Out of This World is a
BritishThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
science fictionScience fiction is a genre of fiction. It differs from fantasy in that, within the context of the story, its imaginary elements are largely possible within scientifically-established or scientifically-postulated laws of nature...
anthologyAn anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler. It may be a collection of poems, short stories, plays, songs, or excerpts...
televisionTelevision is a widely used telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images, either monochromatic or color, usually accompanied by sound. "Television" may also refer specifically to a television set, television programming or television transmission...
series made by
ABC TelevisionAssociated British Corporation was one of a number of commercial television companies established during the 1950s by cinema chain companies in an attempt to safeguard their business by becoming involved with television which was taking away their cinema audiences.In this case, the parent company...
and broadcast in 1962. A spin-off from the popular anthology series
Armchair TheatreArmchair Theatre is a British television drama anthology series, which ran on the ITV network from 1956 until 1968 in its original form, and was resurrected intermittently during the 1970s...
, each episode was introduced by the actor
Boris KarloffBoris Karloff was a British actor who emigrated to Canada in the 1910s. He is best remembered for his roles in horror films and his portrayal of Frankenstein's monster in the 1931 film Frankenstein, 1935 film Bride of Frankenstein, and 1939 film Son of Frankenstein...
. Many of the episodes were adaptations of stories by science fiction writers including
Isaac AsimovIsaac Asimov , was an American author and professor of biochemistry, best known for his works of science fiction and for his popular science books...
,
Philip K. DickPhilip Kindred Dick was an American novelist, short story writer, and essayist whose published work during his lifetime was almost entirely in the science fiction genre. Dick explored sociological, political and metaphysical themes in novels dominated by monopolistic corporations, authoritarian...
and
Clifford D. SimakClifford Donald Simak was an American science fiction writer. He won three Hugo awards and one Nebula award, and was named the third Grand Master by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America in 1977....
. The series is generally seen as a precursor to the BBC science fiction anthology series
Out of the UnknownOut of the Unknown is a British television science fiction anthology drama series, produced by the BBC and broadcast on BBC2 in four series between 1965 and 1971. Each episode was an independent dramatisation of a separate science fiction short story...
.
Series creator
Irene ShubikIrene Shubik is a British television producer, notable for her contribution to the development of the single play in British television drama. Beginning her television career at ABC Television, she worked on Armchair Theatre as a story editor where she devised the science fiction anthology series...
began her career working on educational films for Encyclopædia Britannica Inc in
ChicagoChicago is the largest city in the U.S. state of Illinois, and with more than 2.8 million people, the 3rd largest city in the United States...
before returning home to London where she joined ABC Television as a
story editorA script editor is a member of the production team of scripted television programmes, usually dramas and comedies. The script editor has many responsibilities including finding new script writers, developing storyline and series ideas with writers, ensuring that scripts are suitable for production...
on the anthology series
Armchair Theatre under producer
Sydney NewmanSydney Cecil Newman, OC was a Canadian film and television producer, best remembered for the pioneering work he undertook in British television drama from the late 1950s to the late 1960s...
in 1960.
Out of This World is a
BritishThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
science fictionScience fiction is a genre of fiction. It differs from fantasy in that, within the context of the story, its imaginary elements are largely possible within scientifically-established or scientifically-postulated laws of nature...
anthologyAn anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler. It may be a collection of poems, short stories, plays, songs, or excerpts...
televisionTelevision is a widely used telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images, either monochromatic or color, usually accompanied by sound. "Television" may also refer specifically to a television set, television programming or television transmission...
series made by
ABC TelevisionAssociated British Corporation was one of a number of commercial television companies established during the 1950s by cinema chain companies in an attempt to safeguard their business by becoming involved with television which was taking away their cinema audiences.In this case, the parent company...
and broadcast in 1962. A spin-off from the popular anthology series
Armchair TheatreArmchair Theatre is a British television drama anthology series, which ran on the ITV network from 1956 until 1968 in its original form, and was resurrected intermittently during the 1970s...
, each episode was introduced by the actor
Boris KarloffBoris Karloff was a British actor who emigrated to Canada in the 1910s. He is best remembered for his roles in horror films and his portrayal of Frankenstein's monster in the 1931 film Frankenstein, 1935 film Bride of Frankenstein, and 1939 film Son of Frankenstein...
. Many of the episodes were adaptations of stories by science fiction writers including
Isaac AsimovIsaac Asimov , was an American author and professor of biochemistry, best known for his works of science fiction and for his popular science books...
,
Philip K. DickPhilip Kindred Dick was an American novelist, short story writer, and essayist whose published work during his lifetime was almost entirely in the science fiction genre. Dick explored sociological, political and metaphysical themes in novels dominated by monopolistic corporations, authoritarian...
and
Clifford D. SimakClifford Donald Simak was an American science fiction writer. He won three Hugo awards and one Nebula award, and was named the third Grand Master by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America in 1977....
. The series is generally seen as a precursor to the BBC science fiction anthology series
Out of the UnknownOut of the Unknown is a British television science fiction anthology drama series, produced by the BBC and broadcast on BBC2 in four series between 1965 and 1971. Each episode was an independent dramatisation of a separate science fiction short story...
.
Origins
Series creator
Irene ShubikIrene Shubik is a British television producer, notable for her contribution to the development of the single play in British television drama. Beginning her television career at ABC Television, she worked on Armchair Theatre as a story editor where she devised the science fiction anthology series...
began her career working on educational films for Encyclopædia Britannica Inc in
ChicagoChicago is the largest city in the U.S. state of Illinois, and with more than 2.8 million people, the 3rd largest city in the United States...
before returning home to London where she joined ABC Television as a
story editorA script editor is a member of the production team of scripted television programmes, usually dramas and comedies. The script editor has many responsibilities including finding new script writers, developing storyline and series ideas with writers, ensuring that scripts are suitable for production...
on the anthology series
Armchair Theatre under producer
Sydney NewmanSydney Cecil Newman, OC was a Canadian film and television producer, best remembered for the pioneering work he undertook in British television drama from the late 1950s to the late 1960s...
in 1960. A science fiction fan since college, Shubik approached Newman during the summer of 1961 with the notion of making a science fiction version of
Armchair Theatre, similar to the
Armchair Mystery Theatre spin-off that specialised in crime and mystery stories. Shubik had already commissioned several science fiction tinged scripts for
Armchair Theatre such as “The Omega Mystery” and “The Ship That Couldn't Stop”. However, the production that acted as a template for what would become
Out of This World was “Murder Club”, an adaptation of
Robert SheckleyRobert Sheckley was a Hugo and Nebula nominated American author. First published in the science fiction magazines of the 1950s, his numerous quick-witted stories and novels were famously unpredictable, absurdist and broadly comical.Sheckley was given the Author Emeritus honor by the Science...
’s short story
The Seventh Victim, starring
Richard BriersRichard David Briers, CBE is an English actor whose career has encompassed theatre, television, film and radio.He first came to prominence as George Starling in Marriage Lines in the 1960s, but it was in the following decade when he played Tom Good in the BBC sitcom The Good Life that he became a...
, that aired under the
Armchair Theatre banner on 3 December 1961. Also around this time the BBC had scored a notable hit with the science fiction thriller
A for AndromedaA for Andromeda is a British television science fiction drama serial first made and broadcast by the BBC in seven parts in 1961. Written by the noted cosmologist Fred Hoyle, in conjunction with author and television producer John Elliot, it concerns a group of scientists who detect a radio signal...
.
Production
Shubik was appointed story editor and Leonard White, who had produced the first two seasons of
The AvengersThe Avengers is a British television adventure series about secret agents in 1960s Britain. The programmes were made by TV company ABC Weekend Television , and created by its Head of Drama Sydney Newman...
, was assigned to produce. Leonard found
Out of This World a welcome antidote to
The Avengers, which had proved a difficult production; he recalled, “It was a great pleasure to make, getting away from today and exploring the unrealities (or so we thought) of tomorrow. An opportunity for the suspension of disbelief even in the here and now ambiance of television”. The budget for each episode averaged £5,000.
Shubik soon ran into difficulties finding material suitable for adaptation, a problem that had plagued earlier aborted attempts to get a similar series off the ground. A useful contact Shubik made was with
John CarnellEdward John Carnell , known to his friends as either Ted or John, was a British science fiction editor known for editing New Worlds in 1946 then from 1949 to 1963. He also edited Science Fantasy from the 1950s...
, a key figure in British science fiction, founder of the magazine
New WorldsNew Worlds was a British science fiction magazine which was first published professionally in 1946. For 25 years it was widely considered the leading science fiction magazine in Britain, publishing 201 issues up to 1971....
and agent for many British science fiction writers. Carnell assisted Shubik in selecting material and put her in contact with writers and publishers. Carnell also promoted the series heavily in
New Worlds, giving it the cover of the July 1962 edition. When a
strikeStrike action, often simply called a strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to perform work. A strike usually takes place in response to employee grievances. Strikes became important during the industrial revolution, when mass labour became important in factories and mines...
by actor's union
EquityEquity is the trade union for actors, stage managers and models in the United Kingdom. It was formed in 1930 by a group of West End performers....
hit production of
Armchair Theatre, it bought Shubik the extra time she needed to find sufficient scripts. All but two episodes were adaptations of short stories and novels. Shubik took the name
Out of This World from a series of anthology collections edited by Amabel Williams-Ellis.
The actor Boris Karloff, well known for his association with the
horror filmHorror films are movies that strive to elicit the emotions of fear, horror and terror from viewers. Their plots frequently involve themes of death, the supernatural or mental illness...
genre, was chosen as host for the new series. This was an idea taken from such US anthology series as
The Twilight ZoneThe Twilight Zone is an American anthology television series created by Rod Serling, which ran for five seasons on CBS from 1959 to 1964 and remains syndicated to this day. The show consisted of unrelated vignettes depicting paranormal, futuristic, dystopian, or simply disturbing events, usually...
,
Alfred Hitchcock PresentsAlfred Hitchcock Presents is an anthology television series hosted by Alfred Hitchcock. The series featured dramas, thrillers and mysteries...
and
ThrillerThriller is an anthology television series that aired from 1960-1962 on NBC. The show featured host Boris Karloff introducing a mix of macabre horror tales and suspense thrillers. Thriller ran at 9 p.m...
(which Karloff himself had hosted) and was in line with what had been done for
Armchair Mystery Theatre, which was introduced by Donald Pleasance.
Three scripts for
Out of This World, adaptations of Philip K. Dick's "
Impostor"Impostor" is a science fiction short story by Philip K. Dick. It was first published in Astounding magazine in June, 1953. Impostor, a feature film based on the story, was released in 2002 starring Gary Sinise, Madeleine Stowe and Vincent D'Onofrio...
" and Clifford D. Simak's "Immigrant" as well as an original story called "Botany Bay", were supplied by
Terry NationTerry Nation was a Welsh novelist and screenwriter.He is probably best known for creating the villainous Daleks in the long-running science fiction television series Doctor Who...
. These scripts were Nation's first professional foray into the genre for which he would become best known; he would later go on to create the popular
DalekThe Daleks are a fictional race of extraterrestrial mutants from the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Daleks are organisms from the planet Skaro, integrated within a tank-like mechanical casing. The resulting creatures are a powerful race bent on universal conquest and...
monsters for the science fiction series
Doctor WhoDoctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a mysterious alien time-traveller known as "the Doctor" who travels in his space and time-ship, the TARDIS, which normally appears from the exterior to be a blue 1950s police box...
as well as his own science fiction television series
SurvivorsSurvivors is a British television series devised by Terry Nation and produced by Terence Dudley at the BBC from 1975 to 1977. It was remade in 2008. It concerns the plight of a group of people who have survived an accidentally released plague that kills nearly the entire population of the planet...
and
Blake's 7Blake's 7 is a British science fiction television series produced by the BBC for its BBC1 channel. Created by Terry Nation, a prolific television writer best known for creating the popular Dalek monsters for the television series Doctor Who, it ran for four series between 1978 and 1981...
.
Broadcast and critical reception
An adaptation of
John WyndhamJohn Wyndham was the pen name used by the often post-apocalyptic British science fiction writer John Wyndham Parkes Lucas Beynon Harris ....
’s short story
Dumb Martian was originally intended to launch the series. However, Sydney Newman elected to broadcast the story as part of
Armchair Theatre the week before
Out of This World made its debut. The play ended with an epilogue by Boris Karloff introducing and previewing the new spin-off series.
The first episode, “The Yellow Pill”, attracted 11 million viewers, placing
Out of This World eleventh in the television ratings for that week and beating the popular police drama series
Z-CarsZ-Cars is a British television drama series centred on the work of beat police in the fictional town of Newtown, based on Kirkby in the outskirts of Liverpool in Lancashire. Produced by the BBC and screened on BBC Television , it debuted in January, 1962 and ran for 16 years until September, 1978...
.
Critical reaction to
Out of This World was, on the whole, positive:
Kinematograph Weekly commented that the series was “the most intelligent and best written of its genre since
Quatermass*Professor Bernard Quatermass, a fictional scientist created by the writer Nigel Kneale* A production featuring the above character:**The Quatermass Experiment , a British TV serial...
” while
The TimesThe Times is a daily national newspaper published in the United Kingdom since 1785 when it was known as The Daily Universal Register....
said, “in general the level of writing and direction has been encouragingly high [...]
Out of This World may well help to banish forever the view of the summer as a time when just anything will do”. H. F. Hall, writing in the
Yorkshire Evening PostThe Yorkshire Evening Post is a daily evening publication published by Yorkshire Post Newspapers Ltd in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England...
, described
Out of This World as “the most accomplished thing of its kind that TV has yet produced... well schemed scripting and disciplined production”. One viewer who enjoyed the series was Goon
Michael BentineMichael Bentine CBE was a comedian, comic actor, and founding member of The Goons.-Biography:Bentine was born Michael James Bentin in Watford, Hertfordshire, of Anglo-Peruvian parentage. and grew up in Folkestone, Kent, one of his friends being the young David Tomlinson. He was educated at Eton...
who sent a telegram to Leonard White conveying “joyous congratulations for wonderful entertainment”.
Influence
Although the series was judged a success, the departure of both Sydney Newman and Irene Shubik to the BBC meant that a second season was not made. However, while at the BBC Shubik devised and produced
Out of the Unknown, another science fiction anthology series that, like
Out of This World, concentrated mainly on adaptations of short stories and novels and ran for four seasons between 1965 and 1971. Two
Out of This World scripts - “The Yellow Pill” and “Target Generation” - were remade by
Out of the Unknown in its third season. Shubik went on to become a noted television producer of series such as
The Wednesday PlayThe Wednesday Play was a series of British television plays which ran on BBC1 from 1964 to 1970. Every week this drama anthology series presented a different play, usually written for television, although adaptations from other sources were also presented...
,
Play for TodayPlay for Today is a British television anthology drama series, produced by the BBC and transmitted on BBC1 from 1970 to 1984. Over three hundred original plays, most between an hour and ninety minutes in length, were transmitted during the fourteen-year period the series aired, and it is by far the...
,
Playhouse: The Mind Beyond and
Rumpole of the BaileyRumpole of the Bailey is a British television series created and written by the British writer and barrister John Mortimer, QC which starred Leo McKern as Horace Rumpole, an aging London barrister who defends any and all clients...
and instigated, but did not produce, the acclaimed adaptation of
The Jewel in the Crown.
Archive status
As was common practice among British broadcasters at the time, most of the episodes of
Out of This World were
wipedWiping is a colloquial term for action taken by radio and television production and broadcasting companies, in which old audiotapes, videotapes and telerecordings , are erased, reused, or destroyed after several uses...
after broadcast and only one episode, “
Little Lost Robot"Little Lost Robot" is a science fiction short story by Isaac Asimov. It was first published in the March 1947 issue of Astounding Science Fiction and reprinted in the collections I, Robot , The Complete Robot , Robot Dreams , and Robot Visions ."Little Lost Robot" was adapted by Leo Lehman for...
”, survives today.
List of episodes
Thirteen episodes of
Out of This World were broadcast on Saturday nights at 10:00pm from 30 June 1962. The
Armchair Theatre presentation of “Dumb Martian” is also included in this list for completeness as it was originally intended to be part of
Out of This World, in line with most episode guides published for this series.
| Ep. No. | Title | Story | Adapted by | Director | Airdate |
|---|
| Made for Out of This World but broadcast as part of Armchair Theatre: |
| 0 |
“Dumb Martian” |
John Wyndham John Wyndham was the pen name used by the often post-apocalyptic British science fiction writer John Wyndham Parkes Lucas Beynon Harris ....
|
Clive Exton Clive Exton was a British television and film screenwriter, sometime playwright, and former actor. He is best known for his scripts of Agatha Christie’s Poirot, P. G...
|
Charles Jarrot |
24 June 1962 |
| Broadcast as part of Out of This World: |
| 1 |
“The Yellow Pill” |
Rog Phillips Roger Phillips Graham was an American science fiction writer who most often wrote under the name Rog Phillips, but also used other names. Although of his other pseudonyms only "Craig Browning" is notable in the genre. He is most associated with Amazing Stories and is best known for short fiction...
|
Leon Griffiths Leon Griffiths was a British writer for TV and film. Griffiths is best known for being the creator of the ITV comedy-drama Minder. The inspiration for the show came from the stories he heard while frequenting North London drinking clubs.Griffiths was born in Sheffield, but grew up in Glasgow...
|
Jonathan Alwyn |
30 June 1962 |
| 2 |
“Little Lost Robot "Little Lost Robot" is a science fiction short story by Isaac Asimov. It was first published in the March 1947 issue of Astounding Science Fiction and reprinted in the collections I, Robot , The Complete Robot , Robot Dreams , and Robot Visions ."Little Lost Robot" was adapted by Leo Lehman for...
” |
Isaac AsimovIsaac Asimov , was an American author and professor of biochemistry, best known for his works of science fiction and for his popular science books...
|
Leo Lehman |
Douglas James |
7 July 1962 |
| 3 |
“Cold Equations "The Cold Equations" is a science fiction short story by Tom Godwin, first published in Astounding Magazine in 1954. It is widely regarded as one of the most notable stories in the history of science fiction...
” |
Tom Godwin Tom Godwin was a science fiction author. Godwin published three novels and thirty short stories. His controversial hard SF short story "The Cold Equations" is a notable example of the mid-1950s science fiction genre. His three novels are less notable...
|
Clive Exton |
Paul Bernard |
14 July 1962 |
| 4 |
“Impostor "Impostor" is a science fiction short story by Philip K. Dick. It was first published in Astounding magazine in June, 1953. Impostor, a feature film based on the story, was released in 2002 starring Gary Sinise, Madeleine Stowe and Vincent D'Onofrio...
” |
Philip K. DickPhilip Kindred Dick was an American novelist, short story writer, and essayist whose published work during his lifetime was almost entirely in the science fiction genre. Dick explored sociological, political and metaphysical themes in novels dominated by monopolistic corporations, authoritarian...
|
Terry Nation Terry Nation was a Welsh novelist and screenwriter.He is probably best known for creating the villainous Daleks in the long-running science fiction television series Doctor Who...
|
Peter Hammond |
21 July 1962 |
| 5 |
“Botany Bay” |
Terry Nation Terry Nation was a Welsh novelist and screenwriter.He is probably best known for creating the villainous Daleks in the long-running science fiction television series Doctor Who...
|
n/a |
Guy Verney |
28 July 1962 |
| 6 |
“Medicine Show” |
Robert Moore Williams Robert Moore Williams , born in Farmington, Missouri, was an American writer, primarily of science fiction.His first published story was Zero as a Limit, which appeared in Astounding Science Fiction in 1937, under the pseudonym of "Robert Moore". He was a prolific author throughout his career,...
|
Julian Bond |
Richmond Harding |
4 August 1962 |
| 7 |
“Pictures Don't Lie” |
Katherine Maclean Katherine Anne MacLean is an American science fiction author best known for her short stories of the 1950s which examined the impact of technological advances on individuals and society....
|
Bruce StewartBruce Stewart is a New Zealand-born fiction writer and dramatist of Ngāti Raukawa Te Arawa descent. Stewart's work is marked by expressions of the anger, confused loyalties and spiritual aspiration of late-twentieth-century Maori...
|
John Knight |
11 August 1962 |
| 8 |
“Vanishing Act” |
Richard Waring Richard Waring has appeared in many Broadway plays, including Dear Jane , L'Aiglon , The Women Have Their Way , Camille , The Corn is Green , At the Stroke of Eight , The Man Who Killed Lincoln Richard Waring (27 May 1911 – 5 December 1994) has appeared in many Broadway plays, including...
|
n/a |
Don Leaver |
18 August 1962 |
| 9 |
“Divided We Fall” |
Raymond F. Jones Raymond Fisher Jones was an American science fiction author. He is best known for his 1952 novel, This Island Earth, which was adapted into the 1955 film This Island Earth....
|
Leon Griffiths |
John Knight |
25 August 1962 |
| 10 |
“The Dark Star” |
Frank Crisp (based on his novel Ape of London) |
Denis Butler |
Peter Hammond |
1 September 1962 |
| 11 |
“Immigrant” |
Clifford D. Simak Clifford Donald Simak was an American science fiction writer. He won three Hugo awards and one Nebula award, and was named the third Grand Master by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America in 1977....
|
Terry Nation |
Jonathan Alwyn |
8 September 1962 |
| 12 |
“Target Generation” |
Clifford D. Simak |
Clive Exton |
Alan Cooke |
15 September 1962 |
| 13 |
“The Tycoons” |
Arthur Sellings |
Bruce Stewart |
Charles Jarrot |
22 September 1962 |