The Borderland

During a séance conducted by the trickster Mrs. Palmer and her assistant Mr. Price, the scientists Ian and Eva Fraser and their assistant Dr. Russell expose the fraud to the millionaire Dwight Hartley, who hired Mrs. Palmer to contact his dead son Dion from the beyond, and to his Managing Director Benson Sawyer. Dr. Fraser explains that he has discovered a process to contacts the fourth dimension and shows his two right hands to prove his experiment. Now he needs a large amount of energy to go further in his experiment. Hartley promises to finance the project provided Dr. Palmer seeks out Dion in the other dimension. However, Benson is a corrupt man that has an arrangement with Mrs. Palmer and Mr. Price sabotages the experiment with tragic consequences.

"The Borderland" is an underrated episode of "The Outer Limits". The storyline of greedy is intriguing until the very last minute with an appropriate conclusion. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "A Fronteira" ("The Borderland")

During a séance, electronics scientist Mark Richman (as Ian Fraser) reveals "medium" Gladys Cooper (as Mrs. Palmer) is a charlatan. She claims the fakery helps channel her participants to believe, which is necessary when contacting the dead. Haven't heard that before, but it is a good explanation, under the circumstances. The failure distresses millionaire Barry Jones (as Dwight Hartley), who hoped to contact a son who died in a car accident at age seventeen...

Conveniently present at the séance, Prof. Richman explains he and wife Nina Foch (as Eva) have another idea for Mr. Jones. They are experimenting with a "doorway into the fourth dimension" and need financial backing. Richman has stuck his left hand in the doorway and now has two right hands. How this means Jones' dead son will be found seems far-fetched, but we go along with the idea. From writer/director Leslie Stevens, it's interesting if not convincing.

****** The Borderland (12/16/63) Leslie Stevens ~ Peter Mark Richman, Nina Foch, Barry Jones, Gladys Cooper

I checked the schedule... unless I saw reruns out of sequence, it looks like THE BORDERLAND may have been my very 1st episode of THE OUTER LIMITS. Back then, I had no idea what was going on, but the image of the electrical power plant, and the guy who vanishes when he steps into the magnetic field (you see his skeleton just before he's gone) stuck with me forever after that. Half a mile from my house was an electric sub-station, and every time we'd drive past it, I'd be reminded of this story.

In his own way, Leslie Stevens' stories on this show are even stranger and perhaps more impenetrable than Joe Stefano's. Stevens' focus on hard science, which often have long, extended sequences of scientists and machinery must have been difficult for "average" audiences to take. Heck, it takes a lot of patience on my part, and I figure I must be this show's target audience!

I'm familiar with a number of the actors in this one. Mark Richman I mostly remember for his 2 McCLOUD movies. He appeared in the pilot-- my pick for the single worst McCLOUD ever made (how did that show ever get get sold?), as the original Peter B. Clifford. (J.D. Cannon replaced him when it went to a series.) A few years later, he guested as the commander of NYC's mounted division, where Clifford told him in a phone call, "Now he's YOUR problem."

Nina Foch mostly stands out in my mind for her part as the secretary in EXECUTIVE SUITE, a very thought-provoking story whose climactic scene actually brought tears to my eyes, as William Holden gave a speech in which he spelled out the importance of being able to take pride in one's work, and said "You can't have men working ONLY for money."

Philip Abbott was the sidekick in THE F.B.I. (which I used to watch regularly but haven't seen since the 60's), but he also turned up in an Ellen Foley episode of NIGHT COURT, the one where Stella Stevens played the high-priced "madame".

And then there's Alfred Ryder, even sleazier than he was in the STAR TREK episode, THE MAN TRAP.

So many obsessed people in this story! The scientist wants to learn the secrets of the universe. The millionaire wants to contact the spirit of his dead son at any cost. His business manager wants power over things and over people, not having any real talent himself. The spiritualist wants the money she was promised (and in trying to get it, she really gets the businessman's number). And her client is so warped with adulation for her he's eager to stoop to murder in her behalf, while trying to rationalize his actions so he can see himself as innocent. Of these, the only one who comes out intact is the scientist, whose motives were completely selfless.

Somehow, I never saw this one again in syndication, and only found out the title when I wound up renting it in sequence with all the others in the 1990's.

Hard to believe a show this intense and scary used to be on at 7:30 PM Monday night. I suspect only the fact that Mondays back then were traditionally "dead" evenings for TV programming led to my tuning it in at all. I didn't watch regularly, and never saw even half the episodes. At least, until years later, in syndication. My own fanaticism for the show has grown steadily over the years. These days, even the episodes I don't care for I find fascinating to watch anyway.

You can hand it to Professor Ian Fraser (Peter Mark Richmond.) His team are trying to open a portal to another dimension by reversing the polarity.

An experiment seemed to have gone wrong but his left hand ended up being reversed.

To continue with his experiments, he needs funding from business mogul Dwight Hartley. A man desperately trying to contact his dead son though a fake medium Mrs Palmer.

Hartley is convinced that by going through the portal, Fraser could contact his dead son. The medium is exposed as a fraud. Hartley's business executive has his own agenda to take over the company.

There are a lot of plot threads but it is mysticism versus science fiction. Mrs Palmer is upset to lose out in getting money from Hartley and attempts to scuttle the experiments.

Somehow the story gets muddled, it finds itself spinning too many plates. The experiments does not even look safe with a mouse exploding. There also seems to be a lot of padding but it was enjoyable hokum.

Man of wealth Dwight Hartley is desperate to contact his dead son, after a failed seance with Mrs Palmer, he's approached by Professor Ian Fraser, who claims to have found a path to the fourth dimension, Hartley sees a potential means for contact.

A thoroughly imaginative, creative episode, I think this is without a doubt one of the more interesting ones from series one. We have the obvious sci fi element, but it's also mixed in with the occult to.

It's a very solid production, very well made, with some age defying special effects, and a quality that still shines through decades later, huge credit to the production team.

The acting is spot on, Mark Richman and Nina Foch are both great, the character of Dwight Hartley was very well played by Barry Jones, you did get the impression of a desperate father, and of course a wonderful turn from the wonderful Gladys Cooper, who played the dodgy medium.

9/10.