Forgotten TV: 'The Outer Limits' and the Perils of Revenge!

 This week, we look back at a 1997 Episode of The Outer Limits.

In this one, a scientific breakthrough, tragedy and the least subtle moral of all time are on the menu.

This is...

In the (very) Cold Open, two men bring a man back to life after he was frozen!

A bold start- let's see where it goes from here.

The man- Twin Peaks' Michael Ontkean and Stephen Lang (below)- tell the man what they have done, but also break the other news.

He's only going to live for a few days (but it's a start).

As they expected, he doesn't last as long as they would hope for.

Meanwhile, Lang has been largely absent from his family's life and so the Wife talks to Ontkean about this, finding a friendly ear.

While he's figuring out what to do about the process and how to improve it, Lang is robbed by a stranger (Jason Priestly) and killed by him when he struggles to take the gun from him.

Naturally, his pal takes him back inside and uses the machine on him.

He's back to life, but knows that he has very little time to spend with his family.

As such, he tries to spend his final 48 hours with them.

However, he lives in a very small town (apparently) and spots Priestly going into a Gym.
He tracks the guy down and kills him on the streets.

Don't feel bad for Jason, he got to Direct the Episode too.

Good news- Ontkean tells him that the process is working better on him (since he wasn't frozen) and he'll live!

Bad news- he was seen killing the guy and his story (as the research is secret) is hard to believe.  Will he spend the rest of his newfound life in jail?

This is where we end and there's no Sequel Episode, so...yes?

The best Sci-Fi Morality Tales really make you smack your head in frustration, don't they?

The Story is a good one, if very focused.  I suppose that helped keep the budget low to compensate for what I assume was a very expensive prop in the form of the SMR (revival) machine.

Speaking of that, they just kind of hand wave how it works (and apparently misspell a medical term) here.  Oh, well- the device itself is not the focus.

They do a good job with both Leads, showing the (somewhat understandable) focus of the one guy over everything else.
To be fair, we don't find out much about the other guy, so maybe he's single and has no attachments.

The moral is clear- revenge doesn't do anyone any good.
On the plus side, they will presumably have to then present their fully functional device that can restore the dead (who aren't inhabited by alien ghosts)!

With this Show ending up on various Streaming Platforms (like Prime) over the last few Decades, I wonder if anyone has pulled an Episode and said 'Hey- that's my butt on TV!'

Is that you, David?

An Episode that uses a Sci-Fi premise to tell a pretty simple Morality Tale.  That said, it was still pretty darn good.