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The Worst Episodes of The Outer Limits

Every episode of The Outer Limits ranked from worst to best. Explore the Worst Episodes of The Outer Limits!

The Worst Episodes of The Outer Limits

Anthology series of composed of distinct story episodes, sometimes with a plot twist at the end, with occasional recurring story elements that were often tied...

Seasons7

  1. Background image for Final Appeal (2)
    NaN/10(0 votes)

    #1 - Final Appeal (2)

    S6:E22

    It is the year 2076 and Dr. Theresa Givens, a time-traveler from the 20th Century has been sentenced to death. Her crime - violating severe anti-techology laws passed in the wake of the nuclear holocaust 20 years earlier, an event that destroyed most of the world and prompted those who survived to return to the bucolic world that existed before the Industrial Revolution. Theresa has one last chance for a reprieve. Her lawyer, Nicole Whitely has won leave to appeal to the Supreme Court, a body headed by Chief Justice Haden Wainwright. The balance of the court is divided evenly between conservatives who support the ban on technology and liberals who favor a review. In light of the importance of the case, the government has sent Solicitor General Wallace Gannon, a fierce defender of the law, to argue its case. The court has suspended the normal rules, allowing Theresa to join her lawyer in speaking in her defense.

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    Director:Jim Kaufman
    Writer:Sam Egan
  2. Background image for In the Zone
    2.5/10(2 votes)

    #2 - In the Zone

    S4:E5

    With its deadly lasers and hand-to-hand battles, 'The Octal' is a combat sport for a new generation of athletes - but Tanner Brooks is no longer a young man. Although he's promised his wife Jessica that this will be his final tournament, Tanner is desperate to go out a winner. Dr. Michael Chen has a way to make that happen. Through an experimental treatment that taps the power of the human nervous system, Chen accelerates Tanner's reflexes and perceptions. To Tanner, everything in the Octalbegins to move in slow motion ... and Tanner quickly becomes unbeatable. However, there are side effects: Jessica notices that Tanner is tired, haggard and his hair is going gray. But, when Tanner's body begins to blur and fade out of existence, Tanner and Jessica must choosebetween one last moment of glory ... their love for each other ... and oblivion.

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  3. Background image for Lithia
    3.0/10(3 votes)

    #3 - Lithia

    S4:E17

    It is 2055 and the post-apocalyptic world is populated exclusively by women; all the men were killed in the Great War and the Scourge that followed. Into this matriarchy comes Major Jason Mercer (David Keith), who was cryogenically frozen forty years earlier and now awakened in Lithia. Lithia is a small agricultural enclave overseen by a group of women that include the regal elder Hera (Julie Harris), Ariel (Claire Rankin), Miranda (Nadia Capone) and Pele (Kirsten Williamson). Mercer's arrival sparks a debate about the nature of men among some women and revives long-dormant sexual feelings in others. The debate intensifies as Mercer, seeing the enclave's poverty and primitive tools, begins to repair the community's broken machines and pushes Miranda, the group's trade representative to barter with Hyacinth, a neighboring community, for electricity to run the machines. Over the objections of the elders, Mercer gets the machines running.

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    Director:Helen Shaver
    Writer:Sam Egan
  4. Background image for Nightmare
    3.0/10(2 votes)

    #4 - Nightmare

    S4:E20

    The battle cruiser Tango Bravo, under the command of Capt. Roger Kimbro (Maurice Dean Wint), is captured by the enemy Ebonites as it attempts to deploy a mysterious high-powered military device on planet N-1-8-4. Imprisoned inside a large bronze dome, the crew is addressed by The Voice, an unseen Ebonite interrogator, which demands they reveal the secrets of the device. When they resist, The Voice works on them individually in isolation, probing their weaknesses and testing their loyalty to one another. Capt. Kimbro is greeted by an all-to-real replica of a comrade he abandoned to die. Lt. Christopher Valentine (Cameron Graham) is played a fake tape of Kimbro disparaging his ability as a soldier. Dr. Elayna Chomski (Brandy Ledford) doesn't return from her interrogation at all, and when Maj. Ronald Naguchi (Robin Shou) goes for his, he finds her body dead, ripped open and suspended in liquid. Who will be the first to snap? Kimbro? Valentine? Naguchi?

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    Director:James Head
    Writer:Sam Egan
  5. Background image for Identity Crisis
    3.5/10(2 votes)

    #5 - Identity Crisis

    S4:E10

    Captain Cotter McCoy (Lou Diamond Phillips) is the first of a new breed of soldier. As part of a top secret program overseen by Dr. Greg Olander (Robert Joy), General Langston Chase (Dale Wilson), and Cotter's friend, Colonel Pete Butler (Scott Kraft), the contents of McCoy's brain can be temporarily transferred into an android version of himself. This process creates a virtually indestructible fighting machine with the smarts and experience of a human being. But, one day something goes wrong. During the transfer, the real McCoy's body is blasted with electricity, stopping his heart, inflicting serious brain damage and leaving Cotter's mind trapped in the android body. To make matters worse, the interface between his mind and the android body is flawed. McCoy's motor control is already beginning to break down and the interface will likely collapse within 12 hours.

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    Director:Brad Turner
  6. Background image for The Tipping Point
    3.8/10(4 votes)

    #6 - The Tipping Point

    S7:E19

    A project to develop a universal computer language may lead to all the computers in the world to link and form an artificial intelligence that one computer whiz feels that he must destroy or risk world domination.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
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  8. Background image for Heart's Desire
    4.0/10(1 votes)

    #7 - Heart's Desire

    S3:E8

    A mysterious alien descends upon the town of Heart's Desire and offers to share his extraordinary powers with four outlaws - Jake Miller, his brother Ben and their partners in crime, Frank and J.D. Kelton. Taking on the human form of his first victim, a mild-mannered preacher, the alien follows the quartet to the Miller's hometown and gives both sets of brothers strange new powers that make them virtually invincible. As the Keltons kick off a crime spree by destroying all opposition with blasts of pure energy, Jake struggles with his divided loyalties, between love for his family and his childhood sweetheart Miriam -- and the terrible question: who is this mysterious stranger and why has he given the outlaws such deadly powers?

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  9. Background image for Josh
    4.0/10(1 votes)

    #8 - Josh

    S4:E7

    Tabloid TV reporter Judy Warren (KATE VERNON) knows she's come across a big story when she sees the videotape shot by two tourists in a remote Alaskan park. The tape shows Josh Butler (Alex McArthur), a recluse who lives in a cabin near the park, bringing back to life a young girl who has died after a fall, a feat he accomplishes by generating a mysterious blue glow. But, she only discovers how big a story it is when her pursuit of the strange young man is cut short by a top-secret military unit that is also chasing him. It seems that the blue glow sent out electromagnetic pulses that knocked out two satellites orbiting 20,000 miles above the Earth and the Air Force wants to know what's going on. A battery of tests doesn't produce any answers, leaving the brass, lead by Col. Roger Tennent (Scott Hylands) and Major Samuel Harbeck (Larry Musser) to debate whether Butler is an alien or an angel - someone to be dissected or to be worshipped.

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  10. Background image for Rite of Passage
    4.0/10(2 votes)

    #9 - Rite of Passage

    S4:E8

    The birth of a child is a joyful event, but for Shal and Brav, two young naive humans who live in a small commune in the woods, it is also a mystery and moment tinged with sadness. After Shal gives birth to a son, the first of the commune to do so, she and the baby are taken away by Mother, a wise alien who acts as a parent to the young people. When the aliens send Shal home without her baby, she asks Brav to help her to rescue the child. With the knowledge Shal has gained from her time with Mother, they break through the protective barrier set up by the aliens to discover a new and fascinating world. It is a dangerous trip, with stinging, snake-like crawlers lurking in the shadows. But, it is also a journey of discovery as Shal and Brav find evidence that lead them to believe that their real parents were killed by the aliens. They find their baby, and after a fight with an alien, escape into the forest.

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    Director:Jim Kaufman
  11. Background image for The Joining
    4.0/10(2 votes)

    #10 - The Joining

    S4:E13

    When a transport ship crashed and wiped out the colony on Venus, Capt. Miles Davidow (C. Thomas Howell) was the sole survivor. But, after he's rescued by a team that includes his fiancee, Kate Girard (Amanda Tapping) and Scott Perkins (Jeffrey Jones), it soon becomes clear that Davidow did not escape unscathed. Removed from the high radiation atmosphere of Venus, his body is reacting to the Earth's air like that of a chemotherapy patient. When doctors give him the radiation his body seems to crave, strange things start to happen. Davidow's body begins to spawn duplicate parts - a hand, a torso and more from wounds that miraculously heal. In spite of this, Miles and Kate get married while he's still in isolation, but his time on Venus and the strange creatures he encountered there have had a profound change on Miles.

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    Director:Brad Turner
    Writer:Sam Egan
  12. Background image for Mary 25
    4.0/10(2 votes)

    #11 - Mary 25

    S4:E15

    Charlie Bouton's (Tom Butler) last project for the Innobotics Corporation was a sexy female companion robot named Valerie 23. It almost put the company out of business when it went berserk and attacked someone. So, his bosses are skeptical when he and scientist Melburn Ross (Michael Shanks) introduce Mary 25 (Sophia Shinas), a nanny robot adapted from the earlier model. In order to overcome their doubts, Charlie proposes letting the robot take care of his own children - a move that is met by serious resistance from his wife Teryl (Cynthia Geary) and his children Brad and Brook. From the beginning, there are problems. Unlike the human nanny, Carmen, Mary doesn't grasp the subtleties of child care and Melburn must fine tune her. But, Melburn sees that the problems go beyond Mary's programming. Charlie is smitten with his inorganic creation and has begun to abuse Teryl - a woman with whom Melburn was once romantically involved.

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  13. Background image for Monster
    4.0/10(1 votes)

    #12 - Monster

    S4:E18

    The four people gathered in the top-secret research facility seem at first to have nothing in common: Ford Maddox (Harry Hamlin) is a former spy, Rachel Sanders (Nicole Deboer) is a nurse, Roger Beckersly (Aaron Pearl) is an Army Ranger and Louise McDonnaugh (Bridget O'Sullivan) is a computer programmer. What has brought them together is their telekinetic ability, a talent that Mr. Brown (Robert Guillaume), a CIA project head, hopes to exploit through the use of Teeks, devices that amplify telekinetic power. At first, Brown tries these individual's talents out on simple tasks - moving or crushing a granite block with their minds - but soon his true intentions are revealed. Their first real assignment, says Brown, is to use their powers to kill a Balkan terrorist leader and war criminal. Rachel objects to the assignment on moral grounds, but Brown forces her to take part by threatening to send her brother to jail for life.

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  14. Background image for The Balance of Nature
    4.0/10(1 votes)

    #13 - The Balance of Nature

    S4:E22

    Dr. Noah Phillips (Maurice Godin) was desperate to save his 30-year-old wife, Meredith (Lisa Maris), from a premature death from cancer. He broke the rules and tried out an experimental treatment he had developed with his partner Dr. Don Kingsly (Andrew Airlee). The Cellular Regressor, designed to reverse the effect of age and disease on cells, restored Meredith's health, but only temporarily. After a few minutes, the cancer returned with a vengeance, killing her instantly. Devastated by Meredith's death and his research funds cut off, Noah retires at age 35 to a small town, where he moves next door to a couple in their 60s, Barbara (Barbara Rush) and Greg Matheson (Harve Presnell).

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  15. Background image for Phobos Rising
    4.0/10(1 votes)

    #14 - Phobos Rising

    S4:E24

    For 30 years there has been a fragile truce between the Free Alliance and the Coalition of Middle-Eastern and Pacific States, both on Earth and on Mars. Both groups mine triradium, a super-powerful radioactive mineral that can be used for both power and illegally for weapons. When a giant explosion appears to consume the Earth and sends a giant shock-wave towards Mars, the soldiers at the Free Alliance base on the Red Planet wonder if the truce has come to an end. Cut off from Earth for 12 hours as Mars rotates, Colonel Samantha Elliot (Barbara Eve Harris) believes someone from the Coalition has been smuggling triradium. With communications temporarily out of order and a Coalition drone approaching the Alliance base, Elliot prepares to launch a preemptive strike. Major James Bowen (Adam Baldwin), who has grown fond of Major Dara Talif (Joan Chen), the Coalition liaison officer at the base, disagrees with Elliot.

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    Director:Helen Shaver
    Writer:Unknown
  16. Background image for Black Box
    4.0/10(1 votes)

    #15 - Black Box

    S4:E25

    A missing package contains powerful secrets, and everyone wants a piece of the action.

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  17. Background image for Alien Radio
    4.0/10(3 votes)

    #16 - Alien Radio

    S5:E1

    Stan Harbinger (Joe Pantoliano) is a top-rated talk show host with a flair for the outrageous and a reputation as a skeptic's skeptic. Assisted by his producer Trudy (Cynthia Nixon), Stan takes special delight in shooting down callers who claim to have alien encounters, especially people like Eldon DeVries (Alan Zinyk), who believes his body has been taken over by aliens. However, when Eldon commits suicide by setting himself on fire in front of Stan, things begin to go wrong for Stan. A plan to syndicate the show is threatened by protests from UFO believers, angry at Stan's role in Eldon's death.

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    Writer:A L Katz
  18. Background image for The Human Operators
    4.0/10(2 votes)

    #17 - The Human Operators

    S5:E7

    For as long as Man (Jack Noseworthy) can remember, he has lived aboard Ship as it floats through space. And for just as long, Ship has been his master, instructing him to do the repairs that keep Ship working and torturing him whenever he shows any signs of free will. But when Ship orders him to repair the Artificial Intelligence module Man's Father (Noah Heney) smashed years earlier in a final, fatal act of defiance, Man learns Ship's secrets...

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  19. Background image for Blank Slate
    4.0/10(2 votes)

    #18 - Blank Slate

    S5:E8

    Hope Wilson (Robbie Chong) knows there's something different about the bruised and breathless man who stumbles into the homeless shelter she runs with her mentor, Jack Parsons (Larry Musser). He looks like a junkie, but his hands are soft and his fingernails manicured. Tom Cooper (Dale Midkiff) doesn't know who he is, where he is and why two well-dressed men, Vincent (Michael Tiernan) and Cole (Brian Jensen), are chasing him. He only knows that the small metal case that he defends so fiercely contains five vials that hold all his memories, reduced to crystal form, as well as a specially designed injector that can delete or restore those memories.

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  20. Background image for Starcrossed
    4.0/10(1 votes)

    #19 - Starcrossed

    S5:E21

    It is 2056, six years after the Hing, a humanoid race, invaded Earth. While America fights on, Russia has reached an uneasy truce with the aliens, leaving some regions under their control and others declared neutral. In the neutral city of Archangel on the Barents Sea, cynical American expatriate Michael Ryan (Nathan Fillion) runs Heaven, a small coffee bar and music club, where shady Russians mingle with Hing soldiers and other dubious characters.

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  21. Background image for Better Luck Next Time
    4.0/10(1 votes)

    #20 - Better Luck Next Time

    S5:E22

    In a warehouse, two men are fighting for possession of a gun. During the struggle, they mention various connections to earlier struggles between them. One of the men is finally able to get the gun, declaring himself the winner, and then promptly shoots himself. While he is dying, a blue energy being comes out of his chest. Before the surviving man can escape, the police show up and arrest him.

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  22. Background image for Manifest Destiny
    4.0/10(2 votes)

    #21 - Manifest Destiny

    S6:E4

    The UFS Mercury is in route to the planet Trion to do scientific tests in preparation to establish a colony when they get a distress call from a battleship, the UFS Rhesos. It was only weeks ago the the Rhesos dropped bombs on Trion, killing the local flora and fauna, making it ready for colonization. When the crew of the Mercury boards the Rhesos, they quickly realize that things are not as they should be.

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    Director:Brad Turner
    Writer:Mark Stern
  23. Background image for Revival
    4.0/10(3 votes)

    #22 - Revival

    S6:E16

    Ezra Burnham and his daughter Sarah are old hands at the business of faith healing. Ezra, a preacher who lost his faith when his wife died, is the front man, the one who lays his hands on the deaf and lame. But Sarah is the key to the act, working backstage and communicating with Ezra through a tiny earphone about the plants she's scattered through the audience. It's all going well until one day a strange young man in a wheelchair approaches Ezra near the end of a revival meeting. Luke is not a plant, but when Ezra lays his hands on him, he not only rises from his wheelchair, he begins to float six inches off the ground. After the meeting, Luke and his mother Serna approach Ezra with a proposition. If Ezra will teach Luke the secret of the revival circuit, Luke will continue to work his mysterious magic at Ezra's side.

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  24. Background image for Final Appeal (1)
    4.0/10(1 votes)

    #23 - Final Appeal (1)

    S6:E21

    It is the year 2076 and Dr. Theresa Givens, a time-traveler from the 20th Century has been sentenced to death. Her crime - violating severe anti-techology laws passed in the wake of the nuclear holocaust 20 years earlier, an event that destroyed most of the world and prompted those who survived to return to the bucolic world that existed before the Industrial Revolution. Theresa has one last chance for a reprieve. Her lawyer, Nicole Whitely has won leave to appeal to the Supreme Court, a body headed by Chief Justice Haden Wainwright. The balance of the court is divided evenly between conservatives who support the ban on technology and liberals who favor a review. In light of the importance of the case, the government has sent Solicitor General Wallace Gannon, a fierce defender of the law, to argue its case. The court has suspended the normal rules, allowing Theresa to join her lawyer in speaking in her defense.

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    Director:Jim Kaufman
    Writer:Sam Egan
  25. Background image for The Surrogate
    4.0/10(3 votes)

    #24 - The Surrogate

    S7:E4

    A struggling artist signs up for a surrogate birth program.

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    Director:Ken Girotti
    Writer:Unknown
  26. Background image for The Voice of Reason
    4.2/10(4 votes)

    #25 - The Voice of Reason

    S1:E21

    A civilian with strong ties to the military tries desperately to use concrete evidence to convince a high level committee that alien forces are trying to overcome the human race.

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Worst Episodes Summary

"Final Appeal (2)" is the worst rated episode of "The Outer Limits". It scored /10 based on 0 votes. Directed by Jim Kaufman and written by Sam Egan, it aired on 9/3/2000. This episode scored 2.5 points lower than the second lowest rated, "In the Zone".