Afterlife

This is very similar to an episode from the original series. It tells the story of a man being executed by lethal injection for the murders of several people. After being pronounced dead by the attending physician, he is awakened. He is given a choice. Take the final lethal dose, or be part of an experiment by the military. Since he realizes that the former would be suicide, he accepts the terms, although he is damned either way. It becomes obvious early on that he never committed the murders for which he was convicted and he clings to his faith. He is injected with a series of substances by a pretty young army doctor with whom he feels an affinity. The process is agonizing. The military authorities are totally insensitive to his plight, seeing him as just another lab rat. He is defiant all the way as his body is transformed into an alien form (the DNA was collected from a previous extra-terrestrial encounter). The story is gripping, as a relationship develops between the man and the doctor. It portrays the government as a fearful, kill first and ask questions later entity. This may be the best episode of the series; it not, it certainly stands out.

'AfterLife' is very gripping and exciting. It really shows how low and desperate our government could be when it comes to war. It expounds the message of how people really do fear what they don't understand. I won't give any spoilers, but when an experiment goes slightly awry, who are the real villains?

Clancy Brown is a complete stand-out and a very gifted actor, he was the best pick for the character of Linden Stiles. You can really sympathize and feel the pain of this soldier, accused of a heinous crime he didn't commit and forced to submit to an experiment 'for the good his country.' The rest of the cast give very powerful performances as well. A must see!

Unfortunately I have to fill this out a bit to put it up to 10 lines. So before I start; can I just say that Clancy Brown is probably the most underrated actor working in films at the moment. He has that wonderful ability to shift from gentleness to menace without effort - as he does so well here. Right I can start the comment now.... If we ever encounter intelligent life outside our planet, who will be the real 'Monsters'? The aliens or us? Stories asking this question are few and far between. They have to creep out under the radar in series such as this. I've just watched the flawed and bloated 'Spiderman 3'. It is supposed to have cost over $200 million dollars. I wonder how much this cost to make? I wish that, just for once, Hollywood would produce something as intelligent, tight and, dare we say, subversive as this excellent episode. Fat chance.

The 100 episodes of Showtimes "The Outer Limits" was the best anthology tv series since the advent of color TV.

And this episode was one of it's very best.

The Outer Limits was a series that was well under-appreciated. It was more story and character driven than star-based on celebrities like the X-Files where you had Mulder and Scully. In this episode, Clancy Brown plays Sergeant Linden Stiles who chooses a life-altering experiment over an execution for a crime of murder that he did not do. Unfortunately, the experiment is about the fusion of human DNA with alien species. Clancy Brown is brilliant as is Barbara Garrick, the doctor with a conscience. There is kind of an attraction between the sergeant and the doctor. Unfortunately, Stiles becomes more alien than human and we wonder who becomes the experiment after awhile in the end. I won't spoil the ending for those would like to see it. It's worth it.