ABC airs the first episode of Leslie Stevens’ anthology series The Outer Limits. Lee Phillps and Jacqueline Scott star in a script written by Stevens.
Radio station engineer Alan Maxwell is bleeding power from his station’s own transmitter to conduct microwave experiments, and costing the station money as a result. But even when confronted about his unauthorized experiments, he refuses to halt them, certain that he has picked up microwave transmissions from an intelligence beyond Earth. Despite his co-workers’ skepticism, he persists with his experiments, and one night makes contact with a glowing being with whom he opens a dialogue. In the course of their conversation, it becomes apparent that both of them are breaking the rules of their respective worlds by conducting their experiments…and that the creatures whom Maxwell has contacted know nothing of death, war or famine. When Maxwell tells his new friend that Earth does know of death and the horrors of war, the alien declares the human race dangerous – but doesn’t berak contact. Maxwell is due to be honored by the mayor the next evening, and adjusts the transmitter power to make sure he can still contact the alien creature later, with a warning to the announcer on duty not to boost the power. But when listeners complain, the announcer does just that – giving Maxwell’s voice from the other side, a life form composed entirely of electromagnetic energy, the means to manifest itself physically on Earth.
written by Leslie Stevens
directed by Leslie Stevens
music by Dominic FrontiereCast: Lee Phillips (Gene “Buddy” Maxwell), Jacqueline Scott (Carol Maxwell), Cliff Robertson (Alan Maxwell), Burt Metcalfe (Eddie Phillips), Allyson Ames (Gene’s date), Joseph Perry (Trooper), Don Harvey (National Guard Major), William Stevens (Policeman), Mavis Neal (Collins), Peter Madsen (Trooper), William I. Douglas (The Galaxy Being)
Original title: Please Stand By…
LogBook entry by Earl Green