O.B.I.T.

When a government administrator is mysteriously murdered at a research facility a U. S. senator played by Richard Breck discovers an unusual security device that is used to monitor its employees called The Outer Band Individuated Teletracer (O. B. I. T.) a device so invasive that it follows everyone's actions and is also labeled addictive by its users. A trial is held where a missing administrator is found, and soon the sinister and unearthly purposes of the device become apparent. This is a really good story that like another fellow reviewer stated probably isn't far from happening, there not run by aliens, but there also not any less invasive. The only reason this isn't rated higher is its very dialogue driven through its entire runtime and at times is rather slow, the final is great though.

While operating the Outer Band Individuated Teletracer, or O.B.I.T.machine, in a military base, Captain Harris is strangled. U.S. Senator Peter Breck arrives at the base to investigate his murder and learns that there are several bases with the O.B.I.T.machine, which is capable to monitor in a video display the privacy of any person anywhere. Along his investigation, Senator Breck asks for information about the OBIT, such as who is the manufacturer, price, who bought, but no user has any information about the mysterious machine.

"O.B.I.T." is a boring episode based on a machine inspired on the dystopian novel by George Orwell Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984), published in 1949. The idea of an omnipresent government surveillance of people is scary; but this episode shows aliens monitoring the Earthling population without any control of government, which is scarier. But the narrative of a court room drama is tiresome and waste an interesting storyline. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "O.B.I.T."

The sad thing about this circa 1962 episode is that there are things in place these days that aren't much less invasive. Granted, aliens aren't running them, but equally dangerous people are. In this episode, a U. S. Senator is investigating a murder and the reasons behind an incredible number of depression cases, suicides, and other morale related issues. He gets stonewalled all along the way. The murdered man, who spends his days watching people and recording every bit of communications and activity in their lives, is just the tip of the iceberg. People are being sent to mental institutions and their privacy invaded on a daily basis. It turns out that there is an amorphous white figure that is in contact with him. He is viewed in a circular monitor and seems to be in charge. Apparently, if one becomes contrary, they will pay the price. Most of the activity takes place in an ersatz courtroom. The proceedings are top secret. This shows the original Outer Limits starting to gain some legs. This is certainly one of the better episodes.

Except for two scenes of aliens murdering people, this episode would be a boring court room drama. All we get is people talking for an hour about something that could be summed up in one sentence: "There is a device that lets you see what other people are doing, and aliens built it. They want to destroy us with paranoia." There, done! We didn't need to hear different testimonies on that fact. Except for the very end, where you have the alien's true appearance on the screen combined with his human appearance, and the two aforementioned scenes of aliens murdering people, this is episode is probably the most boring thing ever put on screen; certainly one of dullest things I've seen in my life.

Peter Breck stars as a U.S. Senator who has been sent to a top secret military base to investigate the murder of a Captain Harris, who was strangled at his station on the O.B.I.T. machine, which stands for outer band individuated teletracer, a new invention that can monitor anyones feelings and thoughts anywhere to be viewed on an eye-shaped television, which has had the effect of destroying morale in various ways, as privacy is becoming a thing of the past, which may not be an accident, as there are many such obit machines in existence... Prescient episode with intelligent writing and a chilling premise. Perhaps a bit too talky and stagy, but otherwise first-rate.