BFI DVD, out now

The sole remaining episode of this classic series plus some other treats.

Out Of This World was an anthology SF series created for the Associated British Corporation (ABC) in 1962. Like its progenitor, Armchair Theatre, it takes the typical American 1950s anthology route of having a host introduce each story; in this case, Boris Karloff. Thirteen episodes were produced, two original stories (by Terry Nation and Richard Waring), and eleven adaptations of classic SF stories from the likes of John Wyndham, Philip K Dick, and Cliff Simak.

Little Lost Robot itself is the only surviving episode, the second made, adapted by Leo Lehman from the famed Asimov short story.

Maxine Audley’s Susan Calvin is sent to a space station near Saturn to identify a humanoid slave robot which has had its brain modified, and has been hiding among its identical fellows (a sequence later used in the 2004 film I Robot) since being ordered to “get lost.” Overall the story is very faithful to the original, focusing on the Frankenstein complex of man’s creations going awry, and making good use of the original story’s legendary Three Laws Of Robotics. In this case, the robot’s First Law of behaviours has been shortened to “must never harm a human” from Must never harm, or through inaction allow to be harmed.”

The performances are all very good, with Audley making an only slightly more vulnerable Susan Calvin than her literary counterpart, bumping up against an antagonistic Gerald Flood. Direction is also good, making fine use of limited sets in a cramped studio. And preventing much in the way of scenery chewing from the actors. In fact it’s quite surprising how well all the performers keep it serious, despite the tradition to view the genre as one for children. Then again, this was made for a 10 pm time slot. Karloff’s introduction is rather sad, though, stumbling over some of the words, and not seeming in the best of health.

Production-wise, the sets make good use of the limited space, though their reliance on 1950s technology has dated them, and the reduction of the number of robots in the story from 64 to 20 still leaves plenty of them on screen – more than Doctor Who would have managed at the time. On the other hand, the robots themselves are less successful. Though their heads are suitably strange and creepy, the rest of the costumes are, well, cardboard, from the looks of them. In fact they make your cheapest Doctor Who equivalent look like a masterpiece of costume and effects solidity, and force the performers wearing them into a really strange wobbly walk. They’re really the only downside to the episode, however, and so it’s still well worth watching, especially if you’re a fan of the original story.

In terms of archive quality, there are two versions of the episode on the disc, one simply “remastered” in whatever form, and the other VidFIREd as per many classic Doctor Who DVDs. Both are watchable, and probably better than it looked on original transmission.

There is a commentary with producer Leonard White and TV historian Mark Ward (who wrote a book about the series in 2004), which covers a lot points about the early days of television; more so than about the episode itself, though White does establish that it was apparently not that representative of the series as a whole.

The DVD also includes audio versions of two lost episodes (Cold Equations, dramatised by Clive Exton, and Philip K Dick’s Impostor, adapted by Terry Nation), which are interesting in places, but suffer from a lack of linking narration to let us know what’s happening on screen, plus a PDF of the script of the pilot episode, Dumb Martian. This originally aired as part of Armchair Theatre, and was followed by an epilogue from Karloff announcing that a full series of such stories was about to begin.

Verdict: A nice little treat; a rarity over half a century old, which, while probably not so attractive to a general audience, is a worthwhile viewing for fans of vintage genre TV, and indeed for fans of Asimov’s golden age classic robot stories, and the extras make the disc good value for money as well.  7/10

David A. McIntee