Outer Limits (Original Series) - Why Rereleased? (1 Viewer)

[Charles Thaxton]

The sound efx in CHILDREN OF SPIDER COUNTY intro were: the interior sounds of Kronos from the film KRONOS(1957) as we see the Eros alien true form, and of course the WAR OF THE WORLDS ray sound as his eyes glow and disintegrate the sheriff. OL used a lot of the FORBIDDEN PLANET sound (the sound as the Id Monster is melting the Krell lab door) in many episodes (usually during a spaceship malfunction or meteor storm)
John Elizalde used a lot of classic scifi sounds in THE INVADERS also, mostly from the film EARTH VS THE FLYING SAUCERS. There was a trademark OL sound that sounds like low notes of an organ held down and rise and fall in pitch in a repeating cycle that was actually used years before in SCIENCE FICTION THEATRE in a few episodes where they were showing UFOs in flight. John must've had access to a big stock scifi sound library at the studio.

 

[Ockeghem]

Charles,

It's the timing of the juxtaposition (and nearly overlapping) of sounds that greatly intrigues me in that segment. If that clip doesn't get a new viewer to want to watch more of The Outer Limits, then I don't believe much else will.

Yes, I've noticed some of the effects used in The Outer Limits in films prior to the television series. I am pleased that some of those effects made it on to the GNP Crescendo release of The Outer Limits music; now with the release of the three-CD set, more of these gems will be available to many more of us.

BTW, I love Earth vs. The Flying Saucers. That film remains one of my fondest childhood memories.

Side note: Have you (or anyone else) noticed that some of the music used in The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) showed up on the 1960s television series Lost In Space? I'm thinking of the episode (it may be The Derelict; I'll have to check on that) where the Robinson family is inside of a space craft of some sort, and there are (what look to be) mummies and decayed bodies all around them.

 

[Charles Thaxton]

Unfortunately the new OL 3CD set has no sound efx this time. Irwin Allen shows used Herrmann's music a LOT, not just DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL, but also cues from GARDEN OF EVIL, BENEATH THE 12 MILE REEF (John Robinson "jet pack" flying music) and JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH. The original LOST IN SPACE unaired pilot "No Place To Hide" has a ton of Herrmann. The mummy scene you refer to is in the deserted underground city they discover in a huge cavern in "Island In The Sky" episode 3 (which is from the unaired pilot version also).

 

[Charles Thaxton]

According to an old Filmscore Monthly message board post by record producer Ford Thaxton (yes...he's a distant relative)...Harry Lubin's OUTER LIMITS music recordings cannot be located and are presumed lost (but they said the same thing about MGM's THE TIME MACHINE score which they found a couple of years ago) but we can hope perhaps they might be found.

 

[Hollywoodaholic]

True, there's no SFX on this release, which is primarily a music-oriented release, but one other big bonus is some extensive (14-page) liner notes by Cinefantastique film music columnist and former Soundtrack Magazine senior editor, Randall Larson. In addition to writing an overview of the program, and a background piece on Frontiere, he provides some music-savvy info for each of the episode tracks.

Most of "Tourist Attraction" was orchestrated by Robert Van Eps, but the "Monster Awakes" sequence that I believe Ockeghem referred to was, indeed, Frontiere. The whole suite is included on this release.

I made the comment about Frontiere probably having a field day with this show and, synchronistically, Larson confirms this from Frontiere himself:

Because the show was an anthology show, while Frontiere maintained an overall ambient, atmospheric sound, he treated each episode as a unique entity. Each episode has it's own unique score. "That's what made it great for me," Frontiere said. "That was what was fun about it."

He also had fun with some of the cues, naming one in an episode of "The Mice" as "Epilogue With A Jelly Doughnut." If you are familiar with the episode, you get the joke.

The music composed for the episode and pilot "Forms of Things Unknown" is not on this soundtrack CD, but on another La-La-Land Records release entitled "Name for Evil/The Unknown."

And, also, to echo one of my own earlier posting sentiments, Frontiere's favorite episode was, indeed, "The Architects of Fear."

 

[michael_ks]

I meant to ask you about that, it just seemed like too much of a coincidence. Ford is a hoot at times where is terse demeanor is concerned.

That's unfortunate about Harry Lubin's compositions for OL, if true. Although I've always felt that Frontiere's absence in season 2 left a big void, his reworked theme from "One Step Beyond" is a very pleasant aural experience and his spare score to "Demon With a Glass Hand" is exceptional in its murky discordance.

I ordered the 3 CD set from La-La-Land Records yesterday, quite probably my most anticipated soundtrack release of all time. Of course, I wish "The Galaxy Being" and "The Invisibles" could have been included but to have over 3 hours of OL music with improved fidelity is a godsend indeed. At the same time, I went ahead and purchased the other LLL CD featuring the score to "The Unknown" ("The Forms of Things Unknown"). I wonder why this wasn't included in the 3-CD set to begin with since it appears the OL set was 2 years in the making.

My thanks to Harry-N for posting the news of this great release!

 

[michael_ks]

I believe LIS is the only IA series to feature music from all four Herrmann scored films. In the case of "Voyage" a different cue from BT12MR is heard in one episode rather than the familiar jet pack music used in LIS. It's the short cue where Gilbert Roland informs his shipmates that they're returning to the reef and is heard to very effective and chilling effect in "Deadly Invasion" where Nelson and Crane are examining the interior of a tiny alien spacecraft. A couple of cues from "Journey to the Center of the Earth" is used often in "Time Tunnel" but I can't recall offhand where it appears in LIS.

 

[Harry-N]

TIME TUNNEL also used the DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL cues, most notable in some of the alien invasion episodes. It's used verbatim as the opening episode credits roll at the start of the "Visitors From Beyond The Stars" episode.

Harry

 

[Ockeghem]

Michael,

I love The Forms of Things Unknown. Either you or another poster once mentioned the film noir aspects of that episode. It's one of the best The Outer Limits has to offer, IMO.

 

[Charles Thaxton]

the roar of the "Invisibles" crab creatures was the T.Rex from the film DINOSAURUS! (which the Projects Unlimited guys worked on)

 

[michael_ks]

I agree. Gerd Oswald and Conrad Hall really pulled the stops on that one. From the wispy, dreamlike setting at the lake, the extreme zoom shot on Barbara Rush as she notices the car trunk opening to the odd shadowy appearance on Tone Hobart's face as he's entranced by the twirling table object, it's definitely one of the most mesmerizing dramas I've ever seen.

 

[Ockeghem]

Michael,

By the sounds of the post above, I think it was you who first brought this aspect of that episode to my attention. Either that, or you are ... The Duplicate Man.

 

[michael_ks]

In anticipation of receiving the 3-CD set, I'm revisiting OL on the MGM set, this time viewing them in production order. Last night I watched "The Borderland", (ep. 2) paying particular attention to Frontiere's music. It didn't appear as though there was much in the way of original composition and perhaps the track listing as shown on the LLL Records site bears this out with the inclusion of but one track ("The Big Finish"--track 18) which is 4:30 in length.

LA LA LAND RECORDS, OUTER LIMITS

I take this to be the scene where Ian Frazier is interdimensionally lost and describing his findings to the other technicians. The cue that plays as we see Frazier in slo-mo mulitple exposures is exceptional, by the way, one of my favorites.

Was all the other music appearing in "The Borderland" tracked from other episodes? I thought the music in the scene where the mystic (Gladys Cooper) informs Mr. Sawyer that he "craves power" to be particularly chilling and effective and hope that it appears somewhere else on the set if not embedded in "The Big Finish".

 

[Craig Beam]

Man, I'm glad I revisited this thread! Ordered both the OUTER LIMITS 3-CD set and A NAME FOR EVIL: THE UNKNOWN (to get the "Forms of Things Unknown" score). I've long lamented the lack of further OL music releases, so this is just awesome.

I wonder, though, why "The Galaxy Being" wasn't included....?

 

[Charles Thaxton]

actually it wasn't used in "Doomsday", but it showed up in season 2's "Invisble Enemy" for the sand shark roar. The gurgling sound of the "Doomsday" box alien was re-used for the Chromoite in "the Mice".
Let's have a round of applause for Robert Johnson, who voiced many of the OL aliens (especially the cackling laughter of the "Senator" in "Fun And Games" and the nasty rocks in "Corpus Earthling").

 

[Charles Thaxton]

THE UNKNOWN has a lot of cues which turned up in THE INVADERS, especially the main title theme (which BECAME the theme for INVADERS)
La La Land has stated they got everything that MGM and Dominic Frontiere had left in their archives,recordings-wise, so "Galaxy Being" must be lost or destroyed.

 

[Hollywoodaholic]

Since MGM is re-releasing the complete series in the fall (as previously released as an exclusive to Borders), I sure wish they would use this opportunity to re-master the set in high-definition as The Twilight Zone has done. I still haven't rewatched much of my original MGM box sets because I was so disappointed in the presentation by comparison to other releases of that era. Surely this set deserves an upgrade. And hopefully a Blu-ray release.

If anyone has any information on MGM's plans for an upgrade on TOL, please let us know. Thanks.

P.S. I'm well into the second CD and the audio quality of the Charleston music from "Don't Open Til Doomsday" is excellent. "Nightmare" immediately evokes that very creepy quality which completely elevated an episode that they obviously had run out of any money to dress up otherwise (the surface of the planet is the soundstage floor). And it features that innovative first use of the Onafets device. Figure out what that is backwards.

 

[Ockeghem]

Thanks for the correction. I love Gerd Oswald's work.

I applaud Mr. Johnson. It's a wonderful sound, isn't it? Incidentally, that prop (the sand shark) would appear later in TOS. And that special effect in Corpus Earthling (rocks morphing into something and then crawling) was superb IMO. It's also nice to see Salome Jens without her DS9 'Founder' make-up in that episode.

 

[Charles Thaxton]

the music from NIGHTMARE on the new CD is all the tracks from the GNP release (remastered) without the sound efx (like Martin Sheen's scream and explosions)

 

[Ockeghem]

Thanks. I won't be buying the new set now, since it doesn't have Martin Sheen's screams.