The Borderland

Last updated
"The Borderland"
The Outer Limits episode
Episode no.Season 1
Episode 12
Directed by Leslie Stevens
Written by Leslie Stevens
Cinematography by John M. Nickolaus
Production code2
Original air dateDecember 16, 1963 (1963-12-16)
Guest appearances
Episode chronology
 Previous
"It Crawled Out of the Woodwork"
Next 
"Tourist Attraction"
List of episodes

"The Borderland" is an episode of the original The Outer Limits television show. It was the second episode to be produced, and first aired on 16 December 1963, during the first season.

Contents

The storyline involves a team of scientists who use an incredibly strong magnetic field to open a door to another dimension.

Opening narration

The mind of man has always longed to know what lies beyond the world we live in. Explorers have ventured into the deeps and the heights. Of these explorers some are scientists, some are mystics. Each is driven by a different purpose. The one thing they share in common is a wish to cross the Borderlands that lie beyond the Outer Limits.

Plot

In an accident, Professor Ian Fraser encounters a magnetic field that reverses the form of living matter. When his hand is caught in the strong magnetic field, it is altered, becoming a mirror of itself. Realizing the importance of magnetic fields, Fraser theorizes that a much stronger magnetic field has the potential to open a door into another world.

Knowing the cost, Fraser approaches Dwight Hartley, a wealthy magnate grieving over the loss of his son. At a dinner party given by the millionaire, Fraser, his wife and colleague Eva, and another colleague watch as Mrs. Palmer, a medium, appears to contact Hartley's dead son. However, Fraser exposes her as a fraud. After Hartley angrily dismisses Palmer, Fraser reveals his discovery. Hartley appears skeptical, until Fraser shows that his left hand, the hand that had been caught in the electrical field, has now become a right hand. Hoping that Fraser's discovery might allow him to reach his dead son, Hartley agrees to support him.

With Hartley's support, the Frasers, and fellow scientist Lincoln Russel, set up power electrical equipment inside of a metropolitan power plant. While experimenting on inanimate objects and small animals, Fraser is approached by Benson Sawyer, Hartley's managing director. Sawyer, who has designs on Hartley's company, insists that Fraser's discoveries should go through him. Ultimately, Fraser enters the test box, and Eva engages the field. Now within a much more powerful magnetic field, Fraser finds himself approaching what may be a boundary between his universe, and another one.

Unknown to either of them, Mrs. Palmer and her assistant Edgar Price have appeared at the power plant, and watch as Fraser's experiments proceed. Angry at Fraser for revealing Mrs. Palmer as a fraud, Price seeks to sabotage the experiment. Palmer urges caution, warning that they could be meddling in something extremely important. Price isn't dissuaded, arguing that it is Fraser who is meddling. With Fraser within the magnetic field, Price shorts one of the plant's generators, electrocuting himself and Mrs. Palmer in the process. With the field losing power, the boundary begins to collapse. Fraser, now trapped in the field, can see his wife, but can't hear or reach her. Not knowing if he can be heard, Fraser shouts out his observations, that the world looks transparent, and that another landscape appears superimposed over it. Fraser has no way of knowing if he is looking at a different planet, or Earth in another time. Remembering Hartley, Fraser calls out to Dion, Hartley's dead son. Hartley, overcome by emotion, also calls out to Dion. Knowing that the world is fading out to him, Fraser reaches through the field with his hand. Eva, knowing she may lose her husband into the other dimension, grasps his hand, ultimately pulling her husband back to their world, while Hartley, desperate to reach his son, enters the magnetic field in turn and is apparently vaporized. Eva, having brought her husband back, holds him tight. As she inquires about Hartley, Ian simply replies that he left to "join his son."

Closing narration

There are worlds beyond and worlds within which the explorer must explore, but there is one power which seems to transcend space and time, life and death. It is a deeply human power which holds us safe and together when all other forces combine to tear us apart — we call it the power of love.

Cast

Influence in other media

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Electromagnetism</span> Fundamental interaction between charged particles

In physics, electromagnetism is an interaction that occurs between particles with electric charge via electromagnetic fields. The electromagnetic force is one of the four fundamental forces of nature. It is the dominant force in the interactions of atoms and molecules. Electromagnetism can be thought of as a combination of electrostatics and magnetism, which are distinct but closely intertwined phenomena. Electromagnetic forces occur between any two charged particles. Electric forces cause an attraction between particles with opposite charges and repulsion between particles with the same charge, while magnetism is an interaction that occurs between charged particles in relative motion. These two forces are described in terms of electromagnetic fields. Macroscopic charged objects are described in terms of Coulomb's law for electricity and Ampère's force law for magnetism; the Lorentz force describes microscopic charged particles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Polanyi</span> Hungarian-British polymath (1891–1976)

Michael Polanyi was a Hungarian-British polymath, who made important theoretical contributions to physical chemistry, economics, and philosophy. He argued that positivism is a false account of knowing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Hartley (philosopher)</span> English philosopher

David Hartley was an English philosopher and founder of the Associationist school of psychology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Isidor Isaac Rabi</span> American physicist (1898–1988)

Isidor Isaac Rabi was an American physicist who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1944 for his discovery of nuclear magnetic resonance, which is used in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). He was also one of the first scientists in the United States to work on the cavity magnetron, which is used in microwave radar and microwave ovens.

Mindwarp is the second serial of the larger narrative known as The Trial of a Time Lord which encompasses the whole of the 23rd season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was first broadcast in four weekly parts on BBC1 from 4 to 25 October 1986. The title Mindwarp is not used on screen and appears only on the serial's scripts with the four episodes that comprise the story being transmitted as The Trial of a Time Lord Parts Five to Eight. This story marks the final appearance of Nicola Bryant as Peri Brown.

<i>4D Man</i> 1959 film

4D Man is a 1959 independent American science-fiction film in color by De Luxe, produced by Jack H. Harris, directed by Irvin S. Yeaworth Jr., and starring Robert Lansing, Lee Meriwether, and James Congdon. The film was released by Universal-International.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Triumph (comics)</span> Comics character

Triumph is a fictional former superhero in the DC Comics universe whose first full appearance was in Justice League America #92. He was created by Brian Augustyn, Mark Waid and Howard Porter, though the character is primarily associated with writer Christopher Priest.

<i>Bionic Six</i> TV series or program

Bionic Six is a 1987 animated television series. It was produced by Universal Television and animated by Tokyo Movie Shinsha and distributed, through first-run syndication, by MCA TV, years before the latter company became NBCUniversal Television Distribution. Renowned Japanese animation director Osamu Dezaki was involved as chief supervising director, and his distinctive style is evident throughout all its episodes. Character designs were by Nobuteru Yūki.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mediumship</span> Spiritual practice

Mediumship is the pseudoscientific practice of mediating communication between familiar spirits or spirits of the dead and living human beings. Practitioners are known as "mediums" or "spirit mediums". There are different types of mediumship or spirit channelling, including séance tables, trance, and ouija. The practice is associated with spiritualism and spiritism. A similar New Age practice is known as channeling.

Sir Thomas Ralph Merton KBE, DSc, FRS was an English physicist, inventor and art collector. He is particularly noted for his work on spectroscopy and diffraction gratings.

<i>The Strange World of Planet X</i> (film) 1958 British film by Gilbert Gunn

The Strange World of Planet X is an independently made 1958 British science fiction horror film, produced by George Maynard and John Bash, directed by Gilbert Gunn, that stars Forrest Tucker and Gaby André. The film was distributed in the UK in February, 1958 by Eros Films. It was released in the US on July 7, 1958 by Distributors Corporation of America as a double feature with The Crawling Eye, also starring Tucker.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Atom (Ray Palmer)</span> Fictional character, a superhero that appears in comic books published by DC Comics

The Atom is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by editor and co-plotter Julius Schwartz, writer Gardner Fox and penciler Gil Kane. The Atom was one of the first superheroes of the Silver Age of Comic Books and debuted in Showcase #34.

<i>The Strange World of Planet X</i> 1957 novel by René Ray

The Strange World of Planet X (1957) is a British science fiction horror novel, written by actress Rene Ray, a novelization of her 1956 TV serial of the same name. It is a cautionary tale about science.

Frankenstein is a 2007 British television film produced by Impossible Pictures for ITV. It was written and directed by Jed Mercurio, adapted from Mary Shelley's 1818 novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus to a present-day setting. Dr. Victoria Frankenstein, a female geneticist, accidentally creates a monster while growing her son's clone from stem cells as an organ donor in an effort to prevent his imminent death. The film was broadcast on 24 October 2007, to an average audience of 3.6 million.

The idea of a fourth dimension has been a factor in the evolution of modern art, but use of concepts relating to higher dimensions has been little discussed by academics in the literary world. From the late 19th century onwards, many writers began to make use of possibilities opened up by the exploration of such concepts as hypercube geometry. While many writers took the fourth dimension to be one of time, others preferred to think of it in spatial terms, and some associated the new mathematics with wider changes in modern culture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anna Eva Fay</span> American spiritual medium

Anna Eva Fay Pingree was a famous medium and stage mentalist of the twentieth century.

<i>Metal Tornado</i> 2011 American TV series or program

Metal Tornado is a 2011 science fiction, thriller television movie directed by Gordon Yang and starring Lou Diamond Phillips. The film was generally poorly received.

Suchitra Sebastian is a condensed matter physicist at Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge. She is known for her discoveries of exotic quantum phenomena that emerge in complex materials. In particular, she is known for the discovery of unconventional insulating materials which display simultaneous conduction-like behaviour. In 2022 she was awarded the New Horizons in Physics Prize by the Breakthrough Foundation. She was named as one of thirty Exceptional Young Scientists by the World Economic Forum in 2013, one of The Next Big Names in Physics by the Financial Times in 2013, and spoke at the World Economic Forum at Davos in 2016.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stephen Strange (Marvel Cinematic Universe)</span> Character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe

Doctor Stephen Strange is a fictional character portrayed by Benedict Cumberbatch in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) media franchise—based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name, commonly referred to by his academic title. Initially depicted as an intelligent and arrogant neurosurgeon, Strange experiences a career-ending car accident. In his search to repair his damaged hands, he discovers magic from Kamar-Taj. He becomes a Master of the Mystic Arts, using his newfound powers to protect the Earth from various threats. In the process, he allies with the Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy to combat Thanos, before allowing Thanos to initiate the Blip, himself among its victims, to ensure their ultimate victory five years later upon being restored to life. On his return, Strange remains the appointed Guardian of the New York Sanctum, but finds that Wong has become Sorcerer Supreme, a position Strange himself was in the process of inheriting from the Ancient One prior to being Blipped. Strange later faces several problems from the newly-established multiverse, including a rift between realities created by an interrupted attempt to erase everyone's knowledge of Peter Parker's secret identity as Spider-Man; and a Darkhold-corrupted Wanda Maximoff, whom he must stop from acquiring America Chavez's ability to traverse the multiverse for her own goals.

References

  1. Hodgson, David (2004). Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar . Prima Games. ISBN   0-7615-4364-3.