In today's story, a being on a distant planet teleports a young man and woman from an apartment building to compete in a gladiatorial contest with primitive monsters. For the aliens, it's just an amusing game, but if the humans fail, Earth will be destroyed! The woman is desperate to save Earth, but the man is a vicious, petty crook on the run, who has little to lose and doesn't care about humanity's fate...
This one stars Nick (FRANKENSTEIN CONQUERS THE WORLD, DIE, MONSTER, DIE, GODZILLA vs. MONSTER ZERO, MISSION MARS) Adams as Mike Benson, Nancy (THE VIOLATORS) Malone as Laura Hanley, Bill (SOLAR CRISIS) Hart as the alien and Ray (EXPERIMENT IN TERROR) Kellogg as the Detective.
It all starts at a card game among some crooks. Well, one guy comes in and shoots a kingpin, causing mayhem as all the men there scatter from the scene...
Suddenly, Mike, one of the people at the game, is transported to an alien planet where he's told that he can choose between going to prison for the rest of his life, or, fight for the fate of the Earth! Mike just doesn't know what to make of the offer.
The Alien then brings in the woman, Laura, whose apartment Mike ended up in after the shooting. The game will pit the two of them against two primitive monsters on their planet.
The two are sent back to Earth to decide if they will take up the offer to try and save the world, or not. Mike isn't interested and escapes the situation.
Here's a great close up of one of the monsters!..
Yeeeeesh!
Laura finally convinces Mike, after he returns to her apartment, that they should fight for the fate of the Earth even if Mike doesn't give a crap! He finally gives in and they're transported to the alien planet.
And, the two monsters have razor sharp boomerangs to intimidate the Earthlings...
Laura tries to get across a stream but is caught by one of the monsters. She screams and Mike comes'a runnin' to the scene.
After Mike helps Laura off the wooden structure, he tries to cross the stream. Unfortunately, he is shaken off by a monster but grabs a log and holds on as the thing tries to stomp his hands. He screams for Laura to throw the boomerang at the monster...
The boomerang hits the thing in the head, killing it. Then, Mike falls into the fire and dies!
The Alien tells Laura that she has saved the Earth from destruction and sends her back to her apartment. She asked the Alien if she will remember anything and he says that she will only remember things that are meaningful to her...
Back in her apartment, Mike breaks in after the murder at the card game. He looks at her, then disappears out the window again. She doesn't remember Mike, so, he was not important to her! Hey, join us again on Wednesday when Eegah!! will bring on more Dungeon Cargo!.. Later!!
3 comments:
I've always thought this story was a revision of Frederic Brown's sf short story, "Arena," which also was made into a Star Trek episode. In both, superior aliens pit Humans against Others, the losers to die along with their shipmates/planet.
In "Arena," both Kirk and the Gorn captain are disadvantaged in their environment and must make do with what they can create (Kirk's cannon vs the Gorn's obsidian dagger). In "Fun and Games," we see a darker side of the superior aliens who unfairly pit the two Humans against Aliens who come up with Space Boomerangs pretty darn fast.
In "Arena," we get Captain Kirk deciding NOT to kill the Gorn, thereby showing his moral superiority to the Metrons (superior aliens). In "Fun and Games," Nick Adams sacrifices himself to save the girl and/or Earth.
All in all, an interesting episode of "Outer Limits." And while not as optimistic as "Star Trek," still a good story. Thanks for the look back at it!
Hi Randall, I was thinking about the Star Trek episode too / Thanks for the great info, as usual...
Like so many OUTER LIMITS stories, this one goes against the "helpless female" cliche you always hear about, since it's Laura who does the heroics at the end.
There's also the little realistic moment when she cuts her hand on the boomerang, since of course she's never used one.
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