The Joining (The Outer Limits)
| "The Joining (The Outer Limits)" |
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"The Joining" is an episode of The Outer Limits television show. It was first broadcast on 17 April 1998, during the fourth season.
Opening narration
Our history abounds with the exploits of heroes who brave overwhelming odds and live to tell the tale. But is there a point at which the determination to survive... comes at too high a price?
Plot
When a transport ship crashed and wiped out the colony on Venus, Capt. Miles Davidow (C. Thomas Howell) was the sole survivor. But, after he's rescued by a team that includes his fiancee, Kate Girard (Amanda Tapping) and Scott Perkins (Jeffrey Jones), it soon becomes clear that Davidow did not escape unscathed. Removed from the high radiation atmosphere of Venus, his body is reacting to the Earth's air like that of a chemotherapy patient. When doctors give him the radiation his body seems to crave, strange things start to happen. Davidow's body begins to spawn duplicate parts: a hand, a torso and more from wounds that miraculously heal. In spite of this, Miles and Kate get married while he's still in isolation, but his time on Venus and the strange creatures he encountered there have had a profound change on Miles.
After his body spawns a complete humanoid creature that kills another scientist, David admits the truth: in order to survive on Venus, he injected himself with Venusian DNA to adapt his body to the atmospheric conditions. The DNA came from creatures that reproduce by mitosis, and his body is now duplicating that reproductive process. The government debates killing David to prevent any possible spread of his Venusian DNA, but Kate prevails upon them to return David to Venus instead. The final scene shows David, with several duplicate Davids, manning a research station on Venus in permanent exile.
Closing narration
It is nature’s imperative that the differences among us endure. But what if we can no longer distinguish one being from another?
Trivia
- The name of the ship is Highlander, possibly a reference to the series Jim Byrnes also appears in.