A long time ago, I wrote about Architects of Fear, an episode from the first season of The Outer Limits, which is often considered the best in the entire series. I'm not sure if I would also think this, but at the end of the day, there are very few installments of the show that can be considered better. However, this one right here is a strong contender for that position. The Man Who Was Never Born is a genuinely tragic love story between two people that is made almost unfeasible due to the plot device of time travel. One person hails from the normal version of 1960s planet Earth, while the other comes from a grim future that holds absolutely no hope for humanity. The story begins with an astronaut named Joe Reardon landing on Earth, only to find a desolate and totally empty looking wasteland. He exits and comes across a hideously deformed "person" named Andro who tells him there's no way he could be from Earth: nobody has left the planet in almost 2 centuries. Joe is adamant his space mission started in 1963, but Andro tells him the year is 2148. The reason Andro looks the way he does is because the earth has sustained a horrible biological disaster all because of the actions of a single man: Bertram Cabot Jr. He was a scientist who developed a type of symbiont based on an extragalactic germ. This proceeded to disfigure humanity, their ability to reproduce, and even earth's entire environment. Joe is led by Andro into a large, underground archive of reading material consisting of the human race's finest minds, such as Mark Twain and Shakespeare. Andro says it's too late to stop what has already been done, and the earth is done for. Joe suggests taking Andro with him back to his own time so that people can know what kind of awful disfigurement awaits them in the future unless history is changed. However, as the rocket passes through the same time rift it went through earlier to make Joe land in 2148, he starts to freeze and eventually disappears. Before dying, Joe tells Andro to stop Cabot Jr. By any means necessary, even if he needs to murder him. Andro is able to change how he appears to normal humans so that they don't run away from him, so he takes on the appearance of Professor Andro (Martin Landau). While in 1963, Andro meets Noelle (Shirley Knight), a beautiful woman who currently lives in a boarding house. She is supposed to marry her boyfriend Bertram Cabot (John Considine) after he finishes being in the army. It's around this time that Andro realizes something is very wrong; he arrived too far into the past, Cabot Jr. Hasn't even been born yet, and these two people are destined to be his parents. Andro scrambles to do whatever he can in order to prevent the marriage from happening, since it means saving the entire human race. While this goes on, Noelle starts to actually like Andro, but Cabot Sr. Keeps getting in his way and tells him there is no way he's going to call off the marriage. Andro later attempts to murder him with a handgun Joe gave him during the wedding ceremony, which leads to his true (hideous) appearance being uncovered. Andro runs into the woods, along with Noelle. He monologues about how the entire world is doomed if she's going to continue along the path she's chosen, unless she dies right now. Noelle thinks there is another way to save the earth, and wants to go with Andro into the future, therefore eliminating any chance Cabot will give her a son. Cabot and some others try to hunt Andro down, but the ship lifts off before he can stop their departure. As the rocket passes through the time rift, the same fate that befell Joe happens to Andro. He has succeeded in his mission a little too well, and Cabot Jr. Was never born, but due to this, the germ that malformed Andro and the rest of humanity now doesn't exist either, meaning Andro has basically erased his own birth. Andro fades from the timeline, leaving a distraught Noelle stranded in 2148, completely alone. What a perfect episode. There are a handful of things on IMDB that I really wish I could rate higher than 10 stars (which is something that rarely presents itself) but this is an opportunity. Everything about this episode is essentially perfect. The gripping story, the way it manages to blend sci-fi with romance and somehow manages to not feel forced, the deeply sad and ironic ending, and so on. Just the inclusion of one of these things would have already made for an above average show, but when you put them all together like this, it's no wonder this one is a fan favorite. Even though I said this is arguably the best The Outer Limits has to offer, it does have a few mistakes in it. For one thing, Andro tells Joe in the beginning he's studied almost everything about Cabot's life, and if this is the case, I find it hard to believe he wouldn't recognize how his mother looks like. Moreover, the title itself is ironic seeing as how Andro arrives too early in the past to see his sworn enemy in person. Cabot Jr. Is the all encompassing evil responsible for the state of the world, but a scourge that Andro never finds. This means the title can refer to both Cabot Jr. Or Andro depending on your viewpoint. However you see it, The Man Who Was Never Born is one of science fiction television's finest moments. Andro, like a few other aliens from this show, is a hero, but is also attached to an inescapable sadness that crushes his frame of mind on everything.
Review of The Man Who Was Never Born
