The Man Who Was Never Born

Infobox Television episode
Title = The Man Who Was Never Born
Series = The Outer Limits


Caption =
Season = 1
Episode = 6
Airdate = October 28, 1963
Production = 12
Writer = Anthony Lawrence
Director = Leonard Horn
Photographer = Conrad Hall
Guests = Martin Landau
Shirley Knight
Episode list = List of "The Outer Limits" episodes
Prev = The Sixth Finger
Next = O.B.I.T.

"The Man Who Was Never Born" is an episode of the original "The Outer Limits" television show. It first aired on 28 October, 1963, during the first season.

Introduction

An astronaut returning to Earth finds himself flung 200 years into the future, where he finds the mutated remnants of humanity living on a ruined Earth.

Opening narration

Plot

The astronaut, Joseph Reardon, lands on Earth only to find it a desolate and barren place. He meets Andro, a grotesque-looking creature who reveals that the year is now 2148 and the astronaut is almost 200 years into the future. Andro is one of the few survivors of a biological disaster brought on by a scientist called Bertram Cabot Jr.

Andro explains the situation and Reardon decides to see if he can return to his own time... and take Andro with him to show the future, and perhaps avoid it. While returning through the time rift, Reardon mysteriously vanishes from the capsule, leaving Andro to find a way to prevent his disastrous future from occurring. Andro uses his ability to immediately hypnotise anyone into seeing him as a normal human, and begins searching for some way to stop Cabot's work — even if it means, as a last resort, killing him.

It becomes clear that he has arrived too early. Bertram Cabot Jr. hasn't been born yet, and in fact his parents Noelle and Bertram Cabot Sr. are just about to be married. Andro, in his "human" guise, attempts to convince Cabot that he should not marry Noelle — with no success.

Andro begins to fall in love with Noelle. While attempting to kill Cabot with a revolver, he hesitates, is assaulted, and Andro's true appearance is discovered, resulting in his being forced to flee. Noelle follows him, and he explains his mission. Meanwhile Noelle confesses that she has fallen in love with Andro. She convinces him to take her with him to the future, thereby avoiding any possibility that she and Cabot will have a child. Unfortunately Andro disappears just as the ship arrives in "his" time — as he is "The Man Who Was Never Born".

According to David J. Schow, there's an alternate, less harrowing ending featuring an extra character: the old man (Jack Raine).

Closing narration

Cast

* Martin Landau – as Andro
* Shirley Knight – as Noelle Anderson
* Karl Held – as Joseph Reardon
* John Considine – as Bertram Cabot
* Maxine Stuart – as Mrs. McCluskey

External links

* [http://membres.lycos.fr/tmcr/daystar/tol_s1/tol_eps06.shtml Detailed episode guide] by 'Monsieur Vincent'
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