Production and Decay of Strange Particles

The director Buzz Kulik, who worked on many episodes of "Twilight Zone", once said that if a blind man could have described what you were seeing on the screen, then you failed as story teller since TV is a visual medium first.

This is an excellent, if flawed, example of OL trying to do just that. Stevens' other episode "The Borderland" shows the same aspect. They were going for striking visuals to tell the story, so you get a lot of eerie shots of radiation suits being animated by radiation beings who have leaked into our universe from another dimension. The science is laughable, but they were just using a bit of it to set everything up. The goal was to generate tolerable terror, not defend a PhD thesis.

The best OL episodes provide some backstory with respect to why the monster is here and what it is doing, and that is not ever really revealed here. Sometimes people just mess with something and something weird pops out. And this happens a lot with OL characters who are trying to delve into the awe and mystery of the universe.

I will admit my ignorance of what was going on here. I know that as the principles are dealing with materials from space, things go haywire. Eventually, the stuff morphs into a sentient being. Now we have a series of emotional displays that ultimately lead to a final display of courage from the man who set up the whole thing. There are endless scene of sparks flying an men walking back and forth in radiation gear. There is a blonde woman who feels she needs to get to the core and rescue her husband. What a mess this whole thing is. It's practically impossible to describe the physics at work. Is there any validity to this? Would any of this work? I don't know. Did they? This plot probably would work in a Star Trek episode. They don't explain anything there either. Just a misfire for the series as there are bound to be.

This is about the production and decay of strange particles.

Stay clear of this boring hour that might have been rather clever in 1964 but will put you to sleep today.

The story is boring, the script is boring, the actors are boring. There is some nice effects photography in the later stages of the hour but that is about the only good thing I can say about this episode!!!!!!!!

However, only six stinkers in a 49 episode TV series is actually a very good track record. Most 49 episode TV shows would have more stinkers than that. This is just the nature of television. So Limits still stands as a great TV series despite this "decay" at the end of season one.

George Macready stars as Dr. Marshall, head of the BroadbBridge nuclear facility that one day has a tragic accident occur, as a fresh infusion of irradiated subatomic particles in a cyclotron comes into contact with an isotope that somehow causes an inter-dimensional crack to open, enabling an unknown but inimical form of super energy to emerge, taking over every worker it comes into contact with, leaving the protective suit empty of a man, but instead housing the energy. How can Dr. Marshall stop this emergency from escaping into the wider world, and having the crack turn into a door? Leonard Nimoy costars in a small role. Aptly titled episode may not make much scientific sense(though that is cleverly set up in the story) but remains fascinating viewing. Deserves credit for sheer ambition and narrative audacity.

During the first season of "The Outer Limits", at least four different episodes had to do with power! This makes this fourth show of its type a bit dull--though I suspect this is still a pretty weak episode regardless.

The show begins at some sort of nuclear power research station. They are experimenting with some weird material that fell from space--which, as we all know, is NOT a good idea. Soon, the material begins to go out of control--releasing tons of dangerous radiation and actually turning workers into electrical-nuclear zombies! Can the boss (George Macready) stop this all from consuming the planet? Aside from seeing Leonard Nimoy in a small part, there isn't a lot to distinguish this one. Not a bad episode but also too familiar and not especially effective.