The Outer Limits: Season Two (1964–1965)

Under orders from ABC to include more monsters, but saddled with a significantly smaller budget to create them, the new production team behind season two of The Outer Limits (which wound up totaling 17 episodes) had to do more with less. New showrunner Ben Brady fought back with big ideas, adapting source material from sci-fi writers like Harlan Ellison in an attempt to make a strong literary impression...even if the technical execution wasn't always up to snuff.

That describes the second season of the cult sci-fi anthology (which ran from 1963 to 1965) fairly well: a collection of great ideas brought to the screen under challenging circumstances. Ellison's two installments are the obvious highlights (Soldier and Demon with a Glass Hand), so ahead of their time that James Cameron settled out of court due to the similarities to The Terminator. But ignoring the rest of the episodes is selling the show short, all of which scratch that peculiar sci-fi itch in a way that no program has since.

From '50s-style "monster on the loose" escapism (Behold Eck! and The Invisible Enemy) to more thoughtful predictions of futureshock (I, Robot and The Duplicate Man), what season two lacks in consistency it makes up for in variety. Plenty of familiar stars are on display, including Adam West, Robert Cult, Robert Duvall and even William Shatner (whose character is hard at work on Project Vulcan, believe it or not). It goes without saying that the productions are often a bit threadbare compared to the previous episodes, but even the weakest entries make for compelling television.

KL Studio Classics follows up the release of the first season with another terrific looking presentation of all 17 episodes newly-mastered on Blu-ray. But this time around, there are a few more bells and whistles. Besides a collection of commentary tracks (see sidebar), the set includes two alternate episodes, scads of interviews and promos, rare special effects footage and a booklet essay by David J. Schow that breaks down each episode.