Review of Cold Hands, Warm Heart

After the underwhelming 'Soldier', it was hoped that this episode would pull out of the slump. It starts off promising enough - A manned voyage to Venus where there is a block of time that they can't account for at mission control and the astronaut (good ol' William Shatner) cannot recall as well. The special effects are not great but then again Outer Limits was never necessarily ground breaking in this department (with a few exceptions). It was always the story we fans lived for. We could overlook the usual bleed-through in the matte work, the obviously painted planetary terrain (in this case, the Earth clearly shows up in the space over Venus - dreadful), or the 1950ish flame exhaust of a spaceship's rockets. Let's focus on the story! Well, Shatner begins to recall what happened to him while orbiting Venus in his dreams. His craft dipped into the clouds and he encountered a floating alien being. The creature does have some eerie qualities and at first it would appear to be back-to-form for the series. I recall being frightened when I first saw this episode late at night when I was 7. However, the more the creature is on the screen the less it frightens as its movements yield the all too obvious groan 'it's a marionette' probably suspended in water. But that's not necessarily bad - or shouldn't be when it comes to Outer Limits. The story should save the day. Right? So, we become a bit intrigued as Shatner becomes very sensitive to the cold and soon begins to transform (hands only, apparently) into a Venusian. That his arm begins to burn as he sits too close to a fire and he doesn't notice is a good effect. We are believing that some kind of great plot twist is about to produce itself as we watch the clock and realize that the episode is almost over. But no. He is simply cured. The end. We are left with nothing to deal with after the episode. There is no compelling thought provoking exit speech by the control voice to make us reflect on our place in the Universe - or at least it seems not entirely joined to the episode we just saw. Even at 7 years old I was unimpressed. Basically what you have here is pretty much slightly better than standard 1950s drive-in theater fodder. It's not terrible but it simply isn't better than disappointing. Strike two for the second episode of the second season.