The Awakening (Masters of Science Fiction)
| "The Awakening (Masters of Science Fiction)" |
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"The Awakening" is the second episode of Masters of Science Fiction, it first aired on August 11, 2007. The story is based on the short story The General Zapped an Angel by Howard Fast, and was adapted for screen by Michael Petroni, who also directed the episode.
Opening narration
- "The impulse toward violence may be hardwired into our genes, but so is the dream that someday we might rise above it."
Plot
The theme of the story is that war results from xenophobia. It uses religious iconography, mostly Christian as the story context making references to Paradise Lost (lack of gender) and the bible story of the tower of Babel when the "gift" of understanding other languages was "given".
During present-day combat in Iraq, an American soldier discovers an extraterrestrial chrysalis partially buried in the sand. When confronted by an Iraqi militia, both men find themselves understanding the other with no apparent reason - only to fall into a strange malady soon after. The large chrysalis is taken to a military laboratory somewhere in America, where initial testing reveals its DNA seems fairly humanoid although entirely lacking any 23rd chromosome to define gender. The two soldiers who discovered the humanoid, together with one of the researchers shortly fall into a coma-like state of unconscious bliss when exposed to a strange beam emitted from the dormant creature's eyes. Meanwhile, other similar chrysalis objects plummet from the sky to crash at locations around the world, being alternately greeted with panic and adulation.
Retired Major Albert Skynner (Terry O'Quinn of ABC's "LOST") is summoned to the U.S. military research facility, learning that the chrysalis shell defies internal analysis by either x-ray or MRI scanning technologies. While he is careful to avoid the alien eye beams when he probes at the chrysalis creature for clues, the three comatose individuals kept under nearby observation are provoked into unconsciously communicating a handwritten message repeatedly in unison: Humanity is being watched.
In conversation with Lieutenant Granger (Elisabeth Röhm) whose views lean toward a theistic interpretation, Skynner recalls that some years ago he heard a similar message relayed by his late wife in her final dying moments of CJD dementia, but he was unsure of its meaning. The remainder of the alien message is a composite of quotations from religious texts of various faiths, demanding that humanity abandon warfare and immediately decommission all weapons of mass destruction or else face annihilation by the formidable power of the undefined watcher.
Together, an assembly of politicians and military experts attempt to determine their best course of action. Some of them speculate that the nature of the message seems to legitimately indicate that its source is none other than God, while others are more skeptical and consider that these are merely alien invaders who may be referencing human belief systems to faciliate their own sinister aims. As the group debate whether they should comply to thereby leave themselves defenseless against a potential invasion, giant spheres of golden light suddenly and inexplicably appear in the skies over major metropolitan centers around the globe, threatening humanity with immediate compliance.
The U.S. President (William B. Davis) worriedly discusses the situation with his military advisers even as the alien force, by unknown means, begins to remotely deactivate all nuclear warheads on standby within their silos. The President is informed that within less than an hour, the country will be left completely defenseless, and he is urged to strike at the alien light spheres while they're still able to act with the few weapons remaining.
Soon reviewing their options via closed-circuit video conference with other international leaders, it appears that the American contingent is alone in contemplating offensive action; leaders of the other nations either feel that using force would be defying the will of this genuinely divine visitor or else feel that any first strike against the aliens would prove ineffective and would only provoke a hostile and deadly response. The situation becomes more tense as the President resolves that military force is the preferred option to protect his country, but he begins to reconsider when the other nations warn that they themselves will strike at America to prevent global endangerment by any such reckless unilateral action.
Meanwhile, Skynner hurriedly determines to expose himself to the eye beam of the alien creature, hoping to find answers in the last words of his departed wife, which perhaps held metaphysical promise after all, despite his own secular convictions. Entering into the induced comatose state, he experiences a happy vision of revisiting his wife's hospital bed. Though still sub-conscious, he then channels words of wisdom from the alien entity which are transmitted into the thoughts of the President, who in turn delivers them in an inspiring speech to the other world leaders, peacefully defusing their present standoff by acknowledging that they are similarly conditioned by fear stemming from ignorance of one another: "We fear, and so we invent fearsome weapons, and fearsome gods... It's time to stop being afraid, before it destroys us."
The President decisively calls off the proposed nuclear assault against the alien spheres, whereupon they depart, and the foreign leaders are somehow left to suddenly understand each others' respective tongues, lending a fresh perspective which emphasizes their shared human qualities rather than superficial differences.
Skynner regains consciousness just in time to witness the chrysalis metamorphose into a radiant angelic creature which phases through laboratory walls into the military conference chamber, seeming to nod approvingly before flying skyward alongside a multitude of other transformed chrysalis creatures from around the world, uniting with the giant sphere of golden light in the heavens. On pondering whether this new global state of peaceful human enlightenment will be a lasting effect, the retired major offers, "We can only hope."