Second Chance

Character actor Simon Oakland, highly unrecognizable under layers of makeup, plays an alien that takes a group of unsuspecting amusement park guests on a trip to outer space. The "crew" of the ride (Don Gordon and Janet De Gore) have no idea that the alien has made the craft suitable for flight and they, too, become captives of the alien's machinations.

John McLiam and Angela Clarke portray a bickering couple while Yale Summers, later to be featured on "Daktari" is on hand as the resident "jock" forced to show his mettle in the life-threatening kidnapping.

There are many plot holes in the episode, especially the fact that the alien is able to turn the ride into a functional rocket, but the performances by Oakland and McLiam make for an entertaining episode of the classic show.

Several people, all with some history, are tricked into getting on a flying saucer which is supposedly an amusement park attraction. Normally, the visitors get a simulated trip through the galaxy. Now, an alien has taken over and we are not immediately made aware of his intentions. It turns out that he has selected this group of people. First, a middle aged couple that is dominated by the abusive husband. A young football star and his friend (who ends up dying early on) and his girlfriend who has been pinned by his fraternity. There are also the two people who run the attraction, a brilliant scientist who has lost his way and a beautiful blonde woman who acts as a flight attendant on the ersatz saucer. The alien has been messing around with the controls and has managed to turn what was an artificial device into a real flying saucer. But why? What follows is a talky thing as the alien scolds the people as they are catapulted into space, heading for the home planet. Their weaknesses are used against them as they feel desperation. The scientist and the flight attendant develop a romance, but they are far from truthful. This episode is interesting as we await an explanation as to why this is being done. What makes this one a challenge for me is why these people were picked? We find out the ultimate purpose for the voyage, but, again, why these people?

Don Gordon stars as Dr. Dave Crowell, an unemployed scientist who finds himself working in a carnival at the rocket ship ride, a mock-up space ship. Janet De Gore plays Mara Mathews, who is the stewardess on the ride, and becomes interested in Crowell. Simon Oakland plays Empyrian, a birdlike man who comes from the planet Empyria that has secretly modified the space ride into a real rocket ship, taking them, as well as a few other selected passengers, on a trip to colonize an Earth-like asteroid called Tythra in order to save both races from an imminent disaster affecting both planets, but will everyone abducted want to go? Philosophical episode has a shaky premise but good acting and dialogue.

Sure, there're hokey special effects, enough over-acting to power a small city for a month, & a plot picked out of a hat, but there's the usual questionable activity of those earthlings & some powerhouse TV regulars of the day.

& I'd wager that this is the only American A/V production in any form, mainstream or experimental, in which a character is chided for reading Kant's Critique of the Pure Reason in the original German.

OTOH, I wonder whether the plot wasn't picked up by an O.L. staffer at the 1964 NY World's Fair, as the spacecraft interior looks an awful lot like the centerpiece of one of the big exhibits my dad & I rode in that summer. & In a variation on the old plot twist, it's the earthlings that compel the alien to see the error of his ways.

TCM is showing "Spencer's Mountain" tonight, in which Mimsy Farmer has a supporting role. This started up my memory churn as I recalled her appearance in my favorite episode of "Outer Limits" - "Second Chance" - which was originally broadcast in March 1964 (she was born in 1945 so do the math on the age).

A carnival space ride becomes frighteningly real when an alien secretly rigs it to fly. The ominous bird-man carefully picks his unknowing crew including the carny ride captain who's a closet intellectual, an angry middle-aged man, and a star quarterback accompanied by his adoring buddy and his steady girl. The plot involved persuading a group of people whose lives were absolutely miserable (for a variety of reasons) to undertake a mission which would save the earth from destruction sometime in the distant future. The alien was confident that the humans would grab this last chance for personal redemption, he calls it their second chance, especially after being shown that they had nothing to lose given their hopelessly miserable lives on earth. The episode had little good to say about the human race and philosophically plays even better today than it did in 1964.