A New Life

"The Outer Limits" takes twists & turns most series dare to tread. This episode is no different, and should be judged on it's own merit.

When you run out of ideas, you go back to the same old stuff. This time it is a religious cult that is dragged to an unknown place by a charismatic leader. Everything is fine, until he is seen by one of the converts, standing in a light, conversing with some seemingly supernatural force. This leads to an attempt to escape and an encounter with a force field. Because everyone, including the guy's wife, has been brainwashed by the religious gobbledegook, he can't get any allies except for one guy who took off right from the start. This is an interesting story, but like so many Outer Limits, it has set such an insurmountable barrier to the participants, that it concludes in a most unsatisfactory, predictable way. I won't spoil it but, as I've mentioned in other reviews, there is a kind of unwritten literary rule that shows a light at the end of the tunnel.

In this Outer Limits, all the classic ingredients are included...the innocent, happy beginnings, the subtle hint of unusual and not good things to come, the big development story and then the twist that perfectly relates back to the initial scene. The use of the title makes itself apparent prior to the twist/reveal ending in what is a cool, dark but satisfying ending.

This is an excellent episode and in my opinion, I rate it as being in the top 5 of all of them.

The very cool at acting Nick Mancuso is the star of this one. Having been in an earlier good, but not great, Outer Limits episode, he is the standout name on the introduction credits and perfectly cast.

It is a really good and gripping episode that goes full circle. The story is a clever one, possibly only bettered in depth by the reworked 'Feasibilty Study', which is in some ways along the same lines.

A New Life was series 7, the final season, which apparently was / has been regarded as lacking the quality of those done previous. However this episode, and others from series 7 such as Patient Zero, Alien Shop, Flower Child are all excellent and debunk that theory.

Yours Faithfully. A N Life.