The Guests has a lovely atmosphere to it - it's properly strange too, not just because of the obvious blobby monster etc, but also for the delerious tensions and dialogues between the characters. It may have been a bit overdone, but so what! That's gothic Outer Limits for you.
Cinematography and set design are wonderfully evocative, and, musically, it was one of the best "tracked" episodes of the show. The cue choices were dead on.
Very good episode. You surely didn't get many fabulously weird TV hours like that one on US channels back then... or now for that matter.
I've always wondered if there's a link between Harlan Ellison preferring season two to season one (a minority opinion, by all accounts) and the fact that he wrote for season two.
The Guests has a lovely atmosphere to it - it's properly strange too, not just because of the obvious blobby monster etc, but also for the delerious tensions and dialogues between the characters. It may have been a bit overdone, but so what! That's gothic Outer Limits for you.
Cinematography and set design are wonderfully evocative, and, musically, it was one of the best "tracked" episodes of the show. The cue choices were dead on.
The episode features stock music from "Nightmare" and a Stoney Burke episode entitled "To Catch the Kaiser".
Speaking for myself, "The Architects Of Fear" is in my Top 5.
I tend to rank it as my 4th favorite (following my 3 faves which I think I posted earlier on in this thread).
Out of his 6 episodes as director, I think "The Architects Of Fear" is the finest work by Byron Haskin.
It's also writer Meyer Dolinsky's strongest story out of his 3 for this series.
TAOF is the first episode produced which captured the essence of THE OUTER LIMITS, in my opinion. It required no expensive guest stars (as did "The Human Factor" or "Tourist Attraction"), and Conrad Hall's photography along with the dark subject matter and sober ending elevates this segment (dramatically) to even loftier hights than the fine work Leslie Stevens did with "The Galaxy Being" & "The Borderland".
Dominic Frontiere's music for TAOF impressed me greatly when I first saw this episode in UHF syndication during 1980 when I was still age 12. I found the score even more memorable than Sol Kaplan's "The Doomsday Machine" from STAR TREK, and Frontiere's "Architects" converted me into the lover of TV and film music that I am today.
Speaking for myself, "The Architects Of Fear" is in my Top 5.
I tend to rank it as my 4th favorite (following my 3 faves which I think I posted earlier on in this thread).
Out of his 6 episodes as director, I think "The Architects Of Fear" is the finest work by Byron Haskin.
It's also writer Meyer Dolinsky's strongest story out of his 3 for this series.
TAOF is the first episode produced which captured the essence of THE OUTER LIMITS, in my opinion. It required no expensive guest stars (as did "The Human Factor" or "Tourist Attraction"), and Conrad Hall's photography along with the dark subject matter and sober ending elevates this segment (dramatically) to even loftier hights than the fine work Leslie Stevens did with "The Galaxy Being" & "The Borderland".
Dominic Frontiere's music for TAOF impressed me greatly when I first saw this episode in UHF syndication during 1980 when I was still age 12. I found the score even more memorable than Sol Kaplan's "The Doomsday Machine" from STAR TREK, and Frontiere's "Architects" converted me into the lover of TV and film music that I am today.
Robert Culp's performance is pretty intense. I also enjoy the supporting cast, especially Leonard Stone's Dr. Gainer.
The Galaxy Being The Man Who Was Never Born The Zanti Misfits (even with the Zanti puppets-on-a-string ending) Soldier Demon With a Glass Hand Hundred Days of the Dragon Nightmare Controlled Experiment The Bellero Shield The Chameleon I, Robot The Premonition Fun and Games
Apologies for responding to this thread about 18 months afterwards, but it occurred to me that the 50th anniversary of the cancellation of THE OUTER LIMITS had already transpired over a month ago.
Not sure if Adam B. is still readin' n postin' around @ FSM, but I noticed that his favorite episodes exclude the Stefano-written & Oswald-directed segments (except for "Fun And Games", which was not a Stefano original).
Any further comments (by Adam B. or Disco Stu or anybody else) on why episodes such as "Don't Open Till Doomsday" or "It Crawled Out Of The Woodwork" or "The Forms Of Things Unknown" polarize sci-fi fans into the 'love it' or 'hate it' camps? Even the solid and powerful "The Invisibles" doesn't appear much on favorites lists.
Perhaps one's responses to these shows depends upon one's sensibilities (like preferring style over content or vice versa).
