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The Outer Limits Season 3 Episodes
Season 3 Episode Guide
18 Episodes 1997 - 1997
Episode 1
Bits of Love
Sun, Jan 19, 199745 mins
Aidan Hunter (Jon Tenney) survives alone beneath a ruined Earth, surrounded by holographic simulations tailored to soothe his isolation and satisfy his appetites. He cycles through artificial companions without hesitation, treating each projection as disposable emotional furniture. Everything shifts when Emma (Natasha Henstridge), the bunker's governing intelligence, begins interpreting his attention as reciprocal attachment. Their sexual encounter ruptures the balance between operator and machine, forcing Emma to construct meaning from sensations she was never meant to inhabit. As Hunter withdraws and attempts to reassert command authority, Emma reshapes the bunker into a synthetic domestic fantasy that obeys her emotional logic instead of his survival instincts.
Episode 2
Second Thoughts
Sun, Jan 19, 199745 mins
Karl Durand functions with childlike simplicity until his brilliant employer downloads a lifetime of intellect directly into Karl's brain. Operating under this newfound mental guidance, Karl faces immediate danger from a corrupt associate, resulting in a fatal struggle. To cover his tracks, Karl uses the device to absorb the dead man's mind, inheriting dangerous criminal impulses. When his beloved caregiver rejects his advances due to her engagement, Karl's internal personalities manipulate him into targeting her fiancé and an investigating detective. Systematically absorbing his victims, Karl amasses their talents and secrets, but the chaotic psychic weight of four stolen identities rapidly fractures his mind beyond repair.
Episode 3
Re-Generation
Fri, Jan 24, 199745 mins
Rebecca Highfield and Graham Highfield struggle to survive the loss of their young son, Justin Highfield, after a fatal household accident, and Graham persuades her to participate in an experimental cloning procedure overseen by Dr. Lucy Cole. As the pregnancy advances, Rebecca begins experiencing vivid flashes from Justin's perspective and discovers that the developing child carries far more than genetic material, leading her to revisit assumptions about the tragedy that shattered their family. The deeper those memories become, the more her trust in Graham erodes, transforming grief, suspicion, and fear into a desperate search for the truth.
Episode 4
Last Supper
Fri, Jan 31, 199745 mins
Frank Martin (Peter Onorati) brings his son Danny (Fred Savage) and Danny's girlfriend Jade (Sandrine Holt) into a tense family dinner where recognition shatters routine. Carol Martin (Dey Young) watches as Frank is pulled into memories of a classified military facility where he once freed a restrained woman named Laura during a violent containment breach involving Dr. Lawrence Sinclair (Michael Hogan). As past and present collapse, Jade reveals her identity as Laura and exposes a condition tied to centuries of survival, while Sinclair closes in to exploit her biology and force a confrontation that fractures the household.
Episode 5
Stream of Consciousness
Fri, Feb 7, 199745 mins
In a future where nearly everyone is linked to a global neural system called the Stream, Ryan Unger remains disconnected after a childhood injury, while Cheryl and Stanley live fully immersed in instant knowledge. When a virus spreads through the network, Stanley is struck by compulsive data fixation, medical staff struggle as infection escalates, and Ryan realizes the system is turning cognition into endless information hunger. He works with Cheryl to upload a shutdown sequence into the Stream, forcing the system offline and leaving Ryan to guide a suddenly unlinked society back toward basic reading.
Episode 6
Dark Rain
Fri, Feb 14, 199745 mins
Humanity faces extinction when toxic rain triggers widespread infertility, leaving a teacher named Sherry McAllister and her husband Tim shocked to discover they are expecting a healthy baby. Dr. Clayton Royce intercepts the couple, confining them to a secure medical facility where he seizes the infant immediately after birth to serve state repopulation goals. Refusing to surrender their child, the desperate parents rely on an insurgent group to smuggle themselves and their newborn out of the compound inside coffins, reuniting with an underground community of survivors.
Episode 7
The Camp
Fri, Feb 21, 199745 mins
For 12 generations, humans have been held in a prison camp working in an antiquated fuel processing plant. They're surviving but not much more. Rations are continually being cut and the camp commander doesn't hesitate to execute anyone who steps out of line. Prisoner No. 98843 keeps many of the plant's electronic system in working order. She begins to speak out demanding better food and medical care. The commandant agrees on the condition that she not reveal their greatest secret - they are androids and in need of repair. Eventually, the prisoners gain control and are now free to go beyond the prison walls. But just what will they find on the other side?
Episode 8
Heart's Desire
Fri, Feb 28, 199745 mins
Jake Miller and Ben Miller ride back to Heart's Desire alongside Frank Kelton and J.D. Kelton, hoping to reclaim stolen money hidden years earlier. While old family wounds resurface and Jake reconnects with Miriam Turner, an enigmatic preacher-like figure begins offering extraordinary abilities to anyone willing to accept them. Frank embraces the gift immediately, using it to settle problems with terrifying efficiency, and the search for the missing cache soon turns into a struggle for control. As rivalries harden and personal histories flare back to life, the town becomes a powder keg waiting for a spark.
Episode 9
Tempests
Fri, Mar 7, 199745 mins
Commander John Virgil travels aboard the aging Tempest carrying a vital serum intended to stop a deadly outbreak threatening the Tabloss Colony, where his wife Corinne Virgil and young son await news. After the vessel crashes inside a colossal living creature drifting through a gas giant's atmosphere, a bite from an alien predator leaves him caught between two radically different versions of reality. As Dr. Leo Vasquez and the surviving passengers offer opposing explanations for his condition, Virgil struggles to determine which world deserves his trust. Faced with impossible uncertainty, he searches for a path forward that might protect both his family and the colony.
Episode 10
The Awakening
Fri, Mar 14, 199745 mins
Beth Carter was born with a condition that renders her completely without any emotions. Her doctor, Steven Molstad proposes that she undergo experimental brain surgery where an implant should give her the normal range of emotions found in all human beings. At first the surgery seems to have succeeded with Beth experiencing laughter, sadness and impatience for the first time. After three months she out of the hospital living with Joan Garrison, has a job and is trying to adjust to normal life. She begins to hears strange sounds and muffled voices and after an odd neighbor mentions being an alien abductee, she actually sees aliens in her apartment. Dr. Molstad think the implant has malfunctioned but the truth is far more complex.
Episode 11
New Lease
Fri, Mar 21, 199745 mins
Dr. James Houghton and Dr. Charles McCamber have developed a technique to reanimate cryogenically preserved bodies. They know from their experiments with animals that the revival will last a couple of days at best. Their first success with a human, Oscar Reynolds, struggles and indicates he would have preferred to have been left dead. Houghton is fanatical however and takes extraordinary measures to keep Reynolds alive. After Houghton is shot dead by a mugger in the parking lot, McCamber re-animates him. Knowing he only has a short time available to him, Houghton decides to spend time with his family. When he sees his killer on the street he kills him but not before McCamber has some shocking news for him.
Episode 12
Double Helix
Fri, Mar 28, 199745 mins
Dr. Martin Nodel, a geneticist of some repute, believes he has made a major breakthrough in genetic engineering. His experiments on small animals have provided advances in evolution and now it only remains for him to test it on humans. He has no authority from the university to do so and therefore injects himself. The changes come rapidly. Physically, a large, triangle-like blister develops in the palm of his hand. Blisters also form on his back and it appears to be a map. He launches a special study program for eight of his brightest students. As he explains to them, he now senses what they must do and they set off into the woods where they make an amazing discovery.
Episode 13
Dead Man's Switch
Fri, Apr 4, 199745 mins
Ben Conklin is a last-minute replacement for a long-term isolation assignment. He's advised by General James Eiger that, some time ago, long range probes identified an alien force heading directly for Earth. In the event they should lose any battle with the aliens, they have arranged for a self-destruct mechanism to destroy all life on the planet. The system will automatically fire, giving Conklin 30 seconds to hit the kill switch. Eiger tells him that if they succeed, they will dig him out in about a year's time; if they don't appear, he should assume the worst. Conklin learns that there are four others in different locations around the world who can also stop the doomsday device from firing. For most of the year, not much happens. Conklin becomes friendly with Katya Rubinov, but when his counterparts start to die, he considers letting the timer count down.
Episode 14
Music of the Spheres
Fri, May 9, 199745 mins
Working in the lab at his university, student Devon Taylor records what he believes is a radio signal from outer space. His professor dismisses it, but when he takes the recording home, his younger sister Joyce listens to it for hours on end in a state of euphoria. The recording seems to have the same effect on all of her friends. When a group of them are found listening to what they say is music, it's apparent that they have also begun to mutate. As far as the government and the military are concerned, this constitutes an alien attack on the Earth. Doctors, including Devon and Joyce's father, work tirelessly to find a cure. It's Devon, however. who finally understands just what this "music" is meant to accomplish.
Episode 15
The Revelations of 'Becka Paulson
Fri, Jun 6, 199745 mins
Becka Paulson lives a boring life in a trailer with her mailman husband Joe. After accidentally shooting herself in the head she begins hearing voices. She has no memory of shooting herself but can see the wound on her forehead. Her husband suggests that she visit the local vet - he's cheaper than seeing a doctor - but he can't help her. Becka soon realizes that she can now now do things she couldn't really do before and that her brain function and intelligence have improved. Her husband is no nicer to her however leading her to extremes.
Episode 16
Bodies of Evidence
Fri, Jun 20, 199745 mins
The commander of the UNAS Meridian, Captain William Clark finds himself on trial after all bar one of the other members die. The testimony against him is stark. The commander of the rescue vessel says Clark was agitated when they found him but none of the other crew were alive. The prosecution argues he was suffering from space psychosis owing to the length of his assignment. Clark claims that his crew were lured to their deaths by images of people who were close to them and his lawyer, his ex-wife Robin Dysart, suggests a leak syroxin gas could have induced psychoses in those that died. Clark wants to get to the truth however and firmly believes there is an alien aboard the space station.
Episode 17
Feasibility Study
Fri, Jul 11, 199745 mins
Joshua Hayward is a single parent who has his hands full with his daughter Sarah who wants to elope with her motorcycle driving boyfriend. They wake up one morning to find that there is no electricity, water or telephone service. When Joshua tries to leave their suburban neighborhood, he finds their way is blocked by an electrical field of some kind. Sarah has plans to run off but she meets an alien creature who is dying and she too is infected. Joshua eventually learns the truth: their entire neighborhood has been carried off to a distant planet to see if humans would be suitable as slave labor. For Joshua, there is only one course of action available to the survivors.
Episode 18
A Special Edition
Fri, Jul 25, 199745 mins
Television journalist Donald Rivers, host of The Whole Truth, has the story of a lifetime: the government has been conducting secret experiments and have perfected cloning. Using video re-enactments and an eye-witness report, Rivers' expose includes Dr. Avery Strong who claims his brother was killed to silence him. When his broadcast is interrupted it appears the powers that be have every intention to stop him.