The Outer Limits (1963) s01e07 Episode Script
O.B.I.T.
(fluctuating whistling ) ( man ) There is nothing wrong with your television set.
Do not attempt to adjust the picture.
We are controlling transmission .
We will control the horizontal.
We will control the vertical.
We can change the focus to a soft blur or sharpen it to crystal clarity.
For the next hour, sit quietly and we will control all you see and hear.
You are about to participate in a great adventure.
You are about to experience the awe and mystery which reaches from the inner mind to The Outer Limits.
( man ) ln this room, 24 hours a day, security personnel at the Defence Department Cypress Hills Research Centre keep constant watch on its scientists through O.
B.
l.
T.
, a mysterious electronic device whose existence was carefully kept from the public at large.
And so it would have remained, but for the facts you are about to witness.
lf Norton 's father wasn 't on the board of trustees, they would have tossed him out of grad school.
Now he's the head of my biochemical project.
He doesn 't know the difference between a periodic table and a timetable.
Code L3B4D.
Subject: Dr Anderson .
Derogatory remarks against superior.
Twelfth occurrence.
(warning beeps) (fluctuating whistling ) Phantom image on screen .
Checking resolution circuitry and video subcontrol.
Senator Orville, Mr Lomax.
-Nice meeting you , Mr Lomax.
- An honour, Senator.
- Are the witnesses all assembled? - Yes, sir.
l don 't quite understand the purpose of this investigation .
- A murder's been committed.
- That's a police matter.
To drag the Senate in Washington here Take it easy.
The senator isn 't here to hurt your projects.
lunderstand your concern , Mr Lomax.
But since Captain Harrison 's death, we have received all kinds of letters concerning the morale situation at this base.
Now Cypress Hills is one of our top-secret defence installations.
Now, we know that murders can occur at soda fountains, paper-box factories, even ladies' tea rooms, as can morale situations.
But when a key centre of the Defence Department is spotlighted in sordid headlines, the public is justifiably concerned and l intend to get to the bottom of it.
But l assure you , Mr Lomax, l will conduct my investigation as briefly and cleanly as possible in the interests of all.
Now, if you will excuse me, l believe we're delaying the proceedings.
Barbara, not now.
They haven 't called you to testify.
- You may be spared the embarrassment.
- lt's important.
Witnesses will be making insinuations about you and your husband.
- To hear him publicly discredited.
- That's why l feel l owe it to Cliff.
No.
You don 't owe him anything.
Not any more.
You owe me a little self-concern .
Just keep on trusting me.
M r C yde W yat Would you take the stand, please? - Mr Wyatt, what is your occupation ? - lnvestigator, ClD.
You conducted the inquiry into Captain Harrison 's demise? Yes, sir.
- The body was found in this room? - Yes.
- Where? - Slumped over that machine.
What kind of machine is it? lt's a computer used to process security data.
- And the victim was operating it at the time? - Yes, he was.
When you examined the body, what were your findings? We know that the cause of death was strangulation by an unusually strong person .
Unusually strong? The marks at the throat, the bone crushed at the base of the skull.
- l never saw anything like it.
- l see.
ln your opinion , would you say a blunt instrument could have been used? No.
There were no other bruises beyond finger marks.
- How long have you been in Cypress Hills? - About five days.
Would you say the centre was a reasonably contented, peaceful place? l was investigating a murder.
That took all my time.
That wasn 't very responsive.
l don 't know what you want to know.
Let me put it this way.
You wouldn 't say that the morale at Cypress Hills was any lower than any other installation with the same personnel? l'm not competent to say, Senator.
l'm really not.
Thank you , Mr Wyatt.
You may go.
A murder at a defence installation such as Cypress Hills cannot be construed as a random lf Captain Harrison 's murder was an act of private passion or a crime of personal revenge, then it becomes necessary to understand exactly what relation that passion or that revenge had to the psychological climate of Cypress.
Now the press has seen to it that rumours of morale problems of Cypress have been brought to the attention of all and sundry.
Well, l cannot, nor do l wish to ignore those rumours.
ln the interest of exploding or verifying them, or perhaps even compounding them, l find it necessary to investigate certain , otherwise irreproachable, members of Cypress research.
Call Dr Philip Fletcher, please.
Do you recognise this letter, Doctor? You have to reply aloud.
The stenographer has to hear you .
Yes.
l wrote it to your office.
lnow regret that l did so.
May ask why , s r? We l'm not a complaining sort of person .
l try not to be.
No one threatened or reprimanded you for writing? No.
How long have you been employed here? Five years.
- And in what capacity? - Research consultant in astrophysics.
lt says here that you were awakened by military policemen and taken out of your quarters and taken to security headquarters.
Yes.
What prompted that? Do you know, Doctor? - l had written some letters.
- To whom? -No one.
-No one? l mean , l never mailed them.
Please, please, l don 't want to tell you .
l didn 't want to tell them, but they wouldn 't take no for an answer.
They kept after me and after me.
Why did l write those letters and then tear them up and burn them? Why did l write in the dead of night, with the curtains drawn ? How could anyone know you wrote those letters? They know.
They know everything.
They know what you say in your sleep, in your bathroom.
And everywhere rumours, fears.
Cypress Hills is just like a ghost town .
People whisper in their own houses.
Husbands distrust their wives and nobody laughs.
ls there any connection between these letters and the death of Captain Harrison ? They have nothing to do with it.
About these letters, Doctor, l must ask you to explain .
l have a terminal illness.
When it's very painful, l want to have at my side someone who is close to me.
l wrote those letters to my son in Philadelphia.
He's a wonderful boy, but he's married, has two children .
To disrupt his life, his home, to come and hold an old man 's hand After the pain lets up, l always destroy those letters.
Thank you , Doctor.
You may go.
- Call Dr Clifford Scott.
- Senator.
Yes? Dr Scott is not here.
- He was called.
- He was.
He cannot attend.
He's unavailable.
Dr Clifford Scott, head of the Cypress Hills Research Centre, is unavailable? - Would you tell me why? - He's suffering a physical breakdown .
As acting head, l'll gladly answer all questions in the doctor's absence.
- ls Mrs Clifford Scott present? - She's right outside.
Perhaps One moment.
We had planned on calling you later, Mr Lomax, but since we've more or less begun , - would you mind taking the stand? -Not at all, Senator.
How long have you been at the centre? - A little over a year.
- How would you describe the morale situation ? Neither better nor worse than we anticipated.
There's a discrepancy between Dr Fletcher's ghost-town testimony and your statement.
How do you account for that? Scientists are likely to be withdrawn , introspective individuals with a great deal of inner tension .
The centre's composed almost exclusively of such men .
Those words describe almost exactly my initial reaction to the morale rumours.
And l was sorely tempted to credit that reaction .
But a senator must learn not to be impulsive.
That is, until he has all the statistics.
Thank you .
That's a sound scientific approach.
l have the War Department's statistical report on your centre about your social problems and functions.
Golf tournaments, barbecues, dances, all went virtually unattended.
As with any small group in confined surroundings, these social affairs tend to start out with a great deal of zest and enthusiasm and then run down .
That seems to be a gross understatement, Mr Lomax.
The divorce rate went up 400% , alcoholism became a major problem, and there were three suicides at the centre.
Remember we're dealing with people who are hard-driving, fantastic perfectionists who live on a veritable razor's edge.
Now, about that unfortunate homicide.
Captain Harrison was operating that machine, a data-processing computer, l believe.
That's correct, Senator.
We use it regularly in security procedures.
What is it? How exactly does it work? l'm afraid, Senator, l am not at liberty to discuss it.
l have here a letter from one of your technicians.
A woman .
Do you mind if l quote? ''There's a bizarre story going the rounds.
'' ''They say the centre has a Peeping Tom machine that follows you anywhere, anytime and sees and hears everything.
'' The device is top-secret.
l am unable to discuss it.
Colonel Grover, you are the military liaison officer of this subcommittee.
l don 't care how you do it, but l expect to see that machine in full operation first thing tomorrow morning.
Thank you , Mr Lomax.
You may step down .
Oh, Senator.
You must've put on pressure to get Pentagon clearance.
l didn 't think any outsider would see O.
B.
l.
T.
l'm confident we will get the Defence Department's cooperation .
They realise the Senate has the right and the duty to get all the facts.
Senator, are we going to see a demonstration of the Peeping Tom? Do l understand you correctly? This machine can pick up people anywhere, anytime, through steel or concrete walls.
Well, the density of the surroundings has no appreciable effect on reception .
- What do you call it? - O-B-l-T, or O.
B.
l.
T.
Actually, those are initials for Outer Band lndividuated Teletracer.
ow does t work ? Well, you see Every living organism is a transmitter operating 24 hours a day.
That, of course, is true of human beings too.
Awake or asleep, active or passive, we are each of us constantly sending out our particular brainwaves, heart sounds, respiratory rhythms.
Like fingerprints, no two human patterns are alike.
Do you mean to tell me you can pick up anyone's signal at will? Yes, it's like a push-button radio.
Once we have an individual tuned in and have their particular wavelength, it's simply a matter of hitting the right buttons and bringing them in .
Who is that? That's Ed Wilson , one of the draughtsmen at Cypress Hills.
He's in Washington on a particular project.
l knew his wavelength code.
- Suppose you didn 't? - l could bring him in on this location finder.
This dial tells us where we're picking up our transmission from.
lt's like a short-wave receiver that says London , Moscow, Washington , Bangkok.
l can turn this dial to a given location and pick up signals from the various persons there.
And you can do this anywhere on Earth? Oh, we're limited to a 500-mile radius now but we're working to extend that limit.
Wouldn 't you say, Mr Lomax, that this machine, in large part, was responsible for the faltering morale at the research centre? Nobody at the centre was aware of O.
B.
l.
T.
's existence.
Dr Fletcher was pulled in for questioning on the basis of information from this machine.
No doubt others were questioned.
People with nothing to hide have nothing to fear from O.
B.
l.
T.
Are you that perfect, Mr Lomax? l'd hate to have that trained on me when l was cussing fellow senators or the President of the United States or my former law partner, to say nothing of my wife.
That will be all, Mr Lomax.
Oh, just a moment.
- Are you the inventor of O.
B.
l.
T? -No, Senator.
l was assigned to operate it and tabulate statistics.
- By whom? - The Defence Department.
Thank you .
Colonel Grover, will you please take the chair? Why weren 't the American people notified of the existence of this equipment? Let me say that the intelligence community must of necessity employ many secret devices.
And who authorised its acceptance and purchase? Well, the head of G-2 signed the papers.
But hundreds of items cross his desk and l'm certain he never got a proper picture of this machine.
He merely signed the papers.
Who wrote the papers that the head of G-2 merely signed? We haven 't been able to find him.
Who manufactures it? The company has since gone out of business.
Colonel, if this is the old badger game, and if your department is concealing information from the investigation We're as much in the dark as you .
Colonel, l want every available record on that machine, and quickly! ls that clear? That will be all, Colonel.
Call Mrs Clifford Scott.
Would you take the chair, please, Mrs Scott? M rs Scot How would you describe the morale climate of Cypress Hills? Not good Did this condition prevail when you and your husband moved here? lt wasn 't until toward the last that things became almost unbearable.
And would you attribute it to that machine? l didn 't know it existed until this morning.
- And who told you about it? - Mr Lomax.
Your husband never mentioned O.
B.
l.
T.
to you? No, he never spoke of security matters.
- But Mr Lomax did this morning.
- Senator.
Mrs Scott was called as a witness.
She's the wife of the head of Cypress Hills.
- l don 't see any harm -Neither do l.
Mrs Scott, it's in the record that you had filed for a separation from your husband.
Yes, but l never pursued it.
l began to see that he was ill.
- And you never actually separated? -No.
- Have you ever visited him at the rest home? - l don 't know where he is.
- We've hunted everywhere for him, but - We? Yes.
Mr Lomax and l.
We've phoned and written and hounded the Army.
- Maybe he just doesn 't want to see me.
- You don 't know that for sure.
No, but these past months, before they took him away, he Please go on .
Well, he imagined things about me.
He accused me of horrible things.
He called me a monster.
And then he began to speak of seeing real monsters.
And finally, one night, he didn 't come home, and they told me that he'd had a physical breakdown and that they had taken him somewhere.
l don 't know what to believe.
Did you locate Dr Scott yet? -No, sir.
- Why not? l'd like to take this matter up with you during recess.
Thank you , Mrs Scott.
lt is not in the government's best interests for Dr Scott to attend these hearings.
Who said so? Senator, you have no idea what you're opening up.
- Well, perhaps you might enlighten me.
- l'm afraid that's impossible.
Are you telling me l can 't be trusted with secret data and you can ? - lt's not a matter of trust.
- Well, what is it a matter of? Senator, the storm warnings are up back home.
You're facing a very rough election .
lt wouldn 't help to be charged with undermining the security of your country.
Colonel, l want to see Scott.
Even at such a price? Yes.
Should you make a moral decision so abruptly? Morality makes its own decisions, Colonel.
l want to see Scott and l want to see him tonight.
l'm sorry, Senator, Dr Scott doesn 't want to see anyone.
Or perhaps he doesn 't want anyone to see him.
Why is he in this place? - You heard Mr Lomax say - A complete physical breakdown .
A polite way of saying the man is not in possession of his senses.
How can a man who is considered irrational have the right to decide whether the United States Senate can conduct investigations? l cannot conduct this investigation without all the facts.
You know this, Colonel.
Dr Scott has especially pertinent facts which l need.
- lf you take responsibility for interrogating -Not interrogation , Colonel.
Just a few questions.
- ( knock at door) - Dr Scott? Colonel Grover again .
- ( knock at door) - Dr Scott? Come in .
Dr Scott, l'm Senator Orville.
know Colonel, the corridor is draughty.
Please close the door.
- Do you know why l'm here? - Oh, yes.
Do you know why l'm here? - l know what l've been told.
- Don 't you believe it? Doctor, l'm a senator, not a psychiatrist.
You're here because you belong here or you're being held incommunicado.
Either way it's a direct result of conditions at Cypress Hills.
A direct result.
When l told them what l saw, they got very quiet.
Looked at me with great, quiet eyes.
Quiet can tell you so much.
Until they looked at me that way, l was certain l had seen what l had seen .
Dead certain .
What did you see, Doctor? Of course l hadn 't.
lt was just that my life had become a nightmare, so naturally l saw the kind of things that inhabit a nightmare world.
Dr Scott.
l saw a monster.
l saw a monster.
When l told them that .
.
they got very quiet.
Can you describe these this monstrous thing you saw? That's very strange.
You're the first one who's asked me to describe it.
- Did you see it on the O.
B.
l.
T.
screen ? - Yes.
ls it my imagination , Senator, or do you believe me? l believe you saw something, something monstrous.
Why? Because you believe it.
- Do l? - l think you do.
Of course l do.
No one has convinced me that l didn 't see it.
l wish they could, but they couldn 't.
Yet you stayed here and pretended to agree with them.
l'm out of it now, away from it.
l just want to forget it.
Return with us to Cypress Hills and be questioned on the stand.
Oh, no.
- Everybody in Cypress Hills needs your help.
-Not everybody.
lf you're referring to your wife, you're wrong.
Not my w fe Someono e se who doesn't want me to say a ny moro , who'd be perfectly willing to kill me rather than let me talk.
Why do you think l'm willing to stay here? Because l'm safe.
As long as l'm insane, l'm safe.
lt's a pretty lousy way to live, isn 't it, Doctor? l hope that you believe in nightmares, Senator.
( high -pitched whistling ) (click whistling stops) ( low whistling ) (click high whistling ) l phoned several times but they won 't let me talk to him.
They said that Senator Orville hasn 't been at the rest home or seen my husband.
Why do you keep asking? Sometimes l feel that you don 't care about me at all, that you're using me in some odd way.
l'm sorry, Byron , l do know better.
Only sometimes l All right, Byron .
Will you call me if you hear anything? (fluctuating whistling ) l couldn 't get anything.
lf Orville's found Scott, he's keeping him out of range.
Something more worrisome than Scott has come up.
Anight watchman at the centre, Armand Younger.
He saw me? He claims he saw someone inside the restricted zone.
Never gave it much thought till he read about the investigation .
- He offered to testify.
- But if he saw me Not your face.
He claims he saw the killer from the back as he left the murder scene.
He mentioned a peculiar walk he's certain he could identify.
Where is he now? He's still in his apartment.
- Have you what you need this time? - l won 't be taken by surprise again .
( knocking ) (Orville's voice ) Mr Younger? lt's Senator Orville.
You'll have to sign some documents before you can appear.
Put that thing down ! Who are you? - Call Armand Younger.
- Senator.
He isn 't here.
- Where is he? - We don 't know.
You don 't know? He isn 't in his apartment.
He may have gone off on a binge or run away.
- But we're looking for him.
- Colonel Grover, will you take the stand? l assume you have a record of the number of O.
B.
l.
T.
machines in use at the present time? Yes, an installation check has revealed that there are 1 8 O.
B.
l.
T.
s in use on our military bases.
And we've discovered that these machines are also being employed in civilian life.
- How is that possible? They're top-secret.
- l don 't know, sir.
Are they used in industry? lndustry, education , communication networks all over the country.
lt's like a debilitating disease.
Surely there must be a record of total number of machines installed.
- There are no records.
-None at all? ( Grover) lt's awful.
Awful.
l feel responsible.
l should have spoken out.
- Weren 't you in favour of O.
B.
l.
T? - l was at first.
But l was wrong.
lt's the most hideous creation ever conceived.
No one can laugh or joke.
lt watches.
Saps the very spirit.
The worst thing of all is .
.
l watch it.
l can 't not look.
lt's like a drug, a horrible drug.
You can 't resist it.
lt's an addiction .
What Colonel Grover has done is a very brave thing.
Addiction to any form of deadliness is difficult to admit.
Over the past 24 hours, l have learned facts and seen examples of this debilitating disease that's been infesting this great country of ours.
l have been advised to leave it alone, to drop it.
l have been threatened with the loss of political support.
But l happen to believe that the people who entrusted me with this office might just like to know all the facts.
Even the ones that no human mind today can explain .
Call Dr and Mrs Scott in .
M rs Scot , wo u d yo u please bo seatod? Dr Scott, would you please take the stand? l don 't want to tax your strength so if you need a rest, let me know and we'll hold up proceedings.
How long have you been confined to a rest home? A month.
And what was the reason for that confinement? The doctor said that l was suffering complete exhaustion , precipitated by anxiety.
Doctor, during this time, did you ever suffer from a lapse of memory or incoherence or hallucinations or any other mental aberrations that might tend to impair your judgment? No.
Have you ever suffered from the conditions l describe? l have not.
Now, Doctor, as head of the Cypress Hills Research Centre, can you recall your reaction when O.
B.
l.
T.
was first installed? l was unalterably opposed to it.
- And did you notify the Defence Department? - Yes.
- And what did they do? -Nothing.
l got the view that they thought the machine was highly successful in eliminating undesirable elements.
Who told you this? Mr Byron Lomax.
What were your feelings towards Mr Lomax? l considered him highly intelligent, very perceptive.
- Were your relations cordial? -No.
But respectful.
Till l found out what was happening to people at the centre.
Friends, colleagues.
l couldn 't bear to look at the man .
l hated what he stood for.
Did you continue your efforts to have O.
B.
l.
T.
removed? No Why not? Well (sighs) l was having what was becoming a daily argument with Lomax over O.
B.
l.
T.
He deliberately clicked on a familiar image in a bathing suit lying next to a young officer.
lt was my wife, Barbara.
They were at the beach.
lt seemed to me that she was being overly friendly to this man but l realise now she's simply gregarious by nature.
She loves laughter and friendship and perhaps even innocent flirtation .
But at the time, l was convinced that it was more.
Much more.
And you questioned her about it? Relentlessly.
l made her account to me for every move that she made.
l made life miserable for her.
l even watched her without her knowing on the machine.
Her every gesture and intonation .
l would throw it up to her at night.
l literally drove her away from me.
Then it finally happened.
She was driven to someone else.
l could see that she was serious about him.
But l couldn 't tell who he was.
l would sit at the machine and tune in her image.
l could see her clear as crystal.
But no matter what l did, l couldn 't pick up his image.
lt was the one person here whose image l couldn 't pick up.
- And you never found out who it was? - l found out.
ow ? l discovered the one person here who never appeared on the screen , and why.
He had seen to it that his wavelength was outside the operating limits of O.
B.
l.
T.
So it was impossible to bring in his signal? l finally did.
Accidentally.
By violating the machine's operating instructions.
The O.
B.
l.
T.
machine was manned - How could you use it to follow your wife? - l swore Captain Harrison to secrecy.
l told him l had instructions to keep certain individuals under my personal surveillance.
- ln other words, you lied to him? - l lied to him.
Do you have any idea how or why Captain Harrison was murdered? He saw something on the machine he was not supposed to.
And what was that? What l saw.
(fluctuating whistling ) - Mr Lomax.
- The machines are everywhere.
Oh, you'll find them all.
You're intelligent people.
You'll make a great show of smashing a few but for every one destroyed, hundreds more will be built.
And they'll demoralise you , break your spirits, create such rips and tensions that no one will be able to repair them.
Oh, you're a sad .
.
despairing planet.
And when we come here to live, you friendless, demoralised flotsam will fall without a single shot being fired.
Senator, enjoy the few years left you .
There is no answer.
You're all the same.
You demand and insist on knowing every private thought and hunger of everyone.
Your families, your neighbours.
Everyone but yourselves.
( man ) Agents of the Justice Department are rounding up the machines now.
But these machines, these inventions of another planet, have been cunningly conceived to play on our most mortal weakness.
ln the last analysis, dear friends, whether O.
B.
l.
T.
lives up to its name or not will depend on you .
We now return control of your television set to you until next week at this same time when the control voice will take you to .
.
The Outer Limits.
Do not attempt to adjust the picture.
We are controlling transmission .
We will control the horizontal.
We will control the vertical.
We can change the focus to a soft blur or sharpen it to crystal clarity.
For the next hour, sit quietly and we will control all you see and hear.
You are about to participate in a great adventure.
You are about to experience the awe and mystery which reaches from the inner mind to The Outer Limits.
( man ) ln this room, 24 hours a day, security personnel at the Defence Department Cypress Hills Research Centre keep constant watch on its scientists through O.
B.
l.
T.
, a mysterious electronic device whose existence was carefully kept from the public at large.
And so it would have remained, but for the facts you are about to witness.
lf Norton 's father wasn 't on the board of trustees, they would have tossed him out of grad school.
Now he's the head of my biochemical project.
He doesn 't know the difference between a periodic table and a timetable.
Code L3B4D.
Subject: Dr Anderson .
Derogatory remarks against superior.
Twelfth occurrence.
(warning beeps) (fluctuating whistling ) Phantom image on screen .
Checking resolution circuitry and video subcontrol.
Senator Orville, Mr Lomax.
-Nice meeting you , Mr Lomax.
- An honour, Senator.
- Are the witnesses all assembled? - Yes, sir.
l don 't quite understand the purpose of this investigation .
- A murder's been committed.
- That's a police matter.
To drag the Senate in Washington here Take it easy.
The senator isn 't here to hurt your projects.
lunderstand your concern , Mr Lomax.
But since Captain Harrison 's death, we have received all kinds of letters concerning the morale situation at this base.
Now Cypress Hills is one of our top-secret defence installations.
Now, we know that murders can occur at soda fountains, paper-box factories, even ladies' tea rooms, as can morale situations.
But when a key centre of the Defence Department is spotlighted in sordid headlines, the public is justifiably concerned and l intend to get to the bottom of it.
But l assure you , Mr Lomax, l will conduct my investigation as briefly and cleanly as possible in the interests of all.
Now, if you will excuse me, l believe we're delaying the proceedings.
Barbara, not now.
They haven 't called you to testify.
- You may be spared the embarrassment.
- lt's important.
Witnesses will be making insinuations about you and your husband.
- To hear him publicly discredited.
- That's why l feel l owe it to Cliff.
No.
You don 't owe him anything.
Not any more.
You owe me a little self-concern .
Just keep on trusting me.
M r C yde W yat Would you take the stand, please? - Mr Wyatt, what is your occupation ? - lnvestigator, ClD.
You conducted the inquiry into Captain Harrison 's demise? Yes, sir.
- The body was found in this room? - Yes.
- Where? - Slumped over that machine.
What kind of machine is it? lt's a computer used to process security data.
- And the victim was operating it at the time? - Yes, he was.
When you examined the body, what were your findings? We know that the cause of death was strangulation by an unusually strong person .
Unusually strong? The marks at the throat, the bone crushed at the base of the skull.
- l never saw anything like it.
- l see.
ln your opinion , would you say a blunt instrument could have been used? No.
There were no other bruises beyond finger marks.
- How long have you been in Cypress Hills? - About five days.
Would you say the centre was a reasonably contented, peaceful place? l was investigating a murder.
That took all my time.
That wasn 't very responsive.
l don 't know what you want to know.
Let me put it this way.
You wouldn 't say that the morale at Cypress Hills was any lower than any other installation with the same personnel? l'm not competent to say, Senator.
l'm really not.
Thank you , Mr Wyatt.
You may go.
A murder at a defence installation such as Cypress Hills cannot be construed as a random lf Captain Harrison 's murder was an act of private passion or a crime of personal revenge, then it becomes necessary to understand exactly what relation that passion or that revenge had to the psychological climate of Cypress.
Now the press has seen to it that rumours of morale problems of Cypress have been brought to the attention of all and sundry.
Well, l cannot, nor do l wish to ignore those rumours.
ln the interest of exploding or verifying them, or perhaps even compounding them, l find it necessary to investigate certain , otherwise irreproachable, members of Cypress research.
Call Dr Philip Fletcher, please.
Do you recognise this letter, Doctor? You have to reply aloud.
The stenographer has to hear you .
Yes.
l wrote it to your office.
lnow regret that l did so.
May ask why , s r? We l'm not a complaining sort of person .
l try not to be.
No one threatened or reprimanded you for writing? No.
How long have you been employed here? Five years.
- And in what capacity? - Research consultant in astrophysics.
lt says here that you were awakened by military policemen and taken out of your quarters and taken to security headquarters.
Yes.
What prompted that? Do you know, Doctor? - l had written some letters.
- To whom? -No one.
-No one? l mean , l never mailed them.
Please, please, l don 't want to tell you .
l didn 't want to tell them, but they wouldn 't take no for an answer.
They kept after me and after me.
Why did l write those letters and then tear them up and burn them? Why did l write in the dead of night, with the curtains drawn ? How could anyone know you wrote those letters? They know.
They know everything.
They know what you say in your sleep, in your bathroom.
And everywhere rumours, fears.
Cypress Hills is just like a ghost town .
People whisper in their own houses.
Husbands distrust their wives and nobody laughs.
ls there any connection between these letters and the death of Captain Harrison ? They have nothing to do with it.
About these letters, Doctor, l must ask you to explain .
l have a terminal illness.
When it's very painful, l want to have at my side someone who is close to me.
l wrote those letters to my son in Philadelphia.
He's a wonderful boy, but he's married, has two children .
To disrupt his life, his home, to come and hold an old man 's hand After the pain lets up, l always destroy those letters.
Thank you , Doctor.
You may go.
- Call Dr Clifford Scott.
- Senator.
Yes? Dr Scott is not here.
- He was called.
- He was.
He cannot attend.
He's unavailable.
Dr Clifford Scott, head of the Cypress Hills Research Centre, is unavailable? - Would you tell me why? - He's suffering a physical breakdown .
As acting head, l'll gladly answer all questions in the doctor's absence.
- ls Mrs Clifford Scott present? - She's right outside.
Perhaps One moment.
We had planned on calling you later, Mr Lomax, but since we've more or less begun , - would you mind taking the stand? -Not at all, Senator.
How long have you been at the centre? - A little over a year.
- How would you describe the morale situation ? Neither better nor worse than we anticipated.
There's a discrepancy between Dr Fletcher's ghost-town testimony and your statement.
How do you account for that? Scientists are likely to be withdrawn , introspective individuals with a great deal of inner tension .
The centre's composed almost exclusively of such men .
Those words describe almost exactly my initial reaction to the morale rumours.
And l was sorely tempted to credit that reaction .
But a senator must learn not to be impulsive.
That is, until he has all the statistics.
Thank you .
That's a sound scientific approach.
l have the War Department's statistical report on your centre about your social problems and functions.
Golf tournaments, barbecues, dances, all went virtually unattended.
As with any small group in confined surroundings, these social affairs tend to start out with a great deal of zest and enthusiasm and then run down .
That seems to be a gross understatement, Mr Lomax.
The divorce rate went up 400% , alcoholism became a major problem, and there were three suicides at the centre.
Remember we're dealing with people who are hard-driving, fantastic perfectionists who live on a veritable razor's edge.
Now, about that unfortunate homicide.
Captain Harrison was operating that machine, a data-processing computer, l believe.
That's correct, Senator.
We use it regularly in security procedures.
What is it? How exactly does it work? l'm afraid, Senator, l am not at liberty to discuss it.
l have here a letter from one of your technicians.
A woman .
Do you mind if l quote? ''There's a bizarre story going the rounds.
'' ''They say the centre has a Peeping Tom machine that follows you anywhere, anytime and sees and hears everything.
'' The device is top-secret.
l am unable to discuss it.
Colonel Grover, you are the military liaison officer of this subcommittee.
l don 't care how you do it, but l expect to see that machine in full operation first thing tomorrow morning.
Thank you , Mr Lomax.
You may step down .
Oh, Senator.
You must've put on pressure to get Pentagon clearance.
l didn 't think any outsider would see O.
B.
l.
T.
l'm confident we will get the Defence Department's cooperation .
They realise the Senate has the right and the duty to get all the facts.
Senator, are we going to see a demonstration of the Peeping Tom? Do l understand you correctly? This machine can pick up people anywhere, anytime, through steel or concrete walls.
Well, the density of the surroundings has no appreciable effect on reception .
- What do you call it? - O-B-l-T, or O.
B.
l.
T.
Actually, those are initials for Outer Band lndividuated Teletracer.
ow does t work ? Well, you see Every living organism is a transmitter operating 24 hours a day.
That, of course, is true of human beings too.
Awake or asleep, active or passive, we are each of us constantly sending out our particular brainwaves, heart sounds, respiratory rhythms.
Like fingerprints, no two human patterns are alike.
Do you mean to tell me you can pick up anyone's signal at will? Yes, it's like a push-button radio.
Once we have an individual tuned in and have their particular wavelength, it's simply a matter of hitting the right buttons and bringing them in .
Who is that? That's Ed Wilson , one of the draughtsmen at Cypress Hills.
He's in Washington on a particular project.
l knew his wavelength code.
- Suppose you didn 't? - l could bring him in on this location finder.
This dial tells us where we're picking up our transmission from.
lt's like a short-wave receiver that says London , Moscow, Washington , Bangkok.
l can turn this dial to a given location and pick up signals from the various persons there.
And you can do this anywhere on Earth? Oh, we're limited to a 500-mile radius now but we're working to extend that limit.
Wouldn 't you say, Mr Lomax, that this machine, in large part, was responsible for the faltering morale at the research centre? Nobody at the centre was aware of O.
B.
l.
T.
's existence.
Dr Fletcher was pulled in for questioning on the basis of information from this machine.
No doubt others were questioned.
People with nothing to hide have nothing to fear from O.
B.
l.
T.
Are you that perfect, Mr Lomax? l'd hate to have that trained on me when l was cussing fellow senators or the President of the United States or my former law partner, to say nothing of my wife.
That will be all, Mr Lomax.
Oh, just a moment.
- Are you the inventor of O.
B.
l.
T? -No, Senator.
l was assigned to operate it and tabulate statistics.
- By whom? - The Defence Department.
Thank you .
Colonel Grover, will you please take the chair? Why weren 't the American people notified of the existence of this equipment? Let me say that the intelligence community must of necessity employ many secret devices.
And who authorised its acceptance and purchase? Well, the head of G-2 signed the papers.
But hundreds of items cross his desk and l'm certain he never got a proper picture of this machine.
He merely signed the papers.
Who wrote the papers that the head of G-2 merely signed? We haven 't been able to find him.
Who manufactures it? The company has since gone out of business.
Colonel, if this is the old badger game, and if your department is concealing information from the investigation We're as much in the dark as you .
Colonel, l want every available record on that machine, and quickly! ls that clear? That will be all, Colonel.
Call Mrs Clifford Scott.
Would you take the chair, please, Mrs Scott? M rs Scot How would you describe the morale climate of Cypress Hills? Not good Did this condition prevail when you and your husband moved here? lt wasn 't until toward the last that things became almost unbearable.
And would you attribute it to that machine? l didn 't know it existed until this morning.
- And who told you about it? - Mr Lomax.
Your husband never mentioned O.
B.
l.
T.
to you? No, he never spoke of security matters.
- But Mr Lomax did this morning.
- Senator.
Mrs Scott was called as a witness.
She's the wife of the head of Cypress Hills.
- l don 't see any harm -Neither do l.
Mrs Scott, it's in the record that you had filed for a separation from your husband.
Yes, but l never pursued it.
l began to see that he was ill.
- And you never actually separated? -No.
- Have you ever visited him at the rest home? - l don 't know where he is.
- We've hunted everywhere for him, but - We? Yes.
Mr Lomax and l.
We've phoned and written and hounded the Army.
- Maybe he just doesn 't want to see me.
- You don 't know that for sure.
No, but these past months, before they took him away, he Please go on .
Well, he imagined things about me.
He accused me of horrible things.
He called me a monster.
And then he began to speak of seeing real monsters.
And finally, one night, he didn 't come home, and they told me that he'd had a physical breakdown and that they had taken him somewhere.
l don 't know what to believe.
Did you locate Dr Scott yet? -No, sir.
- Why not? l'd like to take this matter up with you during recess.
Thank you , Mrs Scott.
lt is not in the government's best interests for Dr Scott to attend these hearings.
Who said so? Senator, you have no idea what you're opening up.
- Well, perhaps you might enlighten me.
- l'm afraid that's impossible.
Are you telling me l can 't be trusted with secret data and you can ? - lt's not a matter of trust.
- Well, what is it a matter of? Senator, the storm warnings are up back home.
You're facing a very rough election .
lt wouldn 't help to be charged with undermining the security of your country.
Colonel, l want to see Scott.
Even at such a price? Yes.
Should you make a moral decision so abruptly? Morality makes its own decisions, Colonel.
l want to see Scott and l want to see him tonight.
l'm sorry, Senator, Dr Scott doesn 't want to see anyone.
Or perhaps he doesn 't want anyone to see him.
Why is he in this place? - You heard Mr Lomax say - A complete physical breakdown .
A polite way of saying the man is not in possession of his senses.
How can a man who is considered irrational have the right to decide whether the United States Senate can conduct investigations? l cannot conduct this investigation without all the facts.
You know this, Colonel.
Dr Scott has especially pertinent facts which l need.
- lf you take responsibility for interrogating -Not interrogation , Colonel.
Just a few questions.
- ( knock at door) - Dr Scott? Colonel Grover again .
- ( knock at door) - Dr Scott? Come in .
Dr Scott, l'm Senator Orville.
know Colonel, the corridor is draughty.
Please close the door.
- Do you know why l'm here? - Oh, yes.
Do you know why l'm here? - l know what l've been told.
- Don 't you believe it? Doctor, l'm a senator, not a psychiatrist.
You're here because you belong here or you're being held incommunicado.
Either way it's a direct result of conditions at Cypress Hills.
A direct result.
When l told them what l saw, they got very quiet.
Looked at me with great, quiet eyes.
Quiet can tell you so much.
Until they looked at me that way, l was certain l had seen what l had seen .
Dead certain .
What did you see, Doctor? Of course l hadn 't.
lt was just that my life had become a nightmare, so naturally l saw the kind of things that inhabit a nightmare world.
Dr Scott.
l saw a monster.
l saw a monster.
When l told them that .
.
they got very quiet.
Can you describe these this monstrous thing you saw? That's very strange.
You're the first one who's asked me to describe it.
- Did you see it on the O.
B.
l.
T.
screen ? - Yes.
ls it my imagination , Senator, or do you believe me? l believe you saw something, something monstrous.
Why? Because you believe it.
- Do l? - l think you do.
Of course l do.
No one has convinced me that l didn 't see it.
l wish they could, but they couldn 't.
Yet you stayed here and pretended to agree with them.
l'm out of it now, away from it.
l just want to forget it.
Return with us to Cypress Hills and be questioned on the stand.
Oh, no.
- Everybody in Cypress Hills needs your help.
-Not everybody.
lf you're referring to your wife, you're wrong.
Not my w fe Someono e se who doesn't want me to say a ny moro , who'd be perfectly willing to kill me rather than let me talk.
Why do you think l'm willing to stay here? Because l'm safe.
As long as l'm insane, l'm safe.
lt's a pretty lousy way to live, isn 't it, Doctor? l hope that you believe in nightmares, Senator.
( high -pitched whistling ) (click whistling stops) ( low whistling ) (click high whistling ) l phoned several times but they won 't let me talk to him.
They said that Senator Orville hasn 't been at the rest home or seen my husband.
Why do you keep asking? Sometimes l feel that you don 't care about me at all, that you're using me in some odd way.
l'm sorry, Byron , l do know better.
Only sometimes l All right, Byron .
Will you call me if you hear anything? (fluctuating whistling ) l couldn 't get anything.
lf Orville's found Scott, he's keeping him out of range.
Something more worrisome than Scott has come up.
Anight watchman at the centre, Armand Younger.
He saw me? He claims he saw someone inside the restricted zone.
Never gave it much thought till he read about the investigation .
- He offered to testify.
- But if he saw me Not your face.
He claims he saw the killer from the back as he left the murder scene.
He mentioned a peculiar walk he's certain he could identify.
Where is he now? He's still in his apartment.
- Have you what you need this time? - l won 't be taken by surprise again .
( knocking ) (Orville's voice ) Mr Younger? lt's Senator Orville.
You'll have to sign some documents before you can appear.
Put that thing down ! Who are you? - Call Armand Younger.
- Senator.
He isn 't here.
- Where is he? - We don 't know.
You don 't know? He isn 't in his apartment.
He may have gone off on a binge or run away.
- But we're looking for him.
- Colonel Grover, will you take the stand? l assume you have a record of the number of O.
B.
l.
T.
machines in use at the present time? Yes, an installation check has revealed that there are 1 8 O.
B.
l.
T.
s in use on our military bases.
And we've discovered that these machines are also being employed in civilian life.
- How is that possible? They're top-secret.
- l don 't know, sir.
Are they used in industry? lndustry, education , communication networks all over the country.
lt's like a debilitating disease.
Surely there must be a record of total number of machines installed.
- There are no records.
-None at all? ( Grover) lt's awful.
Awful.
l feel responsible.
l should have spoken out.
- Weren 't you in favour of O.
B.
l.
T? - l was at first.
But l was wrong.
lt's the most hideous creation ever conceived.
No one can laugh or joke.
lt watches.
Saps the very spirit.
The worst thing of all is .
.
l watch it.
l can 't not look.
lt's like a drug, a horrible drug.
You can 't resist it.
lt's an addiction .
What Colonel Grover has done is a very brave thing.
Addiction to any form of deadliness is difficult to admit.
Over the past 24 hours, l have learned facts and seen examples of this debilitating disease that's been infesting this great country of ours.
l have been advised to leave it alone, to drop it.
l have been threatened with the loss of political support.
But l happen to believe that the people who entrusted me with this office might just like to know all the facts.
Even the ones that no human mind today can explain .
Call Dr and Mrs Scott in .
M rs Scot , wo u d yo u please bo seatod? Dr Scott, would you please take the stand? l don 't want to tax your strength so if you need a rest, let me know and we'll hold up proceedings.
How long have you been confined to a rest home? A month.
And what was the reason for that confinement? The doctor said that l was suffering complete exhaustion , precipitated by anxiety.
Doctor, during this time, did you ever suffer from a lapse of memory or incoherence or hallucinations or any other mental aberrations that might tend to impair your judgment? No.
Have you ever suffered from the conditions l describe? l have not.
Now, Doctor, as head of the Cypress Hills Research Centre, can you recall your reaction when O.
B.
l.
T.
was first installed? l was unalterably opposed to it.
- And did you notify the Defence Department? - Yes.
- And what did they do? -Nothing.
l got the view that they thought the machine was highly successful in eliminating undesirable elements.
Who told you this? Mr Byron Lomax.
What were your feelings towards Mr Lomax? l considered him highly intelligent, very perceptive.
- Were your relations cordial? -No.
But respectful.
Till l found out what was happening to people at the centre.
Friends, colleagues.
l couldn 't bear to look at the man .
l hated what he stood for.
Did you continue your efforts to have O.
B.
l.
T.
removed? No Why not? Well (sighs) l was having what was becoming a daily argument with Lomax over O.
B.
l.
T.
He deliberately clicked on a familiar image in a bathing suit lying next to a young officer.
lt was my wife, Barbara.
They were at the beach.
lt seemed to me that she was being overly friendly to this man but l realise now she's simply gregarious by nature.
She loves laughter and friendship and perhaps even innocent flirtation .
But at the time, l was convinced that it was more.
Much more.
And you questioned her about it? Relentlessly.
l made her account to me for every move that she made.
l made life miserable for her.
l even watched her without her knowing on the machine.
Her every gesture and intonation .
l would throw it up to her at night.
l literally drove her away from me.
Then it finally happened.
She was driven to someone else.
l could see that she was serious about him.
But l couldn 't tell who he was.
l would sit at the machine and tune in her image.
l could see her clear as crystal.
But no matter what l did, l couldn 't pick up his image.
lt was the one person here whose image l couldn 't pick up.
- And you never found out who it was? - l found out.
ow ? l discovered the one person here who never appeared on the screen , and why.
He had seen to it that his wavelength was outside the operating limits of O.
B.
l.
T.
So it was impossible to bring in his signal? l finally did.
Accidentally.
By violating the machine's operating instructions.
The O.
B.
l.
T.
machine was manned - How could you use it to follow your wife? - l swore Captain Harrison to secrecy.
l told him l had instructions to keep certain individuals under my personal surveillance.
- ln other words, you lied to him? - l lied to him.
Do you have any idea how or why Captain Harrison was murdered? He saw something on the machine he was not supposed to.
And what was that? What l saw.
(fluctuating whistling ) - Mr Lomax.
- The machines are everywhere.
Oh, you'll find them all.
You're intelligent people.
You'll make a great show of smashing a few but for every one destroyed, hundreds more will be built.
And they'll demoralise you , break your spirits, create such rips and tensions that no one will be able to repair them.
Oh, you're a sad .
.
despairing planet.
And when we come here to live, you friendless, demoralised flotsam will fall without a single shot being fired.
Senator, enjoy the few years left you .
There is no answer.
You're all the same.
You demand and insist on knowing every private thought and hunger of everyone.
Your families, your neighbours.
Everyone but yourselves.
( man ) Agents of the Justice Department are rounding up the machines now.
But these machines, these inventions of another planet, have been cunningly conceived to play on our most mortal weakness.
ln the last analysis, dear friends, whether O.
B.
l.
T.
lives up to its name or not will depend on you .
We now return control of your television set to you until next week at this same time when the control voice will take you to .
.
The Outer Limits.