Feasibility Study (The Outer Limits)
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| "Feasibility Study (The Outer Limits)" |
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"Feasibility Study" is an episode of The Outer Limits television show. It was first broadcast on 11 July 1997, during the third season. It is a remake of "A Feasibility Study" (1964), an episode of the original series.
Introduction
Joshua Hayward and his daughter Sarah wake one morning to find a four-block section of their suburban neighbourhood surrounded by a mysterious energy barrier.
Opening narration
In a world where change is the rule, we rely on the unyielding constants in life for comfort and security, that the sun will rise, that the earth will turn, but what if we could no longer be certain of anything... To what then would we cling?
Plot
Sarah finds a badly disfigured alien, Adrielo, who tells her that her neighborhood has been grabbed and moved by another race of aliens. He shows her a way through the energy barrier to his own captured realm. He begs her to help him save his people. Meanwhile, her father Joshua also finds a way through the barrier and comes face-to-face with their captors, the Triunes, a slothful race who feel physical activity is beneath them. They explain matter-of-factly that Joshua, his daughter and the rest of the inhabitants of his neighbourhood have been taken as part of a feasibility study into the suitability of humans for slavery. If they are found able to survive the aliens' native environment, the rest of Earth's population will also be taken and enslaved.
Meanwhile, Sarah finds the rest of Adrielo's people. They are dying from a disease that is turning them to stone and she accidentally becomes infected. Joshua eventually finds her and she pleads with him not to touch her lest he also become infected. They both slip back through the energy barrier and return to their own neighborhood. Joshua explains the purpose of the energy barrier to the other residents and they wonder what choice they have other than to serve the Triunes, as there is no way to return to Earth. Joshua explains the disease his daughter has been infected with, and suggests they deliberately infect themselves to save Earth from enslavement by the Triunes. After discussing it, Joshua convinces everyone to do so and they join hands in the church to sacrifice themselves and prove that humans are unsuitable as slaves. A flash-forward shows all the residents dead and reduced to stone statues. The boy Sarah was seeing goes to her neighborhood to see her, only to find the giant pit made from the area being stolen away.
Closing narration
For centuries philosophers and theologians have debated what it means to be human. Perhaps the answer has eluded us because it is so simple... To be human, is to choose.
See also
- "A Feasibility Study" (1964), an episode of the original series.