Some people prefer the Stones, others the Beatles. Some prefer theYanks, others the Mets. Some prefer Letterman, others Leno. Some prefer rice, others potato. And someprefer The Twilight Zone, others The Outer Limits.
For me, The Twilight Zone remains the sina qua non of the sci-fi/social commentary genre yet from time to time I watch The Outer Limits to clear my head of excess metaphor and allegory. Outer Limits was not as well written or acted or directed, although the title sequence (“Donot attempt to adjust the picture. We are controlling transmission. Ifwe wish to make it louder, we will bring up the volume. If we wish tomake it softer, we will tune it to a whisper. We can reduce the focusto a soft blur, or sharpen it to crystal clarity. We will control thehorizontal. We will control the vertical.”), is just as good.
Also TOL had many more great black and white monsters in itsrepretory than TZ. For those who don’t recall, or weren’t even born,here is a sampling of the best low-tech extraterrestials on TV. Anddon’t forget The Outer Limits credo:
“It is said that if you move a single pebble on thebeach, you set up a different pattern, and everything in the world ischanged. It can also be said that love can change the future, if it isdeep enough, true enough, and selfless enough. It can prevent a war,prohibit a plague, keep the whole world… whole.”
