A Special Edition
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| "A Special Edition" |
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"A Special Edition" is an episode of The Outer Limits television show. It was first broadcast on 25 July 1997, during the third season.
Introduction
Donald Rivers, a journalist for the television show The Whole Truth, has found proof that the government and large defense contractors have been illegally and secretly cloning human beings. After locking himself in the studio with only a small crew he plans to air his report to the world.
Opening narration
Sometimes, to uncover that which is hidden, we must first be made to look.
Plot
Rivers has the show of a lifetime: rock solid proof that the government and private defense contractors have been engaging in secret genetic cloning experiments. But many mysterious and powerful forces are trying to stop him, and to keep their secrets. He goes on-air live, in a locked studio, accompanied only by a skeleton crew and Dr. Avery Strong, a live eyewitness to the history of the dark side of science. As he presents his evidence, the powerful begin to interfere. First, they try to block the transmission. Then, the network's parent company disavows the show. When thugs with guns break down the studio door, Rivers continues the show on the fly, transmitting live from the back of the show's mobile unit. However, during this, another signal overrides theirs, showing a clone of Rivers giving a fraudulent report, saying that Strong went crazy and killed everyone but Rivers and his driver, who managed to escape. Shortly thereafter, clones walk into the van followed by the Rivers clone, who pulls a gun on the crew. Stating that the viewers are already starting to forget due to the fraudulent report, the Rivers doppelganger adds that no matter how influential he is, his show is just a show. Rivers, Strong, the producer, and the crew are summarily shot to death by the Rivers clone.
Closing narration
We rely upon others to inform us but wisdom can never be taught... and we must always decide the truth for ourselves.
Trivia
- This episode is a clip show, and Donald Rivers's reports are made up from clips from other episodes of The Outer Limits. However, this episode is unusual because one clip came from an episode that had yet to be broadcast; the report that Rivers runs on Mason Stark did not air for another four episodes. Furthermore, given the ending of In Another Life, Rivers's claim to contact Stark's representatives establishes that every episode of The Outer Limits that fits in this continuity takes place on the reality where Stark developed the inter-dimensional technology and not the one in which he was killed.
- Dr. Avery Strong is a brother of Randall Strong, a former member of Army intelligence, who tried to convince the high-level government committee that a number of different alien invasions of Earth were occurring, and demanded an official investigation and response to the threats (The Voice of Reason). In this episode, Dr. Avery Strong tells us that his brother, Randall, was killed in the prison.
- Footage of the episode Dark Rain is used out of context; it is supposed to use the video clip of babies to show that they have been cloned and experimented on, but in the actual Dark Rain story, these babies were mutants birthed by humans who were supposed to be sterile due to contamination. The babies in the original story are not clones at all or even vaguely referenced as clones, and Dark Rain clearly takes place on an alternate earth. Also, the episode In Another Life is referenced showing multiple Starks even though there are numerous versions of him due to use of an inter-dimensional machine which has nothing to do with cloning at all. It is reasonable to assume that the footage they show of multiple Starks is just believed to be a cloning experiment since the only information they have on it is the video footage, which could just lead them to believe they are clones.
- Referenced episodes: