Better Luck Next Time

This combines several elements of previously filmed ideas. The evil creature/force/spirit inhabiting the bodies of humans to wreak murderous havoc dates back at least to the 1967 Star Trek episode "Wolf in the Fold" (#2-14) and recurs in the 1998 movie "Fallen". Also borrowed from both is the notion that the evil being can move from body to body but, in an added little touch from "Fallen" has only a small amount of time to find a new host or die.

However, the ending of this particular story involves a nice little twist that both of its predecessors missed, an ending which will remain undisclosed here but makes this story still worth watching even if you've seen both its forebears.

"The Outer Limits" goes to the well again with their scene driven narrative. Once again they dredge up scenes from previous episodes to return to the Jack the Ripper thing with the alien presence brought into the future to wreak havoc. This one is a little tighter than the others because they stay true to one of the originals. If they had just gone on to continue the story, there would have been no need to contrive things that originally had nothing to do with the story. The Ripper, in this case, is a being that kills and then moves into the bodies of unsuspecting people. One of these is brought to a police station where he narrates through a kind of transference of brain images to the pretty young detective and her partner. Of course, each of these scenes is familiar to a loyal viewer. The difference is that there is quite a satisfying conclusion, unlike the previous efforts. I'll be interested to see what they do with season 6 which I'm about to embark on.