The Gift

Description: Season 3, Episode 32

Air Date: April 27, 1962

Plot Summary: A quiet, little town, in the middle of nowhere, encounters and misunderstands the intentions of an alien.

Review: That plot summary pretty much sums up the entire episode in a nutshell. There really isn't much going on in this episode, and it's probably one of the worst when all things are considered. Although the message is commendable, and still relevant, it's not handled properly. Essentially, all that happens is a conveniently human-looking alien shows up on Earth--in Mexico to be precise-but is shot by a small town cop. Somehow the alien and the cop had a misunderstanding of sorts and the alien kills the dumbass cop. This isn't Han vs. Greedo here so I don't care who shot first. To fill the episode out a bit, they throw in a bullshit plot line about a little boy also being an alien (or whatever the hell that was about). Well, the kid's dialogue is delivered as if he's from another planet so there's that. Eventually the military, or whoever, shows up to take care of this feeble threat. Like idiots, they blow the alien away without listening to the reason behind his coming to Earth. Once the alien is dead, a doctor looks at a booklet-esque item that was intended as the titular gift. As it would turn out, the alien was bringing the cure for cancer as a peace offering (yeah, okaaaaaay), but these simpletons killed him too hastily. Ehhhh...it's a nice attempt, but there was, maybe, enough material for like 5 minutes; they dragged this one out that's for sure. If I recall correctly, the '90s version of "The Outer Limits" touched on this subject more thoroughly and less predictably. I'm really surprised this episode sucked this much as TZ infamously was always trying to save money with as few extras as possible. Did they think this episode's story was worth the extra money?!