Episode Spotlight: "Wolf 359" (11/07/1964)

“Wolf 359”

Season 2, Episode 8 (40 overall)

Originally aired 11/07/1964

Fifty years ago tonight, a determined scientist cloned an entire planet and still had time for cocktails, steaks and sex. Damn, this cat is sci-fi's answer to James Bond.

Doctor Jonathan Meridith has constructed a complete replica--- in extreme miniature--- of a distant planet in the Wolf 359 system (hence the title) and, since billionaire tycoon Philip Exeter Dundee (no relation to the Exeter of This Island Earth as far as I know) is funding the project, the mini-planet is christened “Dundee Planet.” Time passes at a profoundly accelerated rate inside the hermetically-sealed room which houses the planet, thanks to the planet’s diminished scale, allowing Meridith to witness environmental changes over the centuries, and to determine if the actual planet might be safe to visit or even colonize. When Dundee asks if it’s possible that “animate life” might develop, Meridith coyly repliesthat he “wouldn’t dream of anything like that.” However, the smile on his face clearly indicates that he’s hoping for that very thing, and his introduction of human DNA into the planet’s ecosystem proves his ambition.

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The experiment works, and a miniature human race develops and rapidly evolves, its history paralleling that of the earth. Unfortunately, something else develops as well: an evil phantom creature which is able to transcend Dundee Planet and can leave the greenhouse room at will, killing anything it comes into contact with.

Meridith becomes aware of the creature’s lethality and takes it upon himself to complete the research alone, sending his wife Ethel to stay elsewhere and firing his assistant Peter to protect them. He witnesses his tiny offspring gradually succumbing to the pervasive influence of the entity until, consumed with hatred, they bomb themselves out of existence. The phantom then turns its deadly attentions to Meridith.

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Ethel arrives, having experienced a premonition of sorts that Meridith is in trouble. As the entity chokes the life out of him, he begs her to destroy the planet, which she does by hurling a chair through the protective glass of the greenhouse. The miniature planet’s atmosphere dissipates and the creature vanishes.

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RANDOMONIUM

“Wolf 359” began life as “Greenhouse,” a story treatment by Richard Landau (probably best known to genre fans for co-scripting the 1955 cult classic The Quatermass Xperiment), and was crystallized into script form by associate producer/story editor Seeleg Lester. The five-pronged cast evokes Joseph Stefano’s scripts of season one, particularly “The Bellero Shield” and “The Forms of Things Unknown,” both of which are populated by quintets. While “Wolf 359” doesn’t quite attain the theatricality (or the audacious brilliance) of those earlier efforts, it’s still a nice subliminal throwback. And with its meditation on human/alien evolution, it evokes season one’s “The Sixth Finger” as well. The core idea--- a miniature model of an alien planet spawning a demonic entity--- is one of season two’s more interesting concepts, something the season one gang might've exploited much better... but that's not to say that the episode as is is a failure by any means.

“Wolf 359” is directed by Laslo Benedek (who also helmed five Stoney Burkes as well as “The Man with the Power” and “Tourist Attraction,” both in season one). Much of season two is brightly lit and relatively flat, so it's a welcome surprise that this week's offering has much to offer in the way of atmosphere and shadows (it feels a bit like season one at times, particular during Ethel's late-night stroll around the house). There's a nice sense of space throughout; ample time is allowed for characters to simply react with silent dread to the impossibility of the ghostlike creature hovering before their eyes, effecting a creepy vibe that never feels like unnecessary padding. Director of Photography Kenneth Peach contributes an awesome first-person POV shot approaching--- and then looking through--- the periscopic viewfinder at Dundee Planet and it's resident cranky critter, which is generally referred to as the Plag Creature, even though it's never called that in the episode.

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The barbecue scene in act one looks like an outtake from a Mad Men episode. We got the men discoursing about bourbon and martinis while Meridith’s wife just sits there looking pretty and doling out canapés (and enduring the thinly-veiled come-ons from her husband’s boss). Speaking of come-ons, what’s with the overlong shot of the Meridiths in bed, stroking one another’s hands in the dark? It’s gotta be an implied sex thing, only a lot more subtle than the customary train going through a tunnel shot.

On a related note, was anyone else driven to distraction by that phallic cactus on the Meridiths’ porch (time stamp 29:38)?

Insert (har har) dick joke here.

It gets worse (or sexier, depending on your level of sexual deviance): we learn that Meridith uses human DNA, presumably his own, to spark the emergence of sentient life on Dundee Planet. I’m reminded of that wicked and wacky Doctor Pretorius from 1935’s Bride of Frankenstein, who successfully grew miniature people (his beloved homunculi) using his own “seed.” We unfortunately aren't privy to the specific details behind Meridith’s injecting of his genetic material into the planet, but I’m envisioning a cocktail-heavy Saturday night in which he forwent his comely wife’s advances and instead stuck his, um, phallic cactus into that hot, curvy little planet in his lab.

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Oh hell, there are guinea pigs in the lab! As soon as I saw them, I just knew they were gonna die…. Just like those bunnies in “Specimen: Unknown” last season. Oh shit, the ant colony too? Too bad Henry Mancini didn’t score this episode (get it? Please tell me you get it). And holy fuck, now the parakeet’s dead? Y’now, this whole thing is starting to feel like a variation on Shelley’s Frankenstein, with its lab-created monster rampaging around and slaughtering folks. Wait, it kills a fucking tree too? This is nothing short of a bona fide massacre! It’s really a shame that this episode wasn’t ready to go a week earlier... between its devil-like antagonist and overall spooky atmosphere, it has Halloween written all over it.  Plus, c’mon…. that Plag Creature looks a lot like a ghost, don’tcha think?

 Good grief! Sally's head looks a helluva lot like the Plag, which opens up a whole different Pandora's Box of weirdness.

Science types are probably aware that Wolf 359 is a red dwarf star in the constellation Leo (it's that little orange dot in the middle of the picture at right; thanks, Wikipedia!). Sci-fi nerds like me, meanwhile, know it best as the location of The Borg’s massacre of the Federation fleet in “The Best of Both Worlds, Part 2” on Star Trek: The Next Generation.

The aftermath of the battle at Wolf 359. This isn't actually an image from the show... but it's way neater than anything I could've possibly screen-capped from the blurry version Netflix has to offer.

“Wolf 359” was parodied on The Simpsons in 1996 in Treehouse of Horror VII (the “Genesis Tub” segment). Lisa Simpson unwittingly grows a colony of miniature people after her extracted tooth is charged with electricity. She observes them evolving at an accelerated rate and is revered as their benevolent God. In a nice twist, they regard her obnoxious brother Bart as the devil.

The Plag Creature is one of the subtlest, most minimalist “bears” in the entire series (even less complex than that light-up Christmas tree-topper Eck), but somehow its simplicity serves to enhance its malevolence; it’s as if  possessing less detail streamlines the evil that emanates from it. It’s like a spectral Terminator: “It can't be bargained with. It can't be reasoned with. It doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are dead.” But it is really simple… so simple, in fact, that I’ll bet a talentless oaf like me could make his own. That’s right, kids, it’s time for another installment of Project Limited, Ltd.!

My first inclination was to somehow pull this off using Kleenex tissues and a lollipop, but it was just too damned small. Here's what I used instead:

His dork materials:

gloves, balloons, chopstick. Sharpie and Scotch tape not pictured.

To quote Dr. Finkelstein from The Nightmare before Christmas: “(It’s) construction should be exceedingly simple.” But was it? More importantly, did it turn out okay? See for yourself: ladies and gentlemen, I give you--- His Satanic Majesty!

I cribbed Meridith’s climatic showdown with the Plag Creature for The Adventures of Can’t-Miss Craig, a collection of short films I made way back in 1992. The premise involved a guy (played by me; I worked cheap) who experiences a crisis of faith and challenges God to prove his existence by helping him sink difficult basketball shots (this was back in my Christian days, before I became enlightened--- and essentially agnostic if not downright atheist). He then finds himself cursed with the inability to miss a shot, no matter how impossible (the moral: don't challenge The Lord thy God, lest thou be ever afflicted. Subtle, eh?). The concept mutates throughout the shorts until the ball itself emerges as a sentient nemesis. One Halloween night, our unfortunate hero finally snaps and murders the ball with a butcher’s knife… only to be haunted by a hysterically stupid in-camera effect intended to represent the ball’s ghost. Have a look:

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DEJA VIEW

Judging by the photographic evidence, it appears that the miniature Dundee Planet is a combination of the Mars from “The Invisible Enemy” and the future Earth of “Soldier.” The use of the Martian Sand Shark is an interesting choice in particular, given the fact that Lester’s original script (and maybe Landau’s initial story treatment too, I dunno) dealt with a miniature duplicate of… yep, you guessed it, Mars.

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GRILL OR BE GRILLED

Ye olde pastime of barbecuing animal flesh, first glimpsed in “Cold Hands, Warm Heart” last month, is depicted again this week, gloriously so: a gorgeous closeup of sizzling steaks on the grill opens act one. I’m a sucker for a good steak, so my mouth instinctively began watering when I saw it (it’s watering again as I type this, in fact). Summer’s long gone, but I’m a staunch supporter of year-round grilling, so some medium-rare cowboy ribeyes may be on the menu very soon….

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AURAL PLEASURE

Harry Lubin’s contributions this week include a lovely cue called “Celestial Bodies,” which sounds vaguely similar to his familiar end title music (“Supernatural"; also heard during the episode this week), chilled out and augmented with wordless female vocals (think Alexander Courage’s Star Trek theme, which was still a couple of years off in 1964). Other Lubin pieces underlining “Wolf 359” include “Mental Anguish” (also heard in “Soldier”), “Hostile Galaxy” (accompanying the Control Voice prologue intro), “Hostile Space” and “Evil Apparition.”

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DRAMATIS PERSONAE

This week’s cast all have something in common (besides their appearing together here): all appeared on at least one of Alfred Hitchcock’s television series. Cue Charles Gounod’s Funeral March of a Marionette and read on.

Jonathan Meridith is played by Patrick O’Neal, whose genre credentials include two run-ins with Rod Serling (“A Short Drink from a Certain Fountain” on The Twilight Zone and “A Fear of Spiders” on Night Gallery). O’Neal also showed up on Alcoa Presents One Step Beyond (“The Return of Mitchell Campion”) and The Alfred Hitchcock Hour (“Bed of Roses”).

Sara Shane (Ethel Meridith) has very few genre credits, and all of them came at the very end of her career. She popped up on Alfred Hitchcock Presents (“The Old Pro”), The Alfred Hitchcock Hour (“Captive Audience”) and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (“Long Live the King,” which guest-starred TOL alum Carroll O'Connor and was her final acting gig). She’s now known as Elaine Hollingsworth, controversial holistic medicine proponent and Director of the Hippocrates Health Centre in Queensland, Australia. And yes, she’s definitely a TOL Babe (she still looks pretty damn good at 86).

If Ben Wright (Phillip Exeter Dundee) looks familiar, it’s because he’s already visited The Outer Limits three times  before (“Nightmare,” plus he did voice work on “Moonstone” and “A Feasibility Study”). He first blipped on Daystar Productions' radar when he scored a gig on their pre-TOL series Stoney Burke (“Point of Entry”). Other genre credits of note include three appearances on The Twilight Zone ("Judgment Night," "Death's-Head Revisited" and "Dead Man's Shoes"), three on The Alfred Hitchcock Hour (“A Home Away from Home,” “Murder Case” and “Thou Still Unravished Bride”), and one-offs on The Fugitive (“Nobody Loses All the Time”) and The Invaders (“Summit Meeting: Part 1”).

Peter Jelicoe is played by Peter Haskell, whose other genre credits include roles on The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (“The Mad, Mad Tea Party Affair”), The Fugitive (“Runner in the Dark”), Land of the Giants (“Return of Inidu”), and The New Alfred Hitchcock Presents (“The Canary Sedan” in 1986). Fans of cheesy horror film sequels may recognize him as the assholish Mr. Sullivan, CEO of Play Pals Toy Company, in both Child’s Play 2 (1990) and Child’s Play 3 (1991).

Dabney Coleman turns in his third and final Outer Limits performance as James Custer (you can spot him in “The Mice” and “Specimen: Unknown,” both from season one).  Coleman’s other genre work includes an impressive four stints on The Fugitive (“World’s End,” “Nicest Fella You’d Ever Want to Meet,” “Coralee” and “Approach with Care”), two on The Invaders (“The Innocent” and “The Saucer”), and two on The Alfred Hitchcock Hour (“Dear Uncle George” and “Isabel”).

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HOME VIDEO RELEASES

“Wolf 359” was released on VHS in 1991 (one of the final dozen Outer Limits episodes to hit home video) and sported a classy, understated cover. As with many of these tape boxes, the cover image was a collage of multiple images from the episode, in this case these two:

For its inclusion in Columbia House’s mail-order Collector’s Edition club, it shared tape space with “Cry of Silence,” which made for a dry n' dusty desert double feature.

I have a love-hate relationship with MGM Home Video, and here’s why: they released the entire series on DVD (season one in 2002, season two in 2003), which is awesome since one could replace his/her 48-volume VHS collection with higher-quality versions for a fraction of the cost (SRP was $12.95 per tape, and each DVD set was around $50.00, so… you do the math, I’m busy typing), saving large amounts of shelf space in the process. What’s not so awesome is the fact that they used double-sided DVDs, which have proven immensely unreliable (even prone to failure) over time. They then re-released the series in 2007, split up into three volumes, which would’ve been awesome if they’d used single-sided discs… but they didn’t. That’s right, kids, they foisted the same unreliable double-sided discs onto an unsuspecting public. A mere year later, they collected those three volumes into one omnibus collection, still using the same accursed discs. This means that they’ve been selling the same exact discs for twelve freakin’ years, and there’s no indication that they’ll ever remaster the series in high-definition for a Blu-ray release. So I guess my relationship with MGM is more hate than love.

If you’re a relatively new fan, or a longtime fan who never bought the series, and you’re considering seeking out the series on DVD, stop right there. Why would you give MGM any of your hard-earned cash? You all have computers, and you all have an internet connection (obviously, since you’re reading this blog), so point your browser of choice (I prefer Google Chrome, personally) to Hulu, where you can stream all 49 episodes of the series absolutely free. Too good to be true, you say? Perhaps… or maybe it’s the universe making up for MGM’s bullshit.

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MERCHANDISE SPOTLIGHT

Models are usually more impressive if they’re packed with intricate detail; however, sometimes simplicity and clean lines can yield something compelling and beautiful. Case in point: Dimensional Designs’ 1/8-scale resin Plag Creature model kit (DD/OL/PC-27), an elegant and graceful sculpt by Chris Choin. Obviously there’s no assembly required, and for all I know the thing is already white out of the box, but damn is it ever gorgeous. Here’s Mr. Enamel’s completed specimen, which is just plain breathtaking:

If I ever get around to collecting some of these (which will require me to employ someone with finesse, patience and artistic ability to do the painting), the Plag Creature is definitely on my short list of must-haves. If you’d like your own Plag Creature, be prepared to pony up $49.95 plus shipping.

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THE WRAP-UP

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“Wolf 359” is one of season two’s better offerings (I’d probably put it in my top five). The premise is intriguing, the effects are well done (that foggy planet behind the glass really adds to the production value), the acting is uniformly good… and yes, the steaks are grilled to perfection. Delicioso!  








Oh, and speaking of delicioso.... here are a couple of modeling shots I found online of the breathtaking and exquisite Sara Shane. Le sigh.

Episode Spotlight: "Cry of Silence" (10/24/1964)

“Cry of Silence”

Season 2, Episode 6 (38 overall)

Originally aired 10/24/1964

Fifty years ago tonight, ABC presented a heady mix of zombies, alien intelligence, and menacing tumbleweeds. It sounds like an Ed Wood movie, I know, but it was actually an episode of The Outer Limits… and thankfully, it wasn’t nearly as goofy as it sounds.

Andy and Karen Thorne are out for a leisurely drive in the desert (I think they’re checking on some property or something; it’s never really clear) when they spot a truck screeching away from a semi-hidden side road. Andy deduces that that’s the road they’re looking for and heads down it…. and promptly collides with a giant boulder sitting in the middle of the road. While he casts a curious eye at the damage, Karen manages to fall down a steep hill and twist her ankle something fierce.

Andy joins her at the bottom of the hill. They are suddenly beset by a herd of ornery tumbleweeds, which have apparently come to life and are feeling felonious. They form a wall around the Thornes, trapping them as night falls. Andy builds a fire and discovers that these unusual tumbleweeds don’t burn… they explode. A shadowy stranger---- a local farmer, Lamont--- arrives and helps them past their captors.

Back at Lamont’s farm, the Thornes learn that a meteor crashed in the canyon two weeks earlier, and that the tumbleweeds came to life shortly thereafter. Lamont indicates that his wife fled a week ago, and the three resolve to leave the canyon together for help. They are assaulted on all sides by hundreds of aggressive frogs, and opt to stick around the farm until the morning.

The trio attempts to leave again at daybreak and is tormented by boulders that move of their own volition. Lamont is crushed to death by one of them, and the Thornes narrowly make it back to the farm in one piece. Andy discovers a journal kept by Lamont and, after reading its contents, concludes that the various plagues--- the tumbleweeds, the frogs and the boulders--- are in fact a formless intelligence, probably alien in origin, that is inhabiting various objects in an attempt to communicate with the residents of Earth.

Lamont shows up, now a stiff and inarticulate zombie. Andy tries to get him to write, but only a few meaningless scrawlings are produced before Lamont’s dead fingers lock up from rigor mortis. But this dead end opens up a big new avenue: the invisible alien force can inhabit a human being. Andy decides to hypnotize himself in order to make his body available for possession.

And it works…. sort of. Through Andy, the alien laments its inability to establish contact with Earth, apparently deaf to Karen’s impassioned attempts to gets its attention. The alien vacates Andy and departs Earth. “It just couldn’t hear me,” Andy broods.

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RANDOMONIUM

“Cry of Silence” is directed by Charles Haas, the second of four episodes he’ll ultimately direct (he helmed last month’s “Cold Hands, Warm Heart,” and he’ll be back later this season for “Keeper of the Purple Twilight” and “The Brain of Colonel Barham”). There’s really nothing to complain about here… Haas stages the action quite well and doesn’t commit any major sins. The shot of Karen’s stunt double tumbling down the rocky canyon wall is memorably and beautifully achieved (and is definitely wince-inducing, the true mark of a well-rendered onscreen injury). The remote location shooting adds immeasurably to the episode’s production value.

The episode is written by Robert C. Dennis, who will contribute three more scripts in the coming months (“I, Robot,” “The Duplicate Man,” and “The Brain of Colonel Barham”; the latter will re-team him with this week’s director Charles Haas); here, he reaches for something above your average alien invasion-slash-monster-flick fare and is mostly successful. However, the fact that “Cry of Silence” doesn’t devolve into the realm of unintentional comedy (a la Plan 9 from Outer Space) is an achievement in and of itself. Between Karen’s histrionic outbursts (she out-screams Barbara Rush from "The Forms of Things Unknown," believe it or not) , the dangerously wacky plague of frogs, and the giddily surreal sight of those anthropomorphized tumbleweeds rolling around… well, the episode has no business coming off as cerebral as it does. Kenneth Peach’s moody photography absolutely saves the day here (really, all he needs to do is point and shoot at the gorgeous scenery), as do Eddie Albert’s energetic--- yet deadly serious--- efforts to solve the mystery and, later, establish contact with the extraterrestrial intelligence. Lamont… hoo boy, he could go either way: he vacillates wildly between auténtica loco and just plain goofy, but he ends up being just grim enough to push the proceedings over the line into safe (or unsafe as the case may be) territory. “Cry of Silence” isn’t necessarily great Outer Limits fare, but it’s successful despite its potential pitfalls.

from left: The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), The War of the Worlds (1953),
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)

Ultimately, it’s the concept that I find most attractive here. We've seen countless first contacts in TV and films over the years, peaceful or not, but rarely do we see such a dramatic (even heart-wrenching) missed attempt at it. We don’t just root for Andy as he enthusiastically tries to facilitate communication with the alien force--- we root for mankind in general, as such contact might just be the catalyst for a new age of worldwide enlightenment. Potent stuff, to be sure, and it’s a head-shaking tragedy when it doesn’t happen. So close, and yet…. no go, folks. 

The episode's themes remind me of Pink Floyd’s “Keep Talking” (from 1994’s The Division Bell), particularly the chorus:

Why won't you talk to me?

You never talk to me

What are you thinking?

What are you feeling?

Why won't you talk to me?

You never talk to me

What are you thinking?

Where do we go from here?

The venerable Floyd certainly has enough sci-fi meanderings in its expansive catalog (particularly their earlier stuff, see “Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun” from 1968’s A Saucerful of Secrets) to justify a reference here, but "Keep Talking" in particular has another cool high-minded science element: it features a spoken word intro by world-renowned theoretical physicist and author Stephen Hawking, which goes as follows:

For millions of years mankind lived just like the animals

Then something happened which unleashed the power of our imagination

We learned to talk

And later:

It doesn't have to be like this

All we need to do

Is make sure we keep talking.

Sounds like something The Control Voice might say, eh? In fact, the intro narration for "Cry of Silence" attributes man's eventual advancement into space to "prehistoric man discovering the art of communication." That's some pretty deep and meaningful stuff (damn, where's the weed and the laser light show when you need 'em?), but on a lighter note, the camera rests on a chalk drawing of a curvy woman inside a telephone booth just as the CV mentions "the art of communication." Har har.

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Of course we can’t discuss a noncorporeal intelligence without being reminded of Gwyllm Griffiths (from season one’s “The Sixth Finger”), whose hyper-accelerated evolution led him to desire a state of “all thought and no matter, a vortex of pure intellect in space.” Our invisible alien (not to be confused with that hungry rascal The Invisible Enemy, who we’ll meet next week) appears to be exactly what Gwyllm longed to become… before he was sabotaged by that simple-minded---- but oh-so-stunning--- Cathy (Jill Haworth, *sigh*), so it’s nice to see that it’s at least possible (well, in The Outer Limits anyway; I obviously have no way of knowing whether or not real-life man will eventually shed his physical form, and if I did, I probably wouldn’t be permitted to share the info with you Missing Links).

The benevolence of the Extraterrestrial Mind Force™ is a bit hard to swallow upon further reflection. Lamont tells the Thornes that the tumbleweeds swallowed several head of cattle… now why the hell would a noncorporeal Brain Cloud™, alien or otherwise need to eat anything? I’m also a bit perplexed as to why possession by the Unseeable Mist of Intellect™ causes physiological changes in both the tumbleweeds (which explode when ignited) and the frogs (which dissolve in water). That second one is charmingly weird; it isn’t often I’m treated to the sight of a frog fizzing up like a goddamned antacid tablet.

The shots of the tumbleweeds leaping onto the Wall o’ Weeds™ at the end of act one are very obviously happening in reverse. This means that the shots were achieved by simply having someone stand just outside the camera’s range and toss the weeds onto the pile, then running the footage backwards in postproduction... which I suppose is much easier than rigging up an elaborate network of wires. In an interesting bit of Outer Limits continuity, season one’s “The Zanti Misfits” opens with a shot of a tumblin’ tumbleweed and closes with the same shot played backwards. I’m not sure if we’ll see any more tumbleweeds before the series ends, but if we do, I hope like hell that footage gets reversed too. Y’now, for continuity’s sake.

The silhouette of Lamont staring over the top of the tumbleweed wall, flashlight in hand, is a striking image; he’s way creepier than the crunchy critters menacing the Thornes. Lamont is just plain unsettling from the get-go and never lets up (he even comes back from the dead for a weirdness encore), possessing that rare ineffable quality one only finds in the inbred denizens of the deep back woods. Even at his most lucid, he never comes across as the “intellectual” Andy assumes he must be after reading his notes.

And what of the absent Mrs. Lamont? Lamont indicates that she left “about a week” ago, but Karen deduces--- presumably correctly--- that it was in fact Mrs. Lamont herself they witnessed hauling ass out of Dodge the day before. I guess we can chalk Lamont’s misperception of the passage of time as another sign that he’s well on his way to Crazytown.

Lamont’s telephone rings after the alien consciousness makes its final exit. Karen answers it, announces that everyone’s okay, and hangs up. Wait, really? Even though the so-called nightmare is indeed over, there are still serious matters at hand. I guess she was so relieved to be free of cranky tumbleweeds and over-amorous frogs that she completely forgot about the dead guy on the premises, or the wife that will likely come home at some point and find said dead man (was it she who called, I wonder?). Andy and Karen return to their car and drive off into the sunset, neglecting to notify the authorities of a goddamned thing. Eckholes.

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AURAL PLEASURE

The underscore for “Cry of Silence” includes a couple of cues that we also heard last week in “Demon with a Glass Hand” (“Space Particles” and “Danger Signal”). Other selections from Harry Lubin’s extensive music library employed this week include "Ghostly Presence" and "Lost in the Galaxy."

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DRAMATIS PERSONAE

This week’s cast is probably the smallest in the entire series. With only three characters, you’d think all three actors would get credit at the top of act one… but you’d be wrong. Arthur Hunnicutt gets the shaft (his name isn't seen until the end credits roll). None of these three folks appear in any other Outer Limits episodes and have next to no genre connections to speak of; this section will be real quick, in other words.

The impressive résumé of Eddie Albert (Andy Thorne) doesn’t have much in the way of genre work, but he still beats his costars by a country mile. On TV, he popped up in “The Love Affair” episode of The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (a series which starred TOL alum David McCallum); he also appeared on The New Twilight Zone in 1988 (“Dream Me a Life," in which he co-starred with TOL alum Barry Morse) and The Ray Bradbury Theater (“Touch of Petulance”) in 1990. On the big screen, he played The President in 1984’s Dreamscape. No matter what, Albert will forever be remembered for his starring role on TV’s Green Acres, which featured TOL alum Parley Baer in a recurring role.

Karen Thorne is brought to fragile, hysterical life by June Havoc, whose only other foray in the sci-fi/fantasy/horror realm came very late in her career: she played Aunt Clara in the shitty A Return to Salem’s Lot in 1987. She did have a starring role in the 1947 film noir Intrigue, the cast of which included TOL alum Michael Ansara in one of his earliest roles (I’ve never seen the film, which remains unavailable on DVD and Blu-ray; if it did finally get released, I’d likely buy it in a heartbeat for the sole reason that it’s a film noir and I’m a bit obsessed with that particular genre). And no offense to Ms. Havoc, but I would’ve rather seen Eva Gabor play Karen Thorne (for Green Acres-related reasons, naturally; it also doesn’t hurt that Gabor is way hotter than Havoc).

That lanky old hillbilly-cum-dead guy Lamont is played by Arthur Hunnicutt in his only Outer Limits role. His only other genre credit of note is “The Hunt” on The Twilight Zone in 1962, in which he played…. you guessed it, a lanky old hillbilly-cum-dead guy.

I was all set to turn this into a "nut punch" meme, but I've suffered this same torture at the hands (paws?) of my own dogs far too many times, so I know it's no laughing matter.

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HOME VIDEO RELEASES

“Cry of Silence” was one of the final twelve Outer Limits episodes to be released on home video in 1991 (man, ol’ Eddie Albert looks like he’s passing a kidney stone there). For its inclusion in Columbia House’s mail-order club, it was paired with “Wolf 359,” which turns 50 in two weeks.

“Cry of Silence” was left out when 28 (of the 49 total) Outer Limits episodes were released on LaserDisc between 1990 and 1995, which must’ve pissed more than a few collectors off. However, MGM acquitted itself with the 2002 release of the entire first season on DVD (the second season arrived in 2003), but made the unfortunate choice to use dual-layered, double-sided discs (DVD-18s), which are prone to eventual failure. MGM announced that the series would be released again (in three volumes, with the longer first season split in half) on DVD in 2007, which raised the hopes of at least one fan (yeah, it was me) that the series would either be remastered in high definition (as Image Entertainment had done with The Twilight Zone two years earlier) or, at the very least, repressed on standard, reliable single-sided DVDs. Those hopes were unceremoniously dashed when it was revealed that inside the pretty new slim packaging dwelled the same exact discs from five years earlier. The three volumes were collected into one omnibus package in 2008. And now, six years later, MGM still hasn’t revisited the series for a Blu-ray release. I’d love to think that new high definition masters are being created as I type this, but I have absolutely no reason to put faith in MGM at this point.

Full disclosure: the above paragraph was repurposed from an earlier episode spotlight. What’s that? You think I’m lazy? You’re reading this for free, dammit. When I start getting paid, I’ll guarantee 100% original content in every post.

In addition to reading my spotlight of “Cry of Silence” free of charge, you can also watch the episode for free thanks to Hulu, which offers the entire 49-episode series available for streaming.

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MERCHANDISE SPOTLIGHT

Nope, nothing, nada, zip. The landscape of Outer Limits collectibles is pretty sparse to begin with, but even if it weren’t, what exactly could be merchandised from this episode? Commemorative rubber frogs? A tumbleweed action figure with jumping action? How about a rendering of the formless, invisible alien intelligence? Actually, that gag’s already been done…

I suppose one could put together a Lamont action figure using a Cletus from Playmates’ extensive Simpsons action figure collection….you’d just need to find plastic frogs, tumbleweeds and boulders of the correct size for accessories. The Simpsons has parodied a number of Twilight Zone episodes over the years (as well as the Outer Limits opening sequence for their Treehouse of Horror V Halloween special; see below)… if they opted to lampoon “Cry of Silence,” they would almost certainly slot Cletus into the Lamont role, don’tcha think?

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THE WRAP-UP

“Cry of Silence” isn’t quite top-twenty material, but it’s by no means a bad episode either. Hysterical wife aside (Andy’s, I mean, not mine), it serves as an engrossing meditation on something of a worse-case scenario if and when that glorious first contact scenario finally presents itself: what if we can’t see or hear one another? In 2009, the National Research Council published The Limits of Organic Life in Planetary Systems, which ended with the following sentiment: "Nothing would be more tragic in the American exploration of space than to encounter alien life and fail to recognize it.” What if, as in “Cry of Silence,” that extraterrestrial life met us here, on our own turf, and couldn’t recognize us as life?