Synth Rorschach #60: The Outer Limits

This Synth Rorschach in via Atomic Shadow.

"Is It A Synth? No. It's from the first episode of The Outer Limits which aired in September, 1963. The Galaxy Being starred Cliff Robertson as a radio station owner who used his transmitter to reach out across the galaxy. After establishing contact with a being from another world, a series of events (brought about by his carping wife) leads to the physical transmission of the Galaxy Being to Earth. A heavy handed moral about the human race being prone to violence ensues.

The episode has some great examples of mid 20th century Gizmology. Gizmology is term that I coined to describe movie tech that is designed to look all "Science-y". If you look at the photo, you see what appears to be a Eurorack synth! Just out of the frame, on the right, there is the obligatory reel to reel tape recorder. In those days if you wanted your set to look like real science, you had to have an oscilloscope displaying a sine wave and a tape recorder. This episode lacks a scope, but makes up for it with that crazy nest of wires.

An article about the episode here...

I started watching that episode on Prime the other night. When that scene happened I thought, 'How did Cliff Robertson get his hands on Richard Divine's euro rig? In 1963!'."


Bottom reminds me of Dewanatron meets Folktek. Top right reminds me of Anyware's Tinysizer.