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Out of This World (British TV series)

British science fiction anthology television series

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 10, 2026
Entity authorityQ7111642 ↗
Source-derived summary

Out of This World is a British science fiction anthology television series made by the ITV franchise ABC Weekend TV for ITV. It was broadcast on ITV in 1962. A spin-off from the Armchair Theatre anthology series, each episode was introduced by the actor Boris Karloff. Many of the episodes were adaptations of stories by science fiction writers including Isaac Asimov, Philip K. Dick and Clifford D. Simak. The series is described by the British Film Institute as a precursor to the BBC science fiction anthology series Out of the Unknown, which was created and produced by Out of This World creator Irene Shubik after she left ABC.

Only one episode, "Little Lost Robot", exists today and is available on DVD. Two of the missing episodes, "Cold Equations" and "Impostor", have surviving audio soundtracks, which are also available on DVD. The "Cold Equations" soundtrack is complete, but the "Impostor" soundtrack is incomplete and runs at approximately 44 minutes.

Origins

Series creator Irene Shubik joined ABC Television as a story editor on the anthology series Armchair Theatre under producer Sydney Newman in 1960. A science fiction fan since her university days, Shubik approached Newman during the summer of 1961 with the notion of making a science fiction version of Armchair Theatre, similar to the Armchair Mystery Theatre spin-off that specialised in crime and mystery stories. Shubik had already commissioned several borderline science fiction scripts for Armchair Theatre such as "The Omega Mystery" and "The Ship That Couldn't Stop". However, the production that acted as a template for what would become Out of This World was "Murder Club", an adaptation of Robert Sheckley’s short story The Seventh Victim, starring Richard Briers, that aired under the Armchair Theatre banner on 3 December 1961. Also around this time the BBC had scored a notable hit with the science fiction thriller A for Andromeda.

Production

Shubik was appointed story editor and Leonard White, who had produced the first two seasons of The Avengers, was assigned to produce.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Out of This World (British TV series)” is british science fiction anthology television series. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through World, British and series, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA productive route into publication, performance and collection histories when the underlying object or edition remains clearly identified. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1962, 1960, 1961—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. For this dossier, World, British and series is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “british science fiction anthology television series” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 10, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7111642. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1962, 1960 and 1961.

Critical limits

Later fame can flatten the distinction between original context, subsequent adaptation and institutional collecting history. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

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The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Out of This World (British TV series)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Out of This World (British TV series) primary sources, Out of This World (British TV series) archive and World research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Out of This World (British TV series)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.