The Outer Limits (1963) s01e23 Episode Script

Second Chance

- Get everybody out! - (deep buzzing ) (woman ) Get out! Everybody get out! Get out! Everybody get out! - ( yelps) - ( man ) Stay.
Stay.
Seat yourselves.
We must not lose another precious moment.
Tell them.
Please.
l don 't know what this is, but l'm afraid it's real.
l'll explain later, when you're capable of listening.
Do not be afraid.
You have nothing to lose .
.
but your lives.
Stand by for countdown and launch.
Ten , nine, eight, seven , six, five .
.
four, three .
.
two, one.
(penetrating whistle ) ( 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 ) When fear is too terrible, when reality is too agonising, we seek escape in manufactured danger, in the thrills and pleasures of pretending, in the amusement parks of our unamusing world.
Here, in frantic pretending, man finds escape and temporary peace and goes home tired enough to sleep a short, deep sleep.
But what happens when night comes, when pretending ends and reality begins? (decreasing whistle ) (rattling ) (decreasing whistle ) (rattling ) (gurgling blasting ) (jaunty steam organ music ) ( man ) Now in your visi-screen you can see the Milky Way, a giant system of stars, planets and clouds of dust and gas, which measure 1 00,000 light years in diameter.
Our sun is one of the stars in the Milky Way, rotating with it like some chair on a great Ferris wheel.
Does life exist somewhere other than this Earth? There are a billion stars in the Milky Way, giving light and heat to as many planets.
And the possibility of discovering other beings is no longer fantasy.
Perhaps they will be even more intelligent than we are.
Perhaps we can learn from them not only the secret of our origin , but how to keep from destroying ourselves.
And now we reverse rockets and we're homeward bound on a true course to the Joyland space port.
- You positively mystify me.
- Why? Oh, philosophising about life on other planets for the benefit of one small boy.
Maybe young people are the only ones who really listen .
You can 't reach a closed mind.
Anyway, l get tired of making the same old speech.
You know, you don 't belong here.
l'm serious.
Who works in amusement parks? Drifters, ex-carnies and students during summer vacation .
- And lovely artists.
- Who can 't sell their paintings.
But l prefer this to waiting tables.
l belong wherever l happen to be.
l am a drifter.
We are re-entering the Earth's atmosphere.
Stand by for retro-rockets.
(whistling roar) There go the retro-rockets, breaking procedure as we reduce starspeed from a maximum 24,900 miles per hour to sub-orbital velocity.
Stand by for change-over and landing.
What are you drifting from? You have the occupational disease of all undiscovered artists: a hyperactive imagination and its by-product, snooping.
( laughs) Well, a man who reads Kant's Critique of P ure Reason does not belong where artists who can 't sell their paintings belong.
Or did l imagine you reading that? And in the original German .
Well, l'm a compulsive reader.
lt might be interesting to snoop into your life.
You can start the minute we get back to Earth, if you like.
l'm free for lunch.
There's California on the screen .
Now Los Angeles County and Joyland.
We're coming in ! And it's a perfect landing.
On behalf of Captain Crowell and myself, thank you for joining us.
We hope that you've enjoyed yourself and will travel with us soon again .
l know a little enchilada stand next to a roller-coaster.
lf we walk fast Well, that doesn 't sound too seductive.
l accept.
Hey, what is it? l feel as if something's wrong.
- How? - As if we were being watched.
From somewhere out there? From somewhere close.
From everywhere.
There aren 't enough people in this whole park to watch us from everywhere.
Maybe that's it.
An amusement park shouldn 't be as empty as this one.
lt wouldn 't be, if the management knew anything about management.
Shouldn 't we strike while the enchiladas are hot? Dave, l asked what you were drifting from.
l'd like to change that.
What are you drifting toward? We were going to have lunch so l could snoop into your life.
Are you looking for a wife, or a girlfriend? - l know what's watching you , Mara.
- You do? Mm-hm.
The eyes of your conscience.
Then l'm not in any real danger.
My conscience and l understand each other.
(decreasing whistle ) Final facets of conversion have been completed.
Accomplished without noticeable modifications.
Humans still see ship as amusement park ride.
Human subjects meeting specifications have been psycho-organised and will enter ship according to plan .
Will re-contact Empyria when ship is beyond Earth's atmosphere.
(steam organ music ) (banging ) Arjay? Of all the cheating, miserable contraptions! Arjay it's only a dime.
Help yourself, sonny boy.
Arjay, please! We came here for a good time.
l'm having all the fun in the world, l mean to tell you ! - (screams) - Don 't be frightened.
l'm as human as you .
You've taken jobs you didn 't want.
Haven 't you? Not ones that degrade me.
Does the job degrade the man ? Or is it the other way round? These are complimentary.
Tickets for the space ride.
l didn 't ask to go on any space ride.
l don 't even know why l'm in this ''amusement'' park.
Perhaps you were compelled to come here by some sleeping need for unreality.
An escape from reality is usually costly.
This one is free.
Please, take these.
Thank you very kindly, Mr? May you enjoy the journey.
lt was nice of him to pick us.
- Probably nobody wants to go on that ride.
- l do.
Supposing l don 't? - l'm sorry, Sueann .
- lt's all right.
l don 't mean to be sharp with you all the time.
One of these days l'll make it up to you .
One of these days.
There's plenty of opportunity out here for a man like me.
lf l could find that one little door and get my foot into it.
lt'll have to be a big door, Arjay.
You got awful big feet, you know.
Most big men do.
Come on , before l get too busy to notice you .
Let's go have a look at that universe.
Buddy, we ought to go.
Luncheon 's in his honour, Donise.
He can keep all them waiting.
- The luncheon 's for the whole team.
- Sure, but you are the whole team.
We'll get there in plenty of time.
How about taking these back? And buy us some more rides.
No, this is my treat this time.
Buddy, you've been acting strange all day.
Footballers are meant to be uncomplicated and transparent as glass.
And putty in a pretty girl's hands.
- Do you love me? - l'm wearing your pin .
Yeah, a football hero's pin .
- What if l weren 't a hero? - (steam organ starts playing ) - (screams) - Shh! Forgive me for frightening the young lady.
l saw she was falling.
l l forgot about the costume.
But as long as l'm here Free.
A ride through the endless freedom of the universe.
-No, Buddy! We're late enough as it is.
- Perhaps too late.
ln which case, the universe may be just the place to go.
And start over.
The young lady will take your tickets.
l hope you enjoy your journey.
Let's wait inside.
We'll give it to her there.
Welcome aboard.
(echoing whistle ) (electronic growling ) Good afternoon .
This is your space stewardess, Miss Matthews.
Your tour officer is Captain Crowell.
He'll explain , in Space Age-ese, the wondrous sights you'll see on the visi-screen .
We wish you a pleasant journey and request that you all fasten your seat belts.
Did you hear that sound? From the radio unit upstairs.
A kind of voice.
You said my conscience was watching me.
Maybe yours is talking to you.
Maybo Ladies and gentlemen , welcome aboard our space flight.
Our ship is a single-stage vehicle using nuclear power rather than chemical propellants utilised in multi-stage rockets.
Our escape velocity will be 1 5,000 miles an hour.
We'll travel in a figure-eight orbit that will take us around the moon .
ln a few moments, after our equipment check, we'll be ready to blast off.
Stand by for countdown and launch.
(deep buzzing ) - (screams) - They put on a very realistic show.
l'm gravely sorry.
l did not intend to reveal myself until you needed me.
Horror is a luxury the desperate cannot afford.
Sit down , Miss Matthews.
Fasten your belt.
Would you be good enough to fasten your belt? - What's going on ? - There are rules in space flight.
Not this kind of space flight.
- Oh, Arjay, do as he says.
-No.
- Tell me, why did you come aboard? - You gave me a free ticket.
How can you enjoy free things if you won 't pretend they're real? Maybe l don 't like to pretend.
Perhaps you don 't.
But you do it.
You do it incessantly.
Doesn 't he? - Listen now - Look at this, Mr Beasley.
-Now he's trying to hypnotise me.
- lt's too late to allow you to leave.
Neither can l let your frail body be bashed to death against the sides of this craft.
- l can disintegrate you , however.
- You can ? And leave not a trace of you for anyone to mourn .
Fasten the belt.
Pretend what all the rest of us are pretending, for a change.
(seat belt clicks) (screams) - Get everybody out! - (deep buzzing ) Get out! Everybody get out! Get out! Everybody get out! - ( yelps) - Stay.
Stay.
Fasten yourselves in .
Or you'll be killed.
Seat yourselves.
We must not lose another precious moment.
Tell them.
Please.
l don 't know what this is, but l'm afraid it's real.
l'll explain later, when you're capable of listening.
Do not be afraid.
You have nothing to lose .
.
but your lives.
Stand by for countdown and launch.
Ten , nine, eight, seven , six .
.
five, four .
.
three, two, one.
(rumbling blast Sueann .
.
l'm scared.
l'm scared, Sueann .
- Where are we? Where are we? - We're in space.
l don 't like this.
And l don 't stand for anything l don 't like.
Nothing's fun when it's this real, nothing in life! You call it fun when we actually passed out? When we actually got scared? Well, l don 't call it fun ! And l'm not staying! Don 't! You can 't leave! Do you want to kill us all? ook ook! Those are the stars.
Above you , beneath you , all about you .
We're in space.
Now believe it.
lt's real.
But why? Why is it real? )ave Go and sit down over there.
- He said he'd explain later.
Mara - (gasps) l bid you welcome .
.
to the universe.
No! No, it's a mask! lt isn 't real! lt's a mask! Take it off! lt's a fake! Take it off! (screams) l saw! (sobs) l wanna go! - Shh - Let me go home! All right.
Everything's all right.
(shrieks) We should have gone to the luncheon ! You were supposed to be there! This would never have happened.
l'd be safe! Why did we have to come here? Why couldn 't we just go? All right.
OK.
ls this all there is to it? Somebody pushes a button and we just go sailing into the universe? ls that it? Well, don 't we do anything about it? You're real swell at pretending to be a captain .
You speak that Space Age-ese like a native, don 't you? Yes, sir, you sure pretend good.
Oh, excuse me, you sure pretend well.
My dear old dad is a captain too.
You ought to see him pretend.
Oh, we just call it pretending.
lts real name is hypocrisy.
lt means l know what it means.
l know all your words.
And how you use them.
Oh.
We've got an intellectual on the team, fellas.
Do we let him take the fun out of our game or do we splatter him over the field? Splatter him! Kill him! Kill him for real! (deep buzzing ) - Help me, Tommy.
Come on ! -No! l saw what he did to you .
Team work, Tommy! You get him.
Or can 't you do anything by yourself except take bribes? - What are you talking about, old friend? - What we know and the world will find out.
My own private slave gonna tell 'em? My loyal, faithful gofer gonna turn fink on me? You threw the game.
That's finkship of the highest! - Buddy! - lt would have been some luncheon .
Everyone making over the big hero.
And him a bigger hypocrite than his brass boy papa! l'd hate you , but you can 't hate someone you never liked.
- You meant something to me.
- Shut up! - You meant something to a lot of people.
- Shut up! Shut up! (wind howls) (screams) To me, to every member of my race, the dark aridness of the universe was once an endless, laneless thoroughfare.
Unrestricted and harmless.
ln some fanciful flight of evolution we Empyrians, like the birds of your world, were given the freedom to soar above our destinies.
And, like the men of your world, we chose to discard a greater part of that freedom, to confine ourselves to a single star, a planet we call Empyria.
ln some of us, the soaring freedom still lives and must be employed to distract disaster from the rest of us.
ln our solar system there is an asteroid called Tythra.
lts atmosphere is similar to that of Earth.
And it is a threat to us.
However, properly colonised, its course can be redirected and controlled.
- You've abducted us for that purpose.
- The choices were not as random as it seems.
l've been here a long time.
l've studied the human specimen .
So many long to soar.
Great expenditures are directed toward the leaving of Earth.
Yet in all the minds l've probed, l found not one genuine desire for total freedom.
None of you , it seems, truly wants to leave this troubled star.
And so, regretfully, abduction became necessary.
l chose those who would have the least regret, who would leave the least behind, and who had the most to gain by a new chance in a new, undistorted world.
l think you've made a disastrous mistake.
You need scientists, not discontented dreamers.
One scientist should be enough Doctor Crowell.
- When will the asteroid hit Empyria? - ln your timescale, 82 years.
Not a seco nd soonor o n ato r That isn 't enough time.
That's hardly a minute.
No, it would not be, if we used only the technology familiar to you .
But we have a four-century advance upon the scientists of Earth.
A mind of genius such as yours should be able to absorb that advance within Assuming such a mind wanted to absorb.
You stopped wanting to exploit that genius, Dr Crowell.
You did not stop wanting to expand it for good and noble purpose.
Sometimes l wonder.
They offered me prizes and honours and even moderate riches.
l just had to let them stand over my shoulder and make suggestions.
l didn 't want that.
l wanted to go off alone and unravel the mysteries l preferred.
The ones that mystify the heart, not not the Defence Department.
l didn 't know there was anything on Earth worth defending.
l'm giving you your chance to defend all of Earth.
Everything and everyone on it.
l'm giving that chance to all of you .
Why me? Why us? What have your troubles got to do with me? My troubles? The troubles of the universe are universal, Mr Beasley.
So is its capriciousness.
You've seen the game called billiards.
The universe invented it.
An asteroid strikes Empyria.
lt's knocked out of its own solar system.
lt, in turn , collides with another planet.
And the game cannot be fixed.
lf it's going to collide with Earth, it will collide with Earth.
lt is going to collide with Earth.
l wonder what it's like to play a game that can 't be fixed.
Maybo we ro u cky , )o hise - Lucky? - To get another chance.
l don 't need another chance! How do you know what l'm leaving behind? l had everything a girl would want.
What did you want? The admiration of men .
The envy of women .
Are those lovely goals? Or the hungers of a heart incapable of an honest feeling for another human being? l've been in love.
l was pinned to Buddy.
Would you shout it to the world when it learnt that he accepted a bribe to lose a game? Would you love the cheat as you did the hero? All of you , what have you to lose? Does one of you have something real to lose, something worthwhile? Mr Beasley, will you mourn the loss of your shallow, impossible dream of success? Will you be sorry to stop wearing out your shoes and your wife's soul in the search of a non -existent rainbow? And you , Miss Matthews, will you miss the loneliness, the guilt, the regret over a love affair that ended because it had no moral right to start? And, Doctor Crowell l leave nothing behind.
Except disillusionment in my fellow man and hopelessness in myself.
Maybe we could all use another chance.
l know l could.
Come, then .
We'll begin to plan the future.
Everyone's future.
Are you all right? There's something in the first-aid kit.
l'll get it.
- Can l help, Donise? - Leave me alone.
lf you loved me, you'd find some way to stop this awful nightmare! Nightmares end when you stop dreaming.
Take me home! l don 't care what you've done! lunderstand.
l still love you .
- Just please take me home.
- l don 't know how.
Captain Crowell does.
He could take us back to Earth.
What can we do? None of us can fly this.
The Empyrian said Crowell could understand their machinery.
lt doesn 't mean he can pilot a spaceship, though.
- He looks like he wants to go.
- That's what they counted on .
Give him a chance to be a hero.
Boss us slaves around.
They knew that he'd bite.
They needed him.
But they missed one thing.
Take away Crowell and the rest of us wouldn 't be a bit of use to them.
He's the scientist.
lf something happened to him - Like what? - Like what happened to your friend.
lt's difficult for me to understand human beings.
- You're doing fairly well.
- You're willing to go, aren 't you? Even if you resent being abducted.
Well, life is one big abduction .
Yes.
l'm willing to go.
- The logic behind human thought evades me.
- Or the lack of it? Throughout your history, men have volunteered readily to fight and die to preserve a nation .
Yet when the planet faces destruction , those people lt's hard for human beings to do something about tomorrow's catastrophes, let alone one that's 82 years off.
- Then you accept our calculations? - Oh, yes.
l thought l was the most cynical person on Earth.
l believe if this collision were going to happen tomorrow or next year, half the population would volunteer to go anywhere in the universe to prevent it.
Logic doesn 't get in the way when there's no time to be logical.
You also have shown no reluctance to go to Tythra.
Maybe it's the company l've been keeping lately.
(shrieking whistles) Everybody all right? You OK? -No one was hurt? -Not yet.
You don 't suppose you might talk him into taking us back? Well l couldn 't, even if l wanted to.
We're going? We're really going? - That's right.
-No, young lady.
The answer is no.
Arjay! - Put that away, Mr Beasley.
- Killing you is the only solution .
- Killing? - They can 't use us without you .
We'd never survive without some big brain to lord it over us so you've got to be killed.
(shrieks) - Help him! Please! - Help Mr Beasley! (screaming ) Somebody get him! (breathes heavily) lt's not deep.
How could l be so wrong about people? This wasn 't a punishment.
lt wasn 't a sentence.
twas a second cha nce Some of us don 't believe in second chances.
The rest of us don 't want them.
Take them back.
They can 't be of any use to you .
l hope l can .
How does it feel to know what you're drifting toward, Dave? Well, a little like it felt when that shower of meteors passed.
We were holding onto each other.
Are you sure this is what you really want? No.
When you take them back, ask for volunteers.
l'm sure we'll start off again with a whole shipload of illogical human beings.
Eventually, others will join us.
Others who will come willingly.
l believe l can trust in that.
l'll reverse our course.
( man ) 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.

Previous EpisodeNext Episode