The Outer Limits: Specimen: Unknown

The Outer Limits
Specimen: Unknown
Original Air Date: February 24, 1964
Teleplay by Stephen Lord
Directed by Gerd Oswald
Rating: **1/2

Scientists aboard a spaceship bring aboard a plant that grows on the hull of their ship. They call them space barnacles, but they are much more than that.

One of the scientists grows several specimens in the lab and the growths soon sprout flowers that shoot spores. They also release a deadly gas that kills the scientist. Unaware that the plants have caused his death, the crew packs them in the passenger compartment of the ship as they prepare to return to earth.

On the way back to Earth, the plants do their act again and more of the crew are infected and near death. The mission commander on earth decides to go ahead and let the spaceship land, risking contamination of the planet's biosphere.

The ship arrives and the plants find earth very much to their liking. As soon as the spaceship is opened and the surviving crewman evacuated, the plants begin to grow quickly and multiply. The mission commander and the wife of one of the astronauts are seemingly trapped. The plants are growing like crazy, surrounding them. Rain is on the way, certain to make their growth even more rapid.

However, salvation comes just in time from an unlikely source.

This episode combined hard science fiction with dripping sentimentality. The science fiction was solid. The premise was original (and stolen for an episode of Star Trek called This Side of Paradise)and the dialogue well written.

The wife of the astronaut pleading with her husband to return to her was just over the top. The drama between her, her husband out in space, and the mission commander who holds his fate in his hands distracted from an otherwise good episode of science fiction television. But it was the 1960s. . .

It's also hard to believe that the mission commander would have allowed the ship to return to earth. The men aboard were against it, willing to sacrifice their lives. That would have been the smart thing to do. Instead, the mission commander succumbs to the wife's pleading.

Gerd Oswald directed many Outer Limits and seemed to get the most out of his cast and his script. Like most Outer Limits episodes, the cast is rather undistinguished. The only well known member in this episode is Russell Johnson of Gilligan's Island fame. Johnson was a veteran of many sci-fi movies and television shows, having appeared in This Island Earth, It Came from Outer Space, Thriller, The Twilight Zone, and The Outer Limits.

The Outer Limits: The Children of Spider County

The Outer Limits (The Original Series)
The Children of Spider County
Original Air Date: February 17, 1964
Director: Leonard Horn
Screenplay by Lee Kinsolving, Kent Smith & John Milford

Brian's Rating: *1/2


Four of America’s greatest scientists have disappeared and the government’s intelligence agencies are deeply troubled. One agent points out that these four men each had many things in common. They were born and raised without a father, they each had the middle name, Eros, and they each were born in Spider County (the state is not specified, but it appears to be in New York, Connecticut, or Pennsylvania. There is a fifth man who matches all these traits and he still lives in Spider County. It is imperative that this man be located and taken.

That fifth man is Ethan Wechsler and he is being held for murder of a fellow farm hand in Spider County. Wechsler is being interrogated by the local authorities when they are contacted by the government to hold the young man. Whilst being transported to a remote location, an alien appears and causes the car to wreck. He assumes human form and tells Wechsler he is his father. He was bred to come back to the planet Eros and help it repopulate with young men who can “dream.”


Ethan escapes. He’s on the run from the sheriff, the feds, and his girlfriend’s father who is none too happy his daughter has taken up with a murderer.


Finally, everybody catches up with Ethan. He tells the alien that he will not leave Earth because it has its own set of problems that need to be solved. The alien decides to let him stay, asking the men of Earth, “Can you destroy the better part of yourselves.” Ethan and his girlfriend walk off with the feds, presumably to apply his talents to solving the world’s problems.


Many Outer Limits episodes relied on action and intrigue to move plots. Most episodes resembled pulp fiction stories brought to the small screen. This episode was much more ponderous. It did not contain a lot of action and moved rather slowly. The plot was thin and the acting underwhelming.


Neither Kinvolving, Smith, nor Milford were professional screenwriters. All were actors and each had a leading role in the episode. Perhaps producer Joseph Stefano owed them a favor. While The Outer Limits employed very few high profile writers, (unlike The Twilight Zone), the writing was usually better than this. The episode has a well conceived idea, but a lackadaisically developed plot. Professional writing could have taken this good idea and made it a better episode.


I gave it two stars. Fans of the show on IMDB did not think highly of it and it is one of the lower ranked episodes of the show’s original run.