The aliens looked and sounded similar to the Ebonites in the original Outer Limits episode "Nightmare". I'm sure inspiration was taken from it. Brent Spiner was great in this. He just chews the scenery, or more accurately, the set. This had a twist ending which was not something that the original 1963 series did. It was not like the Twilight Zone in that respect. This is not the smartest episode in that it pulls you along by manipulating feelings and nostalgia for the past. It has some blatantly obvious reminders for the audience, with characters repeating story beats and names that you may not recall from earlier in the episode. It's not difficult to see this episode as a not-so-subtle shot at organized religion. This is one of the first episodes of the series that I've watched (I'm not watching them in order) and it is concerning that "The Deprogrammers" is frequently considered one of the best of the series. I decided to give it a pretty high rating mostly because of Brent Spiner and the alien makeup, but it was really talky and mostly very sentimental. I will always prefer that Sci-Fi series take the hard science approach, like the original Outer Limits series did.
Review by whitsbrainVIP 6BlockedParent2024-06-02T16:14:48Z
The aliens looked and sounded similar to the Ebonites in the original Outer Limits episode "Nightmare". I'm sure inspiration was taken from it. Brent Spiner was great in this. He just chews the scenery, or more accurately, the set. This had a twist ending which was not something that the original 1963 series did. It was not like the Twilight Zone in that respect. This is not the smartest episode in that it pulls you along by manipulating feelings and nostalgia for the past. It has some blatantly obvious reminders for the audience, with characters repeating story beats and names that you may not recall from earlier in the episode. It's not difficult to see this episode as a not-so-subtle shot at organized religion. This is one of the first episodes of the series that I've watched (I'm not watching them in order) and it is concerning that "The Deprogrammers" is frequently considered one of the best of the series. I decided to give it a pretty high rating mostly because of Brent Spiner and the alien makeup, but it was really talky and mostly very sentimental. I will always prefer that Sci-Fi series take the hard science approach, like the original Outer Limits series did.