The Best Episodes of The Outer Limits

In 1944, young Leon Zgierski (Roman Danylo), an inmate in the Birkenau concentration camp watches as First Lieutenant Karl Rademacher shoots his wife and sends his daughter to the gas chambers. The murder is witnessed by a mysterious figure, time-traveler Nicholas Prentice (Alex Daikun), who grabs Radermacher's SS jacket and, after eluding guards, pulls out an antique watch and vanishes into a glowing orange circle...

Director: Mario Philip Azzopardi

Writer: Sam Egan

FBI agent Jamie Perrin has investigated some pretty strange cases in her time but this one may be the strangest of all. During the last fifty years, seventeen men throughout the country were all murdered with the same gun. This gun is traced to Dr. Theresa Givens, a scientist who recently left a top-secret government agency. This discovery deepens the mystery because Givens was only five years old at the time of the first murder. The gun itself hadn't even been made. While investigating further, Perrin discovers a secret that lies behind the locked door in Dr. Givens' office and learns first-hand of the temptations and dangers of undoing the evils of the past.

Director: Mario Philip Azzopardi

Writer: Steven Barnes

When a lonely physics professor realizes the sun is going to burn out, he knows that he and humanity have only a few hours to live. In that time, Stan resolves to make up for lost years. He courts and proposes to Leslie, a woman he has known for two years but never dated. Leslie, although puzzled, finds herself more and more entranced by Stan until she finds out the reason for Stan's sudden attention. Based on a short story by famed sci-fi writer Larry Niven, this episode brings its characters face to face with both death and their own visions of life - with surprising results.

Director: Joseph L. Scanlan

Writer: Larry Niven

When Tom Young (Peter Flemmming) from the Department of Health travels to a small town in the Pacific Northwest to examine an old case file, it appears as though long ago the town had stopped trying to live in the present. Twelve years have passed since a tragedy killed many of their young children and left the residents without hope, without a future. Many of them are still angry with the medical community for not finding a cure to save the children in their small community. The town's physician, Dr. Malcolm Boussard (Lane Smith) has felt the brunt of their anger - especially since his own two children did not die during the epidemic. Although they were spared, his son Louis (Brad Swaile) still lays in a coma while his daughter Cassie (Rachel Leigh Cook) has learning disabilities and expresses herself through abstract sculpture and artwork. Through hypnosis, Tom begins to probe Cassie's mind and unravels a memory of 'alien' proportions.

Director: Catherine O'Hara

Writer: Naren Shankar

Mona Bailey (Jane Adams) lives with her husband Ned (Peter Outerbridge) in the Clackson Arms, an old apartment building that is being taken over, apartment by apartment, by a mysterious developer called KM Inc. Mona is a hypochondriac, an able-bodied woman who rides a wheelchair, who treats the Physician's Desk Reference like a personal bible and who has not left the building in six months for fear of catching a disease. One day she backs her wheelchair into an electrical box and gets a shock, leaving her hearing strange voices and seeing bodies dropping out of windows...

Director: Helen Shaver

Writer: A L Katz

THE OUTER LIMITS examines the classic domestic fable of a husband who leaves to go to the store and doesn't return for ten years. Where has he been? And why? It happens to Trevor McPhee and his return is more than a little distressing for his wife Theresa, especially since he insists he was in a car crash ... only hours ago. Then, just after they reconcile, he vanishes again ... for another decade. Trevor finds himself trapped between two worlds; one is a recurring nightmare of caves and predatory creatures; the other is the real world, ever-changing as civilization leaves him further and further behind. Is Trevor mad ... or just reaching The Outer Limits?

Director: Jonathan Glassner

Writer: Chris Dickie

Linden Stiles struggles to retain his humanity after heis convicted of a murder he didn't commit. When asked to make a frightful choice: accept execution or become the subject of a secret military experiment -- he chooses to live. As the experiment progresses, Stiles fights the dehumanizing influence of injected DNA from an alien lifeform. The attending doctor is troubled by a growing awareness of the inhumanity of the experiment itself, of the men in charge and of her own role. Using his super-human strength, Stiles escapes. Then, hunted by his former compatriots, he faces a decision even more difficult than the one that set him on such a tragic course.

Director: Mario Philip Azzopardi

Writer: John Whelpley

In this adaptation of Stephen King's short story, Becka Paulson's humdrum trailer park life suddenly becomes very interesting after she accidentally shoots herself in the head while watching her favorite soap opera. The bullet lodges in her brain, leaving a small red dot in her forehead and turning her world upside down. Doc Fink, the town vet, can't find anything wrong -- but Becka notices changes. Suddenly, she's smarter than she's ever been and full of ideas for inventions. Plus, the Handsome Man photo that came with the picture frame is talking to her. He tells her about the town's dark secrets, including her husband Joe's lunch-hour affair with Nancy Voss down at the post office. The Handsome Man is the friend Becka never had -- and a better man than Joe, to be sure -- but is it really wise to count on the advice of a man who lives in an 8x10 frame?

Director: Steven Weber

Writer: Stephen King, Brad Wright

A desperate man from the future travels back to the present to find and kill the carrier of a deadly plague that threatens to annihilate humankind.

Director: Mario Philip Azzopardi

Writer: James Crocker

Henry Marshall is a greedy man who has paid for his greed with a prison sentence but has yet to learn his lesson. His life abruptly changes when he encounters visitors from another planet who instill new sense of compassion for others.

Director: Rebecca De Mornay

Writer: Brad Wright

An environmentally-friendly U.S. Senator's life changes drastically after a freak accident, when he realizes he's actually an alien in disguise, with a "mission" to surreptitiously reconfigure the earth's atmosphere.

Director: William Fruet

Writer: Eric Estrin

As he celebrates his first wedding anniversary, Norman Glass thinks he's the luckiest man alive. His wife Ady, whom he met after the tragic death of her first husband, is stunningly beautiful and talented. She loves him more than anyone alive. They have two great friends, Dennis and Barbara, who were arried on the same day and are just as madly in love as Norman and Ady. But suddenly things start to change. First, Dennis leaves Barbara. Then, Norman must struggle with the strange, growing revulsion he feels when he touches, smells, tastes or sees his lovely wife. Norman thinks he's going crazy, but Barbara and Ady know better. Is love blind? Is beauty only skin-deep? Guess again.

Director: Brad Turner

Writer: Ali Marie Matheson, Richard Matheson, Jon Cooksey

Rusty Dobson has always been a problem child. His single mom decides to send him to the Milgram Academy, an ultra-strict private school that has produced some of the nation's top business and political leaders. What Rusty's mom doesn't know - and what Rusty finds out the hard way - is that Milgram doesn't just build the leaders of tomorrow, it controls them. The academy installs small computer chips in the student's brains, turning them into blindly loyal servants of the academy and The Committee, a shadowy body that controls the project. Thanks to a malfunctioning chip, Rusty has eluded their control so far, but can he escape from this prison of the mind?

Director: Joseph L. Scanlan

Writer: Joel Metzger

""What is reality?"" is the question before Raymond Bava after he collapses during a blizzard and awakens in a private refuge run by Sanford Valle. Valle's companions include his son and daughter-in-law, Thomas and Justine, and Gina Beaumont. Ray, drawn to the gentle Gina, recoils from the callous corruption displayed by the all-controlling Valle and the other inhabitants. Then, following a moment of violence, Ray begins to doubt reality when all the characters, including Gina, reverse roles and personalities. When he is suddenly freed from Valle's control, Ray finds he has been locked in a cryogenic-induced nightmare, but one he must return to fulfill his love for Gina.

Director: Ken Girotti

Writer: Alan Brennert

With Earth under alien rule and millions dead, the human race has been programmed to slavery. A small band of rebels kidnaps Evan, alien leader Koltok's personal slave. Trent Davis, leader of the rebels, tries to return Evan to his former self through arduous deprogramming sessions. To aid in the process, Evan is reintroduced to his wife Jill. As his sessions progress, Evan learns of the death of his daughter. He agrees to join the rebels and assassinate his former master - with devastating results.

Director: Joseph L. Scanlan

Writer: James Crocker

The Tempest, a rickety old spaceship piloted by space colonists John Virgil and Captain Parker, is on a mission of mercy. It is ferrying two bigwigs from Earth, Dr. Vasquez and Governor Mudry, along with a lifesaving vial of serum to the Tabloss Colony, where an epidemic of Ellysia C is devastating the population. But things go horribly wrong when the ship shifts down from lightspeed and crashes somewhere in space. As he attempts to repair the ship, Virgil is bitten by a strange spider-like creature and passes out. When he awakes, he finds himself sliding between two equally convincing realities. Is he battling for his life against the deadly Ellysia C having already delivered the serum and saved the colony, including his beloved wife and his young son, from certain death? Or is he alive, trapped in a spaceship in the middle of nowhere, with no way out? Or are both realities merely hallucinations, one man's desperate attempt to find hope and heroism in a situation too bleak to face?.

Director: Mario Philip Azzopardi

Writer: Hart Hanson

After environmentalists successfully ban the hunting of animals, a black market emerges, with humans paying big money to hunt androids who have outlived their usefulness in the mines. The androids are the perfect prey -- strong and intelligent yet unable to turn on their pursuers, thanks to an inhibitor chip that prevents them from harming humans. A group of bow-hunters, George Nichols (Rob White), his son Eric (Tobias Mehler), his older brother Clute (Bob Gunton) and their guide Pete (David McNally), count on that chip as a safety net while they track down a quartet of androids led by Kel (Doug Savant). Eager to provide his brother and his reluctant nephew with a real challenge, Clute has secretly planted information that allows the androids to disable the inhibitor chip thus allowing them to fight back. The machines, angry at being turned into game, contemptuous of human bloodthirstiness, are only too happy to oblige.

Director: Mario Philip Azzopardi

Writer: Sam Egan

The archeological team has just about given up on finding anything significant in this remote corner of Alaska when Natalie Grainger (Lisa Zane) stumbles upon what appears to be a burial mound. Inside, the team discovers a number of human skeletons, including one dressed in a strange metallic tunic and preserved in an amber cocoon. When Natalie's husband, Curtis (David Cubitt), touches the cocoon, something amazing happens. He begins to see through the eyes of the creature whose bones were contained in amber, an alien with fearsome claws and teeth. This psychic connection also provides a jolt of energy that liquefies the cocoon and initiates the reconstitution of flesh on the alien's bones. As the creature begins to come back to life, some of the team, including Emmet Harley (Robert Picardo) want to call in a big corporate lab in order to cash in on their discovery.

Director: Jeff Woolnough

Writer: Bill Froehlich

Dr. Renee Stuyvesant and her protege Dr. Vance Ridout have perfected the full-body transplant in which a patient's entire disease-riddled body is replaced and Renee has convinced the hospital board to allow her to perform the first such procedure on Dr. Peter Halstead.

Director: Jim Kaufman

Writer: Sam Egan

In Victorian London, someone is killing prostitutes, someone the police have dubbed "Jack the Ripper." On the face of it, John C.V. York (Cary Elwes) is a likely suspect. A once-respected doctor who sunk to absinthe and laudanum addiction after his misdiagnosis killed the young daughter of a Duke. He retains a connection to polite society thanks to the devotion of Lady Ellen Chamberlain (Clare Sims), who loves him and hopes to marry him. But, he is also a habitue of the seedy district where the killings have taken place and has the medical knowledge to make the precise, surgical cuts that are the Ripper's modus operandi...

Director: Mario Philip Azzopardi

Writer: Chris Ruppenthal

Dr. Arthur Zeller is the doormat of the anthropology department, a mild-mannered professor who is the butt of his colleague's jokes and who never gets the respect he deserves. After the department head, Prof. Martin Stansfield passes over his cutting-edge research into evolutionary psychology and funds the project of his rival, Dr. James Feind, Zeller takes matters into his own hands.

Director: Steve Anker

Writer: Erik Saltzgaber

Tom and Wendy seem like the perfect couple, happy together and very much in love. But at night when Wendy sleeps, Tom has terrible memories about being stuck in a burning building with a crying baby. The nightmares, however, aren't real and neither is Tom. He's an android and the ""memories"" are bugs placed in his artificial intelligence by his creator, the late Joe Walker. Walker had originally created Tom to save humans from fires and other dangerous situations. However he anticipated that his colleague, Dr. Edward Normandy, might try to militarize the android and use him as a cyber-soldier-spy and planted the bugs as a way of forcing Normandy to upgrade Tom so the android could think for itself.

Director: Mike Rohl

Writer: Ron Greenstein, Mike Berman

A man believes all his family problems will be solved when he purchases a robot to help around the house.

Director: Mike Rohl

Writer: James Crocker

A biogeneticist illegally clones his comatose wife.

Director: Brad Turner

Writer: Sam Egan

An alien makes an offer to five high school students.

Director: Mario Philip Azzopardi

Writer: James Crocker