Speaker 1: Tonight we exit the fifth dimension to go to a
Speaker 1: completely different dimension. But before we talk about that, I
Speaker 1: will begin by saying again if you are a new
Speaker 1: listener to the twilight Zone Podcast, the show is on
Speaker 1: hiatus at the moment for the summer while I prepare
Speaker 1: for Sailing Fest, which takes place in Binghamton, New York,
Speaker 1: over the weekend of September thirteenth. So this isn't the
Speaker 1: usual format of the show, but to keep things ticking over,
Speaker 1: I've put out a few episodes from the archives over
Speaker 1: on my Patreon the after Hours Club at patreon dot
Speaker 1: com slash twilight Zone Podcast. But tonight I'm not taking
Speaker 1: something from the archives, but I'm giving you a taste
Speaker 1: of something that is brand new over there, coverage of
Speaker 1: the show The Outer Limits. Now this isn't in my
Speaker 1: usual solo Twilight Zone podcast format. It's more of a
Speaker 1: discussion show with me and my co host, Chris Clayton,
Speaker 1: and every month we'll be doing a double bill of
Speaker 1: the original series of The Outer Limits. So tonight I'm
Speaker 1: giving you half of that double bill. It wouldn't quite
Speaker 1: be fair to the existing patrons to give away the
Speaker 1: whole thing when it's only just been released, but I'm
Speaker 1: sure they won't mind this taste of going out. So
Speaker 1: this is our coverage of that first episode of The
Speaker 1: Outer Limits the Galaxy being.
Speaker 2: There is nothing wrong with your television set. Do not
Speaker 2: attempt to adjust the picture. We are controlling transmission. If
Speaker 2: we wish to make it louder, we will bring up
Speaker 2: the button. If we wish to make it softer, we
Speaker 2: will tune it to a whisper. We will control the horizontal,
Speaker 2: We will control the verdict. We can roll the image,
Speaker 2: make it flutter. We can change the focus to a
Speaker 2: soft blur, or sharpen it to crystal clarity. For the
Speaker 2: next hour, sit quietly, and we will control all the
Speaker 2: juice in Here we repeat, there is nothing wrong with
Speaker 2: your television sect. You are about to participate in a
Speaker 2: great adventure. You are about to experience the awe and
Speaker 2: mystery which reaches from the inner mind to the outer limits.
Speaker 1: Fifteen years ago, when I started the Twilight Zone podcast,
Speaker 1: the first question that people would always ask me is
Speaker 1: are you going to do the Outer Limits next? Now,
Speaker 1: over a decade later, we finally are. But thankfully I'm
Speaker 1: not going it alone. I have brought my good friend
Speaker 1: and frequent collaborator mister Christopher Clayton. Chris, Welcome back, Hello there,
Speaker 1: dear boy.
Speaker 3: Wow, this is fantastic to do something that you'd originally
Speaker 3: envision maybe doing someday. We're finally getting around to it.
Speaker 3: This is something else to pack into your incredibly busy schedule,
Speaker 3: but I'm really looking forward to it.
Speaker 1: Well, the thing is, I've said this many times. When
Speaker 1: the Twilight Zone podcast starts, it was like three years
Speaker 1: to take me three years to get through that, So
Speaker 1: I might do the Outer Limit, sure, but now it's like,
Speaker 1: there is no way I would do the Outer Limits
Speaker 1: like I did the Twilight Zone podcast. Now, thankfully I
Speaker 1: don't have to because, as we've said before, our good
Speaker 1: friend Victor Gambaa started the Outer Limits podcast, so he's
Speaker 1: got it covered. He's got that kind of trivia review
Speaker 1: style of show covered. So thank you Victor. Now I
Speaker 1: don't have to do it. But there are different ways
Speaker 1: of covering the material, and I think while I wouldn't
Speaker 1: want to do it in that way, I'm actually quite
Speaker 1: excited to do it this way because it's you know,
Speaker 1: we both did Night Gallery, but I think this is
Speaker 1: a bit of a different thing for us, isn't it.
Speaker 3: It really is.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I mean it's worth saying that Victor does really the
Speaker 3: definitive version of this, so he if you want the
Speaker 3: definitive look at these episodes in detail, that's what that is.
Speaker 3: This is much more of a kind of review, just
Speaker 3: a straight ahead review. Really, we're not going into all
Speaker 3: the facts and figures of everything. But yeah, so we're
Speaker 3: going back to material that is to some degree out
Speaker 3: of my wheelhouse. Really, I think people who have listened
Speaker 3: to the stuff that we've done together in the past
Speaker 3: will know that I didn't watch The Twilight Zone really
Speaker 3: other than a few episodes here and there the original
Speaker 3: Twilight Zone, So I came in as a bit of
Speaker 3: a Rod Sterling newbie in that regard. And going through
Speaker 3: Night Gallery as we did as well, I got to
Speaker 3: see a complete work that certainly had Rod Sturling's name
Speaker 3: in it, even if it didn't always have his you know,
Speaker 3: his go ahead in terms of some of the creative
Speaker 3: ideas that were tried out there. So going into something
Speaker 3: like this where we're going back to the era in
Speaker 3: which the Twilight Zone was prospering in the sixties, we
Speaker 3: are going into something that is a little bit out
Speaker 3: of my wheelhouse. But it's kind of exciting, I guess,
Speaker 3: to go back to that era of television, of American
Speaker 3: television and see it through I think fresh eyes, not
Speaker 3: only through my fresh eyes, but through yours as well.
Speaker 1: I think what excites me about this one is that
Speaker 1: we're more or less on an even footing on this one.
Speaker 1: You know, obviously with Night Gallery, I knew rod sailing
Speaker 1: and it's like, oh, this is like the Twilight Zone,
Speaker 1: or oh we done something like this before, or oh
Speaker 1: this is very rod sailing. And I think by the
Speaker 1: end of it, you had picked up that, you know,
Speaker 1: that instinct of what sailing was about and what sailing
Speaker 1: dialogue sounded like, and you know, you picked that up
Speaker 1: as you went. But I think with this, apart from
Speaker 1: probably recognizing a lot of Twilight Zone actors, I mean,
Speaker 1: there's at least three in this one, this first one,
Speaker 1: we're kind of on an even keel because I'll briefly
Speaker 1: tell you my history with the Outer Limits and then
Speaker 1: I'll ask you yours. I really don't have any because
Speaker 1: I bought the box set a long time ago, and
Speaker 1: I always meant to get started, and I would watch
Speaker 1: the first episode The Galaxy Being, and then I would
Speaker 1: get sidetracked and not watch anymore. Then a couple of
Speaker 1: years later I'd be like, oh, I'll get back to it,
Speaker 1: watch the Galaxy Being again, and just never got round
Speaker 1: to it. And as you know, sometimes when you're a podcaster,
Speaker 1: all you tend to watch is what you're podcasting about.
Speaker 1: So this is a great excuse to kind of get
Speaker 1: through that. Now. I did actually watch the remake show
Speaker 1: quite a bit, because that lasted for seven years, so
Speaker 1: it was actually pretty successful and pretty well thought of.
Speaker 1: I can't remember any of it, but I do remember
Speaker 1: that I watched it. So that's my history with the
Speaker 1: Outer Limits.
Speaker 3: What about you, Well, that's where I can come in,
Speaker 3: because yeah, I did watch some of the episodes of
Speaker 3: the remake when it was on, so I remember seeing
Speaker 3: I distinctly remember watching what, but I don't remember what
Speaker 3: the episode was about. Unfortunately, that's how about memories are
Speaker 3: collective memories. But I remember watching one. I think it
Speaker 3: was on like ITV or BBC two or something, but
Speaker 3: it was on about midnight or something when I was
Speaker 3: a much younger guy, and I remember watching one then
Speaker 3: as well, So I'm a bit more I remember one
Speaker 3: of the episodes I watched, I think had Peter Weller
Speaker 3: in it. I think so, So yeah, I might be
Speaker 3: wrong about that, but for some reason that sticks out
Speaker 3: in my mind. So that's really all I had seen
Speaker 3: of anything to do with the Outer Limits. My understanding
Speaker 3: was that, yes, that remake series was really successful, certainly
Speaker 3: more than one series. It was seven seasons, like you say,
Speaker 3: and they're planning to do a revival of it in
Speaker 3: the near future as well, so clearly it's got a
Speaker 3: good sizeable fan base.
Speaker 1: I think as well with the Outer Limits. I mean,
Speaker 1: I don't want to disrespect the creator of the Outer
Speaker 1: Limits or anything like that to say he wasn't of
Speaker 1: road sailing stature. I'm sure he, you know, had his
Speaker 1: own kind of stature. But I think it's always a
Speaker 1: struggle to accept the Twilight Zone for a lot of
Speaker 1: people without road sailing, whereas I think it's a bit
Speaker 1: easier to accept the Outer Limits. Maybe I could be
Speaker 1: wrong on that. I don't know, but that's certainly the
Speaker 1: way it seems to me. But yeah, I'm looking forward
Speaker 1: to this. You know, I think that the general consensus
Speaker 1: is that, you know, the Twilight Zone is it's all
Speaker 1: about the moral message, you know, the societal stuff and
Speaker 1: all that, where the outer limit is a bit more
Speaker 1: straight ahead sometimes a monster show. That's not to say
Speaker 1: there isn't kind of a message there. Sometimes we see
Speaker 1: that tonight, but you know, a bit more of a
Speaker 1: straight ahead show if you like.
Speaker 3: There was something that I've read when I was looking
Speaker 3: at a little bit of of research on this. And
Speaker 3: again we're not going to go too deep on this,
Speaker 3: you know, if you want to see I want to
Speaker 3: hear something rather that is is really definitive than Vicha
Speaker 3: Gamboa's show Our Limits podcast, I think is is really
Speaker 3: what we need to be for that not listen to
Speaker 3: us as well, but you know that that is worth
Speaker 3: listening to. But I was reading that apparently, and it's
Speaker 3: kind of remarkable really that in the sort of late
Speaker 3: nineties Kevin Smith was offered a chance to remake this
Speaker 3: as a movie that would have been something Tom to
Speaker 3: have seen. And then also the two guys who worked
Speaker 3: on Dr Strange, Scott Dereckson and see Robert Cargill who
Speaker 3: wrote and directed the Dr Strange movie for Marvel, the
Speaker 3: the MCU one not the not the older. They were
Speaker 3: offered a chance to maybe do a film we make
Speaker 3: of it as well, so it's it certainly seems to
Speaker 3: have a bit of influence going forward, which I think
Speaker 3: is really interesting. Now, this first season unbelievably has thirty
Speaker 3: two episodes in it's on, thirty two episodes in one season.
Speaker 1: Wow, and an hour long as well. It's just insane.
Speaker 3: Lot they were pumping out. I mean, look at Rang.
Speaker 3: I mean, the the amount of content you've had to
Speaker 3: cover in the Twilight Zone is staggering, you know, And
Speaker 3: so they were pumping out TV. They were pumping out stories,
Speaker 3: and I suppose you have to give them credit for that,
Speaker 3: you know that the whole idea of even you know,
Speaker 3: we were discussing this privately a few weeks ago, the
Speaker 3: idea of a show like a TV show like twenty four,
Speaker 3: where you would do twenty four hour long episodes, it
Speaker 3: just doesn't really exist anymore, does it.
Speaker 1: No? No, Wow, you know what, I didn't realize there's
Speaker 1: that many. I think we might have to change. No,
Speaker 1: to be honest, there's only two seasons, so we're fine.
Speaker 1: But yeah, goodness, that many episodes of an hour long show.
Speaker 1: It's insane. But should we get into it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think we should looking forward to this, So
Speaker 3: why don't you get started, Tom telling us about our
Speaker 3: first of our double bill here. It's the very first
Speaker 3: episode indeed, of the Outer Limits, and it's called The
Speaker 3: Galaxy Being.
Speaker 1: That's right, it is the Galaxy Being. Be warned spoilers
Speaker 1: ahead as always, but The Galaxy Being first broadcast sixteenth
Speaker 1: of December nineteen sixty three, Written and directed by Leslie Stevens.
Speaker 1: Alan Maxwell, a cottage industry inventor, constructs a powerful transceiving
Speaker 1: device near his commercial radio station. Through it, he intercepts
Speaker 1: three dimensional static, revealing an image of an alien from
Speaker 1: the Andromeda galaxy. Using a translating computer, Alan Lane's at
Speaker 1: the being shares his tinkering spirit. They exchange ideas briefly
Speaker 1: before Alan's social commitment interrupts. A mishap at the radio
Speaker 1: station teleports the alien to Earth. Its radioactive aura causes chaos.
Speaker 1: It kills a dj, fries the caretaker, and seeks Alan's help.
Speaker 1: Alan eventually guides the creature back to his transmission shack,
Speaker 1: but authorities are already involved. When a sheriff accidentally shoots
Speaker 1: Alan's wife, the being heals her with radiation facing its
Speaker 1: would be destroyers. The alien warns the crowd there are
Speaker 1: powers in the universe beyond your knowledge. Explore reach out.
Speaker 1: It reveals its violation of a law against contact with
Speaker 1: destructive societies, and it must leave, unable to retain home.
Speaker 1: In the workshop, it declares end of transmission, fading away
Speaker 1: by lowering the transmitter power.
Speaker 2: Do you see me very dim?
Speaker 4: You are in the role of electronic room. Do not
Speaker 4: increase your power. Galax sefl bit contact of planets beyond
Speaker 4: central system.
Speaker 2: We're both breaking the rules. I'm not allowed to use
Speaker 2: the station for research. I am not allowed to use.
Speaker 4: Equipment for exploration.
Speaker 2: Do you have a name?
Speaker 4: Numbers not same as your four mentioned numbers? Answer question?
Speaker 4: What is below eyes?
Speaker 3: Oh?
Speaker 2: Eyes alls in space?
Speaker 1: No, so, Chris, these are long episodes, so we're not
Speaker 1: going to step through the story bit by bit. We're
Speaker 1: just going to kind of talk around and you know,
Speaker 1: dig into a few things here and there. So the
Speaker 1: galaxy being first time for.
Speaker 3: You, absolutely, Yeah. I had never seen this before, and
Speaker 3: a very interesting introduction to it, I think. I mean
Speaker 3: the fact that it's written and directed by the creator
Speaker 3: of the entire show. I think is I mean to,
Speaker 3: and we don't want to draw comparisons constantly throughout every
Speaker 3: episode of this.
Speaker 1: That we do. But it's going to be hard, isn't it.
Speaker 3: It's going to be how difficult, isn't it? I suppose?
Speaker 3: But I would imagine that the first episode of the
Speaker 3: Twilet Zone was also written and directed by Rod or
Speaker 3: certainly written.
Speaker 1: By him, right, certainly written by him? Yeah? Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3: And so what was the the let's get this part
Speaker 3: out of the way before we dig into the episode.
Speaker 3: What's that in terms of the broadcast the date of
Speaker 3: the sixteenth of September nineteen sixty three, what was the
Speaker 3: distance between that and the first the airing of the
Speaker 3: first episode of the Twilight Zone.
Speaker 1: So the first Twilight Zone was fifty nine, and I
Speaker 1: think the last one was sixty four. Now, I did
Speaker 1: look briefly into The Outer Limits Companion before, and the
Speaker 1: writer of that book said that, yeah, sure it shares,
Speaker 1: you know, a bit of familiarity with the Twilight Zone,
Speaker 1: but he believes it to be more akin to other
Speaker 1: science fiction anthologies that came before the Twilight Zone, because
Speaker 1: the Twilight Zone wasn't fast, but there were things like
Speaker 1: one Step Beyond or are Tales of Tomorrow, you know,
Speaker 1: so there were a few things around at the time,
Speaker 1: whereas the Twilight Zone, although there was you know, science
Speaker 1: fiction in it, it wasn't particularly hard sci fi where
Speaker 1: this goes for a bit more of a harder edge
Speaker 1: sci fi if you like.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that was something that I knew going into this
Speaker 3: is that these you know, so we're cover from two
Speaker 3: seasons here. They're going to be more science fiction related
Speaker 3: stories in this show than they would have been in well,
Speaker 3: certainly in Night Gallery, which is the show that we covered,
Speaker 3: the rod adjacent show that we covered before. But yeah, interesting,
Speaker 3: so the Galaxy being we get our first taste here
Speaker 3: of the Outer Limits, and I have to say, I
Speaker 3: really enjoy the intro. You know, do not adjust your
Speaker 3: television set. I really enjoy stuff like that, and I
Speaker 3: think that it's a I think that's pretty iconic. Really,
Speaker 3: that's something that I do. I did remember being a
Speaker 3: part of the show and being something that that's kind
Speaker 3: of quite important to it.
Speaker 1: I think it's absolutely right because had it been like,
Speaker 1: oh right, let's get a guy in, let's get Leslie
Speaker 1: Stevens in, I mean he might have done a fine
Speaker 1: job standing up there introducing it, but it would have
Speaker 1: been I think although there were many many hosts of
Speaker 1: TV shows, you know, it was quite common for the
Speaker 1: to be an open and narrator or something like that.
Speaker 1: I think Rod's really just cemented himself as no one's
Speaker 1: going to beat this guy, you know, Yeah, if we
Speaker 1: do it now, it's just going to seem like a
Speaker 1: rip off of Rod Sailing. So they'd done this really
Speaker 1: imaginative thing like we're interrupting your transmission, this is this
Speaker 1: is comming from somewhere else. And I think it was
Speaker 1: a really good movie. You're absolutely right.
Speaker 3: Yeah, the control voice as done by Vic Perrin. Now
Speaker 3: I didn't really know Vic Perry, to be completely honest
Speaker 3: with you. I know that he did some acting. He
Speaker 3: seems to have an incredibly vast amount of voice acting
Speaker 3: credits throughout the years. He's done a lot of voiceover work.
Speaker 3: He was the voice of Sinetro Sinestro rather the the villain,
Speaker 3: the Green Lanterns villain on the on the Challenge of
Speaker 3: the super Friends. He did stuff on Space Ghost, He
Speaker 3: was you know, did a fair amount of Marvel stuff,
Speaker 3: you know, the old Marvel cartoons.
Speaker 1: He was on.
Speaker 3: Scooby Doo, so this is, you know, so this is
Speaker 3: a guy who has done a whole bunch of different
Speaker 3: stuff really and did ming the Merciless. He's a I
Speaker 3: think he's a great voice for it.
Speaker 1: I have to say, well, I'm not gonna pick out
Speaker 1: Twilight Zone alumni throughout this show because there's so many
Speaker 1: of them, you know, but Vic Perrin was in the
Speaker 1: Twilight Zone as well. He was in an episode called
Speaker 1: people Are Like All Over. I think he was in
Speaker 1: a couple of others, but I know there was one
Speaker 1: where like he's done a part but it got caught
Speaker 1: and things. So there is a connection there and it's
Speaker 1: kind of nice that he's the main person in this,
Speaker 1: But there are so many that if I'm sitting here
Speaker 1: being like, he's been in the Twilight Zone, She's been
Speaker 1: in the Twilight and it's just going to become really tiresome, because,
Speaker 1: like I said, if you count Vic Perrin, there's at
Speaker 1: least four now in this episode. So I'm not gonna
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna keep going there.
Speaker 3: Are you going to be able to help yourself though, Tom,
Speaker 3: that's the question. It's whether you're gonna be whether you're
Speaker 3: gonna be able to take your toilight his own hat off.
Speaker 3: Come to this fresh. You know, it's gonna difficult, I
Speaker 3: suppose in that regard, But I like the before we
Speaker 3: get stuck into the bulk of the kind of story
Speaker 3: in this episode. I like the fact that it very
Speaker 3: much is someone coming in and saying, we're taking control
Speaker 3: of your television set. Now you're gonna have to deal
Speaker 3: with it, but then we'll give it back to you
Speaker 3: at the end. And that's kind of the you know,
Speaker 3: the whole thing that happens here with each episode is
Speaker 3: that they take control of it, they show you what
Speaker 3: needs to be shown, and then they give you control
Speaker 3: of your TV set back at the end of the episode.
Speaker 3: So yeah, the galaxy being So, we're in the radio
Speaker 3: world here, Tom and you and I al though we've
Speaker 3: not been on the radio, we've been podcasting for a
Speaker 3: long time, and I feel like we're we're relatively comfortable
Speaker 3: when we get into that radio world when we've covered
Speaker 3: stories where we've had a you know, we covered one
Speaker 3: or two on Night Gallery together. For example, we get
Speaker 3: the radio DJ coming in, but it's really not about
Speaker 3: the radio station as such. It's about really a man
Speaker 3: named Alan Maxwell who's conducting these experiments trying to contact something.
Speaker 1: What a weird setup this is. It almost seems that
Speaker 1: because there's no one around this radio station apart from
Speaker 1: the DJ and Alan's wife who sort of works there,
Speaker 1: I guess, and Alan who's out in the shed doing
Speaker 1: as little science experiments. So it very much feels like
Speaker 1: this station is in someone's backyard or something. So it
Speaker 1: is a little bit odd.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it totally is. But Alan is a well, Alan's
Speaker 3: become a real shut in. He doesn't want to go out,
Speaker 3: he doesn't want to do anything. He's not really even
Speaker 3: he doesn't really have much of a relationship with his wife,
Speaker 3: Carol he mentioned before. Anymore. He's transfixed on using microwaves,
Speaker 3: using these radio waves to try and contact something, to
Speaker 3: try and explore the universe as it may be, and
Speaker 3: Carol is tired of it. On Carol is sick of it.
Speaker 3: She's like, look, you're about to be awarded for your
Speaker 3: you know, you're you're getting a there's going to be
Speaker 3: like a speech where you're going to be commended for
Speaker 3: your incredible work in your field.
Speaker 1: Soon.
Speaker 3: You need to, you know, be with me again and
Speaker 3: be with the station and you know, accept the reality
Speaker 3: of your life rather than just being stuck in here.
Speaker 3: But he's insistent, isn't he that? Look, I'm I feel
Speaker 3: like I'm on the verge of something here.
Speaker 1: Yeah, there's a bit of that in all of us,
Speaker 1: isn't there. Sometimes when you get your head into something
Speaker 1: and you're just like, right, I've just got to do
Speaker 1: this at the expense of anything else. You know, for me,
Speaker 1: it might be sitting here working on one of these
Speaker 1: podcasts that are put out or whatever. So you know,
Speaker 1: I get it, especially if if he's starting to actually
Speaker 1: make progress, and I think the progress here is getting
Speaker 1: signals from this being. Now, I think this thing looks great.
Speaker 1: It's like a glass sculpture filled with molten lava. But
Speaker 1: then turn negative and it's just such a great effect.
Speaker 3: Honestly, consider think this is nineteen sixty three. It would
Speaker 3: have been very easy to just have an alien turn
Speaker 3: up in a rubber suit, and I think they've done here.
Speaker 3: Probably the best effect they could have done, which, as
Speaker 3: you say, is to make this thing. It's slightly transparent.
Speaker 3: It's got these sort of black dots that are moving
Speaker 3: around through it. It's a really I was really taken
Speaker 3: aback by the fact that they did that, and that
Speaker 3: they kept it that way even when this alien is
Speaker 3: able to kind of make it through to Earth, as
Speaker 3: we'll talk about in a second here. I was really
Speaker 3: impressed with it. I thought, Wow, for the early sixties,
Speaker 3: given the technology that they've got to work with, such
Speaker 3: as it is, you know, the kind of reverse negative
Speaker 3: look of it, I think is. I think that's a
Speaker 3: real success, I have to say. And I think that
Speaker 3: the general kind of thrust of the story I think
Speaker 3: is a success as well. You know, we have Alan
Speaker 3: Maxwell played here by Cliff Robertson now, Tom, the modern
Speaker 3: audiences I suppose, although how modern it would be now
Speaker 3: it's hard to say, would probably know Cliff Robinson for
Speaker 3: a particular role that he did in a modern superhero trilogy. Tom,
Speaker 3: do you know what I'm talking about.
Speaker 1: I do know what you're talking about.
Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely, because of course, he played Uncle Ben in
Speaker 3: Sam Raimi Spider Man trilogy, or I suppose more in
Speaker 3: the first one, because Uncle Ben obviously you loses his
Speaker 3: life early on, but he gives Peter the iconic words
Speaker 3: that we all know, with great power comes great responsibility.
Speaker 3: And that was Cliff Robinson, which probably, to be honest,
Speaker 3: with is probably the first thing that I ever saw
Speaker 3: him in. So it was nice to see a young
Speaker 3: version of him here, I have to say, And I
Speaker 3: enjoyed him in this, you know, as a man who
Speaker 3: is desperate to kind of say to the world, Look,
Speaker 3: it's not me being weird. It's me trying to see
Speaker 3: what else is out there. And I think it's a
Speaker 3: sort of a commendable pursuit that he had, all beit
Speaker 3: it's affecting other areas of his life as well, so
Speaker 3: it's something that probably would have needed to be addressed,
Speaker 3: but to the whole idea isn't. And they set up
Speaker 3: quite nicely, really, even at the beginning, which is that
Speaker 3: that when he's you know, sending out these waves to
Speaker 3: try and contact something or to try and explore, it
Speaker 3: lowers the amount of power that the radio station has,
Speaker 3: and the less power it has, the less people who
Speaker 3: are actually able to hear the transmission. And that plays
Speaker 3: into it really nicely, doesn't it. Later on, where Allen
Speaker 3: has reluctantly got to go to this dinner to kind
Speaker 3: of celebrate him in his career. Otherwise, his wife says,
Speaker 3: I'm going to bring everyone around here to come into
Speaker 3: this room, This is after he's managed to contact this
Speaker 3: sort of alien being, the galaxy being as it were,
Speaker 3: and he goes into the the kind of stand in.
Speaker 3: DJ con't remember what his name was. Is it something Phillips,
Speaker 3: Ray Phillips, was it or Eddie Phillips, Eddie Phillips, your
Speaker 3: old card. Eddie Phillips comes in as the stand in,
Speaker 3: and I think Alan makes a mistake here, Tom, because
Speaker 3: he comes in he says, no, listen, and I'm going
Speaker 3: to go to this dinner. Now, what if you do
Speaker 3: don't touch this dial. This is what this dial does.
Speaker 3: I want you to touch it. Stay away from that dial.
Speaker 3: Here's everything that this dial does that you do not
Speaker 3: want it to do. I'm going to leave that. If
Speaker 3: you hadn't come in and told him that, Edie Phillips
Speaker 3: probably wouldn't even have.
Speaker 1: Known how to walk the power, I know, I know.
Speaker 3: Eddie Phillips, wanting to become famous across the lands with
Speaker 3: his silken voice, increases the power to the radio station,
Speaker 3: broadcasts his the radio show out to a much wider
Speaker 3: apparently can go to Canada now, which is great, so
Speaker 3: you've got much more reach. But the alien being has said,
Speaker 3: do not increase the power. So the alien being knows
Speaker 3: you've got to leave it at this level because it
Speaker 3: could be dangerous if you do that. Eddie Phillips doesn't
Speaker 3: know that, so of course he increases the power and
Speaker 3: the alien manages to somehow come through to Earth. And
Speaker 3: I think it's really interesting, Tom, that we have this creature,
Speaker 3: this thing that you know, has no specific gender, no name,
Speaker 3: or it does have a name, but not the kind
Speaker 3: of name that you know that a human has. So yeah,
Speaker 3: and it's benevolent, you know, it doesn't want to hurt anybody,
Speaker 3: but it's been brought here in a forced manner without,
Speaker 3: you know, not for its own volition, and is just
Speaker 3: having a little wonder about really, isn't it.
Speaker 1: Well, here's the thing that I quite like about the
Speaker 1: alien is that I would think the usual order of
Speaker 1: things would be that he contacts an alien, but it's
Speaker 1: like the leader of a gang of aliens, or it
Speaker 1: holds some sort of position on its world, whereas here
Speaker 1: the alien is just like here them. Yeah, it's just
Speaker 1: another being. He likes having a little tinker. The alien's
Speaker 1: probably in his shed, he's got his radio on. You know,
Speaker 1: he's not drinking a beer because he hasn't got a mouth,
Speaker 1: you know, they cover that, but he's absorbing it through
Speaker 1: his skin or something like that. And he's just having
Speaker 1: a little mess about with his stuff. And then next
Speaker 1: minute there's old Cliff Robinson robertson me, like how's it going.
Speaker 1: And so they're just two dudes just hanging out across
Speaker 1: the universe. If it hadn't been for all the radiation
Speaker 1: in him, they probably could have sat and you know,
Speaker 1: had a nice time together. Unfortunately, the alien does get
Speaker 1: off give off a bit of radiation. So while he
Speaker 1: does come around just having a little stroll around, it
Speaker 1: causes a bit of chaos. Unfortunately. Great scenes though of
Speaker 1: the streets, you know, all the stuff blowing, people coming
Speaker 1: out and being like, oh my god and running away.
Speaker 1: I love all that. I thought it all looked great.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know the effects, you know, you can tell
Speaker 3: where everything kind of how everything works. You know, there's
Speaker 3: nothing here that I mean, look, it's nineteen sixty three,
Speaker 3: but it but I think it really does work. You
Speaker 3: have this this thing sort of you know, roaming around
Speaker 3: and radiating well radiation, and but again it doesn't want
Speaker 3: to do that. It knows that it is harmful. And
Speaker 3: that it would be harmful to people who are not
Speaker 3: its own kind. But what can it do. It's been
Speaker 3: brought here, you know, without it's without wanting to be here.
Speaker 3: And so it's sort of roaming around like, oh, go,
Speaker 3: I hope everyone's okay, but I want to go into
Speaker 3: this shop and have a look at these these things
Speaker 3: and sort of examine some of these human objects. And
Speaker 3: he picks up some things that sort of antiques and
Speaker 3: and and yeah, and Alan Maxwell finds out about it,
Speaker 3: and because they can hear on the radio that things
Speaker 3: are starting to go wrong Old Eddie. They're trying to
Speaker 3: get old of Eddie Phillips. Eddi Phillips has gone. He's dead,
Speaker 3: poor Eddy Finis. And I think is Eddy Phillips an
Speaker 3: anyone who No, I don't think he. He's the only
Speaker 3: one who dies, is he. There's a couple of people
Speaker 3: who die in car don't they.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think so.
Speaker 3: There's not many who, you know, it's not like this,
Speaker 3: this creature comes along and then destroys the whole town.
Speaker 3: It's a couple of people that died, but Eddie is
Speaker 3: one of them. And yeah, Alan Maxwell, you know, Carol faints,
Speaker 3: she's gone for the time being. She faints twice in
Speaker 3: this I say, Carol, but you know, they go back
Speaker 3: to the go back to the radio station, and Alan
Speaker 3: kind of confronts the creature, manages to lead the creature
Speaker 3: back then, and they realize that the machine and everything
Speaker 3: is broken, so can't send him back that way. And
Speaker 3: then we get this, I think maybe one of the
Speaker 3: best scenes in the episode, if not the best scene
Speaker 3: in it, which is you know, you've got sort of
Speaker 3: members of the army, you're there, You've got the police outside. Yeah,
Speaker 3: everybody is outside the station and they are willing to
Speaker 3: destroy this station in order to try and kill this thing. Now,
Speaker 3: whether that would have worked or not, we don't know,
Speaker 3: but obviously they're not going to fire at it while
Speaker 3: Alan and Carol are inside and the creature comes out,
Speaker 3: doesn't it, And it starts to give this speech. And
Speaker 3: I really enjoyed this speech. Tom.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, considering this is supposed to be, oh,
Speaker 1: this is just a monster sci fi show. I mean
Speaker 1: it's not the deepest of things we've seen it and
Speaker 1: things like when the s stood Still and all that,
Speaker 1: where an alien will come and just be like, listen, guys,
Speaker 1: you need to sort of stuff out. You know, you're
Speaker 1: not doing this right. Just chill out a beer, be
Speaker 1: a bit nicer to each other and maybe we'll you know,
Speaker 1: be able to connect with you a beer. But you're
Speaker 1: really not doing yourselves any favors. Just sort it out.
Speaker 1: That was the basics of what he said.
Speaker 3: Yeah, He's basically like, look, you must explore, you know,
Speaker 3: you must look out there because there are other things
Speaker 3: out there you can see. I'm an example of it.
Speaker 3: And then yeah, he he says, look, I'm going to
Speaker 3: leave you all in peace now, and off I go
Speaker 3: and he disappears, and yeah, Alan and Carroll kind of
Speaker 3: shut the station down, and you get the sense that
Speaker 3: that relationship is going to be okay and that everybody
Speaker 3: in that town is going to be well, they'll never
Speaker 3: forget it.
Speaker 1: Well they they won't forget it. No. No, So the
Speaker 1: alien probably I guess, forfeit of his life really because
Speaker 1: he couldn't go home, could he. So he must have
Speaker 1: just sort of disintegrated into the ether. I guess.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's not really quite explained exactly how it happens,
Speaker 3: but it does. I mean, he gives the kind of
Speaker 3: it well, I say he, I mean the creature really
Speaker 3: is kind of genderless, I suppose. But the creature gives
Speaker 3: the explanation that he can't go back. I'm going to
Speaker 3: say he he can't go back because he's his kind
Speaker 3: will kill him when he's there, so, but then he
Speaker 3: kind of kills himself anyway, So I guess you know,
Speaker 3: he went out. Yeah, but he went he went out
Speaker 3: on his own term start, which is, you know better.
Speaker 3: I think after telling humans that they're idiots, He's like, right,
Speaker 3: I'm off now.
Speaker 1: Yeah you're all too violent. But if I go back,
Speaker 1: they're going to kill me.
Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly, So we're no better on my side either.
Speaker 3: I'm going to explode now. And yeah, so it's I
Speaker 3: enjoyed it, you know, I enjoyed this story, Tom. I
Speaker 3: thought it was a nice just a nice thing, you know. Again,
Speaker 3: that the whole thing of the kind of intelligent alien
Speaker 3: who doesn't want to hurt anyone. Yeah, we've seen that
Speaker 3: before for sure, in other stories. But I think this
Speaker 3: was done quite well.
Speaker 1: Yeah I do too. I was quite worried about the
Speaker 1: run time, and I think this one just about filled
Speaker 1: that time. Okay, you know felt a bit like you
Speaker 1: could have taken it up here there, but it was okay.
Speaker 1: But the story was good. You know, a few unique
Speaker 1: aspects to it. Like I said, it's just he's just
Speaker 1: a dude. He's just a dude. Two dudes hanging out.
Speaker 1: I like that aspect of it. Do you think do
Speaker 1: you think maybe we should introduce like a rating system here,
Speaker 1: like out of five or out of ten or something
Speaker 1: like that. What do you think I think.
Speaker 3: It could maybe, So we don't normally do that, but
Speaker 3: I wouldn't mind doing something a little bit different.
Speaker 1: Yeah, just something a bit unique for this, I guess maybe.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I would probably give this a four out of five.
Speaker 1: Four out of five. Okay. See, this is the thing
Speaker 1: when you're doing out of five, I don't like to
Speaker 1: give half marks because you might as well just be
Speaker 1: doing it out of ten. Yeah, so I'm going to
Speaker 1: have to go one way or the other. I would
Speaker 1: give it a three, which I think is solid. You know,
Speaker 1: three is like good. Enjoyed it, So I would give
Speaker 1: it a three out of five, three alien heads out
Speaker 1: of five.
Speaker 3: Well, in a way, this episode also the story of
Speaker 3: this of the of Alan and his brother in law.
Speaker 3: It reminds me of our relationship where you're you're like
Speaker 3: the sort of slick radio did you go in the
Speaker 3: You're like, hey, everybody, how's your drive time commute? Whereas
Speaker 3: I'm in the shed, like, Tom, I've contacted Alien. I'm
Speaker 3: going to bring you to her through the radio. And
Speaker 3: you're like, okay again, good luck to you. So that
Speaker 3: is the galaxy bees. Shall I tell you about the
Speaker 3: next one?
Speaker 1: Tom, I would love to hear about it.
Speaker 3: Well, I'd love to tell you. So we're you know,
Speaker 3: we're there, we're together, and we're doing it. This is
Speaker 3: called the one hundred Days of the Dragon.
Speaker 2: We now return control of your television set to you
Speaker 2: until next week at the same time, when the control
Speaker 2: voice will take you to the outer limits.