THE OUTER LIMITS
"The Galaxy Being" (1962; w/d Leslie Stevens)

1st shot of radio transmitter pylon (story about power, as many OL’s: see "Man w/t Power", "100 Days o/t Dragon", "Mutant", "Corpus Earthling", "It Crawled Out o/t Woodwork", "Human Factor" et al), then amateur scientist Allan Maxwell observing wave forms (visualized energy; seguing into opening titles’ similar in series’ 1st transmission suggestion entire program about same, frequently aka rebellion); call letters KXKVI suggest futuristic Roman-numeral date (taking place in no particular time/place, aka ambiguous unconscious), where dj Gene "Buddy" Maxwell (bro of prolog Allan: real-world Other/companion to preconscious counterpart) asks nominal station manager Carol M (Al-wife, trad anima surprising in supervisory role: husband having so shirked own administrative faculties she unable to live out own imaginative life/character) to have Al check why operating on only ½ pwr (mind at sim frequency in sleep/dream; Al’s secluded pursuits sim’y stunting own public/real-world persona ["Buddy"]), of which she sez he’s aware (obvious resentment over isolation in transmitter shed à la extramarital sexual interests, accusation of "stealing pwr" both Promethean offense + effect of not fulfilling "husbandly duties" for childless thirtysomethings), punctuated by his call to come over (central character drm-self inviting consc’ss into inner-sanctum un-, betraying w/d’s own intellectual discipline).

Has produced 3D img of microwaves (dream-manifestation of immaterial archetype into recognizable phenomena) fed "thru TV for visual analysis" (à la w/d) from space (alien unconscious soon found not so foreign), which he finds interesting + she sez is "bleeding electricity" (psychic energy, from real world/conscious life) awa "sponsors" (ego approval), retorting "Who are you?" (w/ genuine antipathy: trad ally now antagonist, she/anima resentful of utilitarian role forced to play rather’n erotic partnership); admits he’s "Nobody [cipher: psychic device for connecting everyday to noumena] – who cares" (element in mass consciousness triggered by empathic need), asserting (film polemic – 1st-episode manifesto on entire series’ aim/philosophy) that individual can make strides "big labs" can’t (uninhibited unconscious vs rulebound consciousness; foreshadowing also w/d’s post-network indie Incubus), she lamenting "Every day it takes you more + more away from me" (eros + practicality, she also advancements only communion w/t greater, social world provides), while town that night honoring him (what for never disclosed: Superego acknowledging importance of his essence, station à la church, transmission-shed rectory + tower aspiring steeple).

While she’s out, title Being appears (not-the-spouse, her/Al’s mutual desire for connection "amplified" + made 3D to bring home from alien outerspace, featureless to emphasize commonality of their needs), to whom Al poses Carol’s "Who are you?" (curiously, this time: turning query inwd, quest to discover nature/veracity of genius + cosmic/divine-within – what makes us all "so great" [name never divulged – populism, again, à la featurelessness + Allan’s "Nobody"]), using computer to translate ("binary pulses" complementary numerals à la sexes, un/consciousness, fantasy/reality et al + breaking communication down to primal basics to get at core issue); indicates origin in Andromeda system (myth of disowned daughter left at mercy of sea monster drama of anima endangered by alienation + isolation, GB (hereditary "Gene" Buddy) indicating he’d be similarly disposed of if found out: embodiment of complex [itself expressed in twisted sinewaves + convoluted 0’s + 1’s] expressing fear of own imminent demise) + advising maintenance of current power level (1: necessity to not overdo already overdone compulsion, + 2: obsessions’ simultaneous impulse for self-preservation) lest he be terminated by Galaxy (à la Allan’s community) for contact "beyond central system" safe boundaries w/i ego) w/ warmakers such as Earth (humans peaceful at heart à la passive, secluded Al/aggressive, exterior wife), intrigued by Allan’s ears, nose + mouth (drm-self’s semi-detachment f/t sensual world).

Relief announcer Eddie Phillips (not-"Buddy": sole casualty of film flip, ambitious ego 2B eliminated to make way for new, all characters burdened w/ 2 first names nobody-ness of everyone involved) arrives to free up Gene, + Being warns Al not to change pwr level (psychic energy, naturally upped by appearance of 5th wheel) while leaving for fête (injunction also against descent into meaningless revelry + inflated self-regard); there, Gene + hookup (played by w/d/p’s wife Allyson Ames: Buddy socially/sexually adjusted public persona) make out to car radio ("energy" inspiring erotic xchg, which Al has been halving ie masturbation) till it cuts out due to megalo Eddie (party reflection of own indulgent ego "back home") spiking pwr to reach larger audience (conflict w/i LS-the-producer btwn commerce + art, TV siphoning ½ his "pwr"), also amp’ing up Being (synchronicity w/ makeout sexual arousal) till he bursts out of confinement (ahem; unleashed upon audience, as well, in scariest thing to come out of 60s TV sets) + fries Eddie w/ radiation (remote consciousness eliminated, as soon-after caretaker scorched into shock/submission), causing station outage (cutoff communication dreaming mind's disconnection from conscious world).

Being finds Allan (private fixation now public; point of whole exercise) + Carol faints (collapse of consciousness), Al telling him to cut his radiation (always inhibiting pwr; LS’s self-congratulatory regard of own radiance) + follow him back to station (carrying wife: 2nd honeymoon, fête reception), cops telling Gene Being "captured" brother + wife (both under its influence, each aspects of self – dreamer, realist + energy simultaneously firing + stunting both); Al sets up speaker for Being (giving voice to complex in company of consciousness), who describes "transmission of atomic structure" (aka birth, or conception, he eponymous w/ 1st ep in new series: like most nascent creations, about creation itself + the contradictory forces contributing) + how fellow Andromedans will come for him (same time cops arrive: each world synchronous/analogous, reflecting different phases of each other).

As villagers (aka National Guard: ego bulwarking against threat to logical self-construction) gather outside, Carol goes out to appease them (in doorway à la similarly framed Being, earlier: she their boxed-in anima, woman again the Final Frontier) + gets shot for effort (neutralizing the dominant fem influence in self), Being cauterizing wound w/ radiation (violence a cancer for which he here to teach prevention, in late-breaking Day the Earth Stood Still tack-on moral: Al’s keeping both lobes of station/brain [as sexes] on ½ pwr recipe for maintaining zen balance) before confronting mob (can’t see but reads "brain patterns": psychic entity, confrontation as btwn interior hemispheres) w/ show of force (disintegrating tower, symbol of phallic Pwr he really here to address): "explore/reach out/go home + think on mysteries o/t universe" (ie himself, LS preaching from inside similar "box" [Guard also network $ men]), then telling Al to tune him out (his end unknown, as show’s; originally titled Please Stand By, point not to transform/sway opinion but to challenge + expose to new ideas in inaugural episode à la similarly revelatory ending to co-pro Joseph Stefano’s feather-in-cap Psycho) – "End of trans/mission" (goal to establish portal/vision, never intending to cross threshold, tho questing lead presumably did via experience).