7.8/1088 votes#1 - The Machine Stops
Season 2 Episode 1 - Aired 10/6/1966
In the far future, the material needs of humankind are tended by the omnipresent Machine, which makes their environment, in vast tunnels beneath the earth, comfortable and safe. But safe from what? And what if the Machine Stops? A young boy, Kuno, finds his questions can't be answered until he has lifted the veil of security and trespassed upon the surface.
Director: Philip Saville
Writer: Kenneth Cavander, Clive Donner, E.M. Forster
- NaN/100 votes
#2 - Frankenstein Mark II
Season 2 Episode 2 - Aired 10/13/1966
A stranger calls at the home of divorcée Anna Preston, asking to collect some of her ex-husband's belongings. Anna agrees, but is suspicious, and tries to contact her 'ex' at the space-research establishment where he worked. But none of his colleagues can tell her where he is and the authorities block all her efforts to find out. Anna grows more convinced that he is in danger, but the truth is more horrifying than even she can imagine.
Director: Peter Duguid
Writer: Hugh Whitemore
- 5.5/1040 votes
#3 - Lambda I
Season 2 Episode 3 - Aired 10/20/1966
Why take the Great Circle route to Australia when you can tunnel through the very molecules of the solid earth itself in a TAU-mode shuttle? When a routine TAU-shuttle becomes entombed in solid rock miles under the earth, the only means of rescue may be the wildly experimental LAMBDA-mode shuttle; and even its creator has no idea how it will behave, or whether its pilot can keep his sanity during the rescue mission.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- 7.7/1054 votes
#4 - Level Seven
Season 2 Episode 4 - Aired 10/27/1966
In the huge, labyrinthine nuclear bunker meant to shield the survivors in government from the aftermath of atomic war, Level 7 is the deepest and the safest from radiation. But in spite of its hermetic isolation, the nerve center of government is ultimately not safe from the consequences of the holocaust which rages miles overhead.
Director: Rudolph Cartier
Writer: N/A
- NaN/100 votes
#5 - Second Childhood
Season 2 Episode 5 - Aired 11/10/1966
Charles Dennistoun, a 60-year-old contestant on 'You Bet a Million' - a quiz show for millionaires - wins the jackpot prize, a course in rejuvenation. But his friends and family have mixed feeling, and the repercussions have blackly comic effects on all concerned.
Director: John Gorrie
Writer: N/A
- NaN/100 votes
#6 - The World in Silence
Season 2 Episode 6 - Aired 11/17/1966
College student Sarah Richards is alone in fearing and disliking the new teaching machines but even she does not foresee the terrifying situation that arises when her supervisor, Stephen Kershaw, re-arranges the machines to conform with revised fire regulations.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- NaN/100 votes
#7 - The Eye
Season 2 Episode 7 - Aired 11/24/1966
Julian Clay is accused of murdering Andrew Maddox - a charge he cannot deny because 'The Eye', a device which records the past, saw him do it, However, the law affords one loophole.
Director: Peter Sasdy
Writer: N/A
- 7.9/1050 votes
#8 - Tunnel Under the World
Season 2 Episode 8 - Aired 12/1/1966
Déja vu: as Guy Birkett goes through the day he has a nagging feeling that he's been here before, experienced this already; except the details are always different. Is it conceivable that he is merely a simulacrum, the ultimate in consumer market surveying? He finds there is a reality behind the reality he knows; but for a pawn to question the reality of the chessboard is a perilous undertaking.
Director: Alan Cooke
Writer: N/A
- NaN/100 votes
#9 - The Fastest Draw
Season 2 Episode 9 - Aired 12/8/1966
Amos Handworthy's grandfather was quick on the draw: as a U.S marshal it was a job requirement if you wanted to stay alive. But now Amos has built a gun-slinging robot, programmed to be a split second slower than him in a gunfight, so that he can perpetuate the myth and glory of his grandfather's frontier past. But will Amos bet his life on a duel with real bullets?
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- NaN/100 votes
#10 - Too Many Cooks
Season 2 Episode 10 - Aired 12/15/1966
Dr Andrew Cook, inventor of a process for making living replicas of human beings, has unwittingly duplicated himself and becomes a secret weapon in the Solar System's struggle for economic survival against a powerful alien culture, the Sentients.
Director: N/A
Writer: Hugh Whitemore
- NaN/100 votes
#11 - Walk's End
Season 2 Episode 11 - Aired 12/22/1966
Dr Saint's offer of a free place in his comfortable old-folks' home appears entirely philanthropic to Miss Claythorpe. However he is suspiciously vague about the treatment that goes with it.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- 8.3/107 votes
#12 - Satisfaction Guaranteed
Season 2 Episode 12 - Aired 12/29/1966
A human-looking robot housekeeper is the latest gadget to acquire in the ceaseless battle to keep up with the Joneses. But housewife Claire Belmont starts to question the wisdom of her husband's purchase when TN3 (Tony) arrives. Can a man-like robot do everything a man can do: but willingly, obediently, tirelessly? Is a robot less than a man, or more?
Director: John Gorrie
Writer: N/A
- NaN/100 votes
#13 - The Prophet
Season 2 Episode 13 - Aired 1/1/1967
Robot QT-1, aboard an orbiting space-station, controls the massive energy beam which transmits the sun's power to receivers on Earth. But QT-1 (Cutie) has some strange bees in his positronic bonnet. How could weak creatures of protoplasm create a nearly invincible, totally logical entity like himself? It is up to his human supervisors, Powell and Donovan, to convince Cutie of his niche in creation before his new robot theology becomes a threat to all life on Earth.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
The Best Episodes of Out of the Unknown Season 2
Every episode of Out of the Unknown Season 2 ranked from best to worst. Discover the Best Episodes of Out of the Unknown Season 2!
Out of the Unknown is a British television science fiction anthology drama series, produced by the BBC and broadcast on BBC2 in four series between...
Genres:Sci-Fi & FantasyDrama
Network:BBC Two
Season 2 Ratings Summary
"The Machine Stops" is the best rated episode of "Out of the Unknown" season 2. It scored 7.8/10 based on 88 votes. Directed by Philip Saville and written by Kenneth Cavander, Clive Donner, E.M. Forster, it aired on 10/6/1966. This episode is rated NaN points higher than the second-best, "Frankenstein Mark II".