Years:  2001, 2002
Genre:  Sci-Fi, TV series
Country:  Canada, United States
Language:  English
Guest stars:  Tom Arnold, Michael Rooker, Tanya Allen, Jeremy Sisto, Sherilyn Fenn, Cameron Daddo, Zachery Ty Bryan, Gabrielle Miller, Zack Ward, Kim Coates, Jeremy London, Dennis Haysbert, Jonathon Schaech, Kerr Smith
Eye candy:  Catherine Mary Stewart, Kimberly Warnat, Allen, Michelle Beaudoin, Fenn, Irene Bedard, Helene Joy, Meghan Ory, Crystal Buble, Gabrielle Miller
Run time:  16 hours, 45 minutes
DVD distributor:  Alliance Films

     The Seventh Season of The Outer Limits is the last one, the show ended in 2002.  As the final season of the show, it’s a little disappointing.  The guest stars are just not of the caliber as those of earlier seasons.  This is a show that got Alyssa Milano naked!  A show that featured Ryan Reynolds and Cynthia Nixon before they were famous!  Joe Pantoliano!  Ralph Macchio!  Marcia Cross!  Daphne Zuniga!  OK, I’m really stretching!

     But I’m also really stretching when I list this season’s guest “stars”.  Really, the biggest name is Tom Arnold?  Who’s barely in the first episode?  Who else is there?  Jeremy London?  There’s also Zachery Ty Bryan, who was the oldest kid on Home Improvement.  I think.  And Kim Coates, who I like, but who’s most famous for the six episodes of CSI:Miami in which he appeared.  And the six episodes of Prison Break in which he appeared.  The most recognizeable face here could be Gabrielle Miller, who is the incredibly hot actress who played Lacey on Corner Gas.  Love that woman.

     The episodes are still interesting – but the show had really run its course by the end of the fifth season.  There’s not much left to do here, and the episodes feel repetitive (especially if you’ve recently watched the first six seasons, as I have).  The episode where the kids (the Home Improvement kid included) get abducted from their classroom and sentenced to execution by some giant alien is very, very similar to the episode a few seasons ago where the entire town gets abducted by aliens and is forced to vote to decide their fate – and the fate of all mankind.  Each episode has that ring of familiarity, because at least a portion of each HAS, in fact, been done before by this series.

     I still like The Outer Limits.  I’m glad to have Season Seven, because I’m a completist and I now have all seven.  And I’ll probably revisit all of these in a few years, and when I do I’ll start at Season Seven and work backward.  That way, I’ll have a fresh take on Season Seven, as though these are the original episodes.  And I’ll probably like them a lot more.  But for now, the box sets have been released in way too quick a succession.  Season Seven is the last release, out October 5th from Alliance Films.

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 2nd, 2010 at 11:18 pm and is filed under 2001, 2002, Sci-Fi, TV series. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.