The Architects of Fear

"The Architects of Fear"
The Outer Limits episode
Episode no.	Season 1 Episode 3
Directed by	Byron Haskin
Written by	Meyer Dolinsky
Cinematography by	Conrad Hall
Production code	5
Original air date	September 30, 1963
Guest stars
Robert Culp Leonard Stone Martin Wolfson Geraldine Brooks
Episode chronology
← Previous "The Hundred Days of the Dragon" Next → "The Man with the Power"
List of The Outer Limits episodes

"The Architects of Fear" is an episode of the original The Outer Limits television show. It first aired on 30 September 1963, during the first season.

Introduction

Certain that the Cold War will lead to mankind's destruction, a cabal of scientists decide that they must act to save the world. A film of a nuclear missile attack is shown as people run for shelter is seen before the plot.

Opening narration

“

Is this the day? Is this the beginning of the end? There is no time to wonder. No time to ask why is it happening, why is it finally happening. There is time only for fear, for the piercing pain of panic. Do we pray? Or do we merely run now and pray later? Will there be a later? Or is this the day?

”

Plot

The world has entered a Cold War-esque setting in which nuclear holocaust appears imminent. In the hope of staving off an apocalyptic military confrontation between nations, an idealistic group of scientists, working at United Labs, plan to stage a fake alien invasion of Earth, in an effort to unite all humanity against a perceived common enemy. The scientists have managed to study the planetary conditions on the planet Theta. They draw lots, and physicist Dr. Alan Leighton is chosen to undergo radical surgical procedures that will transform him into a projected figure from a planet with a different atmosphere. Leighton's death is faked and the bizarre series of transplants and modifications to his body proceed. His wife Yvette persists in not believing he is dead; she feels sympathetic pain as Alan suffers on the operating table. Complications arise when the effects of Leighton's transformation extend beyond his physical appearance and begin to affect his mind, a situation compounded by the scientist's strong psychic link to his pregnant wife.

The scientists' plan is for Dr. Leighton as the Thetan creature, equipped with an energy weapon and spaceship, to land at the United Nations in an effort to create panic initially. This panic, in theory, will be resolved as the world unites to fight the invader. Alan, now a perfect simulation of an inhabitant of the planet Theta, is launched into orbit as a weather satellite, but the mission goes awry when the spaceship comes down off course and lands in the woods near the United Labs facility. After disintegrating their station wagon with his laser pistol, the doctor is severely wounded by three duck hunters with shotguns and he stumbles back to the lab. Yvette again feels his pain and hurries to the lab looking for her husband. She arrives as the Thetan enters and collapses to the floor. Before dying of mortal wounds, the creature demonstrates "the mark against evil", a personal gesture they both shared and Yvette realizes the horrifying truth that the alien is in fact her husband.

Closing narration

“

Scarecrows and magic and other fatal fears do not bring people closer together. There is no magic substitute for soft caring and hard work, for self-respect and mutual love. If we can learn this from the mistake these frightened men made, then their mistake will not have been merely grotesque, it would at least have been a lesson. A lesson, at last, to be learned.

”

Censorship

The "bear" in this episode, the monstrously-altered Alan Leighton, was judged by some of ABC's local affiliate stations to be so frightening that they broadcast a black screen during the Thetan's appearances, effectively censoring most of the show's last act. In other parts of the United States the Thetan footage was tape delayed until after the 11 o'clock evening news, In others it was not shown at all. It should be noted that unlike today where film series are transferred to video tape for transmission, up until the mid-1980s film series were broadcast live from the film print via telecine.

The sequence involving the Thetan's encounter with the duck hunters was shot at M.G.M.'s Backlot #3.

Precursors

• Theodore Sturgeon's story "Unite and Conquer," published in Astounding Science Fiction in 1948, turns on a similar gag, humans uniting against a fake alien threat.
• The Jan/Feb 1951 issue of Weird Science (#5), features the story, "The Last War on Earth," wherein a scientist creates a fake threat from another world - in this instance a "Martian" bomb is dropped on an American suburb, eventually uniting Earth against Mars. The story has a twist ending typical of many Weird Science stories.
• In Kurt Vonnegut's 1959 novel The Sirens of Titan, a fake invasion is carried out to unite Earth and eventually leads to world peace.

Legacy

• In Ursula K. Le Guin's 1971 novel The Lathe of Heaven, the protagonist attempts to dream into existence peace on earth. This results in the creation of an alien race which occupies the Moon, uniting earth against the threat.
• Raymond Hawkey's novel Wild Card, co-written with Roger Bingham and published in 1974, also uses the idea of an alien invasion secretly faked by Earth scientists in a time of civil unrest.
• Harry Turtledove's Worldwar & Colonization Series, a collection of alternate history science fiction novels, imagines an alien invasion during World War II that forces the warring global powers to unite.
• In a September 21, 1987 address to the United Nations General Assembly, President Ronald Reagan said "I occasionally think how quickly our differences worldwide would vanish if we were facing an alien threat from outside this world."
• The Showtime series The Outer Limits revisited this episode with "Afterlife", using a more alien approach to the main character, played this time by Clancy Brown. The ending in this case saw the aliens coming to retrieve their new "brother".
• This episode is similar to the ending of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' comic book mini-series, Watchmen. According to Moore, while he was writing issue ten, he came across a guide to cult television that featured this episode and was surprised by its similarity to his already planned ending. A promotional spot for "The Architects of Fear" is overheard on Sally Jupiter's television as she greets a "transformed" Laurie and Dan Dreiberg in the novel's penultimate scene.
• In 2011, Paul Krugman mentioned the episode when he said that building a defense against a fictional alien invasion could speed recovery from the late-2000s recession; however, Krugman mistakenly attributed the episode to The Twilight Zone instead of The Outer Limits.

Cast

• Robert Culp – as Allen Leighton
• Leonard Stone – as Dr. Phillip Gainer
• Geraldine Brooks – as Yvette Leighton
• Martin Wolfson – as Dr. Herschel
• Douglas Henderson – as Dr. Paul Fredericks
• Janos Prohaska – as Allen-as-Thetan
• Lee Zimmer – as Carl Ford, TV announcer
• Clay Turner as Fred, Duckhunter#1
• Hal Bokar as Bert Bolsey, Duckhunter#2
• William Bush as "Big Tom", Duckhunter#3
• And Ginger the Dog

References

An Evening with Kevin Smith 2002 - Mentioned as a movie version he was offered to write by Warner Brothers.

External links

• "The Architects of Fear" at TV.com
• "The Architects of Fear" at the Internet Movie Database
• MovieMorlocks.com: Movie Blog, Remembering Janos Prohaska
• David J. Schow website, The Outer Limits