The Outer Limits (1963) 1.23

Second Chance

starring Simon Oakland, Janet De Gore, Don Gordon

written by Sonya Roberts, Lou Morheim

directed by Paul Stanley

An alien (Simon Oakland) from the planet Empyrea modifies an amusement park spaceship, turning it into a functioning spaceship. He pretends to be a human wearing a costume and encourages a few people in the park to accept a free ride in the spaceship. They accept not realizing what they are in for.

Dave Crowell (Don Gordon) the "captain" of the spaceship and Mara Matthews (Janet De Gore) the "stewardess" learn about what the Empyrian is planning to do at the same time as the other passengers.

The spaceship takes off. The Empyrian reveals why he has abducted them. His world is in danger of colliding with an asteroid. He hopes that Dave, who it turns out is a scientist, can help Empyria to do something to avoid the collision. Dave is okay with helping the Empyrian but most of the other passengers are not.

Two of the other passengers, high school football players, get into a fight and one pushes the other out of an airlock. Arjay Beasley, one of the other passengers attacks Dave in the hopes of killing him with a penknife. The Empyrian breaks up the fight. Dave talks some sense to the Empyrian and convinces him to return to Earth drop off the others, except Mara who seems to be interested in staying with Dave, and finding some others who really would like to go to Empyria.

Thoughts

I'm not sure what the title of this episode is about. According to my research is was originally going to be called Joy Ride which seem more appropriate to tme.

This episode was kind of weird. It didn't make very much sense. Why did the Empyrian modify an amusement park spaceship? How did he modify a spaceship that was never intended to fly such that it was capable of long distance space travel? How did he get to Earth in the first place?

It was weird how quickly everyone seemed to forget that one of the football players pushed another one out an airlock, killing him. In the moment where Arjay attacked Dave, Denise (one of the other passengers) attacked Mara but I'm not sure why.

The best part of this episode was probably the budding romance between Dave and Mara. The other characters were kind of boring. A little bit of explanation could have gone a long way here.

Notes

This is the only episode of this show in which Simon Oakland appeared. I didn't recognize him under all the makeup but I've seen him before. Most recently I saw him in The Night Strangler (1973).

This is the second of two episodes of this show in which Don Gordon appeared. The first was 1.19 The Invisibles.

This is the only episode of this show in which Janet De Gore appeared.

John McLiam played the part of Arjay Beasley. This is the only episode of this show in which he appeared. He also appeared in episodes of The Twilight Zone (1959) and Star Trek: The Next Generation. He appeared in one episode of The Invaders, 1.13 Storm.

Sonya Roberts wrote the story that became this episode. She also worked on the teleplay. This is the only episode of this show that she wrote. She was credited in the end credits as Lin Dane. Lou Morheim was credited as working on the teleplay. Morheim was also credited as associate producer.

This is the first of three episodes of this show that Paul Stanley directed.