Tourist Attraction (The Outer Limits)

"Tourist Attraction"
The Outer Limits episode
Episode no.	Season 1 Episode 13
Directed by	Laslo Benedek
Written by	Dean Riesner
Cinematography by	John M. Nickolaus
Production code	4
Original air date	December 23, 1963
Guest appearance(s)
Janet Blair Henry Silva Ralph Meeker
Episode chronology

"Tourist Attraction" is an episode of the original The Outer Limits television show. It first aired on 23 December 1963, during the first season.

Plot

Dominating millionaire John Dexter drives a group of explorers and scientists pursuing an ancient lake monster that is reputed to live in the waters of a South American dictatorship. Using underwater detection equipment aboard Dexter's yacht, the creature is spotted swimming along the lakebed. Following several attempts, the creature is eventually captured and taken to the local university for study.

However, after the creature is immobilized and stored inside a freezer to aid in its preservation while out of water, Dexter plans to transport it to the United States to place it on display, and to enhance his reputation; but, San Blas' absolute ruler, Juan Mercurio, plans to use it to attract tourists to his country's faltering World's Fair, claiming the animal as a national treasure. During its captivity, the creature comes to life due to an inept guard's negligence, and emits ultrasonic waves, causing the freezer door to implode. It is recaptured before it can fully escape its confines, with an armed guard from Mercurio's palace ordered to stand watch. Dexter overpowers him, and arranges for the creature's transport on his private plane back to the States.

While his assistants prepare the monster for its trip, they are shocked to see several more of the creatures emerging from the lake. A marine biologist, previously employed by Dexter, urges them to turn the creature loose. Reluctantly, they comply, watching as it joins its comrades. Dexter, shooting at the creatures in an effort to stop them, is abruptly halted by a piercing, ultrasonic pulse. The creatures begin to crawl back into the lake, where they disappear under the water. With the combined energy of their earth-shattering sound waves, the creatures amass and then topple the dam created by Mercurio during his reign of power, killing him, and flooding San Blas, destroying all that he had built.

Opening narration

"In Man's dark and troubled history, there are vestiges of strange gods. This stone statue was, once, such a god a thousand years gone by in the central mountains of Pan America. Today, new gods have emerged – the god of power, the god of money. The Republic of San Blas lies west of the Orinoco Basin, slightly north of the Equator. Its principle exports are coffee, copra, mahogany, maize and saffron. In a hundred odd years, the reigns of government have changed many times; in blood, and fire, and death. The last of these revolutionaries was led by Juan Mercurio – the most absolute and powerful ruler of them all. Only the Indians who live close to the old gods in the volcanic uplands are unimpressed. They have seen the coming of the Conquistadors, with the power of their guns and flashing flags...the Revolutionaries, with the power of their zeal and their willingness to die...the Americans, with the power of their money, and bulldozers; with their summer houseboats in the crater lake of Ari Pana; with their gadgets, and machines, and devices..."

Act I narration

"Moving through the deep, protected only by a tank of air and a hunting spear, the scientist/explorer descends beyond the San Blas shelf; but, all unknown to him, the observer is, himself, observed. Hidden in the sinuous rills of seaweed, sightless eyes, blind for centuries, stare out of the abyss. The legendary creature of the deep, sensing through neuro-receptors in its skin, becomes aware of the alien invader – Man..."

Act IV narration

"Stressed and strained by constant drilling of ultrasonic beams, the concrete face of the dam cracks and falls. Ten million tons of pressure build towards ultimate collapse..."

Closing narration

"The forces of nature will not submit to injustice. No man has the right, nor will the checks and balances of the universe permit him, to place his fellows under the harsh yoke of repression. Nor may he, again, place the forces of nature under the triple-yoke of vanity, greed and ambition. In the words of Shelley, 'Here lies your tyrant who would rule the world, immortal.'"

Background

Unlike the other episodes, this one has two additional narrations, one during Act I and another in Act IV.

Cast

Ralph Meeker as John Dexter
Henry Silva as General Juan Mercurio
Janet Blair as Lynn Arthur
Jerry Douglas as Tom Evans
Henry Darrow as Mario
Jay Novello as Prof. Arivello
Edward Colmans as Reporter #1
Willard Sage as Reporter #2
Stuart Lancaster as Skipper
Jon Silo as Oswaldo
Shelley Morrison as the Woman
Martin Garralaga as Paco
Francis Ravel as Fortunato
Noel de Sousa as Man
Marco Antonio as Butler
Roger Stern as Sea-Demon #1
Paul Stader as Sea-Demon #2
George Robotham as Sea-Demon #3

External links

"Tourist Attraction" episode on Hulu

The Outer Limits episodes

1963 series
(episodes)

Season 1	"The Galaxy Being" "The Hundred Days of the Dragon" "The Architects of Fear" "The Man with the Power" "The Sixth Finger" "The Man Who Was Never Born" "O.B.I.T." "The Human Factor" "Corpus Earthling" "Nightmare" "It Crawled Out of the Woodwork" "The Borderland" "Tourist Attraction" "The Zanti Misfits" "The Mice" "Controlled Experiment" "Don't Open Till Doomsday" "ZZZZZ" "The Invisibles" "The Bellero Shield" "The Children of Spider County" "Specimen: Unknown" "Second Chance" "Moonstone" "The Mutant" "The Guests" "Fun and Games" "The Special One" "A Feasibility Study" "Production and Decay of Strange Particles" "The Chameleon" "The Forms of Things Unknown"

Season 2	"Soldier" "Cold Hands, Warm Heart" "Behold, Eck!" "Expanding Human" "Demon with a Glass Hand" "Cry of Silence" "The Invisible Enemy" "Wolf 359" "I, Robot" "The Inheritors" "Keeper of the Purple Twilight" "The Duplicate Man" "Counterweight" "The Brain of Colonel Barham" "The Premonition" "The Probe"

1995 series
(episodes)

Season 1	"The Sandkings" "Corner of the Eye" "Under the Bed" "Dark Matters" "The Conversion" "Quality of Mercy" "The New Breed" "The Voyage Home" "Caught in the Act" "The Message" "I, Robot" "If These Walls Could Talk" "Birthright" "The Voice of Reason"

Season 2	"Stitch in Time" "Resurrection" "Unnatural Selection" "I Hear You Calling" "Mind Over Matter" "Beyond the Veil" "First Anniversary" "Straight and Narrow" "Trial by Fire" "Worlds Apart" "The Refuge" "Inconstant Moon" "From Within" "The Heist" "Afterlife" "The Deprogrammers" "Paradise" "The Light Brigade" "Falling Star" "Out of Body" "Vanishing Act" "The Sentence"

Season 3	"Bits of Love" "Second Thoughts" "Re-Generation" "Last Supper" "Stream of Consciousness" "Dark Rain" "The Camp" "Heart's Desire" "Tempests" "Awakening" "New Lease" "Double Helix" "Dead Man's Switch" "Music of the Spheres" "The Revelations of Becka Paulson" "Bodies of Evidence" "Feasibility Study" "A Special Edition"

Season 4	"Criminal Nature" "The Hunt" "Hearts and Minds" "In Another Life" "In the Zone" "Relativity Theory" "Josh" "Rite of Passage" "Glyphic" "Identity Crisis" "The Vaccine" "Fear Itself" "The Joining" "To Tell the Truth" "Mary 25" "Final Exam" "Lithia" "Monster" "Sarcophagus" "Nightmare" "Promised Land" "Balance of Nature" "The Origin of Species" "Phobos Rising" "Black Box" "In Our Own Image"

Season 5	"Alien Radio" "Donor" "Small Friends" "The Grell" "The Other Side" "Joyride" "The Human Operators" "Blank Slate" "What Will The Neighbors Think" "The Shroud" "Ripper" "Tribunal" "Summit" "Descent" "The Haven" "Deja Vu" "The Inheritors" "Essence of Life" "Stranded" "Fathers and Sons" "Star Crossed" "Better Luck Next Time"

Season 6	"Judgment Day" "The Gun" "Skin Deep" "Manifest Destiny" "Breaking Point" "The Beholder" "Seeds of Destruction" "Simon Says" "Stasis" "Down to Earth" "Glitch" "Decompression" "Abaddon" "The Grid" "Gettysburg" "Nest" "Final Appeal"

Season 7	"Family Values" "Patient Zero" "A New Life" "The Surrogate" "The Vessel" "Mona Lisa" "Replica" "Think Like a Dinosaur" "Worlds Within" "In the Blood" "Flower Child" "Abduction" "Lion's Den" "The Tipping Point" "The Human Factor" "Human Trials"

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