I can just hear the groans from enlightened viewers of the present day when alien Ikar (Robert Webber) is heard to say - "In an orderly society, a woman's only function is to produce children". That idea might have held sway in the Sixties but was quickly going the way of the dinosaur as society was changing. It did however form the basis of this episode which examined a trade-off between scientific knowledge and human emotions. It was the price Eric Plummer (Warren Stevens) had to pay in order to gain the two necessary equations necessary to complete his design for an 'antimagnetic disintegrator', which sounded sterile enough, but turned out to be potentially more lethal than an atomic bomb. One hitch in the story occurred when Ikar mentioned soldiers killing on his unnamed planet, but if his world was inhabited by unemotional beings, what would provoke war in a place without hate? That fleeting comment buzzed by rather quickly but made an impression on this viewer. It fell to Plummer's fiancée Janet (Gail Kobe) to instruct Ikar in the basic concepts of love, hate and all the emotions in between that make up the human condition while he began to succumb to those forces which jeopardized his mission on Earth, and would have been disastrous if his alien superiors took charge. The conflicted alien admirably agreed to make the exchange with Eric to restore their original status quo, and with new insight, the genius scientist destroyed his invention before it could wreak havoc on mankind. Which left only one remaining question on the mind of this viewer - what ever possessed the filmmakers to put actress Kobe in that hideous dress with the giant bow in front?
9 Reviews
"Your orderly society begins to sound more and more dull."
classicsoncall20 June 2022
Warning: Spoilers
Don't Get Emotional!
Hitchcoc19 January 2015
This is one of those episodes that require us to accept an alien force that has capabilities to withdraw sense from a human. It's one thing to be a vanguard for populating another world (much science fiction and especially The Outer Limits hangs on this possibility. When the alien come to the desperate scientist, who is on the verge of a nervous breakdown, one can understand that he would do what he could to gain access. But the fact that an interplanetary culture has no knowledge of emotions but has the ability to absorb someone else's, makes everything more fantasy than sci fi. The story is a pretty good one. Ikar comes from a beehive culture, not unlike the Borg from Star Trek: The Next Generation. Every entity has his or her own purpose. When he ingests the emotions of the scientist and goes about testing out his newfound toys, it becomes really sort of silly. I decided to let that go and evaluate the story as presented. It is suspenseful and interesting and maintains the attention. It is heavy handed with a kind of human proselytizing, showing how superior we really are. Television in the sixties couldn't seem to shake this sermonizing.
Keeper of this episode's purple dialogue
burthelukyman7 September 2014
Warning: Spoilers
This 2nd season episode contains everything that was good AND bad about the second season : great looking aliens, cool special FX and music and good actors doing their best with (here's the bad part) inferior material and plodding story line ... Show starts wonderfully (very atmospheric prologue scene + great surrealistic scenes of the alien appearing on the back seat of Warren Stevens's car) but then it's all downhill from here ... Kudos to Gail Kobe for her energetic acting in a thankless role (as the emotionally abused GIRLFRIEND (not wife, mind you, surely a rare instance in 1960 TV) of abusive scientist Warren Stevens). Early scene where she catches him alone in his house with Robert Webber has a definite 'gay vibe' to it (- Who's this man ? - Just a friend ... You should leave us alone now ! ) Have fun counting the number of times she faints in the presence of the aliens, or admiring the outrageously ugly dress she wears during the picnic scene (absurdly occurring in the vicinity of what looks like thousands of ants !!) :) Man, those 2nd season shows suck so bad when compared to the landmark episodes of the 1st season ...
Move Over Mr Spock...2nd Best Limits Show
StuOz4 May 2006
An alien gets human emotions and struggles to understand the human emotion known as love. Warren Stevens must deal with the confusing alien...not to mention his confused wife!
This is my 2nd favourite episode of The Outer Limits due to the story, the guest stars (mainly Warren Stevens), the location filming, the score, and the three eight foot aliens that still look cool in this century! I have just read a negative review on this episode, mainly about the "confusing story", and am rather surprised that some disliked this episode.
Some women of this century will find the hour sexist, some Get Smart (1965-70) fans will struggle with seeing "The Chief" acting straight, but to me, this is an almost perfect hour that defines The Outer Limits.
This is my 2nd favourite episode of The Outer Limits due to the story, the guest stars (mainly Warren Stevens), the location filming, the score, and the three eight foot aliens that still look cool in this century! I have just read a negative review on this episode, mainly about the "confusing story", and am rather surprised that some disliked this episode.
Some women of this century will find the hour sexist, some Get Smart (1965-70) fans will struggle with seeing "The Chief" acting straight, but to me, this is an almost perfect hour that defines The Outer Limits.
Decent...
planktonrules11 January 2012
Warning: Spoilers
Warren Stevens plays a crazed scientist--one whose personality has definitely soured because he desperately wants to build some death ray thingie. Robert Webber plays a guy who really is a cool looking alien in human guise. Like Pinocchio, he's curious about human emotions, as his race has none. So, he offers to help Stevens make a cool death ray if Stevens gives him his emotions. So they switch, but things don't go quite as they'd anticipated and neither is especially happy--leading to a violent ending and the loss of the death ray.
Overall, this is a decent episode--and it nearly merits a 7. I just thought the cheesy arms/hands of the aliens and the long-winded nature of the plot from time to time tilted me towards a 6. Worth seeing--just not among the best of the series.
Overall, this is a decent episode--and it nearly merits a 7. I just thought the cheesy arms/hands of the aliens and the long-winded nature of the plot from time to time tilted me towards a 6. Worth seeing--just not among the best of the series.
Keeper of the Purple Twilight
john-bates-124 January 2007
No idea how the title connects with the story (and no clue is given), but its poetic turn sure makes it easy to remember. "Demon with a Glass Hand", "Purple Twilight", "O.B.I.T." are standout examples of what came from the short lived Outer Limits series. Like many of the episodes, "Purple" was shot on a limited budget, but manages to give an engaging story - plot line, imagination and effort getting the job done, with a measure of philosophizing dialogue, an OT trademark.
Just plain, simple fun. An alien scientist, with a sinister agenda, arrives on earth, but has an unexpected change of heart after being exposed to a dose of human emotions. Poker face actors Robert Webber, the alien ("I don't live to be liked or disliked."), and Warren Stevens, an obsessed, stressed-out earth scientist ("You serve no purpose, Janet. I have no use for you."), make interesting foils. The girlfriend's role is a bit overemotional (a fate that many of the Outer Limits female leads had to endure), but it's her nature that melts the emotionless, extraterrestrial heart. A nice touch is the three duty-bound, alien policemen who show up to retrieve the now renegade scientist.
Just plain, simple fun. An alien scientist, with a sinister agenda, arrives on earth, but has an unexpected change of heart after being exposed to a dose of human emotions. Poker face actors Robert Webber, the alien ("I don't live to be liked or disliked."), and Warren Stevens, an obsessed, stressed-out earth scientist ("You serve no purpose, Janet. I have no use for you."), make interesting foils. The girlfriend's role is a bit overemotional (a fate that many of the Outer Limits female leads had to endure), but it's her nature that melts the emotionless, extraterrestrial heart. A nice touch is the three duty-bound, alien policemen who show up to retrieve the now renegade scientist.
Outer Limits slides back into mediocrity
hung_fao_tweeze10 January 2015
My biggest complaint with season 2 of OL is that the production staff seem to have no clue how to do plausible science fiction. They impose conditions and motivations into a script that ultimately prove to make the discerning viewer feel cheated out of a good story. After the excellent 'The Inheritors I and II', 'Keeper Of The Purple Twilight' avalanches right back into the banality of the rest of season 2.
It is a great title though, isn't it. It is never satisfactorily explained however. It really doesn't seem to mean anything perhaps.
So, the basic story is a dedicated scientist is seeking certain equations to help him complete his death ray and he is having no luck on his own. He is frustrated and emotionally sick over the stress of the situation. Along comes an alien to help but his motivations are bizarre. Basically he is supposed to provide the equations so that the death ray is produced on Earth and this would open the door for the rest of his species to come in and take over the world. It's sort of a warped hostile version of 'The Day The Earth Stood Still'. On top of this, the 'logical' alien advises the scientist he will provide the equations if he can have the scientists emotions. Well, I didn't see that coming - and, quite frankly, seems completely insipid. As you can surmise, the emotions don't sit well with the alien - blah blah blah.
I found myself wanting desperately for this episode to foray into something original or simply end. It finally ended. The only thing I managed to take away from this episode was the impressive alien configurations. These were worthy and could hold up to anything from the first season although that 'crushed velvet(?)' uniform was a bit laughable. And did I detect crotch zippers on the pants of the soldier aliens?? Did you see the claws on those guys? Logistically, urinating could be an adventure I would bet.
Overall: A dreadful episode slightly saved by the eerie alien costumes
It is a great title though, isn't it. It is never satisfactorily explained however. It really doesn't seem to mean anything perhaps.
So, the basic story is a dedicated scientist is seeking certain equations to help him complete his death ray and he is having no luck on his own. He is frustrated and emotionally sick over the stress of the situation. Along comes an alien to help but his motivations are bizarre. Basically he is supposed to provide the equations so that the death ray is produced on Earth and this would open the door for the rest of his species to come in and take over the world. It's sort of a warped hostile version of 'The Day The Earth Stood Still'. On top of this, the 'logical' alien advises the scientist he will provide the equations if he can have the scientists emotions. Well, I didn't see that coming - and, quite frankly, seems completely insipid. As you can surmise, the emotions don't sit well with the alien - blah blah blah.
I found myself wanting desperately for this episode to foray into something original or simply end. It finally ended. The only thing I managed to take away from this episode was the impressive alien configurations. These were worthy and could hold up to anything from the first season although that 'crushed velvet(?)' uniform was a bit laughable. And did I detect crotch zippers on the pants of the soldier aliens?? Did you see the claws on those guys? Logistically, urinating could be an adventure I would bet.
Overall: A dreadful episode slightly saved by the eerie alien costumes
Human Emotions
AaronCapenBanner17 March 2016
Warren Stevens stars as a scientist named Eric Plummer who has been despairing about completing complex equations needed to manufacture an anti-magnetic disintegrator when he is unexpectedly approached by an alien named Ikar(played Robert Webber) who will give him the help he needs if he can borrow his emotions, a concept unknown to his species. Of course the emotions wreck havoc on the orderly mind that his race prides itself on, which threatens everyone involved, in particular Eric's girlfriend Janet(played by Gail Kobe) as the aliens plan to invade the Earth, and wont let the compromised Ikar stop them...Dreary, all-too predictable and arch episode only has memorable monsters to distinguish it in any way, despite the colorful title.
No twilight, no keepers, and no purple. Awesome title.
fedor86 January 2022
Warning: Spoilers
What the hell is a purple twilight? One of the most senseless and misleading TOL titles. There is no keeping, no twilight and no purple - because TOL is b&w.
I had a feeling this would stink because written by the same guy who scripted one of the show's very worst episodes, "Species Unknown".
The silliness kicks off fairly soon. Firstly, the alien's introduction to the scientist is completely unrealistic, and riddled with stupid dialogue - which infests most of the episode. Secondly, the scientist's constant grumpiness appears contrived, it's exaggerated. Thirdly, that very stupid moment when the girlfriend fails to notice the alien in the room. This is done so Lord can fool us into believing that the alien is visible only to the scientist, so that we may be surprised when it turns out that this isn't the case. What a trashy gimmick. Beginner writing.
The alien proposes that he and the scientist do a mental switcheroo: the alien gets human emotions, the scientist loses them but gets the equations he needs for his project. Just like that!
"Hey, wanna switch brains?" "You can do that?" "Sure I can! I'm an omnipotent alien in a cheesy sci-fi story. I can do anything!" "Yeah, sure, why not."
It's also the SPEED with which this agreement comes about that's awfully silly. There is no build-up of a relationship between the two, no time period during which they get used to each other, no time during which the scientist is able to absorb all the bizarre stuff that's happening before he can assess the situation. The scientist had no sooner met the first alien in his entire life, yet just minutes later they're shaking hands on this switcheroo, which makes zero dramatic scene. So the scientist is really desperate to get his project completed - or he is really just a reckless moron?
What really sends the nonsense overboard is the alien suddenly materializing in the woman's house, and the ensuing conversation which is utterly idiotic and unrealistic on every level. The alien talks to her as if she KNOWS that he is an alien, which would imply that the alien is a moron. Stupidly enough, she responds as if she actually understands what the hell he's talking about (which she, logically, shouldn't be able to) when he starts blathering about emotions and love. By all logic, she should be utterly confused, speechless, shocked even, because from her perspective this is a man she barely knows who had suddenly appeared in her house, very rudely, and started discussing love - of all things. How about first discussing why he dares barge in like that and who he is - before going on about love? She is too tolerant and forgiving.
Speaking of which, the theme of robots and aliens searching for emotions or trying to understand them was an old sci-fi cliche already back then. In fact, Lord ripped off the basic premise of season 1 episode "Guests", which also deals with an alien entity trying to understand humans, and it too features love as a key theme. It's a superior episode to this clunker.
The alien leaves the woman's house, demanding she doesn't tell Eric (her scientist boyfriend) of the visit. Yet, why would she comply? Why the hell would she place loyalty to this complete stranger above the loyalty to her boyfriend? By all logic she'd have told him the first chance she got...
The dialogue is plain dumb; the interactions between the alien and the characters is inane. It's as if these people meet aliens all the time... For example, Eric's reaction to witnessing the alien's real appearance is literally non-existent. Eric doesn't react. Really bad acting.
In fact, Eric's personality/behaviour before and after the switcheroo isn't too different, which defeats the purpose of the whole premise. The alien also doesn't change much; he is as robotic as he was before! So, for some dumb, unexplained reason the scientist becomes emotionally dead, essentially a psychopath, whereas the alien is still a confused, poker-faced robot.
There is an utterly hopeless scene when Eric tries to kill his woman. He starts strangling her then suddenly falls down. The way he scene was directed is really bad, very awkward, and there is no indication that the alien threw Eric to the ground, even though he must have. Just as she is saying "I love you" he goes for the kill - which is unintentionally funny. A very edwoodian scene.
So after Eric tried to kill her, and after Ikar refused to explain to her what is going on, what does this woman do? She cheerfully goes out for a picnic with Ikar! I guess she got over Eric, huh? The murder attempt, not important enough to worry about... This segment even goes for vague, light comedy. Facepalm... During the picnic scenes we are given clear evidence that she'd figured out that Ikar is not human. Yet she didn't, as it turns out a little later, when Ikar finally reveals his B-movie sci-fi self to her. She faints, which is a whole lot better than Eric's non-reaction. Btw, there's another faint 10 minutes later...
When Eric's colleague warns him that he will not allow this weapon to get approval for financial backing, Ikar materializes - with three more aliens - to help Eric. This is absurd, because WHY would Ikar give a hoot about whether Eric's project moves forward or not. Ikar's only interest was to study human emotions, not to help develop new weapons. Of course, the three alien bodyguards (soldiers) look awfully silly, but at least finally we have some more cheese to spice up things. Later, we find out Ikar's true intentions, but at this stage in the story Ikar's intrusion was confusing hence stupid.
This begs the question: if Ikar's real mission was to help Eric develop a weapon that would destroy Earth, then WHY the whole charade with love and emotions? The aliens are allegedly totally logical and practical, yet they picked an overly complicated, roundabout way to achieve their goals. They could have simply given Eric the equations and deleted his emotions without him knowing it, hence avoiding all the ensuing romantic hoopla. This whole love/emotions-are-so-mysterious nonsense was placed in the story just to inject yet more needless love-interest BS.
The alien wanting to learn about emotions, especially love, makes me suspect that this is yet another example of TOL producers applying pressure on the writers to include romantic drivel in order to attract female demographics. That this nearly always results in disappointment is obvious, but did it have to be this retarded? Some of this stuff isn't a whole lot better than what Ed Wood might have written had he been employed for this episode. Which isn't an exaggeration.
The script is relentless in its daftness, it never stops. Nearly every scene is dumb or has at least some obvious flaw, be it lack of logic, shoddy character interaction or bad acting. Lord is doubtlessly TOL's worst writer. Fortunately, he only did those two episodes.
Very predictably, Ikar starts falling for the woman, a dumb shtick handled far better in Star Trek TOS and later movies.
When she tries to warn the backer that it's all an alien conspiracy, he phones Eric but gets no response. "Hello, answer me! Whoever picked up the phone answer now or I'll have you fired!" This is an actually line from the financial backer, I didn't make it up. Question: WHY would Ikar and Eric refuse to talk to the backer when he anyway doesn't believe her alien story, and not replying only makes Eric suspicious? Very stupid.
After Ikar reveals his real plans to her, he disappears and materializes back at the picnic grounds. For some reason she knows that he's there! She shows up there, no explanation whatsoever how she could have possibly known his whereabouts.
There is nonsense outside of the love triangle too. The two geezers working on Eric's project, i.e. The colleague and the backer, have a stupid discussion about the dangers of this new weapon Eric co-developed. The financier suggest that perhaps the Russians already might have it! Yeah, right: and they wouldn't have used it by that point, if they did have it?! Russians would be like "yeah, this new weapon can win us the Cold War in a week, but let's not rush using it, let's WAIT until the Americans get it too... " Wut?
I do have to give credit to this actress for trying hard to give this malarkey a semblance of realism. Her performance is very good, especially considering what a dumb script she was working with here. The actors playing Eric and Ikar are hopeless though. They appear utterly bored, rather than just unemotional.
The theme of the allegedly superior aliens being more akin to mindless slaves and ants isn't bad at all, but it's buried under all the nonsense. There is a fun scene at the end with an alien showdown, but it's all too little too late.
I had a feeling this would stink because written by the same guy who scripted one of the show's very worst episodes, "Species Unknown".
The silliness kicks off fairly soon. Firstly, the alien's introduction to the scientist is completely unrealistic, and riddled with stupid dialogue - which infests most of the episode. Secondly, the scientist's constant grumpiness appears contrived, it's exaggerated. Thirdly, that very stupid moment when the girlfriend fails to notice the alien in the room. This is done so Lord can fool us into believing that the alien is visible only to the scientist, so that we may be surprised when it turns out that this isn't the case. What a trashy gimmick. Beginner writing.
The alien proposes that he and the scientist do a mental switcheroo: the alien gets human emotions, the scientist loses them but gets the equations he needs for his project. Just like that!
"Hey, wanna switch brains?" "You can do that?" "Sure I can! I'm an omnipotent alien in a cheesy sci-fi story. I can do anything!" "Yeah, sure, why not."
It's also the SPEED with which this agreement comes about that's awfully silly. There is no build-up of a relationship between the two, no time period during which they get used to each other, no time during which the scientist is able to absorb all the bizarre stuff that's happening before he can assess the situation. The scientist had no sooner met the first alien in his entire life, yet just minutes later they're shaking hands on this switcheroo, which makes zero dramatic scene. So the scientist is really desperate to get his project completed - or he is really just a reckless moron?
What really sends the nonsense overboard is the alien suddenly materializing in the woman's house, and the ensuing conversation which is utterly idiotic and unrealistic on every level. The alien talks to her as if she KNOWS that he is an alien, which would imply that the alien is a moron. Stupidly enough, she responds as if she actually understands what the hell he's talking about (which she, logically, shouldn't be able to) when he starts blathering about emotions and love. By all logic, she should be utterly confused, speechless, shocked even, because from her perspective this is a man she barely knows who had suddenly appeared in her house, very rudely, and started discussing love - of all things. How about first discussing why he dares barge in like that and who he is - before going on about love? She is too tolerant and forgiving.
Speaking of which, the theme of robots and aliens searching for emotions or trying to understand them was an old sci-fi cliche already back then. In fact, Lord ripped off the basic premise of season 1 episode "Guests", which also deals with an alien entity trying to understand humans, and it too features love as a key theme. It's a superior episode to this clunker.
The alien leaves the woman's house, demanding she doesn't tell Eric (her scientist boyfriend) of the visit. Yet, why would she comply? Why the hell would she place loyalty to this complete stranger above the loyalty to her boyfriend? By all logic she'd have told him the first chance she got...
The dialogue is plain dumb; the interactions between the alien and the characters is inane. It's as if these people meet aliens all the time... For example, Eric's reaction to witnessing the alien's real appearance is literally non-existent. Eric doesn't react. Really bad acting.
In fact, Eric's personality/behaviour before and after the switcheroo isn't too different, which defeats the purpose of the whole premise. The alien also doesn't change much; he is as robotic as he was before! So, for some dumb, unexplained reason the scientist becomes emotionally dead, essentially a psychopath, whereas the alien is still a confused, poker-faced robot.
There is an utterly hopeless scene when Eric tries to kill his woman. He starts strangling her then suddenly falls down. The way he scene was directed is really bad, very awkward, and there is no indication that the alien threw Eric to the ground, even though he must have. Just as she is saying "I love you" he goes for the kill - which is unintentionally funny. A very edwoodian scene.
So after Eric tried to kill her, and after Ikar refused to explain to her what is going on, what does this woman do? She cheerfully goes out for a picnic with Ikar! I guess she got over Eric, huh? The murder attempt, not important enough to worry about... This segment even goes for vague, light comedy. Facepalm... During the picnic scenes we are given clear evidence that she'd figured out that Ikar is not human. Yet she didn't, as it turns out a little later, when Ikar finally reveals his B-movie sci-fi self to her. She faints, which is a whole lot better than Eric's non-reaction. Btw, there's another faint 10 minutes later...
When Eric's colleague warns him that he will not allow this weapon to get approval for financial backing, Ikar materializes - with three more aliens - to help Eric. This is absurd, because WHY would Ikar give a hoot about whether Eric's project moves forward or not. Ikar's only interest was to study human emotions, not to help develop new weapons. Of course, the three alien bodyguards (soldiers) look awfully silly, but at least finally we have some more cheese to spice up things. Later, we find out Ikar's true intentions, but at this stage in the story Ikar's intrusion was confusing hence stupid.
This begs the question: if Ikar's real mission was to help Eric develop a weapon that would destroy Earth, then WHY the whole charade with love and emotions? The aliens are allegedly totally logical and practical, yet they picked an overly complicated, roundabout way to achieve their goals. They could have simply given Eric the equations and deleted his emotions without him knowing it, hence avoiding all the ensuing romantic hoopla. This whole love/emotions-are-so-mysterious nonsense was placed in the story just to inject yet more needless love-interest BS.
The alien wanting to learn about emotions, especially love, makes me suspect that this is yet another example of TOL producers applying pressure on the writers to include romantic drivel in order to attract female demographics. That this nearly always results in disappointment is obvious, but did it have to be this retarded? Some of this stuff isn't a whole lot better than what Ed Wood might have written had he been employed for this episode. Which isn't an exaggeration.
The script is relentless in its daftness, it never stops. Nearly every scene is dumb or has at least some obvious flaw, be it lack of logic, shoddy character interaction or bad acting. Lord is doubtlessly TOL's worst writer. Fortunately, he only did those two episodes.
Very predictably, Ikar starts falling for the woman, a dumb shtick handled far better in Star Trek TOS and later movies.
When she tries to warn the backer that it's all an alien conspiracy, he phones Eric but gets no response. "Hello, answer me! Whoever picked up the phone answer now or I'll have you fired!" This is an actually line from the financial backer, I didn't make it up. Question: WHY would Ikar and Eric refuse to talk to the backer when he anyway doesn't believe her alien story, and not replying only makes Eric suspicious? Very stupid.
After Ikar reveals his real plans to her, he disappears and materializes back at the picnic grounds. For some reason she knows that he's there! She shows up there, no explanation whatsoever how she could have possibly known his whereabouts.
There is nonsense outside of the love triangle too. The two geezers working on Eric's project, i.e. The colleague and the backer, have a stupid discussion about the dangers of this new weapon Eric co-developed. The financier suggest that perhaps the Russians already might have it! Yeah, right: and they wouldn't have used it by that point, if they did have it?! Russians would be like "yeah, this new weapon can win us the Cold War in a week, but let's not rush using it, let's WAIT until the Americans get it too... " Wut?
I do have to give credit to this actress for trying hard to give this malarkey a semblance of realism. Her performance is very good, especially considering what a dumb script she was working with here. The actors playing Eric and Ikar are hopeless though. They appear utterly bored, rather than just unemotional.
The theme of the allegedly superior aliens being more akin to mindless slaves and ants isn't bad at all, but it's buried under all the nonsense. There is a fun scene at the end with an alien showdown, but it's all too little too late.
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