Controlled Experiment

"The Outer Limits" goes for tongue-in-cheek in this episode with two Martians (assuming ordinary earthling appearance) who are sent to earth to study human beings. They are told there will be a murder taking place at a 'less than first class hotel' and take their equipment to the scene and wait for the event to take place.

The scene: A sexy blond waits in the lobby. The elevator door opens, a man steps out. The blond stands up and faces him.

Blond: "Bert Hamil!! You're a two-faced, no good, black-hearted two timer!" Man: "Carla!! Don't shoot!!" Blond: "Don't come begging to me. Take that!!" The gun goes off, the man grabs his chest and falls to the floor. (Love the dialogue--right out of a 40s murder mystery.) The Martians watch but are dumbfounded and have no clue so they decide to rewind the scene (in real time) but still draw a blank. Then they run it in slow motion, backward, forward, upside-down, inside-out, stop the action stepping into the scene for human physiology tests such as blood pressure, temp, etc., and now take the scene further back in time and follow him to find out where the man was coming from on the upper floors--a sexy brunette is up there. Still nothing. They finally decide to redirect the bullet trajectory to see what result that produces, and do so but according to headquarters, what they have done will alter future events with a devastating result to the solar system. Now they're in quandary and discuss what to do.

Considering television was in its teens in 1964, this "Outer Limits" episode isn't bad. Carroll O'Connor plays one of the Martians and its interesting to see him in action prior to his "Archie Bunker" fame.

The plot was hokey but enjoyable and the Martian equipment looked like gadgets anyone could have bought at a toy store in 1964; the special effects are simplistic (the director got a lot of mileage out of "the scene" by playing and replaying it) and when the Martians stepped into the stopped action, the actors did their best to hold their positions and not flinch.

If its a Saturday night and there's nothing else on cable, give this one a shot. Ooops.

When Deimos, who is the owner of a pawnshop, receives the visit of Phobos, they present their Martian identification to each other. Deimos is a Martian agent based in an outpost on Earth disguised of pawnshop a long time ago to observe the Earthlings. Phobos is a supervisor with a time controlling device worried with the atomic energy that has come to understand what a murder is. Soon they receive a message to go to a low budget hotel to witness a murder in the lobby of the hotel. When they arrive, they identify the blonde Carla Duveen that is waiting for her boyfriend Bert Hamill that has had sex with his lover. Phobos uses the time controlling devise to repeat the murder many times to understand the details. However the experiment runs out of control and they receive a report that the future will be affected by the event. Will they fix the problem?

"Controlled Experiment" is a silly but also funny episode of "The Outer Limits". The genre comedy does not fit well to the sci-fi genre, but the episode is entertaining despite the repetitions of the same scenes. The romantic conclusion is not well resolved with Phobos interference in the timeline but is commercially attractive. My vote is seven. . Title (Brazil): "Experimento Controlado" ("Controlled Experiment")

Two Martians land on earth to do a silly experiment.

Firstly, let me say loudly and proudly, I love this series, I am even reviewing all 49 episodes on the IMDb, but having said that, I have real issues with this BORING hour. I have watched it about four times in my lifetime and each time it struggles to keep my attention. Limits had six stinkers and this is indeed one of them.

But only six bombs in a 49 episode TV series is actually a very good track record. Most 49 episode TV shows would have more bombs than that! This is just the nature of TV. So Limits still stands as a knockout TV series...and better than The Twilight Zone (1959).

Perhaps I have just spent too much time watching Barry Morse in deadly serious roles in QM's The Fugitive, one episode of QM's The Invaders and Space 1999 to take him as a comic actor in Controlled Experiment. But it is not just the two leads that bore the crap out of me but also the constant use of reverse motion footage that may of looked funny in 1964 but looks rather stupid in 2014.

Some males might enjoy looking at the cute lady in this hour but that is the only good thing I can say about "Un-Controlled Experiment".

A pair of Martians named Phobos and Deimos are keen to learn and understand the human act of murder, they transport to one certain incident in which a young woman turns a gun on a man.

It's definitely the most curious, perhaps the most unique episode of Thr Outer Limits that I've seen so far. I can only imagine what viewers thought of this when it first went out, it is do different to previous episodes, this one really does play for laughs, there are no scares, no jumps, no horror, it is purely a fun episode.

It put me in mind of Two X Files episodes, From Outer Space and How the ghosts stole Christmas, both are very funny, and curious within the show, but they work.

I loved the two lead characters, it was interesting to see that a potential spin off had been touted featuring them, it would have been so interesting, Barry Morse and Carroll O'Connor are great.

I get why this one may be a little divisive, if your thirst is purely for the more horror toned episodes, you may be a little frustrated, and at times it is a little repetitive, but take it for what it is, a really unique story.

Charming, 8/10.

2 Martians disguised as humans are sent to investigate the strange human custom of murder, and use a machine that can alter time to help uncover the mystery.

I couldn't believe it when I first saw this episode in syndication in the 70's. THE OUTER LIMITS was always so dark, so spooky, so scary, so... SERIOUS. But not this time! I guess every show needs at least one comedy to balance things out, and this one was it. It starts out low-key enough, as a hard-nosed inspector shows just how alien he must be by exhibiting no knowledge of even the simplest of Earth-- or "human"-- customs. But once the "experiment" gets underway, he begins to enjoy himself just too much. I guess he was more "human" than he realized!

The cast is a real stand out. The inspector is played by Barry Morse-- future "Inspector Philip Gerard" for 4 years on THE FUGITIVE, and later, "Prof. Bergman" on the 1st season of SPACE: 1999. The outpost manager is Carrol O'Connor, 7 years before he played "Archie Bunker" on ALL IN THE FAMILY, and even longer before he played "Chief Gillespie" on IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT. The blonde packing heat determined to shoot her boyfriend is Grace Lee Whitney, 3 years before she played "Yeoman Janice Rand" on the earliest episodes of STAR TREK!

If the IMDb is correct, Leslie Stevens both wrote & directed this-- uncredited. I didn't see any credits on screen for this one. Gee, I wonder why? (heh heh)