ALL SCI-FI

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In the classic 1963 episode of The Outer Limits, “The Zanti Misfits”, an alien race has decided to send its criminals to Earth, more specifically the US. The Zanti’s instructions are not to interfere, allow the criminals into the US and to respect their privacy or face the consequences.

The really scary part of this episode is the US government’s acquiescence to this hostile external power, how cowed they are, how they do not dare risk offending the obviously intelligent and peaceful Zanti, and when things go wrong and people start dying, it’s obviously our fault for not respecting the Zanti and doing what they say. The US Government are, rather than willing to protect its citizens from an external threat, complicit in allowing dangerous and hostile aliens into the country.

Haram!

Eventually, they are given no choice but to kill the Zanti Misfits, but they certainly could’ve avoided the loss of US life by blasting the Zanti out of the sky before they landed.[/i]
-Cirsova

The Zanti Misfits is the first Outer Limits episode I remember seeing as a child, and it creeped me right out at the time. Ants with faces...whoa!!

The Zanti Misfits remains one of my personal favorite Outer Limits episodes, and one that I watch quite often to this day.
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"You look like a pooped out pinwheel."
-Robot Monster

[Bud Brewster]

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It's certainly an ambitious story!

Being a fan of stop motion, I was interested in what Jim Danforth tried to do with the stop. But the results were less impressive than I'd hoped.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[WadeVC]

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Opening Narration: "Throughout history, compassionate minds have pondered this dark and disturbing question: What is society to do with those members who are a threat to society, those malcontents and misfits whose behavior undermines and destroys the foundations of civilization?

Different ages have found different answers. Misfits have been burned, branded, and banished. Today, on planet Earth, the criminal is incarcerated in humane institutions, or he is executed. Other planets use other methods. This is the story of how the perfectionist rulers of the planet Zanti attempted to solve the problem of the Zanti misfits."

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The Outer Limits: The Official Companion.

An enduring Outer Limits favorite more because of its unique alien menace than its underdeveloped themes (the politics of aggression, the capacity of any species for self-destruction), "The Zanti Misfits," according to Joseph Stefano, was written "to give some thought to the way we've been killing each other, legally and illegally, throughout history."

And those insect antagonists are what boost this show into the front rank of unforgettable Outer Limits episodes. Stefano blithely exploits the human fear of crawling, bristling bugs, and it matters little that we Earthlings are much bigger than the Zantis.

Ghost Town Street, a stock western set on the MGM lot, was used as Morgue, California, and the exteriors of the Zanti landing zone were filmed at the famous Vasquez Rocks formations just outside of Los Angeles. It was here that Bruce Dern, as Ben garth (a part originally offered to Burt Reynolds), did his own stunt fall down the rock incline.

Sidebar: I'm guessing that Burt turned down this role for being too small, even though it was early in Reynold's career at this time.

TOL: TOC. Wah Chang sculpted the show's true stars. The stop-motion animation of the four Zanti seen in close-up (Chang gave them differing expressions and hair distribution) was executed by Al Hamm, who had done the Monkey Money sequences in Mighty Joe Young (1949). Hamm had done the animated Speedy Alka-Selzer commercials a few years earlier in his career.

This is the only time in the entire series an alien is heard speaking anything but English.

Sidebar: I'm always impressed whenever a television series employs animation. It is such a painstaking and slow process to produce. It is a special effect best suited for films where an animator usually has weeks and months to work their movie magic. TV has a brutal shooting schedule in order to have episodes ready each week. Time is not a luxury it ever has, and time, lots of it, is precisely what stop-motion animation must have.

[scotpens]

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