Series synopsis
The Outer Limits is an American drama sci-fi & fantasy television series that premiered on Showtime on March 26, 1995. It ended on January 18, 2002. It was created by Leslie Stevens.
Anthology series of composed of distinct story episodes, sometimes with a plot twist at the end, with occasional recurring story elements that were often tied together during season-finale clip shows.
Premise
Anthology series of composed of distinct story episodes, sometimes with a plot twist at the end, with occasional recurring story elements that were often tied together during season-finale clip shows.
Cast and characters
Guest cast
- Keith David as Captain Ira Merit
- Kelly McGillis as Nicole Whitley
- Ron Rifkin as Dr. Martin Nodel
- Jeremy Sisto as Tom
- Jon Tenney as Aidan Hunter
- Eric McCormack as John Virgil
- Doug Savant as Kel
- David Ogden Stiers as Reverend Dr. Thomas Tilford
- Rachel Ticotin as Theodora 'Teddi' Madden
- Casper Van Dien as Jake Miller
- Sherilyn Fenn as Nora Griffiths / Nora's Clone
- Michael Buie as Private John Stanhope
Episodes
This series spans 8 seasons with 158 episodes.
| Season | Episodes | First aired | Last aired |
|---|---|---|---|
| Season 0 | 5 | ||
| Season 1 | 21 | March 26, 1995 | August 20, 1995 |
| Season 2 | 22 | January 14, 1996 | August 4, 1996 |
| Season 3 | 18 | January 19, 1997 | July 25, 1997 |
| Season 4 | 26 | January 23, 1998 | December 18, 1998 |
| Season 5 | 22 | January 22, 1999 | August 20, 1999 |
| Season 6 | 22 | January 21, 2000 | September 3, 2000 |
| Season 7 | 22 | March 16, 2001 | January 18, 2002 |
| Episode | Title | Air date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Origins Of The Outer Limits | |
| 2 | The Outer Limits Story | |
| 3 | Valerie 23 Documentary |
| Episode | Title | Air date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |
The Sandkings Scientist Simon Kress finds himself the master of a colony of Sandkings -- creatures from Mars that look like insects, but have the intelligence of much higher beings. |
March 26, 1995 |
| 2 |
Valerie 23 Frank Hellner, a lonely paraplegic, takes part in a top-secret project -- allowing an "inorganic human," or robot named Valerie, to be his companion for a week. The experiment goes awry when Valerie, unable to control her programmed emotions, becomes jealous and threatens the life of Frank's physical therapist and close friend Rachel. |
March 31, 1995 |
| 3 |
Blood Brothers Two diametrically opposed brothers, wrestle for control of a million-dollar pharmaceutical company. A vaccine that could hold the secret to eternal life, becomes the object of the brothers' bitter struggle. |
April 7, 1995 |
| Episode | Title | Air date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |
A Stitch in Time FBI agent Jamie Perrin has investigated some pretty strange cases in her time but this one may be the strangest of all. During the last fifty years, seventeen men throughout the country were all murdered with the same gun. This gun is traced to Dr. Theresa Givens, a scientist who recently left a top-secret government agency. This discovery deepens the mystery because Givens was only five years old at the time of the first murder. The gun itself hadn't even been made. While investigating further, Perrin discovers a secret that lies behind the locked door in Dr. Givens' office and learns first-hand of the temptations and dangers of undoing the evils of the past. |
January 14, 1996 |
| 2 |
Resurrection Life on planet Earth has been wiped out by biological warfare, leaving behind only androids. Two of those androids, Martin and Alicia, have a secret project: Cain, a human being grown from the DNA of a single human hair. Martin and Alicia must keep Cain's existence hidden from the military androids, led by Moloch, a power-mad machine who is determined to stamp out any trace of the human race before it rises again. |
January 14, 1996 |
| 3 |
Unnatural Selection Howard and Joanne Sharp are going to have a baby. Like many people in the near future, they are mulling over the possibility of black-market genetic enhancement. The upside is a perfect baby, able to compete with all those other perfect babies created by the popular, but illegal process. The downside is GRS - Genetic Rejection Syndrome - which turns one in every 10,000 genetically enhanced babies into a monster. The Sharps are willing to take the risk and go ahead with the procedure. Then they learn of the dark secret that their neighbors and best friends, Tony and Fran Blake, keep in the basement. |
January 19, 1996 |
| Episode | Title | Air date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |
Bits of Love Aidan Hunter may be the last man on earth after a nuclear holocaust, but he's not lonely. In his subterranean bomb shelter, hes surrounded by his family, friends, lovers, anyone he wants ... Unfortunately, they're holograms -- computer generated people controlled by a beautiful holographic interface named Emma. But when curiosity turns to touch and Aidan makes love to Emma in a virtual reality pod, he quickly learns that trifling with a computers feelings can be dangerous ... and the morning after can be all too real. |
January 19, 1997 |
| 2 |
Second Thoughts Karl Durand (Howie Mandel) is in his 30's, but he has the mind of a child. That is, until he receives a unique gift from Dr. Jacob Valerian, a dying scientist who has been working on a secret project. As his last living act, Valerian uses his new invention to transfer his memories and experiences into Karl's brain. But Karl isn't content with just being a genius. In an effort to win the love of his social worker, Rose, he uses the doctor's invention to capture other minds. Leaving a trail of bodies in his wake and his own brain ever more crowded and confused, Karl soon discovers that sometimes the mind can be a minefield. |
January 19, 1997 |
| 3 |
Re-Generation After their four-year-old son Justin dies in a household accident aspiring politician Graham Highfield and his wife Rebecca get a second chance at happiness. Dr. Lucy Cole clones a new embryo from Justin's brain and nerve cells and implants it in Rebecca's womb. As the pregnancy progresses, however, it becomes clear to Rebecca that this isn't just any fetus -- this is Justin himself, a fetus with the skills -- and the memories -- of a little boy. As he shares those memories with his mother, Justin reveals secrets that may destroy the whole family. |
January 24, 1997 |
| Episode | Title | Air date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |
Criminal Nature Genetic Engineering has produced a generation of super-babies, but the technology is not perfect. It has also produced horribly deformed children who suffer from Genetic Rejection Syndrome (GRS), a condition which makes them even stronger, faster, smarter than the super-babies and more deadly to boot. Detective Ray Venable (Gary Cole), is in charge of the team that must hunt down the most severe GRS cases, but he carries with him a dark secret. Years before, he and his wife Marie (Lynda Boyd) had a child, Dylan (Jason Gray-Stanford), who developed GRS and who they secretly sent away to a home. Now, Ray suspects that Dylan is behind a series of brutal murders and is closing in on his old family. The only way Ray can stop him is to take a genetic serum that will make him more like the son he rejected. |
January 23, 1998 |
| 2 |
The Hunt After environmentalists successfully ban the hunting of animals, a black market emerges, with humans paying big money to hunt androids who have outlived their usefulness in the mines. The androids are the perfect prey -- strong and intelligent yet unable to turn on their pursuers, thanks to an inhibitor chip that prevents them from harming humans. A group of bow-hunters, George Nichols (Rob White), his son Eric (Tobias Mehler), his older brother Clute (Bob Gunton) and their guide Pete (David McNally), count on that chip as a safety net while they track down a quartet of androids led by Kel (Doug Savant). Eager to provide his brother and his reluctant nephew with a real challenge, Clute has secretly planted information that allows the androids to disable the inhibitor chip thus allowing them to fight back. The machines, angry at being turned into game, contemptuous of human bloodthirstiness, are only too happy to oblige. |
January 30, 1998 |
| 3 |
Hearts and Minds The mission for Captain Taverner and his squad of North American Federation (NAF) soldiers is simple: search and destroy invading aliens on a distant planet to prevent them from stealing a mineral which is a vital source of energy for earth, and a vital source of profit for the NAF. To guard against infection from the hideous bug-aliens, the soldiers are forced to inject special genetic drugs; however, the mission becomes complicated when Lieutenant Rosen is wounded in a firefight with the aliens. Rosen begins to hallucinate, experiencing disturbing images of the aliens, and when she discovers that her druginjector has malfunctioned, she begins to suspect that the drugs do more than protect the soldiers from infection. Ultimately, Rosen must take command and risk the lives of her soldiers on the hunch that their mission may have more to do with human politics than alien enemies. |
February 6, 1998 |
| Episode | Title | Air date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |
Alien Radio Stan Harbinger (Joe Pantoliano) is a top-rated talk show host with a flair for the outrageous and a reputation as a skeptic's skeptic. Assisted by his producer Trudy (Cynthia Nixon), Stan takes special delight in shooting down callers who claim to have alien encounters, especially people like Eldon DeVries (Alan Zinyk), who believes his body has been taken over by aliens. However, when Eldon commits suicide by setting himself on fire in front of Stan, things begin to go wrong for Stan. A plan to syndicate the show is threatened by protests from UFO believers, angry at Stan's role in Eldon's death. |
January 22, 1999 |
| 2 |
Donor Dr. Renee Stuyvesant and her protege Dr. Vance Ridout have perfected the full-body transplant in which a patient's entire disease-riddled body is replaced and Renee has convinced the hospital board to allow her to perform the first such procedure on Dr. Peter Halstead. |
January 29, 1999 |
| 3 |
Small Friends When he was young, Gene Morton killed a man who tried to steal the credit for his brilliant research. Now working on a prison assembly line fixing the busted tape decks of fellow inmates, his chances at parole have been sabotaged by his own honesty and sense of guilt. Although it's a lonely life, late at night, after lights-out, Gene brings out his small friends, a swarm of microscopic machines that he made from prison scrap and keeps in a matchbox. |
February 5, 1999 |
| Episode | Title | Air date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |
Judgment Day Capitol punishment makes it to primetime. Judgment Day has quickly become the hottest show on the Justice Channel and on television - period. Produced by Jack Parson and hosted by Stan Draper and Heather Cattrell, the show has turned the Justice system on its ear by becoming judge, jury and executioner, allowing a murder victim's family to carry out the death sentence on live television. Today, Allison Channing will hunt down Declan McMahon, the petty criminal who killed her sister Kaitlin. Declan gets a 20 minute head start, but he's got a microchip in his brain that's tuned to the taser that Allison carries. |
January 21, 2000 |
| 2 |
The Gun When Matthew Logan gets out of prison after serving time for spousal abuse, his first stop is a gun show. He buys a strange handgun from a mysterious stranger and uses it to shoot his wife. The gun attaches itself to Logan's hand and arm, beginning a process which will transform his body. |
January 28, 2000 |
| 3 |
Skin Deep Sid Camden, a rather unremarkable, socially inept sort of guy, works in an accounting department of a high-tech company known as Veil-Tech. Hal, one of the project managers, secretly loans Sid a prototype of one of the company's latest developments - a device known as an image enhancer. With the help of his friend Deb, Sid is able to acquire the image of good looking co-worker Chad Warner and soon Sid is stepping out on the town with his new and improved look. |
February 4, 2000 |
| Episode | Title | Air date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |
Family Values A man believes all his family problems will be solved when he purchases a robot to help around the house. |
March 16, 2001 |
| 2 |
Patient Zero A desperate man from the future travels back to the present to find and kill the carrier of a deadly plague that threatens to annihilate humankind. |
March 23, 2001 |
| 3 |
A New Life A stressed out businessman and his girlfriend leave town to join an influential cult. |
March 30, 2001 |
Production
Release
| Original network/platform | Showtime |
|---|---|
| First aired | March 26, 1995 |
| Last aired | January 18, 2002 |
| Runtime | 44 minutes |
| Status | ended |
| Schedule | Friday |