The Outer Limits was a series that was well under-appreciated. It was more story and character driven than star-based on celebrities like the X-Files where you had Mulder and Scully. In this episode, Clancy Brown plays Sergeant Linden Stiles who chooses a life-altering experiment over an execution for a crime of murder that he did not do. Unfortunately, the experiment is about the fusion of human DNA with alien species. Clancy Brown is brilliant as is Barbara Garrick, the doctor with a conscience. There is kind of an attraction between the sergeant and the doctor. Unfortunately, Stiles becomes more alien than human and we wonder who becomes the experiment after awhile in the end. I won't spoil the ending for those would like to see it. It's worth it.
11 Reviews
One of the most Intriguing
rob.cottrell-210 May 2007
Unfortunately I have to fill this out a bit to put it up to 10 lines. So before I start; can I just say that Clancy Brown is probably the most underrated actor working in films at the moment. He has that wonderful ability to shift from gentleness to menace without effort - as he does so well here. Right I can start the comment now.... If we ever encounter intelligent life outside our planet, who will be the real 'Monsters'? The aliens or us? Stories asking this question are few and far between. They have to creep out under the radar in series such as this. I've just watched the flawed and bloated 'Spiderman 3'. It is supposed to have cost over $200 million dollars. I wonder how much this cost to make? I wish that, just for once, Hollywood would produce something as intelligent, tight and, dare we say, subversive as this excellent episode. Fat chance.
Excellent Episode
albertfrey2 January 2021
The episode belongs to the best of the series. It clearly shows how evil and stupid people can be, when they let themselves be guided by the fear of the unknown at the expense of reason and objectivity.
Quite a nice touch to see how judgment is passed on them in the end.
Quite a nice touch to see how judgment is passed on them in the end.
The Best Episode of the show I've seen...
gingasnaps3 February 2006
'AfterLife' is very gripping and exciting. It really shows how low and desperate our government could be when it comes to war. It expounds the message of how people really do fear what they don't understand. I won't give any spoilers, but when an experiment goes slightly awry, who are the real villains?
Clancy Brown is a complete stand-out and a very gifted actor, he was the best pick for the character of Linden Stiles. You can really sympathize and feel the pain of this soldier, accused of a heinous crime he didn't commit and forced to submit to an experiment 'for the good his country.' The rest of the cast give very powerful performances as well. A must see!
Clancy Brown is a complete stand-out and a very gifted actor, he was the best pick for the character of Linden Stiles. You can really sympathize and feel the pain of this soldier, accused of a heinous crime he didn't commit and forced to submit to an experiment 'for the good his country.' The rest of the cast give very powerful performances as well. A must see!
Sensitively Done with an Excellent Message
Hitchcoc9 April 2014
This is very similar to an episode from the original series. It tells the story of a man being executed by lethal injection for the murders of several people. After being pronounced dead by the attending physician, he is awakened. He is given a choice. Take the final lethal dose, or be part of an experiment by the military. Since he realizes that the former would be suicide, he accepts the terms, although he is damned either way. It becomes obvious early on that he never committed the murders for which he was convicted and he clings to his faith. He is injected with a series of substances by a pretty young army doctor with whom he feels an affinity. The process is agonizing. The military authorities are totally insensitive to his plight, seeing him as just another lab rat. He is defiant all the way as his body is transformed into an alien form (the DNA was collected from a previous extra-terrestrial encounter). The story is gripping, as a relationship develops between the man and the doctor. It portrays the government as a fearful, kill first and ask questions later entity. This may be the best episode of the series; it not, it certainly stands out.
The Outer Limits/Afterlife - 19/5/1996
babydolphin821 February 2009
Linden Stiles struggles to retain his humanity after he is convicted of a murder he didn't commit. When asked to make a frightful choice: accept execution or become the subject of a secret military experiment -- he chooses to live. As the experiment progresses, Stiles fights the dehumanizing influence of injected DNA from an alien lifeform. The attending doctor is troubled by a growing awareness of the inhumanity of the experiment itself, of the men in charge and of her own role. Using his preter-natural strength, Stiles escapes. Then, hunted by his former compatriots, he faces a decision even more difficult than the one that set him on such a tragic course.
This was one of my favourites episodes of the new version The Outer Limits. I have to admit I was not consistent with my viewership with the series so there was many episodes I it did not have a chance to see. The message of this episode is the moral ambiguity of our governments will do to create the ultimate weapon of war whatever the consequences.
This was one of my favourites episodes of the new version The Outer Limits. I have to admit I was not consistent with my viewership with the series so there was many episodes I it did not have a chance to see. The message of this episode is the moral ambiguity of our governments will do to create the ultimate weapon of war whatever the consequences.
Liked the message
talonjensen1 June 2018
I liked this episode, I really like the message, but I won't rehash the storyline. The story is well written and well acted by the main character, Clancy Brown as Sergeant Linden Styles. I knocked a couple stars off because I found Barbara Garrick's acting, as Dr. Kersaw, to be stilted, especially in the last scene. However, I have seen her in other shows where she was fine, not sure what happened here.
Make sure you see the final scene, where the message is clear. I would have liked it to be more strongly delivered with some kind of consequence, but maybe that is best left to our imagination.
Make sure you see the final scene, where the message is clear. I would have liked it to be more strongly delivered with some kind of consequence, but maybe that is best left to our imagination.
The Trial and Death of Socrates
danyel721 June 2020
What I now consider to be one of the best episodes of this under-rated series, "Afterlife" is in it's essence, "The Trial and Death of Socrates". The phrase Sergeant Styles keeps repeating as a kind of mantra while desperately clinging to the slowly fading physical elements of his humanity is the Socratic/Platonic ideal (later adopted by The Stoics) that you can harm the body but you can never harm the soul, although here it is used within a christian context.
"You can change my body, but you will never change my soul" -Sergeant Styles
"You can chain my leg, but not even Zeus can overcome my will" -Epictetus
Brilliantly adapted into a Sci-Fi setting, Sergeant Styles, being the perfect guinea pig due to his moral convictions, is set up by the military, accused of murder and after a trial, sentenced to death. When given the options to choose between the real "lethal injection", which of course would have been suicide and not morally acceptable as a christian, and to become subject to a top secret experimentation, he chooses the later, as was expected. Similarly, Socrates' only options were the type of punishment but he chose suicide instead of exile.
Interestingly, and without giving the end away completely, I would say that Styles transcended both his body and his soul and met a similar fate, if only symbolically, to that of Socrates.
Also, as a bit of pop sci-fi trivia, I thought the story was 1/3 The Fly, 1/3 First Blood and 1/3 Predator.
"You can change my body, but you will never change my soul" -Sergeant Styles
"You can chain my leg, but not even Zeus can overcome my will" -Epictetus
Brilliantly adapted into a Sci-Fi setting, Sergeant Styles, being the perfect guinea pig due to his moral convictions, is set up by the military, accused of murder and after a trial, sentenced to death. When given the options to choose between the real "lethal injection", which of course would have been suicide and not morally acceptable as a christian, and to become subject to a top secret experimentation, he chooses the later, as was expected. Similarly, Socrates' only options were the type of punishment but he chose suicide instead of exile.
Interestingly, and without giving the end away completely, I would say that Styles transcended both his body and his soul and met a similar fate, if only symbolically, to that of Socrates.
Also, as a bit of pop sci-fi trivia, I thought the story was 1/3 The Fly, 1/3 First Blood and 1/3 Predator.
Fantastic little sci fi tale with great twist at the end...
elbato-0311211 December 2021
Warning: Spoilers
This is what good sci fi is all about. As Philip K. Dick once said, the big question is about what it means to be human, and by extension, what it means NOT to be human. This show perfectly encapsulates that thought. Sgt. Styles is faced with a grim choice, and decides to become the test subject. The doctor explains to him that he will be injected with alien DNA, with only moderate chances of survival. The good doctor is a calm technocrat, but begins to waver in her dedication to the mission as Sgt. Styles suffers the effects of his treatment.
But he does not die. His newfound powers allow him to escape containment. Of course, the real point of the lethal alien DNA experiment was to practice hunting aliens. Or so the military minds thought. The aliens show up at the end and rescue Sgt. Styles. It's then that the doctor realizes that the aliens were testing the humans, and the humans failed.
Perfectly executed story!
But he does not die. His newfound powers allow him to escape containment. Of course, the real point of the lethal alien DNA experiment was to practice hunting aliens. Or so the military minds thought. The aliens show up at the end and rescue Sgt. Styles. It's then that the doctor realizes that the aliens were testing the humans, and the humans failed.
Perfectly executed story!
A TRUE JEWEL OF TELEVISION
asalerno1031 May 2022
A man sentenced to die by lethal injection for a crime he claims he did not commit is used as a guinea pig for a gruesome experiment that involves injecting him with DNA obtained from the corpse of an alien whose ship crashed on Earth, and studying the effects that this produces in a human body. This is another superlative story in this series with a perfect development and an absolutely unpredictable and sobering ending. The cast has wonderful performances and the direction of Mario Azzopardi is brilliant as in all the episodes of this series that he had to direct. A jewel.
Clancey Brown
heraclitean25 March 2022
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