The Outer Limits (1963) 1.06

The Man Who Was Never Born

starring Martin Landau, Shirley Knight

directed by Leonard Horn

An astronaut leaves Earth in the year 1963 and accidentally travels through time. He arrives back on Earth in the year 2148 only to find it devastated. He meets Andro (Martin Landau), a hideously deformed man, who tells him about Bertram Cabot, Jr., the scientist who is to blame for what happened to the Earth.

The astronaut leaves the Earth in his spaceship, taking Andro with him. They pass through the time warp and travel backward in time. The astronaut doesn’t survive the trip; he is vaporized.

Andro explores the area near where the spaceship lands. He meets Noelle (Shirley Knight) whom he learns is to be married soon to Bertram Cabot. Andro uses a hypnotic ability he possesses to make himself look normal. Andro intends to kill Cabot but then he learns that her fiancé isn’t the scientist he wants to kill but the future father of the scientist he wants to kill. 

Andro meets Bertram Cabot. He tries to talk both Cabot and Noelle into not getting married. They won’t listen. He doesn’t want to kill either of them but on their wedding day he shows up with a gun. Bertram and some of the guests at the wedding tackle Andro before he can get a shot off.

The hypnotic effect that makes Andro look normal wears off during the tussle. Everyone sees him as he truly is. They are horrified. He runs off. Noelle chases after him.

Noelle catches up to Andro. He tells her about what he knows about her future and from where he came. She tells him that he has convinced her not to marry Bertram. Andro isn’t convinced that’s enough to change the future. She suggests that he take her back to the future with him. 

Thoughts

I intentionally left the ending to this story out of my summary.

I like the way this episode was shot, paced, and the way it ended. There were a few transitions where they used camera tricks to show Andro changing from one form to another that I particularly liked.

This was very good. I don't love it but I really like it. I love how the semi-ambiguous nature of the ending makes me wonder about what happened next.

Notes

I've seen Martin Landau in plenty of other things. This is the first of two episodes of this series in which he appeared. He also appeared in a couple episode of the Twilight Zone. I have seen the first of those two episodes, 1.03 Mr. Denton on Doomsday. See my notes for that episode for mentions of other anthology shows in which he appeared.

This is the only episode of this show in which Shirley Knight appeared. She appeared in an episode of the Invaders and one of Tales of the Unexpected.  She was in a few movies I have seen including As Good as It Gets (1997).

This is the first of three episodes of this show that Leonard Horn directed. He also directed two episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955) and one of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour. The last thing he directed was The New Original Wonder Woman (1975).