The following is a complete episode list of the anthology science fiction television series Out of the Unknown , which aired on BBC2 over four series between 4 October 1965 and 30 June 1971. The first two series were made and broadcast in black and white, and the latter two in colour.
Many Out of the Unknown episodes were adaptations of short stories and novels. In such cases, the list below credits the story to the original author and lists the adapter in the following column. Instances where an adaptation was broadcast under a title different from that of the original work are footnoted as appropriate. Where a script was an original commission, the screenwriter is credited as the author and the “Adapted by” column is marked “n/a”.
Only twenty episodes of the series survive in the archives today, with an additional episode only existing partially (missing approximately 20 minutes). The “Exists?” column indicates whether an episode has survived or not. In some cases, short clips and/or audio recordings of missing episodes have survived – these are indicated in the footnotes.
Series 1 was broadcast on Monday nights at 8:00pm. It was produced by Irene Shubik. Two episodes are missing, while ten survive, making it the most complete season of the show.
Episode | Title | Story | Adapted by | Director | Airdate | Exists? |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
101 | “No Place Like Earth” [1] | John Wyndham | Stanley Miller | Peter Potter | 4 October 1965 | Yes |
102 | “The Counterfeit Man” | Alan Nourse | Philip Broadley | George Spenton-Foster | 11 October 1965 | Yes |
103 | “Stranger in the Family” | David Campton | n/a | Alan Bridges | 18 October 1965 | Yes [2] |
104 | “The Dead Past” | Isaac Asimov | Jeremy Paul | John Gorrie | 25 October 1965 | Yes |
105 | “Time in Advance” | William Tenn | Paul Erickson | Peter Sasdy | 1 November 1965 | Yes |
106 | “Come Buttercup, Come Daisy, Come...?” | Mike Watts | n/a | Paddy Russell | 8 November 1965 | Yes |
107 | “Sucker Bait” | Isaac Asimov | Meade Roberts | Naomi Capon | 15 November 1965 | Yes |
108 | “The Fox and the Forest” | Ray Bradbury | Terry Nation | Robin Midgley | 22 November 1965 | No [3] |
109 | “Andover and the Android” | Kate Wilhelm | Bruce Stewart | Alan Cooke | 29 November 1965 | No [3] |
110 | “Some Lapse of Time” | John Brunner | Leon Griffiths | Roger Jenkins | 6 December 1965 | Yes |
111 | “Thirteen to Centaurus” | J. G. Ballard | Stanley Miller | Peter Potter | 13 December 1965 | Yes |
112 | “The Midas Plague” | Frederik Pohl | Troy Kennedy Martin | Peter Sasdy | 20 December 1965 | Yes |
Series 2 was broadcast on Thursday nights at 9:30pm, except "The Prophet", which was broadcast on Saturday only two days after "Satisfaction Guaranteed". It was produced by Irene Shubik and the script editor was Michael Imison. Nine of the thirteen episodes are missing.
Episode | Title | Story | Adapted by | Director | Airdate | Exists? |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
201 | “The Machine Stops” | E. M. Forster | Kenneth Cavender & Clive Donner | Phillip Saville | 6 October 1966 | Yes |
202 | “Frankenstein Mark 2” | Hugh Whitemore | n/a | Peter Duguid | 13 October 1966 | No |
203 | “Lambda 1” | Colin Kapp | Bruce Stewart | George Spenton-Foster | 20 October 1966 | Yes |
204 | “Level Seven” | Mordecai Roshwald | J. B. Priestley | Rudolph Cartier | 27 October 1966 | Yes |
205 | “Second Childhood” | Hugh Leonard | n/a | John Gorrie | 10 November 1966 | No [4] |
206 | “The World in Silence” | John Rankine | Robert Gould | Naomi Capon | 17 November 1966 | No |
207 | “The Eye” | Henry Kuttner | Stanley Miller | Peter Sasdy | 24 November 1966 | No |
208 | “Tunnel Under the World” | Frederik Pohl | David Campton | Alan Cooke | 1 December 1966 | Yes |
209 | “The Fastest Draw” | Larry Eisenberg | Julian Bond | Herbert Wise | 8 December 1966 | No [4] |
210 | “Too Many Cooks” | Larry Eisenberg | Hugh Whitemore | John Gibson | 15 December 1966 | No |
211 | “Walk's End” | William Trevor | n/a | Ian Curteis | 22 December 1966 | No |
212 | “Satisfaction Guaranteed” | Isaac Asimov | Hugh Leonard | John Gorrie | 29 December 1966 | No [5] |
213 | “The Prophet” [6] | Isaac Asimov | Robert Muller | Naomi Capon | 1 January 1967 | No [4] |
Series 3 was broadcast on Wednesday nights at 9:00pm. It was produced by Alan Bromly and the script editor was Roger Parkes. However, all the scripts used in this series were commissioned by Irene Shubik. This was the first series to be made in colour. Only two episodes are known to exist (one partially), making it the most incomplete season of the show. This season also has the most surviving off-air soundtracks, with three in total used to reconstruct their respective episodes.
Episode | Title | Story | Adapted by | Director | Airdate | Exists? |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
301 | “Immortality, Inc.” | Robert Sheckley | Jack Pulman | Terence Dudley | 7 January 1969 | No [5] |
302 | “Liar!” | Isaac Asimov | David Campton | Gerald Blake | 14 January 1969 | No [5] |
303 | “The Last Lonely Man” | John Brunner | Jeremy Paul | Douglas Camfield | 21 January 1969 | Yes |
304 | “Beach Head” | Clifford D. Simak | Robert Muller | James Cellan Jones | 28 January 1969 | No [7] (reconstruction exists) |
305 | “Something in the Cellar” | Donald Bull | n/a | Roger Jenkins | 4 February 1969 | No [4] |
306 | “Random Quest” | John Wyndham | Owen Holder | Christopher Barry | 11 February 1969 | No [5] |
307 | “The Naked Sun” | Isaac Asimov | Robert Muller | Rudolph Cartier | 18 February 1969 | No [4] (reconstruction exists) |
308 | “The Little Black Bag” | C. M. Kornbluth | Julian Bond | Eric Hills | 25 February 1969 | Partially [8] |
309 | “1+1=1.5” | Brian Hayles | n/a | Michael Ferguson | 4 March 1969 | No [4] |
310 | “The Fosters” | Michael Ashe | n/a | Philip Dudley | 11 March 1969 | No [4] |
311 | “Target Generation” | Clifford D. Simak | Clive Exton [9] | Roger Jenkins | 18 March 1969 | No [4] |
312 | “The Yellow Pill” | Rog Phillips | Leon Griffiths [9] | Michael Ferguson | 25 March 1969 | No [7] (reconstruction exists) |
313 | “Get Off My Cloud” | Peter Phillips | David Climie | Peter Cregeen | 1 April 1969 | No [4] |
Series 4 was broadcast on Wednesday nights at 9:20pm. It was produced by Alan Bromly and the script editor was Roger Parkes. Unlike previous series, only one episode was an adaptation. Six of the eleven episodes are missing, leaving five episodes surviving. A reconstruction using surviving audio exists for one episode.
Episode | Title | Story | Adapted by | Director | Airdate | Exists? |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
401 | “Taste of Evil” | John Wiles | n/a | Michael Ferguson | 21 April 1971 | No |
402 | “To Lay a Ghost” | Michael J. Bird | n/a | Ken Hannam | 28 April 1971 | Yes |
403 | “This Body Is Mine” | John Tully | n/a | Eric Hills | 5 May 1971 | Yes |
404 | “Deathday” | Angus Hall | Brian Hayles | Raymond Menmuir | 12 May 1971 | Yes |
405 | “The Sons and Daughters of Tomorrow” | Edward Boyd | n/a | Gerald Blake | 19 May 1971 | No |
406 | “Welcome Home” | Moris Farhi | n/a | Eric Hills | 26 May 1971 | Yes |
407 | “The Last Witness” [10] | Martin Worth | n/a | Michael Ferguson | 2 June 1971 | No [3] |
408 | “The Man in My Head” | John Wiles | n/a | Peter Cregeen | 9 June 1971 | Yes |
409 | “The Chopper” | Nigel Kneale | n/a | Peter Cregeen | 16 June 1971 | No |
410 | “The Uninvited” [11] | Michael J. Bird | n/a | Eric Hills | 23 June 1971 | No [7] (reconstruction exists) |
411 | “The Shattered Eye” | David T. Chantler | n/a | Peter Hammond | 30 June 1971 | No |
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