Quality of Mercy

It isn't often that The Outer Limits goes for the cliche story, but this is one of those times. And it doesn't even do it well. This episode did not impress me when I saw its first airing when I was a teenager, and seeing it again, it doesn't impress me as an adult 30 years later, either. This will be put on my permanent "skip" list for future times I watch through my DVDs of The Outer Limits. I'll be one of the few reviewers who doesn't spoil it for you, but spoilers really aren't something to worry about in this case. What you expect to happen is exactly what happens. The end is exactly what you expect it to be from the beginning.

So far the worst episode of the first series. You could guess the ending and i really hoped i was wrong but it was so obvious.

Not worth watching.

One of the hard things about this series is that there is very little sunshine. In this episode a couple of leftover humans are in a dungeon-like environment, trapped by impersonal, warrior aliens who treat them as trash. These people are introduced as soldiers. The man is himself a combatant who has fought the good fight with a marine-like affirmation. The young woman (about 20 years old) says that she has been drafted and taught to fly fighter jets. She is just a child and is routinely removed from the prison cell and operated on. It appears that the aliens are in the process of turning her into an alien. She starts with skin lesions and eventually grows spikes on her back. He spends his days trying to get through an vent opening above the cell. He doesn't know what's out there, but it behooves him to try. A relationship develops between them and he begins to feel protective of her. They talk about their humanity and their connection to earth and resisting being changed. This would be a relatively simple plot, but because this is one of the harshest episodes the writers/producers had something else in mind. Stay with this to the end and count your blessings.

Yes, an outstanding, and very disturbing episode.

It has qualities, as suggested by the above reviewers, that haunt me to this day.

Terrific how, what is essentially a two-handed, and probably relatively low-budget drama in a confined space, manages to be a brilliant piece of TV drama. Robert Patrick is very good - and I found the female lead arrestingly beautiful, even as she was being gradually transformed - and her increasingly pathetic plight is both shocking and very moving.

But drawn in, and caring for them both, as you inevitably are, nothing prepares you for the brilliant and mind-twisting final revelation.

A real humdinger of an episode - and, as I say, one that will probably, as it does for me, and the reviewers above, haunt you forever!

The ending is so clearly telegraphed that people who haven't even heard of the episode could tell you how it ends, but the journey is incredibly well planned and executed. Especially for when it was made.

This episode is more of a bottle episode than we've had so far - basically just one set plus an air-vent type of extra space, only 3 cast members, almost the entirety of the episode taking place in one room - which is ironic, considering the term "bottle episode" was coined by the creator of the original 1960s The Outer Limits. It's also possibly the best written episode so far, making it easy to forget how clear the ending is and immerse yourself in the unfolding drama.

Robert Patrick is in great form (though not the brilliant form he'd grow into) as the main character, with Nicole de Boer also in great form as his cellmate, and the chemistry they build together is almost palpable.

If nothing else, this episode and the previous one show that this series was, at least initially, at its absolute best with as small a cast as possible.