The Mice

Henry Silva stars as a prisoner named Chino Rivera serving a life sentence for murder who is given a chance to participate in a unique exchange program with another planet called Chromo that has recently contacted Earth, and left instructions on how the teleportation machine will work. The Chromo comes through first, and is revealed to be a bizarre, gelatinous, crab-clawed biped that proceeds to leave the compound, murdering a scientist in its quest to recreate its food supply in the water. Just how can this thing be stopped, and what is its ultimate plan? Unique monster design to be sure, but overused in the broad daylight, and slow episode is otherwise much too dull.

This episode stands out not so much for its creepiness or writing or any of the traits we usually associate with Outer Limits, Twilight Zone, etc, as for some unusual casting against type and against Hollywood 'rules' of the time.

Henry Silva usually plays creepy, stiff bad-guy types. But in this episode, he's personable, dynamic, and outgoing.

More interestingly, Diana Sands - a black actress - is cast as a central character. This was rare in 1964. She plays a doctor - NOT a nurse - and interacts closely with Silva's character in a time when blacks and whites rarely touched each other on television.

Probably, her light complexion and Silva's character being Hispanic mitigated the circumstances, but still pretty unusual for the time.

When the prison warden summons three inmates serving life sentences, they are interviewed by Dr. Thomas 'Kelly' Kellander that is seeking a volunteer with authorization of the government to test a teleportation system to another planet. Chino Rivera accepts the offer and learns that the advanced civilization from planet Chromos has contacted the earthlings and offered the technology for teleportation. They propose an exchange of natives from each planet and soon Dr. Kellander receives an alien that walks freely in the facility. However Dr. Robert Richardson finds a strange goo floating on the lake and decides to investigate, but is murdered by the alien. Meanwhile Chino tries to escape from the facility and stumbles upon Dr. Richardson´s body. He is accused of murder and only Dr. Julia Harrison believes him. What is the real intention of the alien from Chromos?

Despite the potential of the storyline, "The Mice" is a poorly written and acted episode of "The Outer Limits". How can an alien come to Earth and circulate unmonitored in a state-of-art military facility? The attitudes of the sluggish security officers are ridiculous. Nobody comments the fate of the officer sent to Chromos. The way Dr. Julia Harrison reports her findings nearby the lake to Dr. Kellander is unthinkable. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "Os Camundongos" ("The Mice")

A prisoner is asked to be apart of a dangerous experiment.

Not really a favourite episode, in fact for several years I hated it, but a more recent screening went over a bit better as the acting and general story draw you in from beginning to end.

After 15 episodes of quality entertainment, I am sorry to say that the next two or three Limits shows leave one hell of a lot to be desired.

In fact, after watching The Mice I would even consider jumping two or three shows and going straight to the episode: The Invisibles (this one is a total knockout). From The Invisibles onwards the series continues to be very good.

Viewers of the groundbreaking television show "The Outer Limits" were most likely wondering just HOW the series' creators could possibly top the memorable Zanti aliens that had been presented to them in the closing days of 1963. But in the program's initial offering of 1964, "The Mice," this fondly remembered program almost managed to do just that, giving the world an alien so truly grotesque and eye-catching that it almost carried the entire hour on its ownsome. This episode, #15 in a whopping 32-episode season (today, we're lucky if a program manages to squeeze out two dozen), turns out to be a solid albeit middling affair in a generally remarkable run of programs, saved by that creature costume and some very fine acting turns by a cast of solid pros.

In "The Mice," as in the previous "Zanti Misfits," Earth has been contacted by the beings of another world. Here, that world is Chromo, which lies comparatively close to ours, at only 10 light-years distance; around twice the distance of our nearest neighbor, Alpha Centauri. The Chromoites have given our scientists here on Earth the technological know-how to construct a teleportation device (something like the transporter beam on the upcoming "Star Trek") and have proposed an exchange of one of their race, for a visit, for one of ours. Thus, the scientist in charge of the Neo-Kinematics Division of some unnamed research facility, Dr. Thomas Kellander (Michael Higgins, who would go on to appear in such classic films as "The Conversation" and "The Stepford Wives"), seeks a volunteer for the experiment, and winds up choosing convict Chino Rivera (the great character actor Henry Silva, who had just appeared in the #13 "OL" episode "Tourist Attraction") as the guinea pig/mouse of the title. The Chromoite is successfully transported to Earth, and spends its time wandering around the facility grounds, ultimately killing a scientist who had discovered that it was growing some kind of gloppy food in a nearby lake. Chino is of course accused of the crime, although resident doctor Julia Harrison (Diana Sands, who had recently appeared in the film "A Raisin in the Sun" and that same year would star in the Broadway show "The Owl and the Pussycat" with Alan Alda) defends him and maintains his innocence. Ultimately, the Chromoites are exposed in their underhanded plot, leading to a violent confrontation....

"The Mice," as I mentioned up top, is a solid-enough episode that is redeemed by three factors: the Chromoite itself, a very fine acting contribution by Henry Silva, and the inclusion of Diana Sands in a supporting role. Let's take the alien first. It is truly a bewildering mess of a creature, resembling nothing less than a bipedal blob of melted wax and overly microwaved headcheese, equipped with twitchy, crab-claw appendages. It is a truly revolting-looking creature, one of the most way out of all "Outer Limits" creations, and never more hideous than when it is stuffing that lake-spawned doughy glop into its midriff orifice. Unfortunately, I have always felt that the creature costume here was a bit insufficient, and that the outfit itself should have been longer, so as to reach down to the feet of the actor wearing the darn thing. How much more effective would it have been if the alien seemed to be gliding along on the ground, rather than running on two legs! As for Silva, who is thankfully still with us (age 88, as of this writing), he is simply dynamic, and gives an energetic and vital performance. And then there is the matter of Diana Sands, an attractive black actress playing a doctor on a television show of the early '60s...and with nothing being made of her race whatsoever! I know that this sounds fairly unremarkable now in the early 21st century, but trust me, back in the early '60s, this was rather remarkable. (Similarly, the Duane Jones character in "Night of the Living Dead" would be praised, five years later, for the fact that nothing whatsoever was made of his race, either.) Other than the "Amos 'n' Andy Show" of the early '50s, not too many African-Americans had been permitted to carry a television show, or even appear as lead performers, and even then, certainly not portraying skilled professionals. That same '63 - '64 season, the TV show "East Side, West Side" was being aired, which starred George C. Scott and Cicely Tyson, and her role was seen as something of a big deal at the time. ("East Side, West Side" producer David Susskind would soon bring in Diana Sands and James Earl Jones to star in one Emmy-winning episode, "Who Do You Kill?.") Anyway, my point is that the inclusion of a black woman as a doctor here, and with the inference that nothing is very remarkable about that fact, was very praiseworthy, and deserving of any modern-day viewer's approbation. "The Mice" gives us an interesting script, courtesy of co-writer (and first-season producer) Joseph Stefano, always-interesting cinematography by the great Conrad Hall (especially the shadowy outdoor scenes), and just adequate direction by Alan Crosland, Jr., who would go on to helm episode #25, "The Mutant." It also features a unique score for an "OL" episode by Dominic Frontiere, with none of the usual musical cues to be had. In all, it is a fairly entertaining and memorable hour, slightly padded as it is (LOTS of shots of that Chromoite lumbering around by the lake and through the countryside). Still, it was certainly better than just about anything else on television on the night of January 6, 1964, I have a strong feeling....