The Outer Limits: The Man Who Was Never Born

Smart actor Martin Landau plays the nostalgic mutant Andro ("It's good to cherish old things... Beauty is always on the edge of being lost.") in this time fairytale. Notice the origin of the name Andro: the Ancient Greek word for man and, here, meaning he is the guardian of Man's memory and also he is the last man of the future with a will and courage to change the fate created by Man's megalomania and negligence: "But Man was too busy, too busy going to the moon, too busy clubbing his brothers over the head with its new found toy, the atom, to anticipate and resist the parasite that was to suck out his right to immortality". Among the best moments: the library scene when astronaut Joseph Reardon says: "Melville: Hope proves a man deathless." And when he goes back to the time-portal, turns negative reverse and says: "Find Cabot! Kill him if you have to! Kill Cabot!". Baby face Shirley Knight plays innocent Noelle. The intrinsic theme of the characters' solitude is really beautifully delivered by the Control Voice's poetic flow: "Here, in the bright, clustered loneliness of the billion, billion stars, loneliness can be an exciting, voluntary thing, unlike the loneliness Man suffers on Earth..." The aesthetic emotion, produced by the narration, is as high and pure as the one from "The Mice". The whole cinematic aspect of this peculiar episode is wonderful and delicate. Conrad Hall and his uncredited assistant William Fraker make their most romantic cameraworks. They capture the magic sense of Nature as in the Mythology: the chase scene, in the wood, shot with a hand-held camera through leafs and trees. There are many reflection shots, for instance: the camera's reflection in the beginning of the wedding. The close-ups of Landau's snake eyes are magnificent when he is paying the landlady with imaginary money. The hypnosis detail is also present in "The Mutant". And when he tells his past memories to Noelle with a pessimistic tone ("... instead of the glorious future that all men envision, there's only a dark and empty road, leading to misery and mourning"): see the stylish montage (a chiaroscuro on the face, fade over to fast-moving shiny clouds and the futuristic barren landscape). This is also a sensitive tribute to "Beauty and the Beast" with a sci-fi treatment which also explores the theme of illusion. This segment has an epic and medieval feel and the three leading characters could have been part of the Camelot, i.e., Andro as Lancelot, Noelle as Guinevere and Bertram as King Arthur, and, above all, the importance of the forest where the true nature of the people is revealed. The character's driving force—the Mankind's salvation by the means of assassination (fanatism and terrorism if you will)—can remind a softer one from David Cronenberg's "The Dead Zone". Andro faces his own contradiction: he must enforce "the end justifies the means" by pulling the trigger but his conscious fights back. The landing of Joseph Reardon's spaceship shows how limited are the special effects: see the miniature spaceship and the wires; the mock-up of the spaceship is recycled for "The Mutant". According to David J. Schow, there's an alternate ending featuring an extra character: the old man (Jack Raine). Notes: Martin Landau returns in "The Bellero Shield" and Marlowe Jensen in "Soldier".