Specimen: Unknown

"Specimen: Unknown" (S1 E22 of the original Outer Limits) was the highest-rated episode of the original series, and I admit it has some good parts. But it's also one of the DUMBEST episodes in a series that excelled at ominous dopiness. The scientists of Project Adonis, a research station in orbit 1,000 miles above the Earth, find some fungoid-looking things - "space barnacles", they call them - adhering to the station's hull and bring them in for further examination. They speculate that they are some kind of alien spores that have been just "floating around in space for millions of years." This is ALIEN LIFE we're talking about, and they treat them as casually as if they were Earth mushrooms. They don't keep them in sealed containers; they don't use isolation and containment glove boxes to handle the specimens; they casually handle them with their bare hands, and keep them in what look like modified coffee cans; they don't pack them securely when it's time to return to Earth. Even after one of the scientists is killed by one of the plants - which of course is unwitnessed by the rest of the crew - they don't do anything to change their handling of the mushroom-shaped organisms. All these safety measures things had been thought of, designed and invented when the show was filmed. But of course, if the plants hadn't "gotten loose," there would be no (dumb) story, would there?

Richard Jaeckel stars as Captain Mike Dowling, who is a part of a handful of astronauts/scientists on an orbiting space station shaped like a wheel. When one of the crew(played by Dabney Coleman) dies mysteriously after exposure to some unknown space spores which have attached themselves to the side of the ship, the decision is made to land back on Earth with the specimens on board, but unfortunately their container breaks, unleashing the spreading spores first on board the ship, then later on the Earth when it crash lands. Just how can this botanical menace be stopped? Russell Johnson and Gail Kobe costar. Mediocre episode has a padded and thin story, though still manages to be reasonably fun viewing.

Alien plants cause trouble on earth.

This hour was probably a lot better in 1964, now today I have seen other TV shows like Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (Terror) and Star Trek (This Side Of Paradise) pinch the invader plant story and it all seems rather routine now.

But there is no question that the final act of Specimen: Unknown still packs a punch in 2014. In fact the whole hour is still rather cool.

At this stage of the season, The Outer Limits was dishing out great episodes every week! The imagination, scripting, acting, music, location filming is just great.

The Outer Limits is doing The Day of The Triffids with a touch of The War of the Worlds with the ending.

Lt Howard, a member of the Adonis research space station, finds a strange mushroom shaped organism. They look rather like space barnacles.

When exposed to the light and air inside the space station, it grows rapidly and flowers. When the plant is studied, the flower emits a noxious gas that eventually kills Lt Howard.

The other astronauts return to Earth, bringing the new plant species with them, not knowing that it caused Howard's death.

After the astronaut arrive on Earth half dead as the plants have multiplied. They quickly spread on the planet with the army not knowing how to stop them.

The story is familiar but the execution is weak. Given the plan spews deadly spores, lets of a noxious gas, no one wears protective suits.

At least the story has danger. The commanding officer and an astronaut's wife having to evade the plants by foot.

Yes it does rip off "The Day of the Triffids." That book and movie are much more sophisticated than this one. Here some really sloppy, careless astronauts allow an alien species onto their ship. They use no protective gear. They leave things unattended. Who are these guys? They are portrayed as scientists. Anyway, now they have an infestation and it must be decided if their craft should be the target of a surface to air missile. The decision is made to land and a patch of deadly plants shoots seeds out an multiplies at a geometric rate. The powers that be bumble around trying to figure out what to do. Two things that are utterly ludicrous are the efforts to open the hatch on the shuttle craft with tire iron from the trunk of the car. The second is taking refuge in the car to protect themselves from the deadly plants but leaving the windows open. Duh! Then there is the deus ex machina. Oh, well, it's not horrible; it's just really stupid.