The Outer Limits (TV Series) Déjà Vu (1999) User Reviews

one of the better Outer Limits

[SnoopyStyle · 8/10 · 1 April 2015]

Dr. Mark Crest (Kevin Nealon) is running an experiment to teleport by creating a wormhole with Dr. Cleo Lazar (Terri Hawkes) and overseen by Lt. Col. Lester Glade (Ronny Cox) and the military. The experiment goes terribly wrong and destabilizes engulfing everyone. Crest manages to pull the cable and is pulled back a day. Every time, the experiment goes wrong and he manages to go back in time by pulling the cable. However, the time loop grows shorter each time, animal rights activist Julie Alger (Jennifer Copping) keeps trying to sabotage and Col. Glade is hiding a secret agenda.

This is one of the better Outer Limits episodes. Time loop has been done over and over again in sci-fi. I like a lot of them because the good ones get to build the story in complexity as it goes through the same story multiple times. This one has the twist that the loops are closing which adds to the tension. The acting is pretty good with a surprising Nealon dramatic performance. This one takes the usual interesting basic idea and stays compelling all the way through.

Beam Me Up, Scotty......Ain't Gonna Happen

[Hitchcoc · 9/10 · 6 August 2014]

This is a neat episode about a group of engineers who are completing a project in teleportation. The are about to test it as the episode begins. Their test subjects are a group of domesticated animals who hopefully will arrive at their destinations after the thing is triggered. When the test is made, something goes terribly wrong. There is an explosion at the epicenter, and a kind of bubble flattens out, sending a wave toward the control center, annihilating everything in its path. Just as it hits the center, the head engineer pulls a power cable from its socket and suddenly finds himself back a day or so ahead of the test. This is the deja vu of the title. He repeats this event several times, and it always ends the same way. The difference is that he observes and begins to realize that there is something unsettling and suspicious going on. For some reason this test has drawn the ire of some animal rights activists and, more importantly, the military, including an old friend, played by Ronny Cox. The head engineer, who actually stole a good deal of the knowledge from a pretty young associate (with whom he has a past), must figure out what went wrong. He must then live again (Outer Limits version of Ground Hog day) to thwart the bad guys. The whole thing is quite stunning in its thoughtfulness and presentation. One of the better episodes, surely.