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The Outer Limits - The Original Series, Season 1

The Outer Limits - The Original Series, Season 1

List Price: $79.96
Your Price: $63.97
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 2 stars
Summary: A wonderful trip down memory lane...but!
Review: I remember seeing the re-runs all throughout my childhood and picked up the set the second I saw it on the store shelves. I've never spent this much on a DVD set (close to 80$) but was not the least bit disappointed. The DVD set is wonderful and has the basic "select your episode" menu. Each disk is double sided and has 4 or more episodes on each side. I've spent several hours watching them already.

My low (below average) rating comes from the packaging. MGM must have thought, "Just how many DVD's can we cram into one small box?" Because of the way it's set up, the "buttons" that hold the DVD in the case rub against the other disks and -will- scratch them. And since the disks are 2X sided, you will loose episodes, if your able to play them at all. I had to return mine 3 times to get a working set, and only then because the store was cool enough to piece together a working set of my other returns.

If your lucky enough to get a complete, unscratched set, you better have some spare cases around to make sure they stay that way!

I -highly- suggest against ordering these online since I had to go the the store more than once to return them.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Where do these complainers come from?
Review: I cannot for the life of me understand where these people come from. Oh my!!!! theres no extras, Oh my!!!!! the sound quality!!!!!. If you wathed the series when it first ran in 1963 thats what the sound was like then and its just exactly as you remember it now. So whats the big deal? Im surprised there not complaining it not in color.I dont even own a dvd player and anyone I've rented I havent had one problem with them at all. Long live scratchy black and white and hissing popping soundtracks.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: An immortal Sci-Fi / Horror classic!
Review: In my opinion, one of the best, if not the best, Sci-Fi series ever to hit the tube.
Those brought up on contemporary Sci-Fi/Horror, with it's ever-more incredible special effects, will watch Outer Limits, with it's black&white primitive, even campy effects, for about 5 minutes before turning it off. But they will be missing something.
These episodes are what I call "intellectual morality plays"; dealing with very deep and fundamental issues of science, technology, the nature of life and existence, human
emotion, our place in the Universe, etc. Contemporary Sci-Fi/Horror is (for the most part) very shallow and dissapointing, relying too much on effects only. Comparing Outer Limits to
current works is akin to comparing a good Alfred Hitchcock movie (like "Psycho") to an '80's teen-slasher.

Outer Limits had some of the weirdest soundtracks you ever heard; I purchased the soundtrack audio CD as well and, having ripped the tracks to MP3 and WAV, have found them very well

suited to some of my home-grown fractal animations.

Created on a shoestring budget; most episodes were made in 2-3 days. This, along with genuinely scary monsters (despite the primitive effects), and some serious themes and concepts, makes this series an immortal classic in my opinion.

I of course didn't catch the original runs, but to the syndicated re-runs I owe some of the most delightful nightmares and sleepless nights of my (very early) childhood.
No, I will not "grade" any of the episodes. Sufficient to say that some are excellent, some are a bit lame, and most are in-between. But all good. (The modern '80's re-incarnation
of the series is a sad dissapointment). If you have never seen the originals, and you are a fan of (the better) '50's and '60's "B movies", you really should check it out.

I have most of the collection on VHS. I purchased the first season quad DVD set and look foreward to the second season DVD. I must make a note about the DVD however. Some of the episodes do not play well. There is skipping and distortion. I get this all the time on movie DVD rentals, and it is usually corrected by a good (carefull) cleaning. I am unable to fix the Outer Limits DVD, however, the "flawed" episodes play fine on my computer!
Clearly, Amazon is not at fault for this. It may be a production error (getting that old stuff in digital format) or maybe I just have a "lemon". Be advised.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Disk sides indications are on the Outer limit
Review: First, I would like to say that I have been waiting for this release for years and years. Same with UFO (finally available on DVD in its entirety) and other famous stuff from Gerry Anderson wich has filled the influenced the imagination of people in my generation as your reviews indicate. Anyways, I too, was scared Sh**less by this TV show as a kid although I only saw it in the late sixties as a re-run, here in Canada. It has left memories in my mind I could never forget.

It was a real pleasure to hear the Control Voice again. Still today, that humming at the beginning of the show continue to have something scary and disturbing...

This set is DEFINITELY worth buying. Just hope MGM will release the second season.

As for thechnical problems, I have to say that this release is PERFECT. The image has been beautifully restored (to crystal clear clarity)and the sound is as good as could be. The inner booklet is superbly done and yes the packaging represent a slight danger of abrasion to the disks when you close it.Just gotta be careful.

AND FOR THOSE COMPLAINING ABOUT THE ABSENCE OF SIDE INDICATIONS, WELL, JUST LOOK BETTER,GUYS. IT'S THERE,ON THE HUB:

IT SAYS VOLUME 1,2 3 OR 4. THAT'S THE DISK NUMBER
IT SAYS 1003990.4.A THAT'S IMPRESSION #1003990 OF DISK 4 SIDE A
IT'S ALL THERE. ON THE OUTER LIMITS

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Outer Limits Collection - Praise and Problem
Review: I dearly love this old series of my childhood. The film transfers are fantastic - the image sharpness is better than what we got on our old TV's. This collection falls down in one important area - the sound! The voice levels are ok but the background music is often barely heard or very faint. I get the feeling
that whoever was in charge of the sound mix was perhaps doing this unpurpose out of personal tatse. The sound mix is over filtered, occaisionally muddy but the real crime is the near loss of the wonderful background music that was very much a trademark of this old series. I would have been happy to have a little hiss to put some life back into the sound and keep the background music.

Nephew of Bernard Herrmann

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Reaching From The Inner Mind
Review: I was seven years old when The Outer Limits took control of my television set. That's when my world changed. I fell in love with science fiction. And I guess this had to happen to you for you to enjoy these black and white masterpieces. The budget shows but the acting is sincere and sometimes top notch.
Sure, the second season isn't here, but there weren't that many classics except for "Demon With A Glass Hand".
Picture quality is very good; sometimes the print looks like it was shot yesterday.
You cannot compare the original OL to anything today, so if you're expecting awesome special effects, this is not for you.
If you hid your eyes from the monsters like I did back in 1963, you'll love it.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Good Price
Review: While I don't personally think that the Outer Limits was as good as the Twilight Zone, this is a great deal, and well worth having.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: The Start of the Great Adventure
Review: The late fifties and early sixties were exiciting years in the USA. Big Science was exploding into the public eye. It seemed that science could take us anywhere, break down any barrier. We were at the start of the "great adventure".
These Outer Limits episodes are from that period. How many kids were inspired by them, and later became scientists or engineers? "The Borderland" and "Production & Decay of Strange Particles" did it for me.
Even the astrophotos over the closing credits had a profound effect on many young people.
Present day kids would probably be distracted by the monochrome visuals and the primitive special effects. But if you lived during this era and you want to get a few twinges of this feeling again, here are about 27 hours of wonder.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: long, long time ago
Review: Yes, its seems like the Outer Limits were something else as a kid growing up. I think some of the old shows need to be re-aired every now and then for people to appreciate them. Only with the phrase, "out with the old, in with the new" has been the catchy motto we come to now live by. Anyways, I must comment that there is another site that sells all the shows - at least as far as I can see. And yes, the show, Outer Limits - 'Demon With a Glass Hand' (1964) is available at videoflicks. The only thing missing is the transfer from dvd to video. Right now, it is on sale in vhs form, but within the next two years we might see if we get our wish on some of those hard-to-find videos and hope they begin producing them in dvd for the next generation audience. I hope so and lets support these companies when they do finally come to their senses and give us more of what we are looking for.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: The Awe and Mystery
Review: Long before Terminator and The Matrix, before Blade Runner, Altered States and Scanners, before The Andromeda Strain and Planet of the Apes, and even before the original Star Trek and Lost in Space and just nine years after Forrest J. Ackerman coined the term "scifi", there was this high pitched whine emerging from our bulbous Zeniths and RCA console TVs accompanied by a pulsating oscilloscope signal, a rolling test pattern and a blurry moon image sharpening to "crystal clarity", and a calm "control voice" assuring us there was nothing wrong with the tube. All we needed to do was sit quietly and safely observe the mind-bending adventures of time travelers, aliens both benevolent and oppressive, genetically evolved mutants, and ordinary men confronted with the responsibility of more power than they had any business trying to control.

The series The Outer Limits heralded the dawning of an extraordinary decade, reflected deeply and darkly on the Human Condition thus far, and gave us normally sheltered evening viewers the chance to entertain our early sixties innocent dark ponderings within the safety of our homes. Actually, this show scared the hell out of me as a 9-year old kid who built monster models and played with tape recorders, and I generally had to listen to it from the next room and ask my parents what was happening.

Flash forward to the future, or rather the present. This generous DVD set of, essentially, 32 short stories from one of the only series of that time which had SOMETHING TO SAY, gives us grown-up kids a chance to view these fantastic, visceral tales with some objectivity ...... and in many cases, the messages these pioneers of early cathode literature strove to put across still ring with what can only be described as a "classic freshness". Some seem bogged down and overly padded ("Children of Spider County" is mostly about getting chased through the woods), others exhibit an almost painful economy ("A Feasibility Study" makes one wish they'd gotten to know the characters more); like any considerable collection of short stories, you get a wide variety of stronger and weaker examples.

If you are a film buff, there is a whole other perspective: I can so see how the works of Spielberg, Cronenberg, Lynch, Gilliam, Zemeckis, Burton and many others must have been influenced by this weekly voyage to the brink. Dominick Frontiere's music scoring reminds me a lot of Howard Shore's work for David Cronenberg, and holds a permanent place in my incessant mental radio.

It is unfortunate that many people seem to have had technical problems with this release. I decided it was worth the chance, and so far have not experienced any such disruptions or poor quality on the episodes I've viewed, though I keep non-static tissue in the packaging to keep the discs from contacting each other when in storage (a little Solo-tip for ya there). Others have complained that you can't tell which side of which disc to put on to view choice episodes; just look closely at the small printing around the hub and you will see "Volume#" followed by a 7-digit number, the disc number, and side A or B. So maybe you get a little eye strain .....

These minor issues aside, this collection of the original "Outer Limits" is a treasured addition to this viewer's library, one guaranteed to endure. I gave the new series at least two episodes' chance to hook me ...... I couldn't even begin to get interested in the slicked-up, digitized approach to the show I see on every other series these days. It made me wish there WAS something wrong with my "television set". Something about the dark, grainy, blurry grayscale world of early TV just worked somehow more closely with the energy of these tales ..... not to mention the underlying paranoia and anxiety awakening us suburban Americans from our squeaky-clean innocence of the time. These apprehensive awakenings needed a voice, a public forum. And for many of us, The Outer Limits was that forum. Time and repeated viewings will prove this dramatic, quirky and provocative series to be one of the more (if not only) important and influential contributions such a severely compromised medium as commercial television may have made to our culture.

It's inspiring to see TV get away with this sort of thing once in awhile. I'm still waiting for the next time, when the Control Voice calls to us once more.


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