Specimen: Unknown

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.

"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?

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.

Somewhat more plausible than the dreadful tardigrade spore drive thingummy, depicted recent incarnations of Star Trek. At least all these actors (all sadly deceased) play out an awful script and lamentable special effects for all its worth. Jeez, these guys were sci-fi pioneers in their day - how time moves on! Just remember that TV screens were small glowing orbs in the corner if the living room when this type of horror was shot for tv broadcasting. Watchers then were probably scared to death watching it :) Watch it for what it is, a Dan Dare esque Hokum where the villains are marauding daffodils that spit - its crazy, its brilliant, enjoy it, crap special effects and lousy dialogue galore - 1 hour of pure delight!

As the other reviewer pointed out, this story idea was 'borrowed' from "Day of the Triffids"--so, at the outset, the episode has a huge strike against it. Incidentally, a few years later, "Star Trek" ripped off the idea as well with their episode "This Side of Paradise"! I am pretty sure some other folks have copied the idea as well!

While I could explain the plot in detail, to be brief I'll just say that astronauts accidentally bring back to Earth evil plants. These giant evil plants shoot evil spores at folks--and soon it looks as if they'll take over the planet! It's not a particularly deep or interesting idea but the folks starring in this one give it their best and the episode doesn't suck, so I'm scoring it a 5. You could do a lot better...or worse.