The Special One (The Outer Limits)

"The Special One"

The Outer Limits episode

Episode no.

Season 1
Episode 28

Directed by

Gerd Oswald

Written by

Oliver Crawford

Cinematography by

Kenneth Peach

Production code

Original air date

April 6, 1964

Guest appearances

Episode chronology

← Previous
"Fun and Games"

Next →
"A Feasibility Study"

List of episodes

"The Special One" is an episode of the original The Outer Limits television show. It first aired on 6 April 1964, during the first season.

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Transcription

Introduction

A man confronts Mr. Zeno, a mysterious educator who seems to have alienated his son's affections. Mr. Zeno apparently uses his mental ability to make the man jump out of the window against his will.

Plot

Roy Benjamin and his wife, Aggie, are delighted, but puzzled when they meet Mr. Zeno, who explains that he is a government educator sent to cultivate the mind of their gifted son, Kenny. Roy becomes worried, however, when he discovers that Kenny is learning things that are not accepted by earthly science, including a device given to Kenny by Mr. Zeno that has the ability to control weather patterns. When Roy discovers that the government's Educational Enrichment program knows nothing about Mr. Zeno, he confronts the educator, only to discover that he is an alien, re-educating children in a plot to take over the world. Kenny now has super-human knowledge, and even possesses a few mental powers, having seemingly become loyal to the alien. Nonetheless, it is revealed in the end that Kenny knew of Mr. Zeno's plans since the beginning (Zeno having believed children to be more easily impressionable and more gullible than adults), and decided to feign loyalty in order to better thwart them. Managing to render the alien powerless by using the sound-wave-powered weather machine against him, removing the essential element from the atmosphere that would enable his kind to survive on Earth, Kenny forces Mr. Zeno to retreat back to his homeworld, Venon, thus ruining the alien's plans of conquest.

Closing narration

The mold of a man stems from the mind of a child. Educators and emperors have known this from time immemorial. So have tyrants.

Cast

Richard Ney – as Mr. Zeno
Flip Mark – as Kenny Benjamin
Macdonald Carey – as Roy Benjamin
Marion Ross – as Agnes "Aggie" Benjamin
Edward Platt – as Mr. Terrence
Jason Wingreen – as Bill Turner
Bert Freed – as Joe Hayden

Notes

This episode has no opening narration.

The pre-title sequence for this episode is not a "teaser" preview of an upcoming scene, but a unique introductory sequence. It was written by Joseph Stefano to lengthen the running time of the show, which came up short.^[1]