The Outer Limits The Special One (1963–1965) watch online HD

Guess what. Once again a force from outer space is setting things up for an invasion. This time they are targeting bright kids and teaching them to produce what is necessary to allow this to take place. We are treated immediately to the powers of these aliens as a man who disagrees with what is being done to his son, is driven to suicide by telekinesis of some sort. Moving from Los Angeles to the east coast, they hone in on a young boy who lives in a nice apartment in what may be New York. Mr. Xeno, who looks like a big time lawyer, begins to instruct the young man in all manner of chemistry, mathematics, and physics. Apparently, this is taking place all over the world and these kids will become cannon fodder for the aliens who need them to change the earth's climate to one favorable to their needs. The story focuses on the father, who is torn between what is best for his son (an incredible education) and the secretive nature of the process. Xeno. shows up at all hours, spending time with the kid in his room (Holy possible child abuse, Batman!). They are developing machines that are amazing. The kid can even walk through walls (just like our Mr. Xeno). They also are able to lay a layer of frost on the contents of the room. Finally, the father has had enough, but when he goes to the authorities, he sounds like a nut. It all comes down to when the alien force must do away with him as they have done with other parents before. This is quite an intriguing episode. By the way, the mother (who is utterly dense and tiresome) is played by Marion Ross from "Happy Days."

Richard Ney stars as Mr. Zeno, a self-described tutorial emissary from the government who has chosen a child science prodigy named Kenny Benjamin(played by Flip Mark) for his help, but his father(played by Macdonald Carey) grows increasingly suspicious about Mr. Zeno, and these fears are later confirmed when he sees him seemingly disappear into thin air! Turns out that Zeno is really an alien who has tutored other children to aid him and his species in their effort to take over the world, and also dealt with at least one other father in a harsh manner. Will Kenny be helped in time by his father, or does he already have things under control? Straightforward story is a bit protracted(especially the finale) but is still reasonably interesting, with a nice character twist at the end.

An evil alien teacher wants to help an earth boy.

Another IMDb poster has found hidden homosexual ideas (between the kid and the adult) in the storyline of this episode. I must admit none of that entered my mind when watching this hour but it is always fun trying to read stuff into a series like The Outer Limits. There is no question the series loved sticking in hidden ideas.

The Special One might not be a favourite of mine but it is a bit different to the usual Outer Limits hours and there is the odd moment that really shines. The variety of settings/characters in this series is outstanding!

The introduction to this episode was fantastic--starry and thrilling to watch. I also loved the teleportation--very effective despite a very small budget. The only problem is that it let you know then and there that Mr. Xeno was a BAD man---a very, very bad man indeed! In hindsight, I think it might have worked better had this only been revealed later in the show--to give it suspense. Still, it's one of the best episodes of the series.

Mr. Xeno then arrives at the home of a couple (MacDonald Carey and Marion Ross) and introduced himself as a special tutor sent by the government to work with their genius son. They agree but after some time, the father is a bit concerned--weird sounds are emanating from his kid's room and Mr. Xeno just seems to 'pop in' with no notice. Later, however, the father realizes Xeno is not human. The problem is, no one believes him, his son has now been pitted against him and there is some evil brewing. What's next? See this one for yourself.

All in all, there isn't much to dislike about this one. Fine acting, exceptional writing and a story that keeps you on edge--this is one to see.

UPDATE: I just saw an old episode of "Tales of Tomorrow" (available through the public domain at archive.org) that was VERY much like "The Special One"! In fact, it would appear to have inspired this "Outer Limits" episode. Try watching "Many Happy Returns"--you'll see what I mean that it seems to have inspired this show a decade later.

***SPOILERS*** We first get a look at this Mr. Zeno or Xeno, Richard Ney, as he has one of the outraged parents of one of the bright science students he's tutoring Mr. Turner, played by the Danny Thomas look-alike Jason Wingreen, being made or forces, with his super brain power, to jump out the window and fall to his death some 15 floors below. It's now that Mr. Zeno zeros in on his next victim young 14 year old science whiz kid Kenny Benjamin, Flip Mark, to be his next experiment. Telling the Benjamin's Roy & Agnas, McDonald Carey & Marion Ross, he was sent by the US Government to tutor their gifted son in higher mathematics as well as quantum physics Mr.Zeno makes himself at home at the Benjamin house coming and going whenever he pleases! It's Mr. Roy Benjamin who smells something very fishy about this Mr. Zeno at first feeling that he may well be a pedophile using the excuse of tutoring Kenny in order to take advantage of his ignorance of male or even female sexual predators. That's by him looking to corrupt the unsuspecting youth as well as get his rocks or jollies off by doing it!

It later comes out that Mr. Zeno is an alien from outer space who's planning to use bright high-school students like Kenny to help his fellow Zenusions or space aliens, from the planet Zenith, to take over the world! What's even worse this Mr. Zeno seems to have the helpless Kenny completely under his control who in fact rebels against his dad Roy Benjamin in trying to have him detached himself from Mr. Zeno's diabolical plans for world conquest.

***SPOILERS*** As it turns out Kenny has been on to this Mr. Zeno right from the start and is using the knowledge of higher science that he's teaching him to later use against him when the time is right to use it. That comes when Mr. Zeno seeing that Roy Benjiman and his wife are finally on to him that when he plans to, with his mental powers, off them that Kenny goes into action. That's by Kenny putting an end to him and his fellow space aliens' plans of world conquest with what looked like a hurricane of, I kid you not, pillow feathers that disarms, by naturalizing him brain waves ,and totally freaks him out!

Whatever it may be about on the surface, "The Special One" attempts to evoke fear and loathing by exploiting the anxiety of 1960s Middle American viewers about sexual predators and specifically the presumed homosexual "recruitment" of teenagers by older men. Watch the show with the sound off, and just observe what is going on in that household, where a strange man is visiting the 14-year-old son in his room at all hours of the day and night while the father becomes increasingly uneasy. Or just listen to the language, as Mr. Xenon tells his superiors that he will "penetrate" his new recruit (young Kenny), and later reports that Kenny has been very "receptive."

There's much more in this double-entendre vein, to the extent that I wish Schow & Frentzen had seen this subtext before they interviewed the makers of the show for The Outer Limits Companion; did the filmmakers consciously seed the episode with homophobia, or did they do so unconsciously? It's easy to forget just how ubiquitous was America's paranoia of the atheist-communist-homosexual "other" at the time; "fag villains" were blatantly prominent in many movies and novels, and more covertly so on TV, where all such references had to be carefully coded.

The episode is brilliantly (and hilariously) deconstructed in an essay titled "Outer Limits: What's It All About?" by Lonely Dreamer, originally published in Liquid Cheese magazine, Issue #8, Winter, 1998/99. (Search and you can find it online.) While straightforwardly cataloging the show's subtext, Lonely Dreamer also engages in some impish satirizing of deconstruction itself; some of his more OTT observations are clearly tongue-in-cheek, but the thrust of his argument is quite...penetrating.