2/11/08: “The Architects of Fear” (1963)There were plenty of goofy Leftist moments on
The Outer Limits. The best example is probably “The Zanti Misfits.” An alien race announces that they’ll be placing a penal colony on Earth, and the story makes for a typically classic tale from the sci-fi anthology series. At the end, though, there’s some kind of heavy-handed message about how Earthlings are the true aliens, or savages, or whatever. Even worse, the voice of bitter morality is a particularly ditzy dame who deserved to be alien prey.
But there was also “The Architects of Fear”—which ranks as an
Outer Limits classic just for a brilliantly physical turn from Robert Culp. As it turns out, Culp is doing fine drama in a conservative comedy. This entry counts as a 44-year-old SPOILER, but that’s okay. We’re basically retelling a joke here.
Culp plays Allan Leighton, who is part of a secret scientific cabal who wants all nations to be united. These are the same kind of ninnies who’d be nudging the
Doomsday Clock towards midnight during the Reagan administration. They’ve come up with a big idea where they’ll genetically mutate one of their members into a scary alien called a Thetan. The fake threat will land at the United Nations and bring everyone together against a common enemy. They’ve even created a special laser gun for the alien to use.
These geniuses decide who’ll be the alien by drawing a name out of a hat. Leighton’s the lucky do-gooder. A lot of the episode is about his transformation, which starts after Leighton’s death is faked for the benefit of his wife. Leighton is then sent downwards in a shiny rocket ship. Just like the real aliens of
The Astounding She-Monster, though, the scientists end up landing their Thetan in a remote woodsy area (which is conveniently close to the laboratory where Leighton was transformed).
The fake alien stumbles through the woods, and comes across some hunters. He/it fires the laser pistol at their truck. That’s a fine laser pistol. The truck dissolves, and one of the hunters shoots the Thetan. None of the scientists thought to make their alien bulletproof. The poor Thetan is gravely wounded, and makes his way back to the lab.
At this point, we doubt that these scientists are really geniuses. Leighton probably didn’t even check to make sure that everyone hadn’t written his name down on those slips of paper in the hat.
Anyway, the Thetan makes it back to the lab just in time to scare his former wife. The alien tragically reveals his true identity as Leighton’s life comes to an end. The scheming scientists show up, and try to comfort Leighton’s wife. She’s properly disdainful. Leighton had earlier spoken to her of an idea about a scarecrow uniting people, so she knows what’s happened. “Men like you,” she says disdainfully, “using tricks.”
One idiot scientist attempts to comfort the twice-widowed woman. “We drew lots,” he explains.
Their leader tries another angle, trying to win over the widow by explaining that Leighton might still have done some good. He thinks that the world could learn a lesson from Leighton’s sacrifice, and “could be shamed to stooping just a little to save ourselves.”
That’s so moronic that even the show’s narrator has to express his disgust. The show ends with his voiceover:
Scarecrows and magic and other fatal fears do not bring people closer together. There is no magic substitute for soft caring and hard work, for self-respect and mutual love. If we can learn this from the mistake these frightened men made, then their mistake will not have been merely grotesque. It would at least have been a lesson. A lesson, at last, to be learned.Actually, that doesn’t make much sense. The important thing is that the narrator—who buys into the end of “The Zanti Misfits”—knows to dismiss these cretins as frightened and grotesque. As for the scientists, they probably went back to the drawing board and created man-made global warming.
Make it your own: You can get “The Architects of Fear”
on DVD as part of the complete first season on
The Outer Limits: Volume 1. For cheaper laffs, pick up an old
VHS copy of the episode by itself.
And, yes, “The Architects of Fear” has a strong similarity to the plot of the
Watchmen graphic novel—so we’re grateful that the upcoming film adaptation is directed by the same guy behind
300 and
Dawn of the Dead.
