Cast & Crew:

What always amazes me with these anthology shows is the familiar faces we encounter. It has become a sport for me to recognize actors when watching an older TV show. Besides that, it is also interesting to spot creators, directors or even producers you know from other shows. Lets start with the directors, there are many directors for this series but I want to mention a few, first one Jonathan Glassner, who also directed Stargate SG1 and was showrunner of SG1. Brad Turner, known for directing 24; Homeland; Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., FROM and many more. James Head is known for Eureka; Kyle XY; Sanctuary; Reaper and many more. Allan Eastman: Andromeda; Star Trek: DS9; Stargate SG-1; Sliders and many more. Joseph L. Scanlan, who has passed away in 2020: Star Trek TNG; Quantum Leap; Earth Final Conflict; Nikita and again, many more. Many familiar producers, often much SCI-FI work. Leslie Stevens (+): Buck Rogers in the 25^th Century (also creator); The Invisible Man; Gemini Man. Pen Densham: The Twilight Zone; The Magnificent Seven; Space Rangers. Naran Shankar: Star Trek TNG; Farscape; Grim; Almost Human, For All Mankind and The Expanse, and many more. Last one, because there are too many producers, to me the one that is most obvious one: Brad Wright, the Stargate buff! Also another great show called Travelers! In season one we also saw Manny Coto come by very frequently, known for Odyssey 5; Star Trek Enterprise; Dexter; 24 and many more, he died a few years ago unfortunately.

This season I also saw many familiar actors who I saw later in other shows, usually SCI-FI shows. Amanda Plummer; Michelle Forbes; Andrew Airlie; Gary Jones; Heather Graham; Alan Ruck; Ally Sheedy; Michael Sarrazin; Mark Hamill; Debrah Farentino; Scott Hylands; Matt Frewer; Jayne Heitmeyer; Steven Bacic; Clint Howard; Stephen McHattie; Alex Diakun; Kavan Smith; Ryan Philippe; Tom Butler; Peter Donat; Robert Foxworth; Teryl Rothery; Bruce Harwood; Lawrence Dane; Diana Scarwid; Jason Gray-Stanford; Bonnie Bedelia; Michael MacRae; Robert Ito; Donnelly Rhodes; Colin Cunningham; Jessica Steen; James Wilder; David McNally; M. Emmet Walsh; Michael Gross; Joanna Gleason; Neil Patrick Harris; Gabrielle Miller; Aaron Pearl; Christianne Hirt; Clancy Brown; Alan Rachins; Barbara Garrick; Brent Spiner; Erich Anderson; Nicole Oliver; Sebastian Spence; Geraint Wyn Davies; Mel Harris; Graham Greene; Robert Partick; Wil Wheaton; Adrian Holmes; Sheena Easton; Kristin Lehman; John Pyper-Ferguson; Peter Bryant; Xander Berkeley; Sarah Strange; Peri Gilpin; Victor Garber; Joely Fisher; William B. Davis; Jon Cryer; Jessica Lundy; Richard Ian Cox; David Hyde Pierce; Andrea Roth; Garwin Sanford; Jan D’Arcy.

An insane amount of familiar guest stars, most of these actors I spotted in SCI-FI movies or TV shows. And for sure I missed quite a few also. This is becoming a real thing, each time I watch an Outer Limits episode, I am looking for familiar actors. These episodes are spiked with Star Trek or Stargate actors and funny thing is, Stargate SG-1 started in 1997 and Brad Wright was already working on The Outer Limits for two years! So, I reckon he picked up a number of actors after watching them and working with them in the first two seasons of The Outer Limits.

My Favorite Episodes:

The episodes I consider the best of this season, well, I graded 7 episodes an 8 or higher, so lets take these episodes. The first episode of the season, “A Stitch in Time”, an interesting time travel story. At least 17 men have been executed in the last two decades without a clear motive, with the same gun. FBI Special Agent Jamie Pratt (Michelle Forbes) has to find how some of those murders were carried out when the gun had not yet been made. The 4^th episode “I Hear You Calling”, about a man with violet eyes (Michael Sarrazin), presumably he is the bad guy, a nice twist at the end. Episode 9 “Trial By Fire”, A bottle show, all happening within one room, still a very powerful episode about pressure, choices, being influenced, trying to determine what to do. I loved it, great guest stars: Robert Foxworth; Teryl Rothery; Bruce Harwood; Lawrence Dane; Diana Scarwid; Jason Gray-Stanford! Episode 12 “Inconstant Moon”, When Professor Stanley Hurst (Michael Gross) sees the moon suddenly shine brightly, he concludes that something must have happened to the sun, but he is assuming incorrectly. Really enjoyed the episode, from sheer hopelessness to hope, and love.

Episode 15 “The Afterlife”, starring Clancy Brown. Linden Styles faces an impossible choice between a state sanctioned death and a total physiological erasure. Strong episode where the twist is again at the end. Episode 22, “The Sentence”, When Dr. Jack Henson, an ambitious inventor comes up with a "virtual prison" government officials are interested in its cost efficiency. Thought at once about Miles O’ Brien in the Deep Space Nine episode “Hard Time”. Good episode and great performance of David Hyde Pierce. Other familiar guest stars: Andrea Roth; Garwin Sanford; Jan D’Arcy. The best episode for me was episode 21, starring Jon Cryer. Trever disappears every 10 years after being back one day. He is possessed by an alien entity who doesn’t realize how this affects the host. When his 60 year old wife tells this to the alien, he puts things right, sends Trever back to 1949, the day after he went for champaign.

There is one episode, which in my opinion wasn’t that strong, but I wonder, could this have been the inspiration for the TV show “Travelers”? The idea made me think of Travelers, Brad Wright is a supervising producer and he is also the creator of “Travelers”. Episode 19 “Fallen Star”, Fading pop singer Melissa McCammon is about to commit suicide, but, Rachel, an ardent fan from the future, wants to save her. Later, authorities from the future, show up wanting Melissa dead in order to restore their time-line.

The DVD Set:

As you may know I purchased the complete series on DVD last year, the German DVD set. While the first season has English subtitles and a nice menu, seasons 2-7 do not have any sort of subtitles, let alone English and the menu for season two is simply atrocious. It’s like it is from a bootleg set. I know it isn’t but sometimes I wonder where is the creativity of the people who are in charge of creating cover art or in this case the menu of a DVD (or Blu-ray). So many times I see cover art created by fans 10 times better than the original. It seems to me that the first season has been “loaned” from a different set, perhaps from the North American set of the Australian one.

Final Word:

Five more seasons to go, it will be slow going because I don’t watch the series alone and I am not sure yet if there will be a third season first watch blog because I am not entirely satisfied with this season two blog. I find it difficult writing for an anthology show, so I am not sure yet if I will proceed. If you have any thoughts about that, please let me know….