dying after crossing the time warp and asks Andro to kill Cabot; then vanishes and Andro lands alone on Earth. He uses hypnotic suggestion to have normal appearance and goes to a boarding house seeking out Bertram Cabot Jr. But after meeting the young Noelle Anderson, he learns that she is Bertram Cabot´s girlfriend and Bertram Cabot Jr. has not been born yet. What will Andro do to save mankind?

"The Man Who Was Never Born" is so far the best episode of "The Outer Limits". The screenplay is very well-written, with drama and "A Beauty and the Beast" romance. The conclusion with open end is excellent and without time paradox. My vote is ten.

Title (Brazil): "O Homem que Nunca Nasceu" ("The Man Who Was Never Born")

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