My Life in the Glow of The Outer Limits – In Closing

And here we are. The end.

Some of you are aware that this blog was preceded by a similar 50th-anniversary rewatching endeavor for The Twilight Zone, the golden anniversary of which spanned 2009-2014. Somehow that one never felt as important, despite the fact that TZ has historically been a much more important series to me.  It wasn’t as if I had anything especially important to add to the existing critical commentary on the series (I of course refer to David J. Schow’s books, as well as the We Are Controlling Transmission blog), but there was always some strange urgency driving me. The past year-and-a-half has found me forgoing sleep, family time and a social life, and now that I can now look back at this thing as a complete work… well, I’m not convinced the end product completely justifies the effort.

Believe it or not, that’s not me fishing for validation. It’s the self-critical, never-satisfied voice in my head talking. There are other voices in there.

There’s of course an inherent gratification in simply finishing at all, and I do quite like some of the things I’ve written (I may have espoused a select few valuable insights, I dunno). And I have contributed a lot of memes to the bottomless rabbit hole that is the internet, so there’s an achievement (admittedly somewhat dubious; but Christ, if we can’t laugh at things we love, what’s the point?). The single greatest pleasure I’ve experienced, however, has been the interaction with other fans of the show. My regular comment-leavers often provided the extra bit fuel I needed to cross the finish line each week, so thanks, folks (y’all know who you are). There’s an undeniable warm ‘n fuzzy comfort to crossing paths with others who share one’s interests.

And of course I can't wrap this production without a special tip o' the hat to David J. Schow, whose presence and influence informs these pages more than anyone will ever know. He's the veritable Yoda to my clumsy and awkward Luke Skywalker. He's also an imminently cool cat, and I'm proud and tickled as hell to call him a friend. If you'd told me in 1986 (the year his Companion first saw print) that I'd one day be in regular contact with this brilliant and singular scholar of That Which We Hold Dear and Sacred, I probably would've pissed myself (I was seventeen and a virgin, so what else would I have done?).

Jesus, all these teary-eyed finalities and I’m not even quite done here. I still plan to retroactively reformat the first half of season one’s entries to match the later ones (this means bigger pictures, essentially). I may also tweak the content here and there and add additional thoughts or comments as they occur to me. I do, after all, reserve the right to revise this particular history (and fix typos as I find them; goddammit, typos are the bane of my existence). And there’s still the possibility of a high-definition release of the series, so of course I’ll be addressing that if and when MGM makes it happen. And I still want to spotlight a few other curios related to the series (Leslie Stevens’ Incubus, for example; there’s also the rare and costly Andro/Helosian action figure two-pack that continues to haunt me, as it’s the only hole in my otherwise-complete Sideshow Collectibles Outer Limits collection).

This will all happen sporadically, without deadlines or schedules or promises of regular new content. Interested parties may simply wish to check back every so often (you can also follow me on Google Plus, which should alert you when new posts spring forth).

My next blogging endeavor will take place on my Twilight Zone blog in the fall, where I’ll be revisiting the series’ first season as each episode turns 56. And beyond that…. well, who knows? My pal Bill Huelbig really wants me to tackle the original Star Trek (which turns 50 next year), but right now that seems like a huge undertaking. I’m also toying with the idea of a podcast of some sort (whether that would involve The Outer Limits, The Twilight Zone, or both, or something else altogether remains to be seen). I think in either case, I’d want a co-blogger/co-host… y’now, to take some of the pressure off and whatnot.

And gazing far into the hazy and indistinct future.... if I'm still around for the series' diamond anniversary in 2038, and if we're still blogging on the internet, I might just revisit all 49 episodes again. I'll be 70 at that point, so I can't promise clarity or cohesion (and gawd, the typos will probably be ten times worse; of course, by then we'll probably exist as holo-beings in a vast Matrix-style virtual construct, and the auto-correct will likely be much more sophisticated). Or who knows, I may not even give a shit at that point. In all likelihood I'll be dead, a mere memory in my kids' minds (my oldest will be a bit past my age now at that point). Fuck, I think I'm about to have an out-of-body moment.

Anyway--- it’s been real, bugs and ghouls. And decidedly unreal at the same time. It really couldn’t have been any other way, though... could it?