The Outer Limits is one of the longest running sci-fi series on television, one that continuously explores new territory and pushes new boundaries. Series executive producer Mark Stern, who counts among his credits the highly rated telefilm Houdini as well as such series as The Magnificent Seven, Poltergeist: The Legacy and the mini-series Peter Benchley's Creature, recently spoke with MGM'S SCI-FI NEWSLETTER about The Outer Limits and more.
MGM SCI-FI NEWSLETTER: How long have you been writing and executive producing The Outer Limits?
Mark Stern: I've been with the show for seven seasons. My initial title was supervising executive. I've been one of the executive producers for the last two seasons, but I have been overseeing development and production along with my partners since the show's inception.
MGMSFN: What kinds of other projects have you been involved with?
MS: Along with my partners (Pen Densham and Richard Lewis), I've executive produced and written for Poltergeist: The Legacy, The Magnificent Seven, Fame LA, and we did a show for TNT last season called Breaking News. We've probably done about 300 hours of TV.
MGMSFN: How do you find so many new stories after seven years of The Outer Limits?
MS: It's interesting, because obviously you have to become more careful about treading on territory you've already tread on. What we find is that stories fall into several categories -- an android story, an alien story, a spaceship story, a transformation story about someone who becomes something else, etc. Stories within those contexts are very, very different. I'd be lying if I didn't say that it's more difficult to develop stories after seven seasons, since a lot of the stories we want to tell have already been told. So, what we do is constantly search to find fresh new angles. And there are always new stories to tell.
MGMSFN: How much collaboration goes into making The Outer Limits?
MS: Television by definition is a collaborative medium, especially on a show like this. There are a lot of people who have to pull together to get our shows on the air with the quality we demand of our writers and producers. We get input from a lot of sources, like our directors and our production staff in Vancouver. Our attitude is simple - the best idea wins. That said, the voice of a given writer who has written the episode is still very important, so we try to maintain it as much as we can.
MGMSFN: Since the series deals with aliens, androids and very strange circumstances, where do you get your ideas?
MS: That's a big question. I think all writing comes back to a very basic human emotional level, one that's universal and everyone can relate to. Good writing should cross boundaries of experience. I think what my staff and I try to do is to bring our own experiences to something completely new, and then work in the fantasy part. Ironically, the challenge of sci-fi is not necessarily to make things as imaginative as possible. The real challenge is to make things as relatable to the audience as possible, then let your imagination flow once you have the foundation born out of a true experience. You can make things as fantasy-driven as you want, but at the end of the day, if you've lost the audience in all the fluff and imagination, it's pointless. I like to find a story with a very straightforward core reason for being, one that everyone can understand, such as the loss of a child, a death, a marriage, or whatever. And then look for a way to couch the message or theme in a really interesting science fiction metaphor.
MGMSFN: What can we expect this season? Any surprises or stories we should be looking out for?
MS: What I love about this season is that it's got a really broad spectrum of ideas and shows. There's some really interesting stuff. In fact, one of the best shows I think we did was one of the simplest - a show called "Abduction." It's an episode about a bunch of teenagers who basically get kidnapped from their high school and are sent to what looks like an identical high school, except all this school has are a hallway and a classroom, while everything else in the school is surrounded by some strange white fog. When the kids get there they're confronted by an alien and they have to figure out how to escape. It's a great show with an amazing message. It ties into the whole Columbine school violence issue and got a tremendous response on the SCI FI CHANNEL. And we've got a lot of other great stories. I think this season is one of our best.
MGMSFN: Since you're so enthusiastic about the upcoming shows, are there any guest star performances we should watch out for?
MS: We had a really cool episode with Heather Donohue from Blair Witch Project. She's in an episode called "The Surrogate," where she plays a surrogate mother who gets impregnated, then comes to realize that her baby isn't exactly normal. We also have a few episodes that came out so well we're taking them to different networks as potential series. One is called "Alien Shop," with Johnathon Schaech. Johnathon plays an alien who runs this strange little curiosity shop that's full of all this strange stuff, and when customers come in he gives them things that change their lives, although not always in the way they had hoped. There's another episode called "Mind Reach," with Jamie Luner, which we'd also like to become a series.
MGMSFN: This may not be a fair question, but do you have a favorite Outer Limits episode?
MS: That's a totally unfair question. (laughs) I mean, you're making me choose between my children.
MGMSFN: You're the head guy; the fans want to know.
MS: Okay, I'll give you some that would be in my top ten. Actually, a few of them are from this season. Definitely "Stitch in Time" with Amanda Plummer. And there was a show called "Bits of Love" with Jon Tenney and Natasha Henstridge. We also did a show our first season called "Quality of Mercy," with Robert Patrick, which we ended up doing a sequel to a season or two later. And we did a show last season called "Think Like a Dinosaur," which was based on a short story and had CGI dinosaurs interacting with the characters. That was a great show. I guess those are some of my favorites.
MGMSFN: Were you a big fan of the original Outer Limits?
MS: Oh, yeah. When I was a kid, I used to watch it in reruns. It basically scared the hell out of me. I still remember where I was when I watched some of those episodes. I mean, nobody was doing that kind of scary television back then. The template is just great, doing a scary show that's also thought-provoking. It's an awesome legacy that we've been very careful to try and emulate.