Corpus Earthling

Paul Cameron (Robert Culp) finds himself between a rock and a hard place. With the presence of a metal plate in his head due to a war injury.

Cameron a surgeon goes to see his wife Laurie who works for a geologist named Dr Temple. He has been studying two new rocks in his laboratory.

Cameron somehow manages to hear these two alien rocks talking about taking over the world. Realising that he has heard them, the alien rocks compel Cameron to try and kill himself but his wife Laura comes to the rescue.

Eventually the alien beings inside the rock enter human bodies. The plan is to kill Cameron as he is on vacation in Mexico. Thinking he is suffering from hallucinations and needed a break.

The plot is a variation of the Invasion of the Body Snatchers. The kind of face hugger alien blobs might have been an influence on Ridley Scott.

The story is something that has already become a staple of The Outer Limits. The body horror effects does make it unsettling.

A bunch of talking rocks. I just can't get past it. Unfortunately, the creatures look a bit like lumps of tar flavored Jello. They are apparently set on taking over the world, one person at a time. They can transform themselves into silly looking spider like creatures. They have the ability to control minds which would lead one to believe that they could be more efficient. Robert Culp is the one that can make out their verbal offerings and starts to go bananas, running off with his wife to Tijuana. Unfortunately, they are able to follow him there. He must deal with paranoia and the deaths of a friend. The good part of this has to do with the atmosphere developed, particularly in the latter portion of the show. One thing that I couldn't put aside is that there is a sort of narration remindful of "The Attack of the Crab Monsters." For those of you who remember that classic film.

At first, when two rubbery rocks on a shelf start talking to each other like Pinky and The Brain, I thought this was going to be the wooden spoon episode of the season. But once the alien possession plot begins in earnest, this episode quickly improves. In fact the last act is quite frighteningly intense and comes to a bravely downbeat conclusion.

Salome Jens gives a terrific performance. The alien creatures true form may be an obvious puppet but thanks to its scuttling quick movement, its appearances are good shock moments. The film noir look is perfectly achieved and helps make this low budget TV series look a lot more cinematic and scary. Far from the weakest, this has become one of my favourites of the first season.

Scientist Doctor Paul Cameron suffers a mishap in his laboratory, the result leaves him with the ability of being able to hear the conversations if two rocks, which happen to be alien beings with plans to take over The World.

I got about five minutes in, and honestly wondered if I could get through it, but I was told to stick with it, and gladly I did, it actually turned out to be a cracking episode. The plot may seem somewhat ludicrous, but trust me, this one works very well

It's hugely at atmospheric, it looks great. There are actually some very fine horror moments here to enjoy, that initial scene where the creature takes ahold of its victim is pretty bleak.

I'm not sure why, but it reminds me of Dr Who story, The Hand of Fear, with Tom Baker, that would transmit over a decade later, a very similar storyline.

Very solid acting, Robert Culp in particular plays the part of Paul with such sincerity.

Very good.

8/10.

Talking rocks in 1963? Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea did talking rock monsters in 1967 with the episode: The Fossil Men. Which series did the idea the best?

Limits used a better voice artist for the talking rock but Voyage did the whole thing in a more easy going/childish way. Voyage wins to me but both shows are cool..however I think most others would like the Limits take on the theme the best.

We are now nine episodes into this series and all nine episodes have had something of interest. The series in nearly always good with only about six stinkers in the whole 49 episode run.