The Sentence

This is easily the best episode of the new Outer Limits. David Hyde Pierce (Niles from Frazier) expertly plays a scientist who believes that he can change the jail/prison over population. His idea is the fact that you trick the prisoners that they are serving their 'time' when in fact it's by.... Well i won't spoil it and if you want to know the full synopsis which include spoilers then check the full synopsis at the top of the page. The reason why I say this is the best episode is because this is the most chilling that I have ever seen the Outer Limits envision. It's also an episode that makes you think 'what if it could really happen'. The thing that is most chilling about this episode is the fact that the situation the character is experiencing seems so real that even you see it as real too. If you love The Outer LImits, then you really must check out this episode, you'll never see reality the same way again.

David Hyde-Pierce from "Frazier" is a brilliant scientist. He has developed a way to enter the minds of violent prisoners and in so doing, reform them. He has a ninety-five percent success rate. The episode begins with his "showing off" for a politician who, he needs to finance further research. The force behind it is the saving of tremendous amounts of money through quick rehabilitation. The "Outer Limits" pushed this theme many times, but this one is nicely done so they can be forgiven. The scientist has a serious flaw (that many fictional scientists have going back to Frankenstein) of overstepping the bounds of morality and forgetting that his obsessiveness dismisses the human element. He smugly puts a young man into his machine without properly using fail-safes in planning the procedure. The man, who claims he is innocent, goes into cardiac arrest and the scientist sends himself into the machine's realm to try to right the situation. It doesn't work and he is arrested and convicted of manslaughter, receiving a twenty year sentence in a brutal prison. This is cleverly done and the acting is superb. Hyde-Pierce is one of our truly great American actors, having done extensive theatre in addition to his TV work and really rises to the top here.