The best episodes of The Outer Limits

Ranked by viewer rating, highs first. Vote on a placement to back it or contest it.

  1. 01

    S02E12 · April 12, 1996 · 1h

    Inconstant Moon8.7

    When a lonely physics professor realizes the sun is going to burn out, he knows that he and humanity have only a few hours to live. In that time, Stan resolves to make up for lost years. He courts and proposes to Leslie, a woman he has known for two years but never dated. Leslie, although puzzled, finds herself more and more entranced by Stan until she finds out the reason for Stan's sudden attention.

  2. 02

    S03E13 · April 4, 1997 · 1h

    Dead Man's Switch8.7

    An American soldier learns that he is one of five people around the world who are separately sealed underground for a year and are charged with preventing earth's self-destruction as the world awaits a possible invasion by aliens.

  3. 03

    S01E13 · June 9, 1995 · 1h

    The Conversion8.3

    Henry Marshall is a greedy man who has paid for his greed with a prison sentence, but has yet to learn his lesson. His life abruptly changes when he encounters visitors from another planet who instill in him a new sense of compassion for others.

  4. 04

    S01E16 · June 30, 1995 · 1h

    The Voyage Home8.3

    When an astronaut returning from Mars discovers an alien aboard ship, he must face the loss of his shipmates, and make the ultimate sacrifice in order to prevent the alien from reaching Earth.

  5. 05

    S01E03 · March 31, 1995 · 1h

    Valerie 238.0

    A disabled man is offered a prototype android companion in the form of the beautiful Valerie. But when he begins a romance with his physical therapist, his robot develops feelings of jealousy.

  6. 06

    S01E14 · June 16, 1995 · 1h

    Quality of Mercy8.0

    Major John Skokes is taken prisoner by the enemy during a savage galactic war and a seemingly undefeatable alien race. The tension increases when his cellmate, a cadet named Pri, is being transformed into one of them. Skokes must find an escape to save his cellmate and to avoid a disturbing revelation of the course of this war.

  7. 07

    S02E18 · June 23, 1996 · 1h

    The Light Brigade8.0

    Major Skokes returns (Quality of Mercy) to the war against the aliens. He's been stationed aboard a ship making a last ditch effort to destroy the alien home world as a Re-commissioned Prisoner of War. After the ship is attacked only a handful of survivors, suffering from lethal doses of radiation, attempt to complete the mission and end the war.

  8. 08

    S03E12 · March 28, 1997 · 1h

    Double Helix8.0

    Dr. Martin Nodel, a brilliant geneticist, tries a formula to advance evolution on himself with amazing and disturbing results.

  9. 09

    S03E17 · July 11, 1997 · 1h

    Feasibility Study8.0

    The residents of a suburban neighborhood have their lives turned upside down when a four block section of their subdivision is ripped from the earth by a mysterious force and transported to a distant planet. Thrown together in crisis, Joshua Hayward, his daughter Sarah, and their neighbors try to understand what has happened to them—why their neighborhood now ends abruptly in an invisible force-field.

  10. 10

    S01E01 · March 26, 1995 · 1h

    Sandkings7.8

    When his research project is closed down, Simon Kress rescues a few of its living subjects and transplants them to a recreation of their native Martian environment in his barn. They grow and learn, but then Kress makes an error with disastrous implications.

  11. 11

    S01E21 · August 13, 1995 · 1h

    Birthright7.7

    An environmentally friendly U.S. Senator's life changes drastically after a freak accident, when he realizes he's actually an alien in disguise, with a mission to surreptitiously reconfigure the earth's atmosphere.

  12. 12

    S02E01 · January 14, 1996 · 1h

    A Stitch in Time7.7

    At least 17 men have been executed in the last two decades without a clear motive, with the same gun, and Special Agent Jaimie Pratt has to find how some of those murders were carried out when the gun had not yet been made.

  13. 13

    S02E02 · January 14, 1996 · 1h

    Resurrection7.7

    Life on planet Earth has been wiped out by biological warfare, leaving behind only androids. Two of those androids, Martin and Alicia, have a secret project: Cain, a human being grown from the DNA of a single human hair. Martin and Alicia must keep Cain's existence hidden from the military androids, led by Moloch, a power-mad machine who is determined to stamp out any trace of the human race before it rises again.

  14. 14

    S02E10 · March 22, 1996 · 1h

    Worlds Apart7.7

    An astronaut who was missing for 20 years contacts Earth from an alien planet. However, mere minutes have passed for him, and the wormhole that brought him there is unstable. What are the risks of a rescue operation?

  15. 15

    S01E09 · May 12, 1995 · 1h

    Living Hell7.5

    Ben Kohler's life is saved after having an experimental chip implanted in his brain, but when he starts seeing and experiencing violent images, it becomes clear something is desperately wrong.

  16. 16

    S01E15 · June 23, 1995 · 1h

    Caught in the Act7.5

    A chaste co-ed is enveloped by a strange power that gives her an insatiable sexual appetite, which is perpetuated by encounters with consenting men who, after making physical contact, morph into her body and disappear.

  17. 17

    S01E17 · July 5, 1995 · 1h

    The New Breed7.5

    The discovery of a gifted scientist falls into the wrong hands, bringing what at first appears to be a lifesaving miracle, but ultimately the untimely death of his closest friend.

  18. 18

    S01E18 · July 16, 1995 · 1h

    The Message7.5

    A deaf woman with a transplanted device, which is supposed to enable her to hear, turns into a transmitter for aliens, who are crying for help.

  19. 19

    S01E19 · July 23, 1995 · 1h

    I, Robot7.5

    Adam, a powerful robot, kills his creator when the scientist attempts to convert him into a military killing machine by destroying his more human qualities.

  20. 20

    S02E03 · January 19, 1996 · 1h

    Unnatural Selection7.5

    Howard and Joanne Sharp are expecting a baby and are considering the possibility of black-market genetic enhancement which will result in a perfect baby or a 1 in 10,000 of creating a monster. But what do their neighbors keep in the basement?

  21. 21

    S02E07 · February 16, 1996 · 1h

    First Anniversary7.5

    As a husband celebrates his first wedding anniversary, he must struggle with the strange, growing revulsion he feels when he touches, smells, tastes, or sees his otherwise stunningly beautiful and talented wife.

  22. 22

    S02E08 · February 23, 1996 · 1h

    Straight and Narrow7.5

    Two students discover an academy with an outstanding reputation for taming youthful rebellion is using brain implants to create political assassins.

  23. 23

    S02E11 · April 5, 1996 · 1h

    The Refuge7.5

    A man walking through a snow storm suddenly finds himself at a refuge. They tell him that the entire world is covered in ice. Just as he begins to fall in love with someone, the people's personalities suddenly change. What's happening?

  24. 24

    S01E20 · July 30, 1995 · 1h

    If These Walls Could Talk7.3

    Levi Mitchell, a physicist and skeptic, meets Lynda Tillman, a woman whose strength and faith help him unravel the mystery of a haunted house.

  25. 25

    S02E21 · July 21, 1996 · 1h

    Vanishing Act7.3

    Trevor wants to celebrate New Years in style. On his way back from the store with the champagne he has an accident. When he wakes, he hitches a ride home and finds his wife thinks he has abandoned her—ten years ago.

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