Out of the Unknown
Out 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 a dramatisation of a science fiction short story. Some were written directly for the series, but most were adaptations of already published stories. The first three years were exclusively science fiction, but that genre was abandoned in the final year in favour of horror/fantasy stories. A number of episodes were wiped during the early 1970s, as was standard procedure at the time. A large number of episodes are still missing but some do turn up from time to time; for instance, Level Seven from series two, originally broadcast on 27 October 1966 was returned to the BBC from the archives of a European broadcaster in January 2006.
Seasons
1. No Place Like Earth
Air Date: 1965-10-04
Earth is no more, destroyed by nuclear war; but itinerant handyman Bert Foster, wandering the canals of Mars, is possessed by a restlessness for a home which no longer exists. Perhaps the isolated outpost on Venus retains something which could satisfy this hunger; or has the madness which shattered a world merely settled in a new location?
2. The Counterfeit Man
Air Date: 1965-10-11
On Jupiter's moon Ganymede, an alien life-form has taken over the body of a human astronaut, creating an almost perfect copy. But perfect enough to escape discovery on the long return trip to Earth? Can the deadly counterfeit be detected and stopped before its hunger for new life can endanger an entire planet?
3. Stranger in the Family
Air Date: 1965-10-18
A young man, known as 'Boy', is born with no fingernails and with mental powers that enable him to control others. He falls for a young actress, initially repulsed, whose agent-boyfriend encourages the relationship because he thinks Boy's powers can be used to make a lot of money via TV commercials. But he is being hunted by a mysterious surveillance team who have moved into the next-door flat in the tower block where he lives...
4. The Dead Past
Air Date: 1965-10-25
Time travel may still be impossible, but the Chronoscope, sensing the nearly imponderable tracks of ancient photons, allows a glimpse into any event in Earth's distant past. Historian Arnold Potterley is rebuffed when he petitions for use of the Chronoscope to study ancient Carthage. So he commissions the building of a private time-viewing machine, with unexpected results.
5. Time In Advance
Air Date: 1965-11-01
Imagine a future where you serve your prison sentence before you commit your crime, in the various hells of savage new planets just being colonised. If you survive, like Nick Crandall and Otto Henck, you can return home with carte blanche to commit murder...
6. Come Buttercup, Come Daisy, Come... ?
Air Date: 1965-11-08
Henry Wilkes cultivates rare tropical plants as a hobby; with an attention to detail which is, perhaps, closer to an obsession. The length to which he goes to propagate and nurture new hybrids alarms his wife. Is there more going on in the greenhouse than could safely be exhibited at the next Battersea Flower Show?
7. Sucker Bait
Air Date: 1965-11-15
An expedition sets out to discover what has happened to a lost colony on a distant planet. Amongst the scientists is a strange, intense teenager called Mark Annuncio, raised to be a kind of human computer, able to make connections between different specialisms. Disliked by the crew, Mark nevertheless may be the only person capable of saving the ship when they land and scientists begin dying mysteriously.
8. The Fox and the Forest
Air Date: 1965-11-22
Sarah and David Kirsten are tourists from the 21st century who take a forbidden holiday in 1938 Mexico. But enforcers from the future, trying to keep the time-stream free from pollution and paradox, are on their trail. Can they evade their pursuers without betraying their origins?
9. Andover and the Android
Air Date: 1965-11-29
Roger Andover will inherit a fortune if he marries. But he is a solitary man with no ambition: human relationships mystify and dismay him. But to present a life-like female android as your wife: surely that will satisfy everyone? Andover finds more than he bargained for when his robot bride challenges his preconceptions about humanity.
10. Some Lapse of Time
Air Date: 1965-12-06
Dr Max Harrow is awakened from a re-current nightmare in which he is pursued by a barbaric accusing figures, to find collapsed on his doorstep, The tramp is suffering from a genetic radiation disorder that should killed him in infancy as it did Harrow's baby son. The ma is the living image of Harrow's nightmare figures, Clutched in his hand is a human finger bone and he speaks a strange, unknown tongue, Why did he collapse outside Harrow's house? What is his motive for tracing him?.
11. Thirteen to Centaurus
Air Date: 1965-12-13
Interstellar travel at sub-light speeds: the enormous distances, isolation from human culture and the aching loneliness of space are enough to drive the strongest personality insane. Better to block all memories of human contact and to program the 12-strong crew to accept only the reality they can see and touch within their spacecraft. But a child born on "the Station" becomes insistent on learning the truth about 'Outside'.
12. The Midas Plague
Air Date: 1965-12-20
The Future is bright for most of society: robot labour and free energy make the creation of goods easy and automatic. But the disadvantaged of this Golden Age are those who have to stem the inexorable tide of robot-manufactured goods; they are continually supplied with more things than they can possibly consume. Is there any way for a 'poor' man to get off this treadmill of consumption?
1. The Machine Stops
Air Date: 1966-10-06
In the far future, the material needs of humankind are tended by the omnipresent Machine, which makes their environment, in vast tunnels beneath the earth, comfortable and safe. But safe from what? And what if the Machine Stops? A young boy, Kuno, finds his questions can't be answered until he has lifted the veil of security and trespassed upon the surface.
2. Frankenstein Mark II
Air Date: 1966-10-13
A stranger calls at the home of divorcée Anna Preston, asking to collect some of her ex-husband's belongings. Anna agrees, but is suspicious, and tries to contact her 'ex' at the space-research establishment where he worked. But none of his colleagues can tell her where he is and the authorities block all her efforts to find out. Anna grows more convinced that he is in danger, but the truth is more horrifying than even she can imagine.
3. Lambda I
Air Date: 1966-10-20
Why take the Great Circle route to Australia when you can tunnel through the very molecules of the solid earth itself in a TAU-mode shuttle? When a routine TAU-shuttle becomes entombed in solid rock miles under the earth, the only means of rescue may be the wildly experimental LAMBDA-mode shuttle; and even its creator has no idea how it will behave, or whether its pilot can keep his sanity during the rescue mission.
4. Level Seven
Air Date: 1966-10-27
In the huge, labyrinthine nuclear bunker meant to shield the survivors in government from the aftermath of atomic war, Level 7 is the deepest and the safest from radiation. But in spite of its hermetic isolation, the nerve center of government is ultimately not safe from the consequences of the holocaust which rages miles overhead.
5. Second Childhood
Air Date: 1966-11-10
Charles Dennistoun, a 60-year-old contestant on 'You Bet a Million' - a quiz show for millionaires - wins the jackpot prize, a course in rejuvenation. But his friends and family have mixed feeling, and the repercussions have blackly comic effects on all concerned.
6. The World in Silence
Air Date: 1966-11-17
College student Sarah Richards is alone in fearing and disliking the new teaching machines but even she does not foresee the terrifying situation that arises when her supervisor, Stephen Kershaw, re-arranges the machines to conform with revised fire regulations.
7. The Eye
Air Date: 1966-11-24
Julian Clay is accused of murdering Andrew Maddox - a charge he cannot deny because 'The Eye', a device which records the past, saw him do it, However, the law affords one loophole.
8. Tunnel Under the World
Air Date: 1966-12-01
Déja vu: as Guy Birkett goes through the day he has a nagging feeling that he's been here before, experienced this already; except the details are always different. Is it conceivable that he is merely a simulacrum, the ultimate in consumer market surveying? He finds there is a reality behind the reality he knows; but for a pawn to question the reality of the chessboard is a perilous undertaking.
9. The Fastest Draw
Air Date: 1966-12-08
Amos Handworthy's grandfather was quick on the draw: as a U.S marshal it was a job requirement if you wanted to stay alive. But now Amos has built a gun-slinging robot, programmed to be a split second slower than him in a gunfight, so that he can perpetuate the myth and glory of his grandfather's frontier past. But will Amos bet his life on a duel with real bullets?
10. Too Many Cooks
Air Date: 1966-12-15
Dr Andrew Cook, inventor of a process for making living replicas of human beings, has unwittingly duplicated himself and becomes a secret weapon in the Solar System's struggle for economic survival against a powerful alien culture, the Sentients.
11. Walk's End
Air Date: 1966-12-22
Dr Saint's offer of a free place in his comfortable old-folks' home appears entirely philanthropic to Miss Claythorpe. However he is suspiciously vague about the treatment that goes with it.
12. Satisfaction Guaranteed
Air Date: 1966-12-29
A human-looking robot housekeeper is the latest gadget to acquire in the ceaseless battle to keep up with the Joneses. But housewife Claire Belmont starts to question the wisdom of her husband's purchase when TN3 (Tony) arrives. Can a man-like robot do everything a man can do: but willingly, obediently, tirelessly? Is a robot less than a man, or more?
13. The Prophet
Air Date: 1967-01-01
Robot QT-1, aboard an orbiting space-station, controls the massive energy beam which transmits the sun's power to receivers on Earth. But QT-1 (Cutie) has some strange bees in his positronic bonnet. How could weak creatures of protoplasm create a nearly invincible, totally logical entity like himself? It is up to his human supervisors, Powell and Donovan, to convince Cutie of his niche in creation before his new robot theology becomes a threat to all life on Earth.
1. Immortality, Inc.
Air Date: 1969-01-07
The very rich can buy eternal life: all that's needed is someone desperate enough to donate, for a high price, a young body into which their personality can be transferred.
2. Liar!
Air Date: 1969-01-14
The positronic brain of robot RB-34(Herbie) has an unforeseen 'extra': he can read human thoughts. So his take on the First Law of Robotics ("A robot may not harm a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm") is unorthodox: he tells human beings only what he believes will not hurt their feelings. Can renowned robopsychologist Dr. Susan Calvin 'fix' RB-34? Or are there areas of her own psyche where she would rather not hear the truth?
3. The Last Lonely Man
Air Date: 1969-01-21
If, by an accident of science, it became possible for the personality to pass at the moment of death into the mind of someone still alive, then the big new problem would be into whom. To foist the wits of a rogue onto an unwilling recipient would be unjust indeed. Any government who could thus cheat death might indeed win a popular vote, but only so long as all was voluntary - mutually contracted. James Hale is a man of such a society. He has insured against death of his personality by arranging mutual "Contact" contracts with his relatives. He is already host to his late father with whose memories and prejudices he has now learned to live. He himself is a responsible parent of twins whose Contact he will arrange when they are of age.
4. Beach Head
Air Date: 1969-01-28
On his thirty-seventh mission, Commandant Tom Decker and his colleague Ensign Warner-Carr become alarmed at what they find when their spaceship lands on Planet 0243/B.
5. Something in the Cellar
Air Date: 1969-02-04
Professor Monty Lafcado, haunted by the memory of his late mother, sets out to construct a mighty computer in his basement, much to the concern of his friend, Dr Pugh.
6. Random Quest
Air Date: 1969-02-11
Following an explosion in a laboratory accident, physicist Colin Trafford is sent to a parallel universe where he enters into the body of his counterpart, a popular writer married to an attractive woman who hates him.
7. The Naked Sun
Air Date: 1969-02-18
Earth police detective Lije Baley and his robot associate, R. Daneel Olivaw, investigate an impossible murder on a planet where physical proximity is taboo but nudity is not.
8. The Little Black Bag
Air Date: 1969-02-25
When a down-at-heel, alcoholic physician discovers a medical kit, based on future technology, accidentally left in the wake of a time-travel expedition, he becomes a dispenser of miracle cures. But is his discovery enough to salvage his self-esteem and redeem his life?
9. 1 + 1 = 1.5
Air Date: 1969-03-04
The population of the United Kingdom at the beginning of the 21st Century is static, thanks to computerized population control, but the wife of the Population Officer becomes pregnant for the second time.
10. The Fosters
Air Date: 1969-03-11
Mr Foster and his sister live quietly in the suburbs but are not what they seem, possessing scientific knowledge far in advance of humanity.
11. Target Generation
Air Date: 1969-03-18
The Ship contains a generation, and only one inheritor knows what must be done when the tremor is felt throughout the metal cylinder.
12. The Yellow Pill
Air Date: 1969-03-25
A murderer is examined by psychiatrist John Frame who is surprised to find the criminal knows many details of his private life.
13. Get Off My Cloud
Air Date: 1969-04-01
A bed-bound SF author finds himself within one of his own fantasies after a mental breakdown.
1. Taste of Evil
Air Date: 1971-04-21
Stephen Chambers, a new master of Warby Stones school for the 'ultra-intelligent boys', finds strange things happening to him. Reason tells him that they must be linked with the boys' Psychic Phenomena Club.
2. To Lay a Ghost
Air Date: 1971-04-28
Eric and Diana Carver move into a new home in the country, but a series of strange events soon cause Diana to suspect the house is haunted by the ghost of a man. A ghost who seems to be interested in her particularly. She was sexually assaulted when she was a schoolgirl and ever since has had a complex about sex and intimacy. When they call in Dr Philmore, a paranormal expert, he suspects that Diana subconsciously wants to the dominated by this supernatural intruder.
3. This Body Is Mine
Air Date: 1971-05-05
Allen Meredith is a brilliant scientist but too mild-mannered to make an impact or fight for the money he needs. He has invented a process to exchange minds between bodies. His ambitious wife Ann persuades him to invite his boss, the domineering Jack Gregory, to their house for dinner. Once there, they drug him and Allen swaps bodies with Jack, then goes back to work to transfer millions into his account. But meanwhile Ann is finding the combination of Jack's masculine personality in Allen's body rather attractive and they begin making their own plans.
4. Deathday
Air Date: 1971-05-12
Adam Crosse is a reporter for a local paper. A neurotic under-achiever, the last straw comes when he discovers his wife Lydia is having an affair and she coolly tells him she has no intention of either giving up her lover or divorcing Adam. The top crime story of the moment is a serial murderer nicknamed "The Kitchen Killer". Adam sets out to murder his wife and blame it on this shadowy psycho.
5. The Sons and Daughters of Tomorrow
Air Date: 1971-05-19
The small East Anglian village of Plampton has one distinction - a famous unsolved murder. A cynical journalist decides to go there to see what he can stir up. But Plampton is a community linked by telepathy and led by a witch.
6. Welcome Home
Air Date: 1971-05-26
Dr Frank Bowers has been looking forward to returning home after a long stay in a psychiatric ward. But when he gets there, he finds that not only does no one recognize him, but another man called Frank Bowers is living in his place.
7. The Last Witness
Air Date: 1971-06-02
A man, Harris, wakes up in a hotel on a small island after a shipwreck. He keeps recognising flashes of what he sees, until he realises his visions are of actions yet to come - culminating in murder.
8. The Man in My Head
Air Date: 1971-06-09
A team of soldiers break into an enemy missile base. Such is the secrecy of their mission, they have been hypnotically programmed with their orders and will only remember each stage of the operation when they hear a pre-arranged signal. It seems foolproof, but gradually doubt and paranoia begin to overtake them.
9. The Chopper
Air Date: 1971-06-16
The vengeful spirit of a dead motorcyclist is reluctant to leave his wrecked machine and manifests itself to a woman journalist as motorbike noise.
10. The Uninvited
Air Date: 1971-06-23
A Middle-aged couple are disturbed during the night by a series of unwelcome visitations.
11. The Shattered Eye
Air Date: 1971-06-30
A chance meeting with an old tramp brings a violent force into a young painter's like.
Select an episode to start watching
Rating
6.8/10
Release Date
1965-10-04
Episodes
49 (4 seasons)
Status
Ended