There is nothing wrong with your television set. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are controlling transmission. If we wish to make it louder, we will bring up the volume. If we wish to make it softer, we will tune it to a whisper. We will control the horizontal. We will control the vertical. We can roll the image, make it flutter. We can change the focus to a soft blur or sharpen it to crystal clarity. For the next hour, sit quietly and we will control all that you see and hear. We repeat: there is nothing wrong with your television set. You are about to participate in a great adventure. You are about to experience the awe and mystery which reaches from the inner mind to... The Outer Limits!
- Opening voiceover for The Outer Limits
(Much of what you are about to experience is a continuation of the thoughts expressed here.)
It was the night of September 16th, 1963. I still had a month to go before my 8th birthday and my young mind was terribly excited about what was scheduled to broadcast on the television that evening. Even at this age, I found I had an appetite for the fantastic and the imaginative (which has not left me to this day).
What I would never have imagined that night, however, is that I would continue to be haunted by not only this particular episode of this particular program, but that many of its episodes would become the warp and woof of the sci-fi department in my brain.
It was, of course, the premiere of The Outer Limits.
Posts
