Rating: 
Summary: ONE SMALL PROBLEM
Review: The set is reviewed well elsewhere . I do feel that i have to comment on the packaging though. It is shocking! There are no notes. 4 discs that have nothing written on them and no internal packaging at all. A wasted opportunity as the content of the shows is superb.Let's hope season two gets far more reverential treatment...
Rating: 
Summary: 32 blasts from the past
Review: I was a 13-year-old ZONE fan back when TOL hit the air, and saw this series back then as a definite second-place; the rubber-suit monsters were tres goofy, and the plotlines had logic holes so gaping that even a kid could detect them, hidden within TOL's huge weekly mound of pseudoscientific b.s. But I never missed an ep, just like the ZONE. This release of TOL's first season looks a lot better than my memories of the show. The DVD transfer is crisp in most places, and where it isn't [as in shots that are supposed to be in deep space], it may well reflect the original composites -- this one was done on the cheap. What is still impressive over a forty-year span is the fabulous black & white photography on shoots that only lasted a few days, with inventive camera work and lighting that's as good as it gets on the fly. Also some heartfelt if sometimes histrionic performances from big names like Martin Landau, David McCallum, Donald Pleasance, Cliff Robertson, Robert Culp, Carroll O'Connor, Martin Sheen, Robert Duvall, and many more. But the main revelation in 2002 is about those rubber suits. In more TOL eps than I recalled, the goofy beast is simply the headline; in those days you showed the monster in a cold opening, a short clip from the show you're about to see that acts like a splash panel in the comics. With 50-odd minutes per ep, TOL was able to take the time to develop characters and give you the boogeyman deeply in context with human beings. The prime example of this is "The Architects of Fear," in which a bunch of suits decide to turn Robert Culp into an alien. You don't see the monster costume [which was so outre at the time that some station managers actually censored its scenes because they felt it would be too disturbing!] till the last few moments. The teleplay is about the *process*, and what it means to Culp's humanity. This m.o. is repeated again and again [of course, it's also much cheaper to shoot scenes of two folks talking, once you have the kids salivating over the incipient monster]. There's much more depth to the stories than I remember. The creepy ant-convicts, David McCallum with a big brain, the buzzing space guy who talks over the video monitor [yep, the cheesy rubber suits did have a certain effect], they're all here, plus lots more that you don't remember. We have to wait till the second season [c'mon, MGM!] for TOL's finest [literal] hour, Harlan Ellison's "Demon with a Glass Hand," but Leslie Stevens and Joseph Stefano were on fire here, and you get to watch them play. One side note:
If you're at all interested in the original TOL, this thing is an incredible bargain. You get 32 50/51-minute eps [t.r.t. is 27:22:00 -- that's 27 *hours*] on four double-sided DVDs. Eight eps per flip-over disk. So answer me: *why are the ZONEs doled out on chintzy two-hour, four-ep disks*? Hey, whoever owns the ZONE: give us a big box release, season by season, perfectly ordered by broadcast date and crammed full like this one is. You will get some takers.
Rating:
Summary: 30 reviews! I'll keep this short: Buy the set!
Review: There is a fluid pace to these dramas. It seems too slow at first. With a little watching you realize that these shows are little gems with no real rush to get to the end of the plot. Character development and theme (even where there are a few stinkers) rule the production. It is a refreshing change from our current manic-paced and message-laden TV Series. If you can understand that the technology in 1963 demanded more from the writer and less from the special effects guys, then you will like these. If you want to see well executed "teleplays" Buy this Set.
Rating: 
Summary: On my SECOND set of DVDs, and STILL have problems
Review: Of course I agree with the other reviewers as to the quality of the show - nothing like this had been seen at that time, and the shock of the creativity and originality of the series reverbrates through today. I will put up "Architects of Fear" against any hour of programming on any network for sheer power. BUT - that said, I've been through TWO sets of DVDs. The second is an inprovement over the first (where my Disc 1 had the same program on both sides of the disc), but both sets still suffer from poor audio synchronization. Just as an experiment, as soon as I noticed the bad synch, I stopped the DVD, then restarted it. Voila! It was synched! Why this should work is beyond me, unless there's a compression-induced problem with the audio track. But I imagine a lower-cost DVD player may ALWAYS have this problem. Really - I like having the 32 episodes at a bargain price, but I wonder how many people will be upset over "unplayable" DVDs, and make the possibility of a Season 2 set negligible? I'm surprised at how few complaints I'm reading - I've tried this on two "better quality" DVD players (Sony and Hitachi) and BOTH had the same problems. This really is unacceptable.
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding Sci-Fi
Review: I admit to having some anxiety when I decided to purchase this collection. Come on - 32 episodes on four DVDs? How could it be? What about quality? Well, since many others have commented about the program material I'll try focus on some of the technical aspects - after all the story lines do speak for themselves. I'm happy to report the video encoding and compression on this set is excellent. I watched and listened to the series on an AC3 equipped home theatre system. The source deck was a JVC XV-S40BK DVD player which fed S-video and digital audio (optical) outputs to a JVC Audio/Video receiver and ultimately a 36" Toshiba monitor. Throughout playback I detected no residual video artifacts and was very pleased with the quality of the full screen picture composition. There were absolutely no glitches in playback which I found to be most unusual given the amount of material on each DVD. The audio playback was okay considering the age of the series, however there was some evidence of background audio compression pumping. The production's audio limitations weren't severe enough to disturb one's listening enjoyment of the program material. One aggravation was the difficulty in identifying which side of the DVD one was looking at since the discs are double sided and the inner ring print is so small. Unless one has super eyesight the chances of selecting the right program set are 50/50. All things considered the producer's have done a remarkable job with this release. I love my set and am anxiously awaiting future releases!
Rating:
Summary: Eyes and Ears
Review: This is some great stuff. A kind of TV-Sci-Fi -Noir. Of course it helps that I first saw it in my formative years, therefore nostalgia plays a part in my affection. I have one of the laser sets from a few years ago (and yes, I can enjoy Demon w/ a Glasss Hand via that 12" disc). I had read some apprehension as to the fact that four episodes were squeezed onto each side, but I see a pleasing image overall (the last Secret Agent sets included a similar amount of info per disc and also look quite good). So my EYES are happy.
My EARS are another matter. No, I wasn't expecting DTS or anything, but the audio on some of these episodes (Man w/ the Power) is way below par. That particular episode sounds like it was subjected to an enormous amount of noise-reduction, giving it a muddled and clipped effect.
And I'm not too crazy about the packaging.
I AM happy to have this on DVD despite some audio drawbacks.
Oh, and if you are real into this show you should check out The Outer Limits Companion. a VERY good book.
Rating:
Summary: Sci-Fi/Gothic Horror classic comes to DVD
Review: I was overjoyed to learn that The Outer Limits was to join the ranks of classic TV shows currently receiving the DVD treatment, and even more enthusiastic to learn that MGM would release the set using a season format based on broadcast order. It is one of the great follies of the budding DVD age that The Twilight Zone has not received similar treatment by utilizing the storage capacity features of DVD. To say that the release of Rod Serling's sci-fi/fantasy masterpiece on DVD was done in a cumbersome, illogical fashion would be quite an understatement. Luckily, The Outer Limits avoids this travesty by offering the public a set encompassing the entire first season in original broadcast order. Despite frequent comparisons, I've always felt that The Outer Limits and The Twilight Zone were completely different types of shows. While the Twilight Zone asked viewers to imagine human beings visiting other planets, The Outer Limits required the viewer to imagine that these humans were already intricately involved in governmental plots with the planet's inhabitants designed to understand the behavioral patterns inherent in earth soldiers amidst planetary wars. The thematic structure of OL always asked more of the viewer than Zone did, in my opinion. Just a few thoughts to add regarding this box set, in light of the many well written Outer Limits reviews already present on amazon.com- I found the audio and visual dvd transfer to be very good, with a few minor exceptions/complaints. I felt that certain episodes displayed quite a bit of graininess in some scenes as well as noticeable light infraction during scenes utilizing deep darks, such as outer space scenes. Most notably were most of the scenes in "The Man Who Was Never Born", starring Martin Landau. For instance, during the scene in which the mutated Andro shows the space traveler the great library at the beginning of the episode, I observed the darkness of the library doors to be quite grainy and "off-black". I noticed quite a bit of grain present in much of the episode's other scenes involving dark backgrounds as well. Other episodes that I noticed this problem with included The Zanti Misfits (close-up ant scenes were very grainy), Nightmare (most of the very dark scenes were grainy) and Second Chance (scene where Empyrian is tackled to the floor by irate passenger was very grainy). I have videotaped episodes from the series when they aired on TNT Monster Vision back in the early 90s. After comparing the DVD to these VHS shows (which were showing their age), I concluded that this graininess was not present on the video taped shows. In fact, I would venture to guess that the overall visual quality of the show is slightly better on 1960s episodes currently being aired on the scifi channel than on the DVD set. To many viewers this graininess may be considered very minor, however, I was able to notice it without too much scrutiny. Other than these minor complaints, the visual transfer is quite good. Regarding the potential for the release of the 2nd season (which has not been confirmed by MGM yet), I think this future release is implied by the 1st season set, which is labeled "Volume 1". It would not make sense to indicate a volume number on the first season set if a subsequent edition was not in the works. Also, I do not think that MGM could have fit any bonus material into this set, considering the number of episodes presented here on a mere 4 discs. Hopefully, MFG will take advantage of the 17-episode second season by releasing bonus material in that set. One last comment- I noticed that another reviewer mentioned the first season soundtrack, which is available via CD on GNP/Crescendo records. I highly recommend this soundtrack to any Outer Limits fan who has found themselves enthralled by the exceptional orchestral work of Domonic Frontiere. Much like Bernard Herrmann's work for The Twilight Zone acted as an inseparable and essential aspect which made the show work, Frontiere's musical contributions to The Outer Limits were just as important as anything done by Leslie Stevens or Joe Stefano.
Rating:
Summary: The Best Nightmares You'll Ever See
Review: The Outer Limits is simply a work of genius. There, I've said it. No other television series EVER achieved such intellectual or emotional depth with such consistency or generated such a chillingly pervasive atmosphere of danger and darkness in each and every episode. The music is haunting and adds to the feeling of wonder and power throughout. The tales are simply unforgettable and more compelling than anything ever produced subsequently by television. This is truly a Masterpiece of a series that raised Science Fiction on television to a high Art form and has to this day still not been equalled, much less surpassed. One can only hope that the second season will be released soon as well (with many extras this time as there are fewer episodes in the final season). "The Outer Limits" was a Classic in so many ways, buy it and enjoy all of the "Awe and Mystery" as it has never been seen before. Thank you, MGM !! The long wait has finally ended....
Rating:
Summary: Cosmic Blast From The Past
Review: The Outer Limits was one of my favorite shows as a kid- so receiving this boxed set in the mail yesterday was a real thrill. I was wondering beforehand if the anticipation I had experienced would be worth the wait. Well, I was not disappointed! As I sat down to watch the opening episode, I got goose bumps all over again as I saw the the blank screen give way to the waves and test pattern and buzzing frequency sound. THE VOICE announced (with great authority), that "We will control all that you see and hear!" The music soundtrack was just as impressive and forbidding as I remember it being in 1963. The glorious black and white picture came through with crystal clarity. I then sat back and enjoyed a tale well told.
I would highly recommend this set to anyone who enjoys top-notch TV entertainment-as well as anyone who is considering buying the "new" Outer Limits shows on disc. Check out this set FIRST, so you can see how sci-fi should really be done (at least on the small screen). You will not be disappointed!
This boxed set now sits in the RESERVED section of my DVD shelf- that area which is set apart for shows such as "The Prisoner", certain Hitchcock movies, and Criterion Collection films.
Turn on the TV, turn out the lights, and enjoy the awe, the spectacle, and the mystery of...... the OUTER LIMITS!
Rating:
Summary: The Best DVD Value You'll Ever Find
Review: 32 episodes of one of the best television programs ever on 4 dual-sided DVDs for this price? That's an incredible deal. If you don't think so, consider that each episode of the show sells for three or four times as much on VHS. You do the math. This is a no-brainer. Get it now!
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