Episode 6: The Man Who Was Never Born

This is the sixth and one of the best episodes of the series, from start to finish.

Joe Reardon (Karl Held) is an astronaut who somehow passes through a time warp in space, and lands on Earth during the year 2148. He is confronted by another person (Martin Landau), who is genetically mutated for his time. He explains to Reardon that a man named Bertram Cabot Jr. created a microbe that destroyed the entire planet. Reardon decides that he and the creature should travel back in time so that they can prevent Bertram Cabot Jr. from creating the microbe. But, events take a drastic turn when Reardon dies on the way back, leaving the creature to find Bertram Jr. alone. The creature does have an advantage, in that he can hypnotize people to view him as a normal being. Will he be able to find Bertram Cabot Jr. and find him in time or is he in the wrong timeline? Can he stop the events from taking place without keeping his feelings for the woman he loves?

Martin Landau did an amazing job playing Andro, the man of tomorrow with a mission for today. The make-up given for Landau to look like a mutated being looks original and creepy. You can imagine where James Cameron must have gotten the idea to make "Terminator 2: Judgment Day" (since it is somewhat the same storyline: man from the future comes to the present on a mission to destroy a person). But this episode really makes you think of the fact that each and every action that man makes creates a change in effect for the future.

To quote Vic Perrin (The Control Voice): "It is said that if you move a single pebble on the beach, you set up a different pattern and everything in the world is changed. It can also be said that love can change the future, if it clean enough, true enough and selfless enough. It can prevent a war, prohibit a plague, and keep the whole world whole."

Who said that sci-fi couldn't be romantic?

"The Architects of Fear" and "The Man Who Was Never Born" are the only episodes of the 60's anthology that underneath the otherworldly trappings was a love story.

Martin Landau ("Andro") stars as an Earthman from the future that travels back in time to prevent the birth of a man destined to destroy humanity as we know it. Along the way he falls for "Nicole" (Shirley Knight), the woman that would become the mother of Earth's destroyer. Both actors show why they have been a theatrical and television presence, respectively, for over four decades.

Accompanied by a lush Dominic Frontiere score and superb lighting, the episode is a feast for the ear and the eye.