Analysis
Booker observes that the engineer and the Galaxy Being are variations of the television and science fiction tropes of the mad scientist and the invading alien, albeit with a reversal typical of The Outer Limits that both the scientist and the alien are benevolent, and it is the ordinary human beings of Earth who are the villains in the story.
The story itself dramatized the coverage in popular media of the time of speculation as to whether other planets could be contacted via radio, most particularly the (at the time recently-initiated) "Project Ozma" search for radio signals from extraterrestrial intelligence ("SETI"). It developed these themes further into a story about electronic existentialism, and tapped into themes prevalent in U.S. culture at the time, including the televisation of the space race and the fascination with television transmission in general. The Galaxy Being itself echoed the contemporary words of NASA with lines such as "You must explore. You must reach out."
The story also had elements of horror. As did another Outer Limits story, "The Borderland", it addressed the idea of an electronic limbo that exists when television signals cease transmission or are broadcast out into space, raising questions such as where the Galaxy Being goes when he turns off the transmitter. This horror of oblivion was to occur in several other Outer Limits episodes.
Read more about this topic: The Galaxy Being
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