“The Zanti Misfits” was an episode from the first season of The Outer Limits, first aired in December 1963. Get a synopsis of the plot at My Life in the Glow of the Outer Limits.
The rulers of the planet Zanti have coerced the US Government into allowing them to establish a penal colony on earth (they cannot execute members of their own species for reasons never specified). Earth has nervously agreed, and a tract of California desert has been cordoned off to accommodate them.
What could possibly go wrong? (via Everlasting Blort)
4 comments:
One of my favorite episodes.
Wow. Bruce Dern was playing bad guys 61 years ago and he's still at it.
My favorite Outer Limits episodes are The Borderland, Controlled Experiment, The Man With the Power, and the pilot episode: The Galaxy Being, in that order. And the one about David McCallum, when he invented a machine to evolve him forward, and it made him a genius unfeeling monster, so his girlfriend saved him by putting him back the way he was. My favorite episode title is The Keeper of the Purple Twilight, though I remember nothing of that one except a car goes through a gate and up a driveway. Weirdly, Miss, the Zanti Misfits never did much for me, where I know that it traumatized plenty of other people for life-- giant ants with sharp angry eyebrows! I have a friend who was terrified of them, like British children were terrified by Daleks and would hide behind the couch when they appeared.
I was four and five and six years old, happily alone, lying on my grandmother's couch, or on the floor, watching teevee, rapt, as all the grownups were away working in the restaurant across the alley. Twilight Zone was nice, but Outer Limits had a feeling to it of there being much more to understand than what was shown. Of all the things on teevee, original series 1963-1965 Outer Limits shows felt most like real life out in the world to me. That's the simplest way I can say it. It was perfect for not being perfect, and the music was thrilling. At the time I had no way of knowing how it was possible to make that sound. I certainly could not do it with my mouth. I tried and tried.
The Galaxy Being is the only episode I clearly recall. I may have to write about that one.
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