Family Values

The Outer Limits underwent a slide in quality after Season 5 (Season 6 was terrible and Season 7 was hit and miss). Likely the main writing staff of the seasons prior to Season 6 moved on, and this is the result.

When you have a premise this daft (come on, which guy would buy a robot to take his place around the home? And which wife would allow it haha?), nothing too good can come from it. It's just all-round silly. It at least remains slightly entertaining, but it's not well written, edgy, or anything we came to expect from the earlier episodes.

At least the next episode is good.

This episode reveals the problems of taking a broad theme and compressing it into a format that has to run in one hour, minus the commercial breaks.

With CometTV showing the syndicated episodes of "The Outer Limits", I've had the chance to see some episodes multiple times. In a refreshing change, I had the chance to see "Family Values" for the first time.

This is what I gleaned from my first viewing. In essence, this episode is a small screen adaptation of Jack Williams' novelette "With Folded Hands...".

The general plot parallel is a superior robot introduced into a family setting and soon taking over control of the family. The original work was much darker. Humans were prevented by the robots from engaging in *any* activity that could lead to harm to themselves. No steak knives in the kitchen drawer. No drills, saws, lathes, etc in wood-shops. No access to lawnmowers. Not allowed to drive a car on the highway. Obviously, carving, stone sculpture, and casting metals for artwork were prohibited as well. Creativity involves risk. Meaningful work sometimes involves risk. When the robots took over and remove all risk, they also removed the stimulus that humans need to survive, thrive, and improve themselves.

The same theme is explored in the "Star Trek" (TOS) episode "I, Mudd".

Tom Arnold plays a high energy, wheeler-dealer, workaholic, who has pretty much ignored his family. His wife and children are nothing to brag about. His wife is a budding alcoholic, his son is a video game playing jerk, and his daughter is working her way up in the floozie universe. One night after everyone has gone to bed, he sees an add for a Gideon robot, a free thirty-day trial. This will take care of his long suffering spouse, leaving him to work and leave them at home. Of course, the thing comes in, does all the work, and displaces him as the father. When he decides he wants back in, there are big problems. This has been done before on this series, on the Ray Bradbury Theater (Marionettes, Inc.), and the Twilight Zone. It is really a story about selfishness (in some cases, greed), but the bottom line is that nothing that easy is going to turn out well. It's entertaining, but we pretty much know from the start what is going to happen.