OUTER LIMITS-ENTIRE FIRST SEASON

Fans of Science-Fiction and anthology-type television should be thrilled that MGM has begun to release “THE OUTER LIMITS” on dvd.  They’ve also just begun to release the updated, more sexually titillating re-take on the series, at the same time.

However, color, bigger budgets, and cgi technology can’t compete with plain old good storytelling, and there’s plenty of that in the original series, as evidenced in the big, boxed set, just released by MGM, comprising the entire first season of the 1963 series.

That means “32” episodes! Networks would never think of financing that many episodes in one season today, opting to repeat shows from a smaller schedule instead.  While creating 32 episodes in one season had to be a daunting task, it didn’t prevent writers Joseph Stefano and Leslie Stevens, from creating some of the most original, thought-provoking and entertaining shows of that time period and any other!  “The Zanti Misfits”, an episode in which Earth agrees to run a prison for an alien planet’s misfits, may have had cheap-looking costumes, but its story, directing and acting are first-rate, allowing it to still stand on its own against even the best of any series since.  The network wasn’t putting much of a budget aside for the series, causing some shows to make Roger Corman’s films look expensive. Still, even when shows were at their campiest, as in the case of “Zzzzz”, they offered some genuine twists.  In “Zzzzz”, a queen bee takes on the form of a beautiful woman to ensnare the married man she’s attracted to.  The episode is entertaining on every level, and it takes risks that few shows, even the outstanding “THE TWILIGHT ZONE”, stayed away from.    

Releasing 32 episodes on 4 dual-layered, two-sided discs, in one boxed set, compared to the laserdisc releases of the show, offering just 8 episodes per boxed set, results in more compression and negative effects.  The image quality varies in detail quality and compression is inconsistent. It’s never bad, always better than VHS, but it’s still not better, overall, than the laserdisc boxed sets issued years ago.

The monaural sound is fine, and while a few instances suffer from some minor hiss, overall the dialogue is free from distortion.

An episode guide is included.