The Inheritors (The Outer Limits)
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"The Inheritors" is the only two-part episode of the original The Outer Limits television show. Part I was first aired on November 21, 1964; Part II on November 28, 1964.[1]
Introduction
Four U.S. Army soldiers, with nothing in common other than having served in the same combat zone and been shot in the head with bullets forged from a meteorite, cheat death and begin working on a mysterious project. Intelligence officer Adam Ballard attempts to unravel the mystery behind the strange behavior of the men, who have each attained I.Q.s of over 200.
Opening narration (The Inheritors, Part I)
- In the troubled places of the world, the Devil's Hunter finds rare game. For man-made savagery is only the instrument for a secret terror stirring from its dark place of ambush...
Plot
Lt. Minns (Steve Ihnat) is shot in the head. Rescued, he is operated on by American doctors. Adam Ballard (Robert Duvall) watches the operation. Minns begins to show the same brainwave patterns that three other men have shown — each one shot in the head by a bullet made from a meteorite fragment.
Ballard explains to his superior (Ted De Corsia) that he believes the Earth has been invaded, and that these four men are in league with the extraterrestrials.
As Ballard investigates, he discovers that the men are building a starship. He also discovers that Lt. Minns is going around recruiting children to take with him on a long trip. All the children are handicapped in some way — blind, deaf/mute, paralyzed in the legs, and so on.
Ballard is afraid these helpless children are to be victims of alien abduction, degrading studies and hideously painful experiments. He finds the location where the ship has been built, but the men within are sealed off by a force field which nothing can get through. Ballard begs the men to fight the "Charlie" in their heads, turn off the force field, and not kidnap the children.
Three of the four men attempt to do just that, obliging Lt. Minns to explain the project's purpose. The children are not to be studied, they are to be helped : the alien intelligence behind this operation originates from a planet inhabited by a highly advanced, peaceful extraterrestrial civilization that has been struck by a natural disaster : they became sterile and are now unable to perpetuate their species. Therefore, they have chosen several handicapped / disinherited children that would not miss their life on Earth, to become the inheritors of their legacy. And thus they will be taken to a new world, where their handicaps will be healed. Indeed, the special air within the spaceship has even now healed them. Ballard is allowed inside the ship, and sees what Minns says is true. He exits, and the four men are given a choice, stay on Earth or go with the children. They elect to leave with the children for a new world and a new life.
Closing narration (The Inheritors, Part I)
Man looks up at the stars, and dreams his futile dreams. Child of the universe, his toys are ignorance, his games, fantasy. Not even master of his own fate, it is the Devil's Puppeteer who stretches his fingers to answer the question: What will happen next?
Opening narration (The Inheritors, Part II)
The Earth, tumbling grain of sand in the darkness of unending space, plays host to a strange and awful guest, unsought, uninvited, possessor of fearsome power, purveyor of dark deed, a relentless traveler on the road to its mysterious goal...
Closing narration (The Inheritors, Part II)
The Inheritors are on their way. In a universe of billions of stars, there are places of love and happiness. On this Earth, in this spot, magic settled for a moment. Wonder touched a few lives, and a few odd pieces fell smoothly into the jigsaw of Creation.
Cast
- Robert Duvall – as Adam Ballard
- Donald Harron – as Art Harris
- Steve Ihnat – as Lt. Minns
- Ivan Dixon – as Sgt. James Conover
- Dee Pollock – as PFC Francis Hadley
- James Frawley – as Pvt. Robert Renaldo
- Ted de Corsia – as Randolph E. Branch
- Kim Hector – as Johnny Subiron
Part I only
- James Shigeta – as AIO Captain Newa
- Dabbs Greer – as E. F. Larkin
- William Winterside (William Wintersole) – as Prof. Andrew Whitsett
- Robert Cinder – as Jessup
- Leon Askin – as Shop Superintendent
- Sy Prescott – as The Guard
- Linda Hutchings – as The Nurse
- Robert J. Nelson – as The Surgeon
- Yoneo Iguchi – as Soldier (uncredited)
Part II only
- Jan Shutan – as Mrs. Subiron
- Joanne Stuart – as Miss Steen
- Paulle Clark – as Second Nurse
- David Brady – as Danny Masters
- Suzanne Cupito (Morgan Brittany) – as Minerva Gordon
- Jon Cedar – as Grainger (uncredited)
- Charles Herbert – as Boy (uncredited)
- Michel Petit – as Child (uncredited)
- John Harding – as Kid #1 (uncredited)
References
- ^ a b c d Berard, Jeanette M. (2009). Television Series and Specials Scripts, 1946-1992: A Catalog of the American Radio Archives Collection. McFarland. p. 244. ISBN 0-7864-3348-5.