Forgotten TV: The Outer Limits- 'Dead Man's Switch'

 Another trip to the 1990s Sci-Fi/Horror Anthology Show.

In this Episode, we see a tale that might have been the (partial) inspiration for a popular ABC Show made less than a decade later.

In 'Dead Man's Switch,' we first see a Helicopter fly to an Arctic Base.
If your first thought is 'This is probably Stock Footage from John Carpenter's The Thing,' then you are correct!

A guy is left down in a Bunker and told that he must push a button every 24 hours to keep a doomsday weapon from going off.

Aliens are coming and he's a backup to- essentially- avenge the Earth.

He's left alone with just this guy sometimes doing seamless video calls to the Bunker.

...but he's not alone.

Four other Countries- including Russia, South Africa, South Korea and, I think, Australia- have people manning (or woman-ning their respective switches.

Any one push will stop them all, but one must happen!

To keep from getting Lost in desolation, our Hero starts to flirt with and falls for the Russian lady.

They actually tease the idea of nudity here, but nothing comes of it.
Given how superfluous it is throughout the first 6 Seasons, that's odd.

Things get serious between them, as they even have a date night.

Can you imagine romancing someone solely through a screen because you're stuck inside?  True Sci-Fi, right people who lived through 2020-21?!?

As time goes by, news gets sparser and what they get doesn't sound good.

It gets worse when the other people in their Bunkers start to die!

One is by what could be an accident, as is the second.
The third, however, is much more overt!

Will they keep pressing the button?
To find out, stream it now.

A really strong case for how you can make a great Story by omitting so many details.

The best example I can give of this is Pontypool, which constantly does Tell, Don't Show...but is somehow really great for doing so.
Like this Episode, they describe things that would be hard to match how we picture them happening.

This one takes 5 people away from the World and then puts them in charge of its safety.
They never break from the Bunker setting until the ending reveal.

We know what they know and it's so good for doing so.

Our Lead- James LeGros (the new Mike in Phantasm II)- is quite good here in a Role that could easily be under or overplayed.

With all of that said, no amount of TV Shows or Movies can make THIS look anything but unpleasant!

Next time, we get a rare Outer Limits Sequel.  It's also to one of the Episodes in the Top 10 ranked Episodes as we get to #9.