Television Review—
"Controlled Experiment" (1963): The Outer Limits
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The richness of this story is in the
characters, their emotions and their growth. Diemos exhibits authentic
deference from his superior that rings true of just about any
organizational hierarchy, timeless.
Yet there's something else here, too.
A warmth and genuine desire to bridge the culture gaps between his home
planet of Mars and the people of Earth, in a personal way for Phobos.
Before leaving the pawn shop, Diemos introduces Inspector Phobos to
Earth indulgences of coffee and cigarettes. An enthusiastic pitch that
borders on needing a Surgeon General's Warning.
Later, there's a bit in the hotel
lobby where Diemos softly corrects Phobos on a local idiosyncrasy -- and
his superior thanks him. True respect in a way you seldom see among the
Dilbert-style bosses of the real world, struggling to impersonate
behavior they took notes on during last weeks "team" training.
Humor dialogue is spot-on as well; no
laugh track, and never gratuitous. Here's how the plot is advanced
through a question regarding the role played by others in the hotel
lobby vis-à-vis the murder.
"Ah, yes," Diemos answers in perfect
deadpan. "They're 'innocent bystanders.' It's a tradition. Each one
tells a different version of what happened."
Later, as Phobos' confusion mounts at
the senselessness of murder, he and Diemos follow the boyfriend backward
in time -- up the elevator and back to the lips of another woman.
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