The BEST episodes of The Outer Limits

Every episode of The Outer Limits ever, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of The Outer Limits!

Tending toward the hard science, space travel, time travel, and human evolution it tries to examine in each show some form of the question, "What is the nature of man?"

Last Updated: 12/7/2024Network: ABC (US)Status: Ended
Demon with a Glass Hand
star
8.71
72 votes

#1 - Demon with a Glass Hand

Season 2 - Episode 5 - Aired 10/17/1964

An amnesiac with a strange glass hand is pursued by alien assassins as he seeks the key to his true identity.

Directors: Byron Haskin
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ZZZZZ
star
7.93
119 votes

#2 - ZZZZZ

Season 1 - Episode 18 - Aired 1/27/1964

A queen bee with sinister intentions assumes human form in order to seek out the perfect mate.

Directors: John Brahm
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
Second Chance
star
7.79
62 votes

#3 - Second Chance

Season 1 - Episode 23 - Aired 3/2/1964

Believing that they're going on a mere carnival ride, a crew of discontented dreamers unknowingly boards a space ship bound to save the future of the human race.

Directors: Paul Stanley
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
The Man Who Was Never Born
star
7.71
153 votes

#4 - The Man Who Was Never Born

Season 1 - Episode 6 - Aired 10/28/1963

A horribly mutated man from Earth's bleak future travels back in time in an attempt to alter the past and save mankind from its hideous fate.

Directors: Leonard J. Horn
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
I, Robot
star
7.60
88 votes

#5 - I, Robot

Season 2 - Episode 9 - Aired 11/14/1964

A grotesque, but gentle, robot is put on trial for the murder of his creator.

Directors: Leon Benson
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
The Bellero Shield
star
7.55
125 votes

#6 - The Bellero Shield

Season 1 - Episode 20 - Aired 2/10/1964

An ambitious scientist, with hopes of taking over his father's corporation, creates a laser that inadvertently brings a gentle alien to earth.

Directors: John Brahm
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
Specimen: Unknown
star
7.45
123 votes

#7 - Specimen: Unknown

Season 1 - Episode 22 - Aired 2/24/1964

The crew aboard a space station investigates the death of a young lieutenant and uncovers a strange and deadly new life form.

Directors: Gerd Oswald
Writer: Stephen Lord
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The Inheritors Part II
star
7.40
30 votes

#8 - The Inheritors Part II

Season 2 - Episode 11 - Aired 11/28/1964

An investigation reveals a desperate plan involving the construction of a spaceship and a group of special children.

Directors: James Goldstone
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
The Zanti Misfits
star
7.32
84 votes

#9 - The Zanti Misfits

Season 1 - Episode 14 - Aired 12/30/1963

Exils from the planet Zanti arrive on Earth, and a startling truth is uncovered when two human renegades invade their privacy.

Directors: Leonard J. Horn
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
Soldier
star
7.31
74 votes

#10 - Soldier

Season 2 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/19/1964

A soldier who knows nothing but killing and warfare struggles to adapt when he is transported back in time to a more peaceful era.

Directors: Gerd Oswald
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
The Guests
star
7.30
30 votes

#11 - The Guests

Season 1 - Episode 26 - Aired 3/23/1964

Trapped in a mansion run by a mysterious alien being, a pair of young lovers discovers that eternal life comes at a great cost.

Directors: Paul Stanley
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
The Children of Spider County
star
7.29
143 votes

#12 - The Children of Spider County

Season 1 - Episode 21 - Aired 2/17/1964

A powerful alien from the planet Eros returns to Earth to rescue and claim his son who has been charged with murder.

Directors: Leonard J. Horn
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
Don't Open Till Doomsday
star
7.27
156 votes

#13 - Don't Open Till Doomsday

Season 1 - Episode 17 - Aired 1/20/1964

A young couple's honeymoon is cut short by the horrifying contents of a mysterious box.

Directors: Gerd Oswald
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
Controlled Experiment
star
7.26
124 votes

#14 - Controlled Experiment

Season 1 - Episode 16 - Aired 1/13/1964

Two Martians conduct an investigation at the scene of a murder to try to determine why humans kill one another.

Directors: Leslie Stevens
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
The Galaxy Being
star
7.17
250 votes

#15 - The Galaxy Being

Season 1 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/16/1963

A radio station engineer named Allan Maxwell establishes contact with an alien being. But when the station's power is turned up, the alien is teleported to Earth, where its radioactive nature causes havoc.

Directors: Leslie Stevens
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
Cold Hands, Warm Heart
star
7.16
119 votes

#16 - Cold Hands, Warm Heart

Season 2 - Episode 2 - Aired 9/26/1964

After returning from a mission to Venus, an astronaut can't seem to stay warm enough and has strange dreams about encountering a wraith-like being outside his spaceship window.

Directors: Charles Haas
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
The Invisibles
star
7.16
150 votes

#17 - The Invisibles

Season 1 - Episode 19 - Aired 2/3/1964

A government agent infiltrates a secret criminal organization that uses repulsive alien parasites to control its members.

Directors: Gerd Oswald
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
Keeper of the Purple Twilight
star
7.14
49 votes

#18 - Keeper of the Purple Twilight

Season 2 - Episode 12 - Aired 12/5/1964

An alien offers his technical knowledge of how to build a ray gun in exchange for a scientist's ability to feel emotions.

Directors: Charles Haas
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
The Sixth Finger
star
7.14
161 votes

#19 - The Sixth Finger

Season 1 - Episode 5 - Aired 10/14/1963

There are unforeseen consequences when a brilliant but guilt-ridden scientist performs an evolutionary enhancement procedure on an embittered miner.

Directors: James Goldstone
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
A Feasibility Study
star
7.10
58 votes

#20 - A Feasibility Study

Season 1 - Episode 29 - Aired 4/13/1964

The people of Earth surprise their alien captors when an entire neighborhood is transported to another planet as part of a plan to enslave the human race.

Directors: Byron Haskin
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
Counterweight
star
7.08
49 votes

#21 - Counterweight

Season 2 - Episode 14 - Aired 12/26/1964

An alien invader unleashes fear and panic aboard a simulated flight to a distant planet.

Directors: Paul Stanley
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
Expanding Human
star
7.07
81 votes

#22 - Expanding Human

Season 2 - Episode 4 - Aired 10/10/1964

A consciousness-expanding drug provides a professor with superhuman abilities and endangers the lives of his associates.

Directors: Gerd Oswald
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
It Crawled Out of the Woodwork
star
7.07
42 votes

#23 - It Crawled Out of the Woodwork

Season 1 - Episode 11 - Aired 12/9/1963

An incredible being made of pure energy imperils the staff of a research lab and hides a deadly secret.

Directors: Gerd Oswald
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
The Premonition
star
7.06
48 votes

#24 - The Premonition

Season 2 - Episode 16 - Aired 1/9/1965

An out-of-control test flight traps a pilot and his wife in a slow-moving time warp, and they're not alone.

Directors: Gerd Oswald
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
Behold Eck!
star
7.06
89 votes

#25 - Behold Eck!

Season 2 - Episode 3 - Aired 10/3/1964

The fate of the Earth is at stake when an optometrist discovers special lenses which enable him to see a frightening, and otherwise invisible, two-dimensional creature.

Directors: Byron Haskin
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV