ApplCinamn, I find that the problems you describe in this episode (which I remember well; I've heard it a couple of times) are pretty typical of the RMT's forays into Twilight Zone-type stories. Too often a fantastically interesting situation is set up, only to have the story itself dissolve in contradictions and unresolved questions (try "A Holiday Visit," 12/25/80, for another example of this syndrome). Part of the issue was certainly the crazy rate at which scripts had to be written for the series, most of them originals, with only a very few writers--sloppiness in plotting could hardly help but creep in. Also, I've long felt that the three-act structure crippled a lot of the tales, forcing writers to find ways to fill time in a piece that would have worked better, and left fewer illogical and confused moments, if it had simply been shorter.

But you know what? I like "The Outsider," too--quite a lot, in fact. (And "A Holiday Visit," as well.)