Corpus Earthling

The "OL" episode that I reacquainted myself with over the weekend is my personal favorite of the entire series, and one that producer Joseph Stefano once said he thought was so frightening that, after he initially watched it, he wished he could refuse to show it on TV. And it really IS the scariest "OL" of the bunch, for my money. The episode is "Corpus Earthling," in which Mr. Outer Limits himself, Robert Culp, stars in his second of three appearances. (Culp had already appeared in the Season 1 masterpiece "The Architects of Fear" and would go on to appear in what is perhaps the finest hour of Season 2, "Demon With a Glass Hand.") Here, he plays a doctor who has a metal plate in his head, the result of a war injury, which enables him to hear the sinister conversation that is taking place between two rock samples in his wife's geology workplace. These rocks soon take over geology lab worker Barry Atwater, who follows Culp and his wife (statuesque blonde Salome Jens) to Mexico, to which the couple has fled. In one of the scariest sequences in TV history, and one that is highly reminiscent of a similar scene in 1956's "Invasion of the Body Snatchers," Culp discovers that his wife has been zombified by the rock creatures herself, and is now looking decidedly ghoulish. This episode features an amazingly high degree of paranoia and a downbeat ending that is fairly devastating. Culp is simply tremendous in the lead role, and the FX in the episode are of a fairly impressive order. Television surely has rarely been more chilling than this. I just love this episode to bits....

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.

After a laboratory mishap leaves him with a concussion, rock scientist Robert Culp (as Paul Cameron) begins hearing the voices of two rocks, positioned on a shelf in the lab. They wobble for the camera, but go unnoticed by Mr. Culp, assistant wife Salome Jens (as Laurie) and geologist colleague Barry Atwater (as Jonas Temple). Culp thinks they may be diabolical life-forms from another planet, seeking to parasitically take over the bodies of humans, or a paranoiac reaction to his concussion and the upper metal plate in his head (holding him "together" after a brain injury). This is a typically excellent "Outer Limits" episode, featuring great direction by Gerd Oswald and wonderful photography by Conrad Hall, who give lovers of the female figure an arousing look at Ms. Jens in her slip.

******** Corpus Earthling (11/18/63) Gerd Oswald ~ Robert Culp, Salome Jens, Barry Atwater, Ken Renard

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.

The geologist Dr. Jonas Temple keeps two rocks in his laboratory without knowing that they are indeed alien invaders that plan to slave the human race. When Dr. Paul Cameron, who has a metal plate implanted in his skull, arrives at Temple´s laboratory, he overhears the conversation of the alien rocks. They try to force Cameron to commit suicide, but he is saved by his wife Laurie. Cameron believes he is deranged and travels to rest with Laurie to Tijuana in a second honeymoon. But the rocks sends D. Temple to hunt them down.

"Corpus Earthling" is so far the silliest episode of "The Outer Limits". The idea of alien beings that resemble rocks does not work. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Corpus Terreno" ("Corpus Earthling")