Based on your viewing of The Outer Limits episode “The Bellaro
Shield” and understanding of Jeffrey Sconce’s essay on the show,
explain how The Outer Limits expresses and potentially
intensifies particular anxieties prevalent during the early 1960s.
An important issue that Jeffrey Sconce bases his essay, The Outer Limits of Oblivion, on is how at this time America is faced with three problems: space, suburbia, and science (24). The American’s of the 1960s are in a race with space and exploration. Also, suburban life is taking over the nation, causing people to be more focused on themselves rather than the community. Lastly there is the threat of nuclear annihilation. Sconce points out how empty we were as a nation, becoming fearful and losing our footing (24). From the viewing in class, it is obvious that The Outer Limits is an anthology and offers a lot to think about, setting the viewer up with its opening and ending statement about wants and lust. But the show was too bleak and pessimistic to viewers, although it mirrored the nation’s fears (22). The fear of falling behind and eventually being destroyed by unknown enemies we couldn’t see coming. The theme of oblivion occurs multiple times and seems to be the main enemy throughout the seasons of The Outer Limits Sconce explains. This oblivion can be on a world standard or in ones own personal endeavors. Either way this show reminded America of these fears, which even though the show was manipulated with special effects, was very real to the viewers.
ReplyDeleteDuring the 1960s when satellites were being launched into space, Cold War and atomic bomb fears were running high, and the television became arguably an even more prevalent feature in the American home, The Outer Limits poised itself as, on the surface, a sci-fi anthology program that addressed these growing fears through “relentlessly pessimistic social commentary” (Sconce 22). For example, in the episode “The Bellaro Shield” a scientist beams down an alien with a powerful force field device, which his overly ambitious wife steals. The wife uses the device and tries to give credit to her husband, but is ultimately trapped within the shield to the point where she almost suffocates—and even once the shield is removed she still believes it is active.
ReplyDeleteTo me, this force field device is analogous to the television sets and satellites of the 60s—great leaps ahead in technology that the public could not have completely understood at the time. The marvelous Bellaro Shield “malfunctioning” and nearly killing the wife probably evoked fears of the mysterious KLEE station and the satellites floating above the earth’s atmosphere; at any time these wonderful leaps ahead could turn on us and lead to our demise. Also, in the episode it is noted that the Bellaro Shield runs on the alien’s blood, a point that I think must have unnerved contemporary audiences. The Bellaro Shield, and to some extent television and other such technologies, then “threatened to consume its subjects” (Sconce 28) and require their own very lifeblood to keep functioning.
Some anxieties that were intensified by "The Outer Limits," as Sconce writes in his paper "The 'Outer Limits' of Oblivion," were that all of the energy that America focused on "space, science and domesticity masked an immense abyss, an anomic nothingness lurking at the core of the nation's identity," (24). "The Outer Limits" had a pretty pessimistic message that spread uncomfortable ideas to viewers about technology, space and our place in the universe.
ReplyDeleteFor example, television was still somewhat seen as an "alien" technology, and there were still questions about exactly how it fit into our culture, and how it would change our culture. Despite television becoming such a significant part of people's lives, some were still unsure of its effect on the country. "The Outer Limits" exploited these fears, by making it clear throughout that television was "beyond human control" (25) and by pulling audiences in to a world of oblivion, which lingered with them long after the show had aired.
Also, "The Outer Limits" focused on themes such as fear of nuclear war and the harm that could come from such technology. As Sconce describes, in one episode various images shown are similar to those of U.S. atomic bomb testing (40), as the main character and his wife are the only ones able to move about in a world frozen in time. Also, the main characters' main conflict in the episode is to try to save their daughter, who will be killed once time is unfrozen. Although the ending to this episode is happy in that they save their daughter, the episode still has the show's themes of helplessness and even existential nihilism.
Jeffrey Sconce's essay "The Outer Limits of Oblivion" focuses a lot on the space race that occurred during the 60s. At this time there was a battle between the United States and Russia to get to outer space first and pioneer it; it was a time when technology was running rampant and new things were being invented all the time. The fear was that technology would be our downfall, like with nuclear war that could wipe out the entire human race. It was a very pessimistic but also very realistic fear amongst the human race at this time as so many new things were happening, which is what Sconce points out.
ReplyDeleteIn the episode of The Outer Limits called "The Bellaro Shield" an alien comes down to Earth and shows a husband and his wife a powerful shield that can protect those inside from anything. The wife then decides to steal the shield and kill the alien, but her plan backfires when she turns the shield on and realizes that she never learned how to turn it off. Because of this she almost suffocates. Viewers at home were watching this episode and witnessing a great fear they had was happening before their eyes, and it certainly increased the anxiety people had at the time. It's a scary thought to be ruined by your own creation.
The Outer Limits begins by saying "Do not adjust your television set. Everything is controlled on our end" (or something to that effect) giving the impression that that which is associated with space and the unknown is out of the control of the viewer. It also sets up the tone of the show immediately: fear at the hands of unknown space. This parallels Sconce's argument given that the American public feared that which they could not control and could not necessarily understand.
ReplyDeleteThe content of the episode, however, shows that it is not space we should fear, but ourselves. The alien that came down, while frightening and foreign, was not necessarily dangerous. It was the humans that created the danger. I found that more than playing on the people's fear of the unknown, the episode served as a warning to proceed with an open mind or be damned by your fears. This brings into question the idea of national identity with regards to race and gender, both of which were being considered during the time of The Outer Limits. My reading of the show, therefore, was that it existed both inside the realm of the Space Race, but also had realistic lessons that should be applied to daily life.
Sconce's essay touches base on a number of issues during the 1960s that were very prevalent in the show "The Outer Limits". These topics include space, the cold war, and science. In the show, a group of scientists are approached by an alien from outer space. This in itself comments on all three topics. During the 1960s, the United States was involved in a stand off with the Soviet Union on multiple fronts. The space race was a hot topic in the 1960s, and the reference to extra terrestrial life puts forth the notion that whoever won the space race may find great discoveries in the final frontier. Another point that Sconce touches on is science and technology. The alien beam, the laser gun, and the forcefield are all futuristic technologies that are presented in a hesistant light. The writers of The Outer Limits are very technophobic, as technology is seen as either a tool for profit, violence, or, in the case of the alien photon beam, of mystery.
ReplyDeleteAnother issue that is touch on is the presentation of the suburban woman. Both woman in this episode are deviant. The maid and the housewife scheme and plan in order to make the situation profitable for themselves. This is problematic, because it creates anti-feminine feelings and, in turn, a mass culture that is anti-female. Cases like this are the reason that television studies classes exist, there are many outcomes to a seemingly harmless character choice.
While "The Outer Limits" aimed to adapt a horror genre to the "fantastic sitcom", it ended up bringing its horror and bleak theme too close to home, and ultimately failing, emerging at a time where nuclear and space technologies seemed alien to almost all viewers of the show. During the early 1960s the threat of the Soviet Union seemed very alien in nature. The Soviets had managed to beat the United States in sending unmanned and manned craft into space, making the United States seem vulnerable to these technologies that were just beginning to be understood. Jeffery Sconce states in his essay that during this period "The Outer Limits pushed into a territory that was ... disturbing and apocalyptic.”
ReplyDeleteThe Outer Limits would often focus on the exploration into new scientific advances such as space exploration and nuclear technology, often displaying pessimistic suggestions to what new advances in space exploration might bring. The pessimistic views of nuclear war that The Outer Limits brought to the television were delivered in a time when the threat of a nuclear holocaust was so real that the show not only achieved its sense of horror in its episodes but would have left a feeling of horror in the audience long after the show had ended. This was a time where the launch of the Sputnik satellite into orbit had not only displayed the superiority of the Soviet Union’s space program but it also made it disturbingly clear to US citizens that the Soviet Union had the ability to deliver nuclear weapons to the United States mainland via rocket technology, meaning that some of the shows nuclear disaster themed productions might of seemed very possible to the audience. In addition to this the show would imply that even the television set in the viewer’s home was a potentially dangerous technology. This implication that the TV set itself was still an unknown and potentially dangerous technology left the audience with a sense of helplessness even after the show had ended and a feeling that the television was a somewhat alien technology out of the owner’s control. The control voice at the beginning of the show would state that they are in control of the entire transmission and picture qualities of the broadcast, implying that the viewer was helpless in controlling their own TV set.
In the episode “The Bellaro Shield” the show manages to make an episode based on an alien technology (the shield) meant to be used as an anti-weapon have a sense of helplessness. When the wife steals the alien technology and attempts to activate it she becomes trapped inside the shield and begins to suffocate. Not only does the wife quickly give up hope, but when the shield is somehow deactivated (visually) at the end of the episode, and the sense of hopelessness seems to diminish, it is revealed that the wife is still trapped in the shield. How the wife is still trapped is not explained and as the episode fades out it is implied that the wife will be trapped in the shield forever, following the anthologies theme of doom and helplessness.
In Jeffrey Sconce's essay, "The Out Limits of Oblivion," the main concept he conveys is in relation to the television show "The Outer Limits." Sconce talks about how during the 1960's, there was a big focus on the idea of outer space. While the United States and other countries wanted to conquer the idea of space in terms of technological and knowledgable advancements, he idea of space was one that was frightening to people when displayed on television programs.
ReplyDeleteThe show "The Outer Limits" was a program that was highly influenced by science fiction. In the specific episode we watched in class called "The Bellero Shield," Richard Bellero is a scientist who is working on sending laser beams to out space and ends up conducting an experiment that ends in a an alien coming down from space. His wife gets involved in the idea of the alien and ends up tricking him to stay by shooting him and taking this device off his hand that is basically his life source. This plot backfires when the alien is revived and the wife ends up stuck behind a glass shield.
This plot was quite fear inducing to the public in terms of concepts related to outer space and also concepts related to what technology was capable of. In regards to the article, the idea of technology was that is was going to be a problem for the future. This theme was conveyed in the episode because the technology used was demonstrated as doing negative and scary things. As the article also points out, the television program started out each episode by saying in a creepy voice: "There is nothing wrong with your television set. Do not attempt to adjust the picture." This led people to believe that the idea of outer space, aliens, and advancing technology was a dangerous and terrifying idea and created a feeling of skepticism and worry during the 1960's.