Out Of This World

1 9 6 2  (UK)
14 x 50 minute episodes

Fresh from his success as host of the US anthology series Thriller, Boris Karloff crossed the Atlantic to his native England to act as the host for the original British sci-fi anthology, made by ATV and based on works by sci-fi masters such as John Wyndham, Isaac Asimov and Philip K Dick.

Standout episodes included the debut, “Dumb Martian” (24/6/62) – by John Wyndham – in which an Earthman on a solo tour of duty on one of Jupiter’s moons (William Lucas) buys a Martian woman (Hilda Schroder) as a companion and mistreats her, assuming her to be just a “dumb Martian” but learns, to his cost that she has more intelligence than he gives her credit for; “Little Lost Robot” (7/7/62) – written by Isaac Asimov – which has a robot, programmed to obey every command, told to “get lost” by a technician, prompting a robot revolt; and “Vanishing Act” (18/8/62) with a third rate conjurer (Maurice Denham) buying a vanishing box trick which makes him a sensation – but he doesn’t know where his assistants are going once they enter the box.

Actors appearing in the 14 episodes included Gerald Harper, David Hemmings, Charles Gray, Maxine Audley, Peter Wyngarde, Mike Pratt, Jane Asher, Aubrey Morris, William Gaunt, Paul Eddington, Ray Barrett, Ronald Fraser, Milo O’Shea, Julian Glover, Dinsdale Landen, Geraldine McEwan and Judy Cornwell.

The man who played a major part in paving the way for such shows in the UK was Canadian-born producer Sydney Newman who had made his name putting on live dramas for CBS and was then hired to come to England in 1958 to produce Armchair Theatre.

Over the next three years, he revolutionised the production of plays on television, and his interest in fantasy led him to sanction the making of Out Of This World, and later – when he moved over to the BBC – inspired him to create the long-running Doctor Who series.

Newman was also responsible for bringing Irene Shubik, a former academic historian, into the British ABC as a story editor – where one of her first assignments was Out Of This World.

Recognising a good thing when she saw it, Shubik replicated the formula with Out Of The Unknown in 1965, this time for the BBC.

Host
Boris Karloff

Episodes

Dumb Martian | The Yellow Pill | Little Lost Robot | Cold Equations | Impostor | Botany Bay | Medicine Show | Pictures Don’t Lie | Vanishing Act | Divided We Fall | The Dark Star | Immigrant | Target Generation | The Tycoons