The Outer Limits Trivia Quiz Questions and Answers

Trivia quiz questions and answers about The Outer Limits TV show.

The Outer Limits Trivia Quiz Questions and Answers

What was “The Outer Limits”?
A: The Outer Limits is an American television series that was broadcast on ABC from 1963 to 1965 at 7:30 PM Eastern Time on Mondays.

The series is often compared to what other TV show?
A: The Twilight Zone.

The Outer Limits put a greater emphasis on what than The Twilight Zone?
A: Science fiction stories (rather than stories of fantasy or the supernatural matters).

The Outer Limits is an anthology of what?
A: Self-contained episodes, sometimes with a plot twist at the end.

When was the series revived?
A: In 1995, airing on Showtime from 1995 to 2000, then on Sci-Fi Channel from 2001 until its cancellation in 2002.

In 1997, the episode "The Zanti Misfits" was ranked where on TV Guide's 100 Greatest Episodes of All Time?
A: #98.

Each show would begin with either a cold open or a preview clip, followed by a "Control Voice" narration that was mainly run over visuals of a what?
A: An oscilloscope.

How did the first few episodes begin?
A: Simply with the title screen followed by the narration and no cold open or preview clip.

The Control Voice was performed by whom?
A: Actor Vic Perrin.

The Outer Limits was originally broadcast on what?
A: The American television network ABC (1963–65).

In total how many episodes were produced?
A: 49.

It was one of many series influenced by The Twilight Zone and what other science fiction show?
A: Science Fiction Theatre, though it ultimately proved influential in its own right.

In the un-aired pilot, the series was called what?
A: Please Stand By, but ABC rejected that title.

Who re-titled it “The Outer Limits.”?
A: Series creator Leslie Stevens.

With a few changes, the pilot aired as what?
A: The premiere episode, "The Galaxy Being".

Writers for The Outer Limits included whom?
A: Creator Stevens and Joseph Stefano (screenwriter of Hitchcock's Psycho), who was the Season 1 producer and creative guiding force.

Who wrote more episodes of the show than any other writer?
A: Stefano.

Future Oscar-winning screenwriter Robert Towne (Chinatown) wrote "The Chameleon", which was the what?
A: The final episode filmed for Season 1.

Two especially notable Season 2 episodes "Demon with a Glass Hand" and "Soldier" were written by whom?
A: Harlan Ellison, with the former episode winning a Writers' Guild Award.

The former was for several years the only episode of The Outer Limits available on what?
A: Laser Disc.

Season 1 combined science-fiction and horror, while Season 2 was more focused on what?
A: 'hard science fiction' stories, dropping the recurring "scary monster" motif of Season 1.

Each show in Season 1 was to have a monster or creature as a what?
A: A critical part of the story line.

Season 1 writer and producer Joseph Stefano believed that this element was necessary to provide what?
A: Fear, suspense, or at least a center for plot development.

This kind of story element became known as what?
A: "the bear".

This device was, however, mostly dropped in Season 2 when who left?
A: Stefano.

What are two Season 1 episodes without a "bear”?
A: "The Forms of Things Unknown" and "Controlled Experiment", the first of which was shot in a dual format as science-fiction for The Outer Limits and as a thriller for a pilot for an unmade series The Unknown.

Actor Barry Morse, who starred in "Controlled Experiment", states that this episode also was made as a pilot for what?
A: An unrealized science-fiction comedy series.

It was the only what?
A: Comic episode of The Outer Limits.

What were two earlier Season 1 episodes with no "bear”?
A: "The Hundred Days of the Dragon" and "The Borderland", made before the "bear" convention was established.

Which season 2 episodes have a "bear"?
A: "Keeper of the Purple Twilight", "The Duplicate Man", and "The Probe".

Bears appear near the conclusion of what season 2 episodes?
A: "Counterweight", "The Invisible Enemy", and "Cold Hands, Warm Heart".)

The "bear" in "The Architects of Fear", the monstrously altered Allen Leighton, was judged by some of ABC's local affiliate stations to be so frightening that they did what?
A: They broadcast a black screen during the "Thetan's" appearances, effectively censoring most of the show's last act.

In other parts of the United States, the "Thetan" footage was what?
A: Tape-delayed until after the 11pm/10c news and in others, it was not shown at all.

Season 1 had music by whom?
A: Dominic Frontiere, who doubled as Production Executive.

Season 2 featured music by whom?
A: Harry Lubin, with a variation of his Fear theme for One Step Beyond being heard over the end titles.

Like The Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits had an opening and closing what?
A: Narration in almost every episode.

Both shows were unusually philosophical for what?
A: Science-fiction anthology series, but differed in style.

The Twilight Zone stories were often like what?
A: Parables, employing whimsy (such as the Buster Keaton time-travel episode "Once Upon a Time") or irony, or extraordinary problem-solving situations (such as the episode "The Arrival").

The Outer Limits was usually a straight what?
A: Action-and-suspense show which often had the human spirit in confrontation with dark existential forces from within or without, such as in the alien abduction episode "A Feasibility Study" or the alien possession story "The Invisibles".

As well, The Outer Limits was known for its what?
A: Moody, textured look in many episodes (especially those directed by Byron Haskin or Gerd Oswald, or photographed by Conrad Hall) whereas The Twilight Zone tended to be shot more conventionally.

The program sometimes made use of techniques (lighting, camerawork, even make-up) associated with what?
A: Film noir or German Expressionism (see for example, "Corpus Earthling"), and a number of episodes were noteworthy for their sheer eeriness.

Credit for this is often given to whom?
A: The cinematographer Conrad Hall, who went on to win three Academy Awards (and many more nominations) for his work in motion pictures.

However, Hall worked only on what?
A: Alternate episodes of this TV series during the first two-thirds of the first season.

The program's other cinematographers included whom?
A: John M. Nickolaus and Kenneth Peach.

The various monsters and creatures from the first season and most props were developed by whom?
A: A loose-knit group organized under the name Project Unlimited.

Members of the group included whom?
A: Wah Chang, Gene Warren and Jim Danforth.

Makeup was executed by whom?
A: Fred B. Phillips along with John Chambers.

Many of the creatures that appeared in Outer Limits episodes have been sold as what?
A: Models or action figures in the 1990s and 2000s.

A few of the monsters reappeared in what?
A: Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek series later in the 1960s.

The moving microbe beast in "The Probe" later was used as what?
A: The 'Horta' in "The Devil in the Dark", and operated by the same actor, Janos Prohaska.

The "ion storm" seen in "The Mutant" (a projector beam shining through a container containing glitter in liquid suspension) became what?
A: The transporter effect in Star Trek.

The black mask from "The Duplicate Man” is used by the character Dr. Leighton in what?
A: "The Conscience of the King".

The Megasoid, from "The Duplicate Man" and the Empyrean from "Second Chance" (1964) were seen briefly near Captain Christopher Pike in other cages in what?
A: The Star Trek pilot "The Cage".

The process used to make pointed ears for David McCallum in "The Sixth Finger" was reused in what?
A: Star Trek as well.

Lead actors who would later appear in the regular cast of Star Trek included whom?
A: Leonard Nimoy, who appeared in two episodes ("Production and Decay of Strange Particles" and "I, Robot") and William Shatner who appeared (in the episode "Cold Hands, Warm Heart") as an astronaut working on a Project Vulcan.

What actors would subsequently appear in the regular supporting cast of Star Trek?
A: Grace Lee Whitney (episode "Controlled Experiment") and James Doohan (episode "Expanding Human").

Roddenberry was often present in The Outer Limits' studios, and hired whom?
A: Several of its staff, among them Robert Justman and Wah Chang for the production of Star Trek.