A couple of things stand out when seeing this episode in the 21st century: the first being the evil glee with which the silhouetted alien emcee torments the game's participants. But THE OUTER LIMITS never tied everything up in a neat happy bow at the end, it often went for the ironic twist and FUN AND GAMES is no exception. You know from the get go how this story will unfold and resolve itself. She is optimistic and hopeful, while he is self centered and bitter, and could care less if the whole human race is wiped out. The humans are played by Nick Adams and Nancy Malone, and it is their interaction that drives the story: he is a former prize fighter, now a petty crook she is a divorcée and a "cheerleader." Strangers at the beginning, they must find a way to cooperate and triumph against a savage foe (who uses a nasty looking razor sharp boomerang to kill) on an equally hostile planet. The kicker is that the loser's home world is destroyed. In FUN AND GAMES, a pair of earthlings are coerced by a supposedly advanced alien civilization into a duel to the death on another planet (whose atmosphere resembles prehistoric earth) with a duo of creatures from a planet where everyone wears monster masks. But there are some things about this show that more than stand the test of time: the stories, the ideas they attempted to convey, and the superior acting. By then their special effects were cheesy and badly dated, although they still could give you the creeps if you were a kid seeing them now in the era of CGI, they appear positively archaic. I remember watching these old episodes of THE OUTER LIMITS in syndication on late night television in the early 1970's, almost a decade after their original network run. In real life, he was dead only four years later. By the way, there is a cold irony to this one-when the planet faces destruction, Adams' character says that's fine with him. The monsters are amazingly silly and cheap looking. There's only one minor weakness in this one-and it's inherent in many episodes of the show due to low budgets. His constant laughter and insight into the characters (like a psychologist who is psychic-dissecting the human combatants in order to exploit their weaknesses) is quite chilling and makes a very good story so much better. While you don't really see him, his melodious voice truly enjoys tormenting the competitors. While this is a very good plot, it turns out MUCH better than the description because the emcee of this evil show is so amazingly evil and entertaining. Even weirder is that Adams really doesn't seem to care! As for Malone, she DOES care and does her best to try to convince him to fight. Nice way for these folks to get their kicks. And, if they lose, they won't just lose their lives but the planet will be exterminated. Two humans (Nick Adams and Nancy Malone) are teleported across the galaxy to a sick planet-a planet where they pit folks from other planets in gladiatorial combat. This episode of "The Outer Limits" appears to have inspired a couple "Star Trek" episodes a few years later, "The Arena" and "The Gamesters of Triskelion".
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