The Outer Limits: "The Special One"

My special affinity for "The Outer Limits" is virtually supernatural; I like it almost as much as "Friday the Thirteenth: The Series" (which I haven't written nearly as much about), which isn't nearly as smart (but which does have Louise Robey, which makes it somewhat superior).

Having said that, each episode of "Limits" is like a short film in and of itself; sort of transcending the limitations of small-screen, 1964 science fiction anthologies. As bad wonky as the special effects are, the creepy depth of vision inherent in each episode of "Limits" is, well, the limit. Even "Twilight Zone," the El Numero Uno CHAMPEEN of Sixties sci-fi anthology shows (we aren't counting "Star Trek" here, in other words, it not being an "anthology" show), can't quite compare.

No wonder "Limits" got canceled so soon: it was too good for the masses. They didn't deserve it, the shmucks.

Anyway, Season 1 Episode 28, the "Special One," is about a freckle-faced little chap (Flip Mark) from 1964 who is a part of some government "special school" academy or something because he's a supergenius and we're gonna need him to help us stop the Russkies from communizing the planet and making everyone dress like Chairman Mao. He happens to have a "Special Teacher" named "Mr. Zeno" (the name literally means "Mister Strange"), played by Richard Ney, who is zapped in from planet Zenon and who has gill slits and can make you commit suicide. He gives little Kenny or whatever a special glowing globe device that gives off a particularly annoying drone when it glows. He comes over to tutor little Kenny in the ways of advanced extraterrestrial science and does the occasionally interesting teleportation where he sort of glows or something in glowing veiny flashes that might make Scotty in the transporter room a little envious.

Dad and Mom (Macdonald Carey and Marion Ross) are June and Ward Cleaver proteges who 1957 around, proud that the half-pint (not to be confused with Melissa Gilbert) is getting so much "special attention" from Mr. Zeno. (Who, by the way, is absolutely NOT a relative of the Galactic Emporer who, seventy-five BILLION years ago [or some comic book bullsh*t], trapped all the bad space aliens in volcanoes in the Pacific Rim, hit them with H-Bombs, and then trapped their souls in gigantic "soul catchers" floating in orbit [or some comic book bullsh*t]. No, he's not THAT Lord Xenu, and you can see that because they are spelled so differently.)

So Mr. Zeno is part of some invasionary force that is subtly "preparing the youth" to be the forerunners of the advancing alien menace. All of this is a clear Cold War analogy, the alien communards subverting the edumacation of the youth, turning them all into rapacious Reds.

Mr. Zeno comes off like an off-brand Klaatu who needs a diuretic. Dad is too intimidated by this galactic pervert to get in the way of Mr. Zeno's "special instructions." In the end, Little Kenny saves the world. With his droning toy, no less (hum, hum, hum...)

The whole thing is brimming full of McCarthyist paranoia. Kennedy had been 86'd two years earlier, and there was a general mistrust of American Institutions borne out of the unanswered questions surrounding that event. Mr. Zeno is a subversive agent, having, it is discovered NO CONNECTION to the fancy government school for ultra-gifted mutants. (Look, his parents, as a plot device, BOTH worked in an atomic lab or something before he was born. He should have been sent to Dr. Xavier's school with a cool costume.)

The show screams, "They're out there! They're coming for you. Disguised, hidden. They'll subvert and sneak into every institution, the Red bastards! They'll corrupt the youth! When communism comes to America, IT WILL BE THE YOUTH WHO LEAD THE CHARGE!"

(Calm the hell down. This ain't Invasion of the Body Snatchers.)

So the "Outer Limits" plays on the fear, so prevalent then, that the Red Menace was going to strangle the life from the America of green lawns, white picket fences, apple pie, Chevrolet, and John Wayne, and replace it with the Lubyanka, gulags, secret police, show trials, summary executions and "...a chivato on every street corner watching you!", to borrow a line from that confirmed anti-communist, Tony Montana.

Five years later, the youth would be "tuning in, turning on, and dropping out," all the while rolling around in the muck at Woodstock, jamming Hendrix, popping Orange Sunshine acid tabs, and burning their draft cards. I'm not saying Mr. Zeno, the extraterrestrial Proxy Commie, won. But I'm saying he might have been somewhere in the Cosmic Void (perhaps with the Turd Monster" from the episode "Don't Open 'Till Doomsday"), with a big, Red smile.

We now return control of your television to you. Until next time...

The Outer Limits - Season 1, Episode 28: "The Special One".