THE GALAXY BEING Directed by Leslie Stevens Written by Leslie Stevens Allan Maxwell owns and operates a radio station. He sacrifices his station's transmitting power to send signals to outer space. By feeding the signals he receives through a television circuit, he is able to construct a three-dimensional image of the radio waves. One day, without warning, a new image takes shape on his screen — he is communicating with a creature from deep in another galaxy. Allan is called away from the transmitter by his wife, Carol, though he promises the creature he will return. In his absence, Eddie, a substitute disk jockey, goes on the air and turns the station's power up. The creature is drawn across space and time and materializes on Earth. Anxious to find Maxwell, the being begins to search the town. Although its intent is peaceful, its powerful radiation can burn and destroy anything in its path. The creature finds Maxwell and they return together to the broadcasting shed. By now, the police and army have been alerted. They surround the shed and threaten to destroy Maxwell, his wife and his new-found friend. The creature tells Maxwell that by the rules of its own people, it can't go home; but, by turning down the station's power, it can release its own mass and disintegrate. Thus the creature makes the ultimate sacrifice, giving up its life. But the people of Earth have learned a new lesson — there are inscrutable and profound powers in the universe, and that everyone must learn to live together if the world is to survive. NOTES: Cliff Robertson would go on to win an Oscar for his lead role in the SF movie Charly (1968) and to play Peter Parker's Uncle Ben in Spider-Man. His performance as he talks to the Galaxy Being is particularly earnest and compelling. The alien is played primarily by William O. Douglas Jr., the son of the former Supreme Court Chief Justice, who is dressed in a dark skin-diver's outfit (projected in negative) that covered in glycerin with lights flashed on the black surface to yield the ever shifting cosmic light patterns. Douglas would go on to play more creatures inhabiting The Outer Limits. (Original Airdate: September 16, 1963) STARRING Cliff Robertson (Allan Maxwell), Jacqueline Scott (Carol Maxwell), William O. Douglas Jr. & Charles MacQuarry (The Andromedan Being), Lee Phillips (Gene "Buddy" Maxwell), Burt Metcalfe (Eddie), Allyson Ames (Loreen), Roy Sickner (Caretaker Collins), James Rawley (State Trooper), Bill Catching (National Guard Major), Allen Pinson (Policeman) and Polly Burson, May Boss, Don Harvey, Mavis Neal, Williams Stevens and Peter Madsen. << Classic Episodes | Next Episode >> MGM Worldwide Television Group