Monday, March 4, 2019

THE OUTER LIMITS: The Chameleon / Season 1 Episode 31 - 1964

Today we have another great episode from the great sixties series... To save Earth from an invasion from space, scientists alter a human into a replica of one of the aliens. The human subject, Mace, is a remorseless killer, who easily adapts to the personality required. Giving up his body and life means little to him, he relishes this ultimate test of his chameleon powers. But how much loyalty will Mace have for his fellow humans?..

This one stars Robert (THX 1138) Duvall, Howard (JUDGEMENT AT NUREMBERG) Caine, Douglas (THE WAR OF THE WORLDS, KING DINOSAUR) Henderson, William (ICE STATION ZEBRA) O'Connell and Henry (THE LAND UNKNOWN) Brandon.

The military is keeping tabs on an alien spacecraft that has landed in a forest. They can't decide what to do, one option is to destroy the craft.

Leon Chambers, who works for General Crawford, locates Louis Mace after he's had an altercation with with an underworld character. His buddy takes off after Mace puts the screws to his pal.

Chambers enters the bar to find Mace holding the flyswatter that he killed the punk with! Pretty effing fly!!

Chambers wants to recruit Mace to try and infiltrate the aliens' craft to find out why they're on Earth. But, how will they accomplish such a complicated task? Hey, check out how to use Venetian blinds to create atmosphere!!

Well, it just so happens that Dr. Tillyard has the answer. He plans on using a serum that will transform Mace into an alien, plus he has tapes that will rewire his brain...

Sure enough, Mace changes into an alien! But, after the transformation is complete, Mace just giggles a lot, unnerving the others.

So, after Mace makes his way inside the ship, he's hit with a ray that tells the aliens what the transplant is up to, they know he is a human that has been changed into one of them!

This is a strange shot, the thing on the left is a weapon that Mace learns about from the aliens.

The two aliens like Mace and ask him if he'd like to join them on their long trip back to their planet. Mace says he'd like that, and helps them prepare for the journey.

Mace seems to have forgotten about his mission, so, Chambers pushes the 'remember the mission, come back' button. Mace takes the weapon and mists one of the aliens. He kills that alien and the other escapes into the forest...

But, after Mace chases the other alien down and is ready to kill him, well, Mace has like an alien epiphany and agrees to go back with the alien to his planet so that he has a friend to keep him company. Mace refuses to go back to the base, goodbye!

So, General Crawford, Chambers and Dr. Tillyard can only watch as the spacecraft heads out to space... Tune in Wednesday when Eegah!! will haunt The Dungeon once again! Til then...

3 comments:

Randall Landers said...

A really good episode, but I wish that Mace's "epiphany" hadn't seemed so sudden and without reason. If we'd seen somewhere before that he could lose himself in a role, it would've been more believable. Great aliens as always.

Grant said...

Also, the "cover story" they give Mace is incredibly far-fetched, something like "I'm one of you, but I crash-landed here and got amnesia, and now I only know this planet's language."
Luckily, one scene has them ADMITTING how-far-fetched it is, and how they just couldn't come up with a better one.

KD said...

The cobbled-together interior set of the alien ship and cheesy props is the only thing wrong with this episode.

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