The Outer Limits (TV Series) Don't Open Till Doomsday (1964) User Reviews

It's a very unusual episode.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 7/10 · 28 May 2023]

On his wedding night, Harvey Kry foolishly opens a gift marked 'do not open til Doomsday,' upon doing so he disappears, leaving behind his bride Mary, stuck as though it were forever 1929.

I watched it twice, as the first time I didn't fully engage with it, once I'd learned what to expect, I had a better understanding. It's definitely one of the stranger, more bizarre episodes, but it is loaded with atmosphere, it's definitely pretty creepy, but its best feature, it's so original.

The monster itself, odd, interesting, but it's guilty of being a BEM, a bug eyed monster, the show has resisted for the most part in providing those, I didn't care for it.

Miriam Hopkins delivers a knockout performance, I've read several comments of her reminding people of various characters, but for me it's Gloria Swanson of Sunset Boulevard, an almost grotesque, theatrical existence. The performance of Hopkins is genuinely terrific, one of the best I've seen on the show.

It's creepy, it's curious, I get why there is a lot of love for it.

7/10.

Intriguing and Deceptive

[claudio_carvalho · 6/10 · 7 March 2018]

"Don't Open Till Doomsday" is an intriguing episode of "The Outer Limits". The mystery of the disappearance of the bridegroom in 1929 after receiving a mysterious Pandora Box and the situation of the newlyweds in 1964 gives the expectation of a great episode. Unfortunately the story is awfully resolved with a deceptive and forgettable conclusion. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Don't Open Till Doomsday"

The Outer Limits--Don't Open Till Doomsday

[Scarecrow-88 · 6/10 · 14 April 2013]

Each came from the non-elements of the void, in their own ship, with the purpose of targeting and destroying earth before annihilating the universe. The creature in the box with the hole was a "key, fundamental component" needed to "join frequencies" with his other species, getting lost and needing to find them. The creature will need the help of a willing human to rejoin with the others because his frequency, a low vibration, is the component needed for the complex "annihilation frequency".

I wanted to get this down because it is pretty much what that creepy blob with one eye in the box is. It is the final piece needed to cause doomsday. To think, young marrieds (under the age of consent), the father of the bride with powerful reaches out to find them (before a successful "private enterprise" he was a district attorney), a long-since missing husband (who found the "wedding present", left by a scientist considered nuts when claiming the creatures with an annihilation plan exist; the scientist did so because the groom's father was behind his undoing), and the missing groom's long-waiting wife (now a grotesque loon, heavy made up, with wig, pearls, and dress right out of the 20s, often listening to Dixieland on the turntable, and continuing without fail to wait for the husband denied her for decades) would factor in to either the destruction or salvation of the Planet Earth.

While the creature sure is ugly, and the ole "monster in the box" never fails to generate a bit of the unease—particularly when a young couple unknowingly could be placed in harm's way due to a haggard batty recluse's need for the return of a husband who chose to remain imprisoned because of the unwillingness to allow the extinction of the human race—I have to admit that "Don't Open 'Till Doomsday" left me a bit bored because of the prolonging of the inevitable which is "what does the monster want and why are people transported into the box?" questions. We spend a bit too much time with Miriam Hopkins (an older movie star from the likes of "The Heiress" and "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde"), totally obsessed with her hubby's escape from the box, even if the destruction of the universe is the result(!). I do think a little meat could've been cut from the bones and this episode of The Outer Limits would have benefited from it. Sometimes filling 50 minutes can be a bit difficult to do, maintaining interest. Hopkins' character is pitiable enough, but her devotion to hubby goes to the extreme. This obsession for him was all-encompassing and all-consuming. She would be willing to trade another life for his just so she can get him back in exchange for a weaker, less stubborn person (who might have been willing to sacrifice a life so that the creature could be reunited with its kind). Ultimately, why would anyone be so willing to trade the human race for a moment of freedom (think about it, even if someone does be granted freedom from the box, once the creature is reunited with its kind, they plan on blowing up earth, so it's all temporary anyway…)? Ultimately, doomsday may be avoided if humanity decides to not adhere to the creature's demands. *Noplace* even for the creature may not be worth it if denied the chance to destroy the universe as planned because no human would be so willing to give up their planet to help it. Except maybe Hopkins, but hubby's refusal of love if she agrees to ruins even her possible recruitment leaving the creature with little alternative than to cause a minor destruction from the small power afforded it. Good use of B&W has always been a major asset to the show, and this episode is another effective mood piece thanks to the shadowy photographic excellence throughout.

Pandora's Box

[myemail333999 · 10/10 · 18 July 2010]

At times silly, illogical, and over-the-top, none-the-less, this is a memorable episode for "Outer Limits" and Sci-Fi aficionados. The plot centers around the contents of the "Don't open till Doomsday" package that arrives as a wedding gift. The diabolical alien within resembles a chunk of misshapen, raw liver with a single eye who observes the "world" through a small porthole in its box (akin to a camera obscura device) through which it beckons humans. All of the actors give credible performances, but the "star" is obviously a spirited Mariam Hopkins who plays to the hilt the crazed Mary Kry in a performance that is often reminiscent of Bette Davis's turn as Baby Jane Hudson in "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane". Running the emotional gamut of a character who is angry, desperate, cunning, pathetic, and downright evil, Hopkin's plight is accentuated by effective, mood-appropriate studio lighting that takes full advantage of the black and white film stock.

Not just an ordinary episode, more like a poem

[S74rw4rd · 20 July 2021]

If the symbolist Poet, Mallarme, had written science fiction poetry, it might have been something like this. One can note the implausibilities or lack of logic---but are those objective flaws, or simply aspects that we, in our subjective fallabilities, have insufficient ability to explain; therefore we ascribe them to implausibility and lack of logic. Mallarme's Faun and Herodias give us very little explanation of their reason for their presence on the page, or their backgrounds, but we can enjoy the poems anyhow. The same applies to this episode. Like a Symbolist poem, its purpose is to create an effect---and if we allow it, an emotional effect---rather than a middle school science textbook's scientific explanation.

Why Exactly Was He Here?

[Hitchcoc · 7/10 · 9 January 2015]

If you put aside the strangeness of this episode, the depressing aspects of a marriage under fearful consequences, you must the proceed to the box. Why is it there? I guess it's an integral part of a kind of doomsday thing that the creature in it is trying to bring about. He is a key component, I guess. Beyond that, we have a wacko set of events, beginning with a man, who, on his wedding night, looks in the box and is trapped inside of it with a lump of raw hamburger with a single eye. Now we proceed to another wedding. A couple of underage people are married by a spooky justice of-the-peace and his wheel- chair ridden wife. They are then referred for their wedding night to the house of Mrs. Kry where they are given a rented room. The room contains the wedding gifts from the former night. The old lady was the bride from that night and has been doing the Miss Havisham thing ever since. Things unfurl as the brides father, a rich man who get his way, hunt down the young couple who had run off against his wishes. It's one really odd episode that seems to lack enough information to make it work toward a reasonable conclusion.

The acting makes up for the idiocy of the storyline

[garrard · 9/10 · 16 February 2007]

Miriam Hopkins, whose ingénue days of the 20's had long gone, appropriately plays "Mrs. Fry," a batty newlywed whose new hubby had been abducted decades ago by an alien that came to Earth in a boxlike craft. The alien's intent was to rejoin his fellow beings and destroy the universe. Fortunately (for us), their plans were foiled and he became the wedding gift from a scientist that had revenge for Mr. Fry's (David Frankham) father.

Mrs. Fry wants to free her husband from the alien prison and the only way to do so is to find a substitute willing to find the information the alien needs. She thinks that she has found the perfect choice in a young couple (Buck Taylor and Belinda Plowman) fleeing from the girl's domineering father (John Hoyt in the second of three "Outer Limits" performances).

All of the plans go awry and the story ends with the alien "uncreating" itself, thus preventing the intended "doomsday." As far as the performances go, Hopkins, Hoyt, and Nellie Bly (as the wife of the justice of the peace) are standouts, matched only by Dominic Frontiere's masterful score.

Even though there are many questions concerning the logic of the "science" in this installment, one can look beyond that and relish in a trio of actors that really know how to tell a story.

Rather weak, but at least Hopkins made my daughter scream!

[planktonrules · 6/10 · 23 July 2012]

I've seen every episode of the original "Outer Limits" and must say that, to me, "Don't Open Till Doomsday" is one of the weaker ones. However, it did do one unusual thing--it made my daughter scream. Seriously. When she came in the room, Miriam Hopkins was on screen and her extremely ghoulish appearance literally made by teenage daughter scream!

The show begins back in the 1920s. A young couple has just married and they are about to embark on their honeymoon. However, one of their wedding presents is booby-trapped. Inside the box is a monster--and the monster sucks the groom inside its bizarre world. The scene now switches to the present. The bride is a Miss Havisham-like crazy old lady--STILL waiting for her husband to return by any means necessary. How can she do this---by substituting a poor unsuspecting couple for the husband! It's all pretty creepy but really wasn't all that interesting to me. Part of it might be because Hopkins overacted a bit--part of it might be because the monster looked so utterly ridiculous (even by the series' standards). All I know is that midway through this one, I felt a bit bored.

One Of My Favorite Episodes

[paulwetor · 9/10 · 5 November 2018]

Some reviewers dislike this episode, but I found it truly creepy when I first saw it. Watching it now (this very day), I still like it. The ever-waiting bride is marvelously acted in her frozen 1929 world.

Sure, the underlying plot seems implausible, but that's what the series was all about. This story is more fast-paced than other talky episodes (like O.B.I.T.). But that's what television was like in the 1960s. I originally thought the show was made for Europe because it was unlike anything I have seen before or since. That's what made the series so interesting.

Don't Open Till Doomsday

[Prismark10 · 6/10 · 30 June 2023]

Don't look inside the box is the watchword for this episode of The Outer Limits.

Gard Hayden (Buck Taylor) has eloped with Vivia (Melinda Plowman) who have been married by the Justice of the Peace, the kind who does not ask a lot of questions. Both look very young. They are pursued by Vivia's dad, a hotshot lawyer.

With not much money, they are advised to stay at the bridal suite of Mrs Kry (Miriam Hopkins) a cross between Miss Havisham and Norma Desmond. It is a dilapidated house and the bridal suite contains a small box with a one eyed alien inside it.

The house is eerie and before long, Gard thunks that Vivia has run out on her. She has disappeared when she has in fact beamed inside the box. The alien is looking for someone to help him recreate a frequency but it is one which will destroy the world.

It is not long before Vivia's father comes looking for her and he makes a deal with the alien.

The story has a grotesque over the top performance from Miriam Hopkins, as the disturbed OTT Mrs Kry. The episode is certainly weird and creepy but does take time to get going.

Bridal Suite From HELL!

[profh-1 · 5/10 · 21 October 2009]

I first saw this story when I was about 4-1/2 years old. It really stayed with me-- the image of the old, dreary "hotel", the cob-webbed bridal suite, the box with the light coming out of the little hole in the side... and the people getting zapped, shrunk and imprisoned within.

The thing is, at that age, the story made NO SENSE to me. What the HELL was going on-- and WHY? This may well have been the first really "creepy" thing I ever watched on TV, the first "haunted house" type of story. I could go for the wonders of the universe, almost no matter how scary, but back then, this thing bothered me. It took many years before I eventually got into "horror" movies. Even then, when I finally started catching up on reruns of this show, this episode was one I tended to shun. Too disturbing-- too WEIRD-- on too many levels.

I think I finally sat all the way thru it again about 15 years back, when I was renting the entire series in sequence. Watching it again today, EVEN NOW, it still creeps me out in ways that are hard to describe. Apart from the tiny alien monster (which looks like something I'd rather not put into words), everything looks relatively "normal"-- except for being old and worn-out, left-over from another time. Maybe that's it. Maybe this story is just too "real world", and in that "real" world, there should NOT be things this creepy, this disturbing. In some ways, the wife of the Justice of the Peace, and the aging bride who rents out the suite, are creepier than the monster. (Thinking back to when this was made, this seems to be OL's tribute to such films as WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE and HUSH... HUSH, SWEET CHARLOTTE. And maybe Miriam Hopkins' character is what Norman Bates' mother might have been like in another reality!)

But perhaps the creepiest thing about this story is, it just takes FOREVER for the explanation to come out. And when it does, it's so vague, and so confusingly detailed... The IMDb has a "plot synopsis with spoilers" that goes into detail. Whatever you do, DON'T read it before watching the story. Nobody should have the benefit of going into this thing already knowing the supposed "plot". Especially when, even after multiple viewings, it probably still won't be clear.

John Hoyt would turn up 2 (or 3) years later in the STAR TREK pilot as the ship's Doctor. David Frankham, meanwhile, showed up in ST's 3rd season episode "Is There In Truth No Beauty?" (No wonder he looked so familiar!)

Still scary

[mason408 · 9/10 · 14 June 2020]

I watched The Outer Limits as a young child. This was my favorite episode, it scared the hell out of me. And I still enjoy watching it. Out Limits was a groundbreaking series in its time. Too bad today's audience doesn't get it.

"Heaven itself couldn't find you there."

[classicsoncall · 6/10 · 14 May 2022]

I can't understand why the series would stoop to this level with such a goofy looking alien monster. They did it time and again, like with the big blob of Jello with the lobster claws in "The Mice", and the dolphin like creature from 'Tourist Attraction'. I realize special effects technology wasn't that great back in the Sixties, but come on, the doomsday creature here looked like a lump of mud with a big eyeball. Stupid, just stupid. However, I did get a kick out of that old crone Mrs. Kry (Miriam Hopkins). She reminded me of Gloria Swanson in "Sunset Boulevard"; her performance was overwrought but amusingly campy at the same time. The story set a distinctively creepy tone, and if I saw this as a kid, it would have probably scared the bejeezus out of me, but today it just comes across as weirdly dopey. And come on, if you're going to pass off the young couple as not being old enough to marry without parental consent, then don't cast twenty plus year olds in the part. It's probably no coincidence that this story got blown apart at the finale, it looked like it was going in that direction right from the start.

Strange in the extreme

[sherryhowell50 · 5/10 · 14 July 2023]

As a couple of reviewers have said, there are some glaring problems with the plot. It took most of the episode honestly to figure out what was going on, and then it just doesn't hold together. There are a lot of the elements that just don't make sense.

That being said, the acting is pretty good from most of the cast. John Hoyt does a good job and. Miriam Hopkins is wonderfully creepy.

As long as you are willing to suspend disbelief (and why watch The Outer Limits if you are not), then the episode is a lot of fun. It is creepy, weird, and odd in the extreme, which honestly makes it well worth a watch.

See It For Miriam

[ferbs54 · 10/10 · 17 May 2017]

Although it had been presaged as early as 1950, with Gloria Swanson's classic portrayal of grotesque has-been actress Norma Desmond in "Sunset Boulevard," the film category soon to be known as "psycho biddies" really started to get rolling 12 years later, with the release of "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?" In this film, in one of her greatest roles, screen legend Bette Davis portrayed another female grotesque, Jane Hudson, alongside her longtime rival, Joan Crawford. The film, a smash hit, ushered in a slew of similarly themed wonders featuring aged actresses, almost single-handedly jump-starting a subgenre also known as Grande Dame Guignol and hagsploitation; my buddy Rob has referred to it as "aging gargoyle movies," a term that I prefer. Before long, the public would be treated to similar geriatric female wackos in films such as 1964's "Hush...Hush Sweet Charlotte" (Davis, Olivia de Havilland, Agnes Moorehead), 1964's "Strait-Jacket" (Crawford), 1965's "The Nanny" (Davis), 1969's "What Ever Happened to Aunt Alice?" (Geraldine Page), and 1971's "What's the Matter With Helen?" (Debbie Reynolds and Shelley Winters) and "Whoever Slew Auntie Roo?" (Winters again). Anyway, I mention these films, and "Baby Jane" in particular, as they are the type of horror films that are most strongly suggested to me by the 17th episode of "The Outer Limits," the terrific outing known as "Don't Open Till Doomsday." First aired on January 20, 1964, it is an hour of television that seems to have been, whether consciously or unconsciously, directly inspired by the Davis/Crawford film that had premiered on Halloween Day '62.

This wonderful episode opens in 1929, in the small town of Winterfield, on the wedding day of Harvey Kry (well played by David Frankham) and his bride Mary. A wrapped box is delivered to their house, where the festivities are in full swing. When Harvey peers into the box--which is pierced with a peephole of sorts, out of which flashes a mysterious light--he is somehow sucked inside, never to be seen again. Flash forward 35 years. Now, another couple, a pair of elopers, is about to be married: Gard Hayden (Buck Taylor) and his bride Vivia (Melinda Plowman). The wife of the local justice of the peace (Nellie Burt, who would go on to appear in "OL" episode #26, "The Guests") steers the couple to the Kry house to spend their honeymoon night ("even heaven itself couldn't find you there," she tells them, ominously). There, the newlyweds encounter Mary Kry (the great '30s and '40s actress Miriam Hopkins), who has been waiting for the reappearance of her lost husband all these decades, and who maneuvers the couple into the vicinity of that mysterious box, in the hopes of getting them sucked in, and her lost husband released. And yes, as it turns out, her husband IS still very much alive in there, still young in the box's ageless limbo, and sharing the space with a very ugly alien being, indeed. And things only get more complicated when Vivia's father (played by the great character actor John Hoyt, who had just starred, the previous year, in both "Cleopatra" AND "X: The Man With the X-Ray Eyes") comes to the Kry residence, looking for the runaway pair....

Viewers wanting to peruse what must be the definitive examination of this wonderful hour would be advised to read David Schow's insightful article in his indispensable "Outer Limits Companion" volume, an article that discusses all the Freudian symbolism and sexual frustration that the episode dishes out in spades. The episode features an alien monster that Schow describes as being a "feculent blob," and that has been elsewhere less elegantly termed "the turd creature." It is a truly memorable creation, whatever one chooses to call it. But even more memorable than El Turdo itself is the character that Hopkins created for this film, an insane grotesque who manages to make such a strong impression on the viewer that I feel the actress should have been given some kind of Emmy Award for her work here. Her overly made-up visage is very much on a par with Jane Hudson's--there are even similar sequences in the two films, of the aged biddies applying their lipstick in close-up--and is used to shock and startle the audience just as much as the sight of the alien monster. On at least two occasions, we are given shock cuts of Mrs. Kry's face in close-up, and the scenes DO manage to startle. Hopkins--who had starred with Davis on two occasions, in 1939's "The Old Maid" and 1943's "Old Acquaintance--easily steals the show here, but the episode has lots more to offer than her exquisitely sad and ghoulish portrayal, having been created by one of my favorite triumvirates of "OL" talent. It features a wonderful script from "OL" producer Joseph Stefano, expert direction from Gerd Oswald, and always interesting cinematography from DOP Conrad Hall (just take a gander at the lighting in the stairwell of the Kry residence, and the swirling mists that seem to perpetually float inside that darn alien box!). The result is one extraordinarily strange and atmospheric hour of television, with a truly one-of-a-kind story line (illogical as it may be), and one of "The Outer Limits"'s finest offerings. To be succinct, despite all the many questions that the episode leaves unanswered, it is one of this viewer's Top 10 favorites....

David Lynch fans take note...

[gulag · 9/10 · 10 July 2015]

This is a strange episode of The Twilight Zone. It feels like the missing link between Hitchcock's Psycho and David Lynch's Eraserhead. Like "Fiend Without A Face" this feels like one of the nightmare touchstones of Lynch's universe. Even down to the strange wind sound effects blowing through the background indoors. The odd blob creature, the circle in the dark, the cobwebs, strange Lady Hostess, the oddly alienated couple all seem very much like proto-Lynch. It doesn't make much sense as storytelling. But as nightmare??? It's damned near perfect. Watch Eraserhead on the same evening you'll see what I mean. If David Lynch didn't watch this I'll eat a worm.

STRANGE AND DISTURBING

[asalerno10 · 9/10 · 31 May 2022]

The story begins in the 1930s. In order to get revenge on a colleague who has publicly discredited him, a scientist who has discovered a plan for an invasion of Earth by aliens, captures one of them in a hermetically sealed box which has only a small hole in one of its faces and leaves it as a wedding gift. This deformed creature has the power to abduct anyone who sees through that peephole into its interior. Going back to the 60s, a young couple that has run away from home asks for accommodation in the old mansion inhabited by the wife of that scientist who is imprisoned inside the box, she has gone crazy over the years waiting for her husband to be released at some point and plans to trade the newcomers as victims in exchange for her crush's release. A strange and disturbing story, the mere thought that one can be abducted inside a box and live the rest of his life with a disgusting creature is insane. The episode has a lot of suspense and a great performance by Miriam Hopkins who plays in a fabulous way the deranged wife who lived 30 years locked up in the house waiting for the return of her blazing husband.

Starts very intriguing but then falls apart due to padding and total lack of logic.

[fedor8 · 10 September 2021]

Possibly the most confusing episode; eccentric and somewhat reminiscent of a David Lynch movie. If Lynch had made a TV episode in the 60s, and had a low budget, this is how it may have turned out. His movies are similarly bizarre and nearly always nonsensical.

Certainly this plot is just as full of logic holes as Lynch's random, unfocused scripts (which deluded hipsters interpret as genius).

The story starts in a very intriguing way (yup, like Lynch), but then comes to a halt almost, padding itself out all the way until the half-way mark. The tedium caused by this 20-minute section crushes the tension substantially. The insane old ex-bride gets way too much screen time, while she jabbers mostly boring nonsense and gives us very little info, too few hints to help us solve this amazingly muddled, undisciplined script. Yes, she's insane, we get it! Get on with it! Stefano hammers home her insanity as if this needed hammering i.e. So much convincing. The actress playing her is utterly dull and uncharismatic, plus she hams it up in a way that is overly theatrical and generic. Essentially she does a cheesy, annoying imitation of "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane" and/or "Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte". The young couple is similarly bland and uninteresting. Between the three of them, there isn't much to sustain interest.

Eventually, after a long while, the plot finally resumes, culminating in a finale that raises more questions than it offers answers - but not in a good way.

Who the hell sent the box to the wedding? For what purpose? The narrator blabs about "evil" as if that can explain away why an old geezer brought that box over to the wedding house. How is the groom's father connected to the aliens? Clearly, he is connected, but how?

But much worse are the questions about the imprisoned groom. Why didn't he simply LIE to the alien that he would help it destroy the universe? Certainly Balfour succeeded in this instantly: he and his daughter got out of the box easily and quickly i.e. Were released by the blob due to his deception/promise that he would help it, and he almost got away. He would have survived had he not stupidly hesitated. But hey, he had to be killed so we could have a happy ending, because he is the token evil capitalist.

Not only did this simple lie work, because the blob apparently doesn't know about deception(!!!), but it decided to annihilate itself too hence solved the problem. So why didn't it annihilate itself much sooner? What changed the creature's mind that the wait was no longer worth it? The blob exists outside of time and space so why not wait a trillion years more if necessary? It turns out that the imprisoned groom is a complete and utter imbecile for spending decades trapped inside the box without ever trying to deceive the rather gullible blob. He spent all those years with it yet still didn't realize how easily dupable it is? It never occurred to him throughout the decades to try to get out by lying?... Not so much an idealistic hero and saviour of mankind as he is just a plain class-A buffoon.

How did the aging old bat KNOW about the alien, the box i.e. The whole end-of-the-universe story? The only way she could have known is if she had been trapped herself, yet this isn't possible because how would she have escaped? The blob only explains the situation to people who get trapped in the box.

What about that wheelchair-bound old woman? Does she regularly send over couples to the deranged old bat? If so, does she know about the alien? If not, WHY does she send them over there? Why is her husband reluctant to have the couple sent there?

WHY is the future i.e. Present accompanied by constant wind, giving the FALSE impression that that some kind of (limited) Armageddon had already occurred?

Last but not least, WHY would the blob be so utterly daft as to promise "freedom" to every prisoner - when the end-result is death if they help it destroy the universe? If you refuse to help the alien you remain imprisoned, but if you help it then the universe is gone anyway and you along with it... so why would ANYONE choose to help the blob? The blob would have to understand this - unless it is a total moron, which it seems to be. If destruction of the universe hadn't been the issue but something far less important, then maybe there would have been a real choice for each prisoner.

The episode could have worked, even with all these glaring holes in the script, but only if it had been done as a very stylish feature film and directed and presented in a somewhat abstract way, sort of like "Eraserhead" (Lynch's only brilliant absurd movie). As it is, it mostly fails as a story, because far too confusing and nonsensical. However, it doesn't fail as a genuinely weird episode with some very original ideas.

Grotesqueries

[AaronCapenBanner · 1/10 · 12 March 2016]

Once upon a time in 1929, a scientist named Mordecai Spazman(!) somehow captures an evil, grotesque-looking alien in its ship, and gives it as a sinister wedding present to a young couple in revenge against the bridegroom's scientist father, who had denounced him, and after looking into the box-like ship, is transported inside. 35 years later, the now insane bride(played by Miriam Hopkins) lures a young newlywed couple(played by Buck Taylor and Melinda Plowman) to the unused bridal suite at her mansion in order to send them into the box, and get back her husband as promised by the creature(who wants to destroy the universe...), but the young girl's father(played by John Hoyt) has other ideas about that... Bizarre in the extreme episode is utterly nonsensical and preposterous, a self-indulgent camp-fest that will equal parts repel and bore the viewer. Why was this made? The low point in series canon.

Mrs Kry inspired by Cruella de Vil?

[katherinelee15 · 8/10 · 27 December 2014]

I think this is one of the better Outer Limits episodes, very darkly atmospheric. I'm not saying the plot was weak (it wasn't) but sometimes just the right atmosphere can make up for deficiencies in the script or performances. In a way it was rather sad to see Miriam Hopkins, of whom so much was expected early in her career to be reduced to episodic sci-fi such as this.

Tonight I watched 101 Dalmatians for the first time since I was a small child and Cruella's ghastly appearance and harsh prating voice reminded me of Miriam Hopkins' temper tantrum near the end of the episode. Maybe she and David Frankham (who voiced the cat Sgt Tibbs) had come up with that characterization together, who knows?

A Doomsday Present

[StrictlyConfidential · 5/10 · 2 July 2021]

"Don't Open Till Doomsday" was first aired on television January 20, 1964.

Anyway - As the story goes - A young couple's honeymoon is cut short by the horrifying contents of a mysterious box.

Don't Watch Till Doomsday

[StuOz · 5 July 2014]

A very small space creature is captured.

The Outer Limits series had six stinkers in the 49 episode run and this is indeed one of them.

This is as BORING as hell and I can't think of anything good to say about it! The creature in the box, the acting, the story...it all put me to sleep.

When I saw the normally entertaining John Hoyt in the opening credits I was expecting something wonderful but it would seem Hoyt would do better sci-fi work in The Time Tunnel (eps Visitors From Beyond The Stars and The Ghost Of Nero).