Sandkings

This is one of those plots that has been done a hundred times. Beau Bridges (along with his old man) appear in a pilot of the much revered new version of "The Outer Limits." "The Sandkings" is about a pile of sand, taken back to Earth after a Mars mission. It contains living organisms, and Bridges's character is on his way to a Nobel Prize if he can continue his research. Unfortunately for him, he gets so obsessed with his effort that he becomes a danger to the people he works with. He chooses to ignore security and gets himself fired. When he betrays his friend/supervisor and steals some of the sand, he sets everything in motion. At first it is scientific. He goes overboard as he watches the little critters evolve and one might say he had a right to consider his research. Eventually, the Sandkings, which he has dubbed them, grow their own cultures; they become civilizations. They are builders and creators within the confines of a glass case Bridges has built for them. Soon, he loses his scientific objectivity and begins to play god with the little creatures. He deprives them of food and this forces them to wage war against their own kind. They build a monument with Bridges' face, Rushmore like, in sand. Of course, there are obstacles. One is the inability to hide what is going on from his family, his wife and little boy. Also, the scientists at the lab come to realize that a fair amount of sand is missing and he is the only possible suspect. There is a sort of maudlin subplot, where Bridges' own father, Lloyd Bridges (remember "Sea Hunt," and "Airplane"), takes on the fictional role. The younger Bridges resents his father for favoritism toward a brother who became a casualty of war. All this plays into the plot and, of course, when the Sandkings go through thirty-some generations, they begin to get fed up with their god. It is pretty entertaining, starting the series on a positive note, but at times it is really heavy handed. There is a scene where Bridges takes a stained glass window (his wife works in glass), and places it on the high wall of his barn/laboratory. He stands in front of it as the light shows through, arms spread in the ultimate Christian pose. But that's OK. It was really a fun series, running some seven years.

Science-as-horror entertainment for the entire family. Adults can indulge the gleeful overacting while kids get to experience fright night as they take everything at face value. Casting is marvelous, with Helen Shaver as the mad scientist's blonde wife an especially inspired choice. Years before, she had played the protagonist's love interest in the voodoo-horror flick "The Believers" in which her classically beautiful WASP face was progressively disfigured by ugly boils that turned out to be ... spiders living under the skin! With this subtext under the viewers' belt, the horrifying encounters she has with the "sandkings" carry an added resonance and punch.

Of course the TV show's plot has been greatly altered from the sci-fi short story, no doubt partly due to budget limitations. I didn't mind. Lloyd Bridges is content to play out his part's stereotype to the hilt, but Beau Bridges gives an acting masterclass by additionally injecting some truly disturbing moments into his performance (the bathroom scene, as noted by other reviewers). For a TV drama, the music score is above average.

Recommended for a rainy evening while curled up in front of the fireplace.

The pilot episode of "The Outer Limits" TV series is an adaptation of G.R.R. Martin's novel from 1979. The series does not have unique story-line, but it is an anthology of short SF / Fantasy / Horror films, and the "Sandkings", with its duration of one and a half hours, has all the qualities of a feature film.

The eggs are found in a sample of a Martian soil and Beau Bridges plays the scientist who manages to restore the race of alien insects and, in an attempt to prove that these beings possess reason, he gradually loses his own. Production is at a satisfactory level for a series of that time, the acting is ok, and the story is interesting and quite tense. It was massively bashed by viewers who read Martin's story, but it kept my attention all the time and definitely lured me to continue with this series.

"Increasingly, modern science pursues powers traditionally reserved for the almighty, but those who encroach upon the province of the gods realize too late that the price for entrance is destruction."

7/10

Probably the most interesting thing about this episode in this day and age is seeing 3 generations of the Bridges family on screen together - Lloyd, his son Beau, and HIS son Dylan - playing those same positions of grandfather, father, son. Oh, and getting to see a younger Kim Coates.

The story itself is decent enough, too - creatures found in a soil sample from Mars, by Earth scientists, are deemed too dangerous to live but the man who made the initial discovery takes matters into his own hands and hi-jinks ensue - and it's all acted capably by the aforementioned actors and Helen Shaver.

The 'moral' is pretty predictable, but really, it's the journey that we're here for and it's a decent enough journey.

A collaborator at a scientific institute obsessed with the extraterrestrial theme steals a sample of sand brought by a space mission from another Mars. He installs a fish tank in the barn of his country house where he places it and introduces ants into it. As the days go by, he discovers that the insects begin to behave strangely and with supernatural organization and intelligence. This first episode has certain reminiscences of the classic The Zanti Misfists from the original Outer Limits and also has the attraction of having Lloyd Bridgess and his son Beau in its cast, also playing a father and his son in fiction. Without being an outstanding story, it is an acceptable and entertaining start to the season.