"The Outer Limits" Relativity Theory (1998)

User Rating:

7.5/10   

Director:

Ken Girotti

Writer:

Carleton Eastlake (writer)

TV Series:

"The Outer Limits" (1995)

Original Air Date:

27 February 1998 (Season 4, Episode 6)

Genre:

Mystery | Horror | Sci-Fi | Fantasy | Thriller

Plot:

Plot Keywords:

Futurism | Science Runs Amok | Supernatural | Robot | Space Travel

Cast

Melissa Gilbert	...	Teresa Janovitch
Jeremy Ratchford	...	Sgt. Adam Sears
Tim Guinee	...	Corporal Charles Pendelton
Hiro Kanagawa	...	Tali
Michael Kopsa	...	Commander Ivers
Robert Lewis	...	Jake Sternlight
Mary Ann Skoll	...	Judith Mason
Doug Jones	...	Elder Alien
Eg Mahan	...	Wounded Alien
Kevin Conway	...	The Control Voice (voice)

Trivia:

The title refers to the theory of relativity of Albert Einstein introduced in 1905.

It was OK anyway.

Problems with the New Outer Limits. Many.

First was that at most half the scripts were really worth doing at all which is inexcusable given the vast resources of untapped stories in decades of science fiction and fantasy magazines and books.

Another was the dubious choice to remake a few of the best original series stories producing episodes that were manifestly inferior to the old black and white version in every way but looks. Exceptions might be "Feasibility Study" that was not far off the original as I recall, and "I,Robot" when we must choose between the good simple Adam Link of old, or the new dark, brooding, punky one. In the original the good people were the cynics, now the robot is a cynic too! At least both were good episodes. Definitely no exception for the "Inheritors" chopped down to a cold, sickly one hour.

The worst problem was that at least once each season the producers grossly compounded their deficiencies by turning out an episode made out of recycled scenes from earlier ones with the lamest script of all (no exceptions). A budget saver for sure but an insult to any serious and knowledgeable viewer. This was bad enough when it was one episode but the producers topped themselves with a two part regurgitation, "Final Appeal", that wasted an astounding battery of well known major actors and actresses headed by no less than Charleton Heston.

About as bad as that was, was the addition of superfluous text (was this a legal thing?) to the signature control voice speech that starts every show, and the pretentious and usually non sequitur comments of the control voice for the start and end of specific episodes. This was not a problem on the old show but an embarrassing excrescence on the new one.

Another problem, one that applies here, is that there seemed to be a definite mission to deconstruct the 50's sci-fi tradition, still well in evidence in the original series, that one way or another, no matter how out-brained, out tech-ed, or even out-numbered, humanity always emerged triumphant(1). It would not be a problem, in fact it is long overdue on TV, except that it usually resulted in rather facile, contrived episodes that were merely snarky, or dreary and obvious preaching rather than good sci-fi with a message. Thus the reviewer that complains of the baldly preachy episodes found in this series has a point. But I liked this one anyway if only for the pleasure of seeing the consternation of the swaggering corporate mercenaries (compare to the real life example of Blackwater contractors in the field today) among the crew when they finally realized that they had affirmed their manhood and species superiority by boldly wiping out a scout troop on a camp-out, the parents had arrived, and they were going to get their final lesson in survival of the fittest in short order after their files were uploaded, and resistance was indeed futile. It is a nice enough twist for a respectable short story in a magazine or a one hour TV show. One of most successful of these deconstruction episodes.

Still I was glad someone was giving this a try and getting on the air. The best of these episodes are better than a typical "sci-fi channel original" movie and nearly all are better than the rest of the trash passed off as original sci-fi on cable. I would forgive them almost everything if it weren't for those awful and insulting recycle episodes.

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(1) Is this merely pandering? Or is it a significant expression of the arrogant assumptions of the place of humanity in the cosmos that pervade most the world's cultures and religions?