Alternate Timelines and Rubber Monsters Galore!

Between Light and Shadow: A Twilight Zone Podcast ran for five years, from October 2016 to November 2021 (which sounds more impressive than it actually is, given the fact that I only managed to generate 69 total installments that entire time). It was always my intent to do some sort of Outer Limits-centric tangent-type episode at some point during those years, which the second half of the 2020 David J. Schow double feature extravaganza (detailed last time) did sorta satisfy… emphasis on sorta. 

See, back at the show’s inception, I seriously considered doing an Outer Limits podcast instead. At that time there were NO podcasts exclusively devoted to TOL and only a smattering of websites (this blog, We Are Controlling Transmission, maybe one or two others). The Twilight Zone, on the other hand, was well represented on both fronts. So why did I choose The Twilight Zone? I think it ultimately came down to---- which show did I know better? Which show had I loved longer? 

Do I regret my decision? If I’m being honest---- Christ, yes. 100%. Don’t get me wrong--- I’m (mostly) proud of the podcast, now that a bit of time has passed since it ended (but I struggled--- sometimes mightily so--- with that fucker while I was doing it). From Day One I was always nipping at the heels of established giants (The Twilight Zone Podcast and The Twilight Pwn, chiefly), and my little show never really took off as I’d hoped it would. Had I gone the OL route instead, I would’ve been the only game in town (until Victor Gamboa launched The Outer Limits Podcast in November 2017, that is). 

And you know what? I suspect I would’ve enjoyed the experience more had I done an OL podcast. 

When I started crafting the aforementioned Outer Limits-centric tangent-type episode for BL&S, I leaned hard into the Sophie’s Choice decision and imagined an alternate universe in which I had in fact taken that proverbial road less travelled. Marvel’s What If? had just finished its first season, so it felt like the perfect time to riff on the whole Multiverse thing.  

On November 11, 2021, mere weeks before the show breathed its last, I rolled out the inaugural (and only) installment of Between Awe and Mystery: An Outer Limits Podcast, which focused on the “Tourist Attraction” episode. It's basically the EXACT same format as Between Light and Shadow--- it’s got the same segment jingles, the usual customary music segment with Dr. Reba Wissner, the same lame dad jokes--- but with one critical difference: DJS was on board as essentially a co-host. Check it out:

We treated the whole thing as if we’d been doing The Outer Limits the whole time… and managed to confuse a couple of listeners in the process, who apparently weren’t hip to the whole super-meta in-joke thing. Jesus, the What If? bit at the beginning wasn’t enough of a hint? Sheesh.  

Remember “The Forms of Things Unknown,” which was shot two different ways in order to create both an Outer Limits episode and a pilot for a projected series called The Unknown? My chat with DJS about “Tourist Attraction” was similarly intended to serve two distinct purposes. After the podcast version, it would be rearranged and remixed to serve as a straight Blu-ray audio commentary for…. 

Well, what, exactly? That, kids, remains to be seen. We got the idea from our colleague Tim Lucas, who was commissioned by a fan in 2021 to record an ala carte commentary track for “It Crawled Out of the Woodwork.” There were eleven Outer Limits that didn’t receive the commentary treatment in either the Kino Lorber or the Via Vision Blu-ray releases, which became ten after Lucas’ effort… and now, with the finished (but presently homeless) “Tourist Attraction,” there are nine. I suspect DJS and I (and others) won’t rest until EVERY episode has at least one commentary track attached to it. WHERE these tracks might appear is the real question. 

Full disclosure: DJS and I briefly entertained the idea of doing a limited series podcast in which we’d cover only the episodes that never got audio commentaries. I even mocked up a graphic for it: 

...an obvious riff on his book The Outer Limits at 50. The plan was to release new episodes on a monthly basis throughout 2019 (leading up to the show’s 55th anniversary). We obviously never got around to it, but…. hey, you never know. Next year is the show’s 60th anniversary, after all (watch your back, Victor!). 

Next time: Betritt die Nachtgalerie...