"There is nothing controlling your transmission......"
What can really be said about the original Outer Limits? A fine show, written by Joseph Stefano right after he wrote the screenplay for "Psycho," that focused more on science fiction then it's counterpart, "The Twilight Zone." While TZ was more about the human condition and had a wide focus that went from comedy to horror to suspense spastically, "Limits" kept it's focus steady. It was serious science fiction with a message attached, it had the Control Voice as it's narrator to keep everything grounded (like Serling did for his own show) and every so often it reached beyond it's '50 sci-fi roots to deliver something that grabbed you and wouldn't let go.
This experiment, however, takes place during the very beginning to the second (and last) season.
According to the "Outer Limits Companion Book" released a few years back, Stefano and the whole Brain Trust behind the Outer Limits was tossed after the first season thanks to a very long story involving Stefano becoming a 'triple-threat': a director-writer-producer. Thus, with Stefano and the others out of the way, ABC then turned the whole show over to some other nameless producers who ran out the show until it sank into nothing and died halfway through the new season. This episode, "Cold Hands, Warm Heart" is one of the first shows to foresee this bleak future and it shows.
The plot concerns an astronaut (played by William Shatner) who is part of 'Project: Vulcan,' a one-man expedition to the planet Venus to see it's suitable for life. So, the astronaut returns to Earth seemingly normal until he finds that he craves heat abnormally, wearing winter clothing during the summer and cranking the heat in his house on a perfectly warm day. He starts to mutate slowly, his hands turning into webbed, reptilian claws. Finally, his secret is revealed when he is found in a steam room cranked up to 200 degrees Fahrenheit. Instead of getting help, the astronaut chooses not to until the funding for Project: Vulcan is SECURED!! Of course, halfway through the episode, we find out that he has been infected by an inhabitant of Venus, hence his craving for heat. Apparently, he's turning into one of them.
But, all is saved. Instead of mutating, the astronaut is allowed to secure funding and he gets treated. So, a man is allowed to gain his humanity back all for some stupid project that could possibly infect MORE human beings. And for what, for FUNDING?? Please! Plus, the flashback of how this astronaut gets 'infected' is silly and nonsensical. Why not place it within the events, at the BEGINNING of the story or perhaps before the credits? But NOOOOOOOO! Why not just pad this out more?
And that is the name of this episode: one idea STRETCHED out with tons of padding. A taut half-hour is stretched to a boring hour of nonsuspense and basic boredom. The alien scene is uninvolving despite what the incidental music says, and the ending is more of a blessing than a completion. Fortunately, ABC rejected this as leading off the second season and replaced it with the superior "Soldier," written by the Grump known as Harlan Ellison. And fortunately, the second season would also hold Ellison's "Demon with a Glass Hand" and one of my guilty pleasures, the universally hated "Behold, ECK!" But, then again, who could hate an apologic two-dimensional alien who cuts buildings in half??
I can't.
RATING: "The Inheritors." "Behold, ECK." "Soldier" and "Demon with a Glass Hand." Hell, even "Keeper of the Purple Twilight" has more going for it then this WASTE of an episode. Ignore at all costs. The only thing this has going for it is the Shatner/'Vulcan' thing on the box. Half a star out of Four. Don't buy unless you're a completist or think "Don't Open Till Doomsday" is entertaining.
--Zbu