( man) The great unknown .
Limitless heavens crowded with sparkling mysteries challenging man 's curiosity.
But the heavens are not oceans.
Man cannot push a boat into its currents and set sail for the next horizon .
The heavens are a mystery only science can solve as it penetrates the unknown .
Sir, would you be seated, please? - Captain Branson , all passengers aboard.
- ( man 's voice) Thank you , Miss O'Hara.
- You can close up now.
- Yes, sir.
This is Captain Harvey Branson , commander of space transport Weblo One.
Welcome aboard.
Estimated time of arrival, Planet Antheon : Have a pleasant journey.
Please fasten your seatbelts.
(buzzing) ( man) There is nothing wrong with your television set.
Do not attempt to adjust the picture.
We are controlling transmission .
For the next hour, we will control all you see and hear.
You are about to experience the awe and mystery which reaches from the inner mind to The Outer Limits.
(rockets roaring) Wow! Just like the real thing.
Couldn 't be more frightened if it were real.
This is Captain Branson again .
You're now travelling at 25,000 miles per hour.
You'll not hear the rockets again until the Antheon landing.
( man) That was the voice of the future when interplanetary space flight will be as commonplace as flights from New York to Los Angeles.
This is a final briefing, a summation of everything you already know.
Try to believe it, even though you know there is no planetary station , that the spacecraft in which you are now sitting is a design for the space transport of the future, and the space through which you will fly is the length of a tunnel built over desert sands.
You have been invited to make this first experimental flight boca u se o f yo u r sspee a pr o fess o ns Through you we will determine whether or not people untrained in space flight can survive the physical and psychological stress of long confinement in close quarters, completely detached from Earth.
Good luck.
Captain Branson , take over.
( Branson) You may unfasten your seatbelts.
l call your attention to the panel to the right of the control cabin door.
lt is the emergency alarm, or panic button .
From now on , it will be your only contact with project control.
lf you use it, the flight will be aborted, and you will all, regardless of who pressed the button , be replaced by other passengers, disqualifying yourselves for passage on the space transport that will make the first actual flight to Antheon .
Thank you .
M ss O a ra w opee the ba r fo ha bon voyage dr nk M ss O a ra ? What do you know? They got a bar.
Nobody told me that.
- That's one hardship l'll survive.
- ( man 1 laughs) - l'm Keith Ellis, Washington Times.
- Alicia Hendrix.
Hello.
- The anthropologist.
- Yes.
l'm absolutely delighted.
l've read all your books.
Well, l've read most of your columns.
That'll give us enough to discuss to keep arguing for months.
Joe Dix, construction engineer.
Bridges, highways, radar stations, you name it, l'll build it.
Tougher the better.
Let's get up to this bar.
My father always said, ''You gotta milk the cow before she runs dry.
'' (spacecraft humming) Just wanted to make sure they survived the blastoff.
- Something special? - Yes.
- l've been for ten years - The drink first.
- l'm Henry Craif.
- The ecologist? l'm very happy to meet you .
There are a thousand questions l want to ask about environmental controls.
- For example - Later, Mr Lint, Michael Lint.
You wouldn 't know me, Professor.
A botanist, agronomist, a latecomer to photosynthesis.
( Craif) Now, then , this is Alicia Hendrix, Michael Lint.
( Lint A pleasure.
- ( Craif) Mr Ellis Mr Lint.
- ( Ellis) How are you? - Dr Matthew James? - Yes? l'm Keith Ellis.
l don 't usually intrude on people, but under the circumstances Yes.
We're stuck with each other like blind dates, as my youngest daughter would probably say.
- We have a long way to go.
- Yes.
l'm sorry, l was thinking of my family.
Drink probably would do me some good.
- Dr James Dr Hendrix.
- Hello.
- Professor Craif - Hello.
Mr Lint and Mr Dix.
- Joe Dix.
- How do you do, Mr Dix? To Antheon .
May we find what we're looking for.
- Amen .
- ( loud clattering) My plants! - Mr Dix, are you all right? - Yeah, l'm OK.
- Professor Craif? - Yes, l'm fine.
- Well, check number one.
- lt's certainly realistic.
- l must admit, it scared me.
- Me too.
Man is imaginative.
He reacts to the unexpected.
Spoken like an anthropologist.
l call him a living organism that reacts automatically to any environmental change - in a desperate effort to survive.
- Spoken like an ecologist.
Speaking like a construction man , l call it a waste of champagne.
( Brandon) We have just passed through a mass of micro-meteorites.
Sorry l couldn 't warn you .
For your information , we will be passing the planet Mercury.
Merc u ry s day s equa to ts yea r, 88 days One side of the planet is always in sunlight, the other in darkness.
We'll be passing on the dark side.
Who cares? l'd call it useful information if he'd tell us where there's more champagne.
We have another bottle, sir.
- Well, what are you waiting for? - lt's for the end of the trip.
- That's a long way off.
- And not too certain .
- l think we'll make it.
- Attagirl.
And when we do, l'll throw a real winger.
When Joe Dix throws a party the booze flows like the damn is broke.
No limit to the bill.
No questions asked.
Break open that bottle, cutie.
We'll start celebrating right now.
Can l give you a hand? No, thank you , Mr Dix.
You know, you scientists constantly amaze me.
You're always in the wildest places, living the most hair-raising adventures.
- Yet you act as if you were in your library.
- We're like you , Mr Ellis.
We must see for ourselves.
Do you sometimes see something you'd rather not? Yes.
Sometimes the truth is hard to take.
You newspaper guys don 't worry too much about the truth.
We get used to it.
Except when it concerns people, politicians, and parasites.
Why are you taking the time to make this trip? To make a billion bucks.
- ( Ellis) On Antheon ? - Well, it figures.
l mean l mean , that's the wide-open spaces, ain 't it? The wilderness? All right, first you guys do your exploring, then comes the smart businessman .
Picks up the land, builds the cities, airports, railroads Who knows what? That's me.
l'm first there, nobody stops me from taking what l want.
A planet pioneer.
What if there are - .
.
lndians? - They go.
You can 't let savages stop the progress of civilisation .
Well where's the panic button ? - Ain 't nobody gonna press that.
- How can you be so sure? Nobody's gonna push it unless they blow their top, right? Nobody's gonna blow their top unless they're scared.
Everybody, listen to me.
This whole deal is just like a movie, see? Take the hero.
Everybody's out to k*ll him.
The bad guys, the floods, blizzards, even in those kookie horror pictures, the most awful-looking monsters.
(roars and retches) They're all after his blood or something, see? But is he scared? No.
Why? Because he knows it ain 't for real.
All right.
ln this movie, we're the heroes.
We know it ain 't real.
What do we got to be scared of? Pop that cork, baby.
l'm gonna make a toast to all us heroes.
(woman screams) Tricksters! l've had enough of this kids' stuff.
Don 't let it get you down , Dix.
You're a hero.
Nobody roughs me up more than once.
l'm gonna talk to that captain .
No one's allowed in there.
l can read, but l'm Joe Dix and signs don 't impress me.
How do you open this? l'm Captain Branson .
- Yeah, l was just looking for you .
- Why? The ship ain 't moving, why's it need a pilot? Because we're in flight, even though simulated.
You don 't fool me, l know what your job is.
You push the buttons and make those kookie things happen , like that last little brannigan .
- ls that what you wanted to see me about? - Yeah.
And something else.
Look, l'm a businessman .
l wanna make this trip, the whole 261 days.
You lay off the tricks, l'll make it worth your while.
- You say it, l'll pay it.
- l have nothing to sell you , Mr Dix.
l've no control over what happens.
l have to keep flying, no matter what.
So what's in it for you? lf this trip is a success, l'll be on the first space transport to Antheon as astral pilot.
l want that, maybe more than you want those millions.
But money won 't buy the courage you'll need to finish this flight.
One hint, Captain , one small hint.
Out of your own experience, what is the greatest danger in space flight, especially for untrained people like us? The greatest danger? l don 't know, there are so many.
The worst are the ones we make for ourselves by seeing things that don 't exist except in our own imaginations.
Oh, what an act.
How did he put it? ''The worst dangers are the ones we make for ourselves.
'' A very sensitive man .
l don 't wonder, after all these years of adapting to so many artificial environments.
The guy's a phoney.
The joker that's supposed to raise all the goose pimples.
You guys are forgettin ' that this whole trip to nowhere is rigged.
l What is that? For lunch today you are having porchetta al girarrosto - ln English.
- Baby pig, barbecued on a spit.
- Oh, delightful.
- ( Lint Fantastic.
- (aerosol spraying) - Oh, what's that? Due to space restrictions, our food is concentrated, providing sufficient nourishment, but little gustatory pleasure.
Research has indicated that extraneous sensory events, such as the suggestion of various food and cooking odours will alleviate the monotony resulting from the constant and necessary consumption .
Are you telling us that the porchetta is in that spray can ? Yes, sir.
-Now, what's in the tube? - Beef extract, vegetable extract, all kinds of vitamins and minerals, all highly concentrated.
-No seasoning? -None at all.
You are advised to concentrate on the smell rather than the taste.
We have a magnificent selection of odours, such as braised wild duck grand-mére coq de bruyére au vin rouge - kidneys bourguignon , barbecued spare ribs - Oh, stop, you're k*lling me.
( laughs) May l help you? They say it's more amusing if you make different designs.
Now l know what it feels like to be a starving artist.
Miss O'Hara, could you give me more gravy? Right in the face, please.
Just a touch too much garlic.
( laughter) (buzzing) (snoring) (snoring grows louder) The space manual warned about the dangers of isolation , confinement, reduced sensory input, boredom, depression Didn 't mention snoring.
One .
.
two .
.
three (snoring continues) l'm a woman .
More woman than scientist.
Try as l will, l can 't forget it.
l'm getting old.
l'm wasting more of the few years left to me on this trip.
More of the last few years.
(snoring continues) They were my life, my world.
What did l do wrong? Why couldn 't l save them? Why did my world die in my hands? l must (snoring) Million .
.
five million .
.
ten million Man , it won 't ever stop.
l'll be first there.
Nobody better get in my way.
Not them scientists, anybody or anything else.
l'm gonna own that planet.
(chokes) (shouts) (choking) Let go Do something! - Let go of me! Get off of me! - Dix! Take it easy.
- Get this thing off me! - Easy! Stop it! Mr Dix, stop it! What's going on here? Somebody tried to k*ll me.
-No.
- One of you .
- Who tried to k*ll me? - Why should we want to k*ll you? - Perhaps to stop his snoring.
- l never snored in my life.
- There's your enemy.
- You must be out of your mind.
- You were fighting with it.
- That's a lie! Somebody tried to choke me.
Doc, take a look.
lt still burns where somebody put a rope around it.
What is it? Does it still burn ? No.
lt stopped just like that.
What was that? Oh .
.
you probably had a nightmare and dreamed you were choking.
That was no nightmare.
There were marks on my throat! - Weren 't there? - Well, yes, there were, but they're gone.
- lt was obviously psychosomatic.
- Stay out of this! Try to understand, you had a nightmare so vivid it left marks on your neck.
You too.
Don 't tell me what happened! You're all against me.
- Mr Dix - l ain 't good enough for you .
- You think l'm a bum without an education .
- You also snore too much.
Look All right, l snore.
ls that a reason for somebody to m*rder me? l tell you , somebody tried to m*rder me! Don 't be afraid, Mr Dix.
You said it yourself .
.
it isn 't real.
ls there something l can do for you , Mr Dix? Just believe me.
(clanging beeping) ( Alicia) Dr James? May l? May l come in , please? - Dr Hendrix.
- Please l just want to sit here for a few minutes.
l feel .
.
uneasy.
A sedative? No.
Just a hand to hold.
l l know that sounds infantile, but .
.
fear does that to one.
Especially a woman .
Doctor, you're much too mature a woman to need someone to hold your hand.
You'll go to sleep faster with a sedative.
No, thank you .
l'll l'll try to manage without it.
Well, whatever you wish.
Good night.
Good night.
- ls this your idea of a joke? - A joke? You you put this in my bed, didn 't you? - What is it? - lt's my daughter's doll.
l've never seen it before.
- You're lying.
- l don 't even know you have a daughter.
(James) What maniac put this doll in my bed? l said, what maniac put this doll in my bed? lt's psychosomatic, Doc.
Forget it, man .
Go to bed.
(buzzing) You'd die just to spite me, wouldn 't you? You ungrateful monsters.
Well, l am beginning to hate you as much as you hate me.
But l won 't let you die.
We've come this far.
We'll go all the way.
(swing jazz playing) She was holding this when she d*ed.
Yes.
You've already told us, many times.
(scoffs) My wife and my daughter together.
l tried to save them, but .
.
l didn 't know how.
- l'm sure you did everything you could.
- Well, l thought so.
But l've come to believe that it was my ignorance that k*lled them.
l must warn you against depression .
lt's caused mostly by the isolation , the monotony.
We're coming into dangerous times now.
Professor, there's .
.
there's something you must believe.
l didn 't bring this on board with me.
Professor - How did it get on my bed? - l don 't know.
You do see this, Professor? You're not just kidding me to keep me from going insane? l see it, Doctor.
But l can 't explain it.
( music volume increases) - l like it like that.
- You're not alone here.
-Name one person - We're talking about different things.
- lt's the same thing.
- Let go! - Don 't touch that phonograph.
- Let go of my wrist.
- Want me to break it? - You belong in a jungle, ape.
( Alicia) Save it, gentlemen .
You might .
.
want to fight over me.
lt ain 't possible.
What are you made up for? - A retired lady anthropologist.
- Do they all finish this way? - Depends.
- On what? On what it depends on .
Everything depends on something, especially a woman .
A woman depends on a man .
And l'm a woman without a man for as long as l can remember, so therefore .
.
l've nothing to depend on except myself.
lt's not right.
Ah l am a woman .
Alicia is for woman .
Hendrix is for anthropologist.
So l have decided to become Alicia.
Look at me, Dr James.
Every other man is looking at me.
Call Miss O'Hara.
You'd never have guessed it, but l'm really quite worth looking at.
Why are you looking at that doll? You're too old to be looking at dolls.
Dolls are for children .
Let me have it! He has reason for loving that doll, like you have reasons for wanting to be a woman .
But l don 't know how.
l must .
.
find out before it's too late.
lnever thought of it until just now, sitting here with nothing to do.
Nothing l'm strong.
l'm trained.
l have a disciplined mind.
l must .
.
work to forget the children l've never had.
You come to my cabin for a rest.
You're very pretty, Maggie.
But you're as cold as a robot.
l'm much more woman than you .
Yes, Miss Hendrix.
James is sick.
-No sicker than the rest of us.
- Speak for yourself, genius.
- Genius? - You're in all the newspapers, ain 't you? Nobody's supposed to think until you tell them how.
Don 't envy me, Dix.
lnever built a house.
You build a house, you got something to be proud of.
Well, words don 't build anything.
They just hang in the air for a minute until some other words come along and push 'em out of the way.
And some other words pushing other words .
.
and and more and more and (thump) No.
- (sensors beeping) - (engine roaring) BOTANY LAB KEEP OUT (roaring) What's happening? Help me get him to the bed.
Dead.
His face He must have seen something.
Something terrible.
(roaring) The panic button .
-Nobody pushes that button ! - Dix Dix! l'm the hero, see? You people want to drive me into the ground.
You want to k*ll me.
Only l'm not scared, see? Because l know it's not real.
lt's not real.
So nobody touches that button .
Nobody.
Not as long as l'm alive.
l'll k*ll you .
Dix, be reasonable.
We must get out.
We're caught in something beyond - Get away from the panic button .
-No! - l don 't want to k*ll you .
- That's the only way you'll get to it.
We'll all die if we don 't get out! What kind of madmen planned this insane experiment? Not madmen scientists, men of experience, reputation .
- Sadists and murderers.
-No.
No, they didn 't expect death.
They didn 't know about this horror.
l'll show you what was planned everything.
- With this remote control unit, l can - Show me.
( humming) ( loud clattering) ( Dix) Turn on the lights.
( Alicia) Dix, what are you doing? Now we p ay t my way Meve over t hero -Now, how come you knew about all this? - l helped plan this experiment.
- l came along to control it.
- Then what are you scared of? The things that we hadn 't planned on .
- What things? - The doll.
- l got choked first.
Did you plan that? -No, but it might have been a nightmare.
- What else? - The oxygen failure.
- ( Brandon) lt's happened before.
- lt's too dangerous for untrained people.
- (James) And Lint? What about Lint? - We're scientists, we don 't believe in monsters.
Even now? Why do you think l want to press the panic button ? l don 't know any more.
l'm trapped by something beyond my knowledge and understanding.
- Who is it that's attacking us? - Perhaps we're attacking them.
Perhaps they're only defending themselves against us.
l'm with you , professor.
l don 't believe in monsters.
l say you rigged this whole thing.
Maybe you got paid off by the second g*ng.
- You're a sick man .
- But it is rigged, ain 't it? There's a lot of buttons he ain 't pushed.
How do l know this ain 't another trick? (door sliding open) (roaring) (alien) We are finished with tricks, Mr Dix.
We have come to the moment of reality.
Who what are you? l come from planet Antheon .
Are you always like that? l am whatever l wish to be seen as by you .
Some kind of a monster.
You make your own monsters, Mr Dix.
- That's why we've no more patience with you .
- Why did you wait so long? We are not of the planet Earth.
We do not enjoy k*lling.
We k*ll only when there is no other solution .
l'm a newspaper man .
l deal in fact, not fantasy.
Now fantasy is fact.
How do l write this story? Begin with the fact of six people who thought only of themselves.
l got a right to make a buck! By trying to destroy whatever stands in your way? Are we strong enough to destroy you? You are children who still believe in monsters.
- Are you alive? - Alive or not, Dr James, you do not know.
You are a frightened man reaching for a panic button as you did when your family d*ed.
l don 't believe it.
We made this ugly thing to fit the limits of your own imaginations.
Was it you who told me l was getting old? You told it to yourself.
l was only reading your deepest thoughts, the rest was your own doing.
We are a simple people.
Given a chance we'll destroy ourselves.
Why do it for us? Because you'll destroy us, too, if we let you .
You do not know us.
We have never hurt you .
Yet you come to att*ck, to conquer.
We will not allow this.
What if we came to you as friends? Ready to build instead of destroy? To share knowledge for knowledge, love for love.
Would you welcome us then ? lf such a time ever comes.
Then let us go home, so we can learn what we must learn .
( Lint My plants are all dead.
Ten years of work wasted.
- l thought you said he was dead.
- He was according to my definitions.
We've gone beyond your definitions.
Beyond the definitions any of us have ever known before.
- Will you please explain ? - Later, when we get back where we belong.
Meanwhile, your plants are dead and you've no reason for continuing.
Press the panic button .
You sure? - Press the panic button , Mr Lint.
-No, l got a billion dollars riding on this trip! Nobody ( otud wh rr ng) (siren sounds) ( man) Panic button pressed.
Passengers returned.
One side always in the sunlight, the other always in darkness.
The known and the unknown .
Frightening to each other only when they are both unknown , and misunderstood.
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.