tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8535833613343533564.post9184973395293947552..comments2024-03-13T23:42:41.022-07:00Comments on We Are Controlling Transmission: Another Spotlight on "Production and Decay of Strange Particles"John Scolerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15830334036783163702noreply@blogger.comBlogger19125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8535833613343533564.post-40992044030111162322018-08-07T20:04:33.057-07:002018-08-07T20:04:33.057-07:00Late to the party on this episode, but I at least ...Late to the party on this episode, but I at least have the benefit of having just seen it on blu ray. Not all TOL episodes stand up to HD, but this one really does. The atmosphere is everything, and what an atmosphere it is. Say what you will about the plot or characters, but if TOL represents a genre of "atomic horror", *this* is what atomic horror looks like.<br /><br />I'm surprised nobody's made mention of the computer game "Half Life" in their analyses, given the fact that the menace in this episode is not just radioactive, but interdimensional as well.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8535833613343533564.post-5343828794776514802018-06-29T08:58:36.732-07:002018-06-29T08:58:36.732-07:00Great post! For me, the anthology series I first ...Great post! For me, the anthology series I first watched in childhood, and which had a HUGE effect on me, was "Ghost Story/Circle of Fear." Some of those episodes really scared me, and the impressions I got during my first viewing have remained with me my entire life.<br /><br />I'm first viewing the Outer Limits episodes as an adult. And while I'm enjoying them, I know they can't possibly have the effect on me that they would have had if I had watched them as a child. So, my reactions tend to be much more "nit-picky" as I review the episodes.octobercountryhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10730345596655835129noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8535833613343533564.post-60325633893299269272018-01-30T09:46:36.834-08:002018-01-30T09:46:36.834-08:00Why am I one of the few people who loves this epis...Why am I one of the few people who loves this episode?! "MARSHALL"! I love the mood, the static-y sounds of the labs, the stupid over acting, all of it. Like I said, it just has a "mood" about it that gets me. And I've probably watched it 10 times the past 2 years. Ok, it's just me, I get it... But still...Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06899760253608859423noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8535833613343533564.post-76152779108776889222016-09-10T10:46:21.721-07:002016-09-10T10:46:21.721-07:00Still love and always have this episode.Where in N...Still love and always have this episode.Where in New England are you from-Macready orig from Rhodey,I'm CT.Maybe that's why I love his ham servings!Take away screaming MIMI",the rock u like a hurricane "choir swinging and swaying,and it's a good shoe!Still really dig Signe & George,they acted together before,and are convincing as an old married couple.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8535833613343533564.post-14610052936769423712013-07-23T13:18:20.636-07:002013-07-23T13:18:20.636-07:00''I mentioned that I was still trying to u...''I mentioned that I was still trying to understand why the Outer Limits connected so deeply with me when I was young, and stayed with me ever since. I really want to know why. In other posts I often refer first to my youthful reactions, because that is the only way I can approach this show. Most of us first saw these episodes as children, and for those that did, that is always going to be the bedrock impression, no matter how many layers of sophistication we lather over it as time goes by. I believe that the only way I will be able to answer my question will be to try somehow to look at the show through the memory of my nine-year-old self, but with adult sensibilities—NOT in a critical fashion, but with wider vision. And this episode, for me personally, is a doorway ...'' <br /><br />SO TRUE !! Which is why I'm still AWED by the show at the tender age of 50 !! I mean, sure I can see TODAY that episodes like THE MUTANT or THE SPECIAL ONE are artistically below average, but I can't even begin to describe the sense of dread that invaded me as an 8 years old when I first saw Warren Oates take his sunglasses off !! or Bruce Dern being crawled upon by the Zanti regent, or the WOODWORK monster coming out of the vaccum cleaner, etc ... Indescribable ! Like you, I'd like to know WHY this has stayed with me after all these years, but the sad truth is that we can never again watch them like we did back then since we're not impressionable kids anymore ... but sometimes, for a few small seconds, a scene or an image will give us a sense of what it was like ... and like you say, that scene or image becomes a doorway ... which, like Tone Hobart would say, makes us ''slide into the past''. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8535833613343533564.post-33859456260806454342013-01-01T20:34:20.323-08:002013-01-01T20:34:20.323-08:00I know just what Steve Mitchell means. I've sa...I know just what Steve Mitchell means. I've said it before on the other thread, but I like this one partly BECAUSE of the "scientific double-talk." Grantnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8535833613343533564.post-56494936381049055552013-01-01T20:32:08.144-08:002013-01-01T20:32:08.144-08:00The moment I read about what scared you "the ...The moment I read about what scared you "the most" I really sympathized, because I've ALWAYS had a problem with those situations in stories (even really escapist ones like Peter Pan!). This story has never really made me think along those lines (instead, I think of those hook-shaped robot hands that SF is full of), but again, I can sympathize. Grantnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8535833613343533564.post-26520726044863076712012-11-21T12:31:52.120-08:002012-11-21T12:31:52.120-08:00Oddly (or un-oddly) enough this is the episode I w...Oddly (or un-oddly) enough this is the episode I watch more than any other except for Nightmare and Corpus Human. Somehow I can over look all of it's flaws and over acting and just watch like I did when I was an 8 year old kid. For some reason if you really really love OL, like I do, this episode has all the elements that made the first season so special.Steve Mitchellhttp://www.ilensartography.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8535833613343533564.post-57048411997996281392011-02-11T11:54:06.268-08:002011-02-11T11:54:06.268-08:00The Tavern it is, David J! Saturday. In the thre...The Tavern it is, David J! Saturday. In the three-hour time convulsion between the Coasts.<br /><br />Your choice of Thetan blaster, Bellero disintegrator or Climate Controller set on Full Eider Down...Ted Rypelnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8535833613343533564.post-89382198706923578122011-02-11T08:30:49.178-08:002011-02-11T08:30:49.178-08:00Funny how different things scare different people....Funny how different things scare different people. TOL is the perfect Rorschach test that way. (Geez, the literacy level on this blog is so high, I had to look up how to spell 'Rorshach' to avoid embarrassment. Shit, now I just had to check the r's in embarrassment. Oh, fuck it, I'm a vernacular (!) script/dialogue guy not a grammatical prose stylist.)<br /><br />Where was I? Oh, right. Ducking under my desk in the fourth grade and running home to Civil Defense sirens. And then seeing this episode showing real nuclear blasts. And living 10 miles from the White House at Target Ground Zero. But still the Zanti's scared me more.<br /><br />Nuclear annihilation was just so ... so hard to completely fathom. And it would all be over in an instant. Not like Zanti poison seeping through your veins.<br /><br />But to me, David, the most entertaining portions of this blog are comparing those childhood perceptions, and thanks for sharing yours. I will never look at brick buildings with hook hands the same way again.Hollywoodaholichttp://www.hollywoodaholic.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8535833613343533564.post-21774231154085111842011-02-11T01:45:39.495-08:002011-02-11T01:45:39.495-08:00Okay, Ted C., I'm callin' you out. Meet m...Okay, Ted C., I'm callin' you out. Meet me at the Outer Limits Tavern.DJSnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8535833613343533564.post-37222597432090182002011-02-10T21:46:28.072-08:002011-02-10T21:46:28.072-08:00Do you figure that will be the one to shatter all ...Do you figure that will be the one to shatter all this civil open-mindedness and set everyone at one another's throats, Dave?<br /><br />And I was starting to really enjoy the company...Ted Rypelnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8535833613343533564.post-89328379316014097622011-02-10T21:00:01.838-08:002011-02-10T21:00:01.838-08:00Hey guys ... save all the rampant intramural man-l...Hey guys ... save all the rampant intramural man-love for "The Chameleon," okay?DJSnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8535833613343533564.post-81335249776237094262011-02-10T19:00:13.979-08:002011-02-10T19:00:13.979-08:00Brilliant essay, David. The fact that you guys ha...Brilliant essay, David. The fact that you guys have gotten so much out of "Production and Decay" prompts me to check it out again.Gary Geraninoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8535833613343533564.post-48044242341003062042011-02-10T17:38:47.713-08:002011-02-10T17:38:47.713-08:00Now we are four...
Bravo, David! Like my fellow L...Now we are four...<br /><br />Bravo, David! Like my fellow Larry, I don't have the childhood recollection/connotation of this one, but have let it grab hold of my adult imagination and run with it (my outer child?). Not a top ten for me either, but a good test of its endurance is that I'd rather watch this one again over "Human Factor", "Moonstone", "Tourist Attraction", "Specimen Unknown", "Special One", "Spider County", "Borderland", etc..<br /><br />Dude, there's something primal here, and you done sussed it out good.Larry Blamirenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8535833613343533564.post-20422039483357055432011-02-10T17:36:10.309-08:002011-02-10T17:36:10.309-08:00And thanks to you, too, Ted. Your words above capt...And thanks to you, too, Ted. Your words above capture it exactly. I sometimes felt this one WAS made for me and me alone, to carry around for all these years. (Well, and several of the other OL eps, too.) It's been great to find all these fellow travelers, here together again after we've followed all those varied paths that have led from in front of our TV screens.David Hornenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8535833613343533564.post-69856478319854612832011-02-10T17:23:42.018-08:002011-02-10T17:23:42.018-08:00Thanks Larry. I did see your other comments, and w...Thanks Larry. I did see your other comments, and we're clearly catching some of the same vibes from this episode. When I wrote this, I just assumed everyone else was going to hate it, so I was really glad to see your comments and those of the other Larry, as well complimentary words from UTW and Ted, too. This one isn't great, but there's definitely something there that got under the skin. And I agree that Stevens pulled out something worthwhile, even under desperate circumstances--in many other series at this point, all you get is a crappy clips episode!David Hornenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8535833613343533564.post-53131478575327300192011-02-10T17:22:40.700-08:002011-02-10T17:22:40.700-08:00David, this is a really well-crafted and impassion...David, this is a really well-crafted and impassioned reminder of where we all came from: the darkness and the caves, where we huddled in fear not against twisted humanoid monstrosities, however grotesque, but in nameless dread of those things we couldn't quite make out. The Beasts whose agendas were as unspeakable as their forms were hidden.<br /><br />I'll admit to sharing with you---to a minor degree here but in greater portion elsewhere---that undying, childish clutch of horror that seems meant for me and me alone, sometimes in the most inane and indefensible of films. Those moments do stay with you and can trace their talons along the spine of the most jaded inner critic, however "mature."<br /><br />I think we're all pretty much with you on this one. These are smart people checking in on this blog. They all seem to acknowledge, in agreement and not, that there's more than one way to shiver them timbers. And that fearful aspects of the human condition aren't purely the province of flawless craftsmanship.<br /><br />We're with you, David. One of the things I enjoy about this site is the fact that, despite the wide variance of opinions, you see little disrespect (except as jiving among obvious friends) for opposing opinions. That's a sign of sophistication and self-assurance.<br /><br />And that's how we learn from one another and expand our understanding.Ted Rypelnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8535833613343533564.post-34155661024676631902011-02-10T16:54:31.704-08:002011-02-10T16:54:31.704-08:00David,
You NAILED it, man!
You might be interest...David,<br /><br />You NAILED it, man!<br /><br />You might be interested in my comments on the PADOSP bears, which I posted on Mark Holcomb's Spotlite (which I was writing at the time yours was posted).<br /><br />I first saw this episode in my late '20's, so I have no chilhood association with it. So, seeing it for the first time as an adult, you'd think that I would have dismissed it as lame. But I swear it creeped me out more than ever LAST NIGHT as I watched it in preparation for today's WACTD fun-activities. Your emotional reactions and thought process as a kid are EXACTLY what makes this show disturbing...like you said as a kid: "where the hell did those guys go??!" We only had a few minutes to get to know them....now they're dead, but their damned suits are STILL WALKING AROUND! You expect that Rudy Solari, the eager-beaver young hero-type will survive but no---FRIED in the prime of life along with the rest.<br /><br />As I read through all of the damning comments, I step back and examine my own reaction to the show. I don't know...I'm just FASCINATED by the "let's see what Leslie Stevens can do with practically nothing" aspect of PADOSP. It's not Top 10 material for me, but I think Stevens was MUCH too harsh on his poor, crackle-filled OL stepchild.<br /><br />Thanks for your insights and impressions, as seen through the eyes of an obviously sensitive kid and recalled all these years later. You really touched on something here.<br /><br />LRLarry Rapchaknoreply@blogger.com