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Clearly the brains of the marketing folks at MGM were
sucked out by some interstellar alien. Perhaps this is part
of some evil plot to force humanity to waste our precious
resources on something we already have. How else to explain
this re-release? Why would MGM want to repackage the first
half of the season, not change anything and charge more
than the entire season set? Perhaps it is one of those mysteries
best left unexplored otherwise it might push us into insanity.
***
"The Outer Limits" is a classic 1963 science fiction
series and despite the passage of time, the best episodes
still are exciting storytelling. The tragic "The Man Who
Was Never Born", "The Sixth Finger" or the creepy "The Zanti
Misfits" still retain much of their magic. Featuring some
of the best actors from film, TV and the stage of the time
including Robert Culp, Donald Pleasance, Nina Foch, Carrol
O'Conner, Barry Morse, Martin Landau, Mark Richmond, Dabney
Coleman and others, the series always managed to be creepy,
thought provoking and touch you emotionally. Joseph Stefano
("Psycho") and Leslie Stevens co-produced the first season
writing a number of stunning episodes. Heck, Stefano helped
create science fiction gothic (which influenced films such
as "Alien") in many of his episodes such as "The Borderlands".
The show is worth picking up but not in this repackaged
more expensive edition because there's absolutely nothing
new (beyond the cover) about it. ***
Why not put together a package of the best episodes
as voted on by fans? For example most fans wouldn't want
to purchase the entire second season just to get Harlan
Ellison's marvelous "The Demon with a Glass Hand". It would
make sense to put together a compilation of the highlights
of seasons 1 and 2 (what few there were during the second
season) and put some effort into extras (did anybody try
and find any of the props from the show that might have
survived? What about featuring a documentary with film directors
such as Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, James Cameron and
others discussing the impact of the show on their work?).
Sadly, nonsense is at work with this set. ---
Image & Sound:
MGM uses the exact same transfers as the 2002 release.
The shows haven not been cleaned up nor did they receive
HD transfers (which might make buying it again worthwhile
for some fans). Audio is still unenhanced mono. It doesn't
look bad but why did they also choose to put these out AGAIN
on dual sided dual layered discs?
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