User reviews

This episode is much more Brad Wright than Larry Niven—not terribly cerebral, and with lots more special effects than the Hugo-winning story. (I'm trying hard to avoid spoilers.)

This might not be surprising, except that someone at Wikipedia started the rumor that Niven himself wrote the screenplay. IMDb is, however, correct and agrees with the on-screen credits.

I'm still trying to avoid spoilers, though there's not much more I can say without them.

IMDb seems to be doing a bad job of avoiding spoilers itself, in e.g., the synopsis.

This is perhaps my very favorite of all the episodes of the New Outer Limits I have seen, and I have seen most of them. I am an aficionado of Apolcalyptic/End of the World SciFi/Fantasy, and this is one of the best in the genre in recent years. When MGM came out with the DVD set labeled "Outer Limits Seasons 1 and 2" I bought it, most especially for this episode... which wasn't included. Instead of the entire seasons 1 and 2 it was a "best of", which very annoyingly did NOT include this episode. They have since released the complete Season 1. Seasons 3 and 4 are available from Europe. But not Season 2. I am really, REALLY piqued at that! This adaptation is, if anything, an improvement on Larry Niven's fine story of the same name, and is finely acted by leads Michael Gross and Joanna Gleason. The screenplay is, if anything, more exciting than the source story. The production also has excellent special effects and a great climax and denouement, rather perfunctorily dealt with in the story, but very nicely realized here. So, MGM, get off your corporate duffs and release this on DVD... either in a complete Season 2, or perhaps in an Apocalyptic/End-of-the-World selection.