ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

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All Sci-Fi member Pow has contributed quite a few excellent posts in the original five-page thread for The Outer Limits which focused on specific episodes.

I've pasted his text below to start a thread for this one. Here's what Pow posted.
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The Outer Limits: The Official Companion by David J. Schow & Jeffrey Frentzen.

"The Architects of Fear" September 30, 1963, written by Meyer Dolinsky, Directed by Byron Haskin.

Is this the day? Is this the beginning of the end? There is no time to wonder, no time to ask, "Why is this happening, why is it finally happening?" There is only time for fear, for the piercing pain of panic. Do we pray? Or do we merely run now, and pray later? Will there be a later? Or is this the day?

Plot Synopsis: An idealistic coterie of scientists resolves to unify the warring nations of Earth by providing a common enemy to unite against, an extraterrestrial scarecrow that will land a spaceship while the United Nations is in session, and confront the General Assembly, laser pistol in hand.

They draw lots, where one of them will undergo a radical surgical procedure that will transform him into "a perfect inhabitant of the planet Theta."

The Outer Limits problems with budget hassles and lackluster scripts were both squashed for the first time by "Architects of Fear," a compelling episode that showcased many of the elements that became icons of the program's unique identity.

Despite its obvious plot contrivances, the show is frankly unforgettable, with convincing, straight-arrow performances and dead tough dialogue. It features what is probably the most ambitious monster suit ever attempted for TV, a creation that caused not only a deluge of fan mail, but an unexpected bout with home-town censorship.

Producer/writer Joseph Stefano wanted strongly to make shows that looked like short feature films instead of run-of-the-mill TV, and with "Architects of Fear" both he and The Outer Limits began to hit their stride.

The strengths of "Architects" are tied into human dilemmas: Allen Leighton's (Robert Culp) devotion to scientific ideals versus his genuinely sensitive relationship with his wife, Yvette (Geraldine Brooks); project head Gainer's tight-lipped, almost fanatic dedication versus his obvious for the ordeal Allen, his friend, must endure; the cadre of scientists, regular guys all, capable of the best intentions, yet victimized by screwups and poor insight. To try and unite the world, they destroy the already perfect union of two people. Instead of bettering the world, they kill one of the small good things left in it. Allen's transformation is an attempt by a group of technologically-advanced geniuses to redress the global nuclear threat made possible by their own scientific predecessors. They assume a massive responsibility for humankind, and then blow it. But even their hideous miscalculation is treated with a rare degree of compassion by the story.

Hungarian stuntman & acrobat Janos Prohaska was brought in by episode director Haskin to portray the alien.

Prohaska's specialties included playing apes in circuses and on TV (he later became the popular Cookie Bear on The Andy Williams Show), and building monster costumes that defied the man-in-a-suit look in his Santa Monica workshop.
"Everyone at Projects Unlimited worked on that costume," said Jim Danforth, "and I think Byron Haskin designed it." The enormous headpiece was sculpted by Wah Chang.

Sidebar: Project Unlimited, Inc. was the first true special effects company and it designed and developed The Outer Limits visually unique aliens, executed model animation and optical trickery, and served as a catch-all special effects pool that participated in each of the series' forty-nine episodes.

The company heads were Wah Ming Chang & Gene Warren, along with Tim Baar, the "gang boss" who assembled the group in 1958. Chang would play a significant role in Star Trek: TOS where he designed the tricorder & communicator.

Scarecrows and magic and other fatal fears do not bring people closer together. There is no magic substitute for soft caring and hard work, for self-respect and mutual love. If we can learn this from the mistake these frightened men made, then their mistake will not have been merely grotesque. It will have been at least a lesson---a lesson at last to be learned.

Sidebar: We all keep on mentioning just how relevant the theme of episodes of The Outer Limits, The Twilight Zone, or Star Trek remain even decades later. And that's the scary part, isn't it? If these ideas are still just as significant in the 21st century as they were in the 20th century, we are still in deep trouble, aren't we?

The alien Thetan is still an impressive monster suit. So scary that several regional ABC affiliates at the time of the airing would black out the scenes of the alien.

In spite of Meyer Dolinsky's marvelous script there are several unanswered questions for the audience.

How did Earth come by the small alien Thetan exactly? Did we go to the planet & capture it? Where is Theata located and how did we manage to have a spaceship that could travel that far in outer space?

The Thetan-fake comes to Earth in a space ship. It looks like it could have been an Earth vessel. Why would Thetans have designed a spaceship just like ours? It takes an army of experts at NASA & enormous resources to launch a spaceship off the Earth. Just how did this small group of scientists manage to achieve such an incredible feat by themselves? Once the ship crashed the experts would examine its technology and realize it was not from some highly advanced alien civilization.
Did the scientists design the working laser gun? It certainly wasn't something our technology was capable of at that time.

The script never truly addresses any of these obstacles, it never gives us any real details to this astounding charade as to how such a small group of scientists could have realistically pulled any of this off.

Yet, it is a powerful episode from the human themes it addresses and remains one of my favorite TOL episodes.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)