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The Outer Limits Season 4 Episodes
Season 4 Episode Guide
26 Episodes 1998 - 1998
Episode 1
Criminal Nature
Fri, Jan 23, 199845 mins
Earth in the not-too-distant future is having to deal with the results of genetic engineering that began some ten years before. While it benefited most who underwent the treatment some of the children suffered genetic rejection syndrome, GRS, and are now mutants. These children have now grown up with enhanced capabilities but are prone to crime and violence. Detective Ray Venable heads the police department's GRS unit and is shocked to learn that the latest attack was by his eldest son Dylan who was given away to an organization who promised to care for him. In fact the children were sent to labor camps and they have no idea what may have happened to him in the intervening ten years. Feeling the need to find Dylan, he injects himself with a drug to genetically enhance his senses. It doesn't quite go as planned.
Episode 2
The Hunt
Fri, Jan 30, 199845 mins
In the not too distant future the hunting of animals has been banned. Instead, hunters pay to track and kill outdated androids that have no other use. The hunters quickly "kill" one of the four androids released for their sporting pleasure but one of the hunters, Eric Nichols, isn't very enthusiastic about it all. The androids are at a disadvantage as their programming prevents from harming humans. They are told however that if any one of them can make it to the end of the hunting trail 12 kms away, they will be given their freedom. The tables are turned however when the androids find a way to overcome their prohibition against violence toward humans and the hunters become the hunted.
Episode 3
Hearts and Minds
Fri, Feb 6, 199845 mins
A military squad led by Capt. Tavernier and Lt. Rosen patrol a complex series of caves on an alien planet. They're there to protect a key mineral - now used on Earth to provide power - from invading bug-like creatures. The aliens aren't only dangerous they are deadly requiring the team to regularly inoculate themselves against infection. When they learn that Rosen has not been receiving her injections due to a malfunction, Tavernier makes it clear she'll be on her own at the first sign of infection. Their immediate concern is to take control of a processing plant that the bugs will shortly make operational. As her medication wears off, Rosen begins to see things in a different light.
Episode 4
In Another Life
Mon, Feb 16, 199845 mins
Mason Stark lost his wife a year ago when she was shot by a mugger and he's now lost his job. He isn't too receptive to a colleague's suggestion that he get psychiatric help and locks himself in his office. He retrieves a gun from his desk drawer but suddenly finds himself transported to a hospital or prison where he sees other versions of himself locked away. Another version of himself tells him he's in an alternate reality where he can change the decisions he's made in life. He's asked to hunt down another extremely violent version of himself and stop him before he kills....again. Mason soon realizes that the choices he makes in this new world also have their own impact.
Episode 5
In the Zone
Fri, Feb 20, 199845 mins
Tanner Brooks is a professional athlete who has one last chance at winning the championship. The futuristic game involves fighting your opponent in an enclosed ring while evading laser fire. Brooks is getting older now and winning matches is getting more and more difficult. He's approached by a scientist, Michael Chen, who has developed a way to vastly improve a person speed and reflexes. Tanner has great success in the tournament but as he reaches the championship match, side effects from the treatment begin to take hold. Chen refuses any further treatments so Tanner breaks into the lab to treat himself. The results are of quantum proportions.
Episode 6
Relativity Theory
Fri, Feb 27, 199845 mins
An interstellar exploration team arrives on a planet to conduct a mineral survey. Earth has quickly depleted its natural resources and private companies have been encouraged to seek out Earth-like planets. With the military providing security, one such team has found what they believe is an ideal candidate for mining. Biologist Teresa Janovitch confirms that she can find no signs of intelligent life. The team plans to conduct a survey and if their initial impressions are confirmed, will file a claim on their return. On their first night however, they realize they are are not alone. In the battle that follows the ship's commander is killed and Teresa takes over. She wants to learn more about the creatures but the arrogant Sgt. Adam Sears has his eyes firmly set on the riches the planet can provide and sees the aliens as nothing more than wild animals. They will all learn otherwise.
Episode 7
Josh
Fri, Mar 6, 199844 mins
After TV reporter Judy Warren receives a video of a man seemingly bringing a young girl back to life, she tries to get to the bottom of the story. Allison James fell while hiking in the woods with her mother and the video clearly shows Josh Butler cradling the girl in his arms with a blue light appearing around them. Josh lives in a cabin in the woods agrees to speak to her off the record. He seems to have an answer to all of her questions but refuses to have anything to do with her when he realizes she is secretly taping him. She is persistent but her inquiries lead to all of them being taken into custody by the U.S. Air Force who want to know just who Josh is. With severe weather in the area, Josh informs them that he must leave before the storm ends. Judy helps him to escape - but is he an alien or something else?
Episode 8
Rite of Passage
Fri, Mar 13, 199844 mins
Brav and Shal are a young couple living in a small community where they and others are cared for by an alien they call Mother. They know little of the world around them and in fact an electronic barrier keeps all within the confines of their small village. When Shal gives birth to a boy, most of the villagers have no idea what has happened or what the baby is. Mother takes Shal and the baby away but Shal is returned alone a few days later. She desperately wants to have the child back and she and Brav set off to reclaim the boy. They will face danger along the way and learn something of their heritage before coming face to face with Mother, who explains all.
Episode 9
Glyphic
Fri, Mar 20, 199844 mins
A Government Health officer arrives in a small town which time stopped due to an epidemic disease that killed mostly all the children of this place. The two surviving children of a local physician might provide an answer with alien proportions.
Episode 10
Identity Crisis
Fri, Mar 27, 199845 mins
The military has found a way to transfer a soldier's mind into the body of an android, which is much stronger and more resilient than its human counterpart. Capt. Cotter McCoy has successfully undergone the transference on several occasions, but in the last round of tests, with McCoy's mind again transferred into his android counterpart, a circuit overload destroys McCoy's human body. How long a human mind can stay in an android's brain is unknown. Previous experiments suggest that mental abilities will deteriorate over twelve hours or so. When McCoy is refused permission to see his wife, he escapes only to learn that someone sabotaged the equipment.
Episode 11
The Vaccine
Fri, Apr 3, 199845 mins
In a future Earth where most of the population have been killed by a deadly virus, nurse Marie Alexander cares for her 12 patients in a hospital's isolation unit. The world's destruction is man-made, the result of what the media dubbed the Cult Flu. Many difficult decisions have been made along the way but none more difficult that the one she now faces. An army private, himself infected with the virus, arrives with the news that a vaccine has been developed. The bad news is that Marie receives only three doses and she now has to decide who among them them will be the recipients.
Episode 12
Fear Itself
Fri, Apr 10, 199845 mins
Bernard Seldon lives in constant fear, ever since he suffered a trauma at the age of six - he started a fire in the orphanage where he lived which led to the death of his four year old sister. He has nightmares and is haunted by a gaunt man who threatens him by his very presence. Doctors now think they have developed surgical procedure that can reduce that fear giving him hope that he could lead a normal life. As the treatments continue, there is little doubt that there is a positive effect. Bernard finds however that he also has the ability to insert images into people's minds.
Episode 13
The Joining
Fri, Apr 17, 199845 mins
Capt. Miles Davidow is rescued from an Earth base after a resupply ship crashed on landing in the Aphrodite Highlands of Venus destroying much of the base that had been built there. Davidow survived with one other and they took refuge in the lab but with insufficient oxygen, his colleague committed suicide. Seven months after his rescue, he's back on Earth undergoing various tests and they discover that after undergoing radiation treatment he produces a body part. Fearing that he may be infected, Davidow is confined to an isolation unit until they determine he isn't a danger to the general population. Tests are inconclusive but radiation seems to trigger the growth. Faced with his possible execution, his wife Kate Girard has a different proposal.
Episode 14
To Tell the Truth
Fri, Apr 24, 199845 mins
On an Earth colony deep in space, Dr. Larry Chambers has been studying their new sun. His simulation model however suggests that a solar flare of catastrophic proportions will destroy the colony within a few days. The problem is that he can't get anyone to believe him as the result of an incorrect prediction he made five years ago that the colony would be destroyed from volcanic eruptions. The head of the colony, Franklin Murdoch, wants to avoid any possibility that some of the colonists might evacuate and so arranges for Chambers to be falsely identified as one of the alien race they had pushed out when establishing the colony 20 years ago. It leads to tragedy for all of the colonists.
Episode 15
Mary 25
Fri, May 29, 199845 mins
Innobotics Corporation is looking for their next big commercial product and executive Charlie Bouton proposes an android nanny he's dubbed Mary 25. The new robot is a variation on the Valerie 23 (see Valerie 23 (1995)) a sex companion that was discontinued after it developed feelings for its owner. The earlier model was a disaster for the company but Bouton is so confident that the Mary 25 will function as programmed that he offers to take it home to care for his own children. He doesn't discuss it with his wife Teryl beforehand however and when she shuts him out, he turns to Mary for sexual gratification. Mary's primary program is to protect the children from harm but a literal translation of that directive nearly results in tragedy. When Charlie's employee Melburn Ross learns that Charlie is mistreating Teryl he rearranges Mary's programming. Nothing is straightforward however.
Episode 16
Final Exam
Fri, Jun 26, 199845 mins
An ex-student returns to blow up a university with bombs he's made by cracking the secret of cold fusion, after being booted from the school's physics program. Todtman swears he won't follow through if authorities execute 5 people he hates. Most physicists believe cold fusion is impossible, so Todtman detonates a demo bomb by remote control. Should the government kill his 5 or risk Todtman killing 5 million?
Episode 17
Lithia
Fri, Jul 3, 199844 mins
Major Jason Mercer awakes from a cryogenics experiment to a primitive Earth society devoid of men. His presence among these women, many of whom have never seen a man, begins to complicate the relationships of the colony, with disastrous results.
Episode 18
Monster
Fri, Jul 10, 199845 mins
After their handler, Mr. Brown, demonstrates their capabilities four psychics are ordered to use their power to assassinate someone. Their target is Serbian Mitoslav Krupchik, described as the Hitler of the Balkans but the psychics will never leave their Defense Department bunker. One of the four, Rachel Sanders, is completely against killing anyone but when they arrest her brother she gives. When they are successful, they are give another target African warlord Colonel Kikongo and they again succeed. When one of the four is killed however, Rachel becomes the prime suspect.
Episode 19
Sarcophagus
Fri, Aug 7, 199844 mins
While searching for evidence of an advanced neolithic culture archaeologists find a burial chamber. There are what appear to be several human skeletons but most fascinating is a skeleton wrapped in a resin-like material. Expedition leader Nathalie Granger insists that they continue excavating the site themselves keeping what they've found secret lest someone else take the credit from them. As the cocoon dissolves, Nathalie's husband Curtis feels like something has entered his mind and sees images of a battle with a group of primitive humans. The creature, which Curtis feels is of alien origin, begins to reconstitute itself and one of the expedition members starts to be more concerned about the profit they could make rather than the scientific value of the find. Curtis - and a reluctant Nathalie - decide to save the creature.
Episode 20
Nightmare
Fri, Aug 14, 199844 mins
Capt. Roger Kimbro leads the starship Archipelago and it's crew on a mission to a distant planet. They are there to plant a device on the planet but before they can complete the mission, they're attacked. The planet was supposed to be uninhabited but they awaken in a chamber made by the Ebonites, aliens they once fought in a war. One by one, they are questioned and tortured. The package they were to deliver is a super weapon, a doomsday device to be exploded on an uninhabited planet to show their enemies what they now had. When one of them gets access to the device, she activates it but learns too late where she is.
Episode 21
Promised Land
Fri, Aug 21, 199845 mins
On an Earth destroyed after an alien invasion, two groups fight for survival. Humans, all former slaves who escaped from a prison only to find that the war with aliens ended 100 years ago (see The Camp (1997)) Meanwhile, some aliens have settled on the planet and taken up farming. The young son, Ma'al, likes to go into a destroyed city to roam around the ruins. The humans are starving and many of them begin eating the vegetation despite the warnings in the camp that all plant life had been poisoned. Reduced to just a few, the humans follow Ma'al to his home and when they become aware of each other's existence, centuries-old fears and prejudices come to the surface.
Episode 22
The Balance of Nature
Fri, Sep 4, 199845 mins
Dr. Noah Phillips' wife Meredith is dying of cancer. She's not responded to any of the traditional treatments and Noah, himself a medical research scientist, uses an experimental technique meant to regress cells. His hopes are dashed when, after a seemingly successful initial treatment, Meredith quickly reverts to her previous condition and dies. His research funding is cut off but he avoids manslaughter charges over her death. He relocates to a small town 50 miles away and and befriends his new neighbor, Barbara Matheson whose husband Greg is a brute. Noah is still working on his regressor technology, experimenting on small animals such as frogs. As he grows closer to Barbara, he wants to help her but realizes that the balance of nature cannot be disrupted.
Episode 23
The Origin of Species
Fri, Nov 27, 199845 mins
It a continuation of the story that began on Double Helix (1997), Dr. Martin Nodel, his son Paul, several of his brightest students and Paul's girlfriend Hope are now on a spaceship traveling to the planet that seeded the Earth with their DNA millions of years ago. When Dr. Nodel and Paul try to interface with the ship's data banks however they vanish, leaving the others frightened and confused. They decide to explore the ship but some of them also begin to vanish. Hope begins to develop the same triangular blister on the palm of her hand as happened to Dr. Nodel. All is revealed when they arrive at the home world.
Episode 24
Phobos Rising
Fri, Dec 4, 199845 mins
The Free Alliance and the Coalition have maintained a truce for some time now. They both have bases on Mars but there is a constant air of suspicion even with the presence of liaison officers. When the Free Alliance commander on Earth warns Colonel Samantha Elliot that Coalition forces on Mars may be stealing triradium, he is cut-off mid-sentence and communications with Earth is lost. When a huge shock wave strikes the base Elliot is convinced it's all a Coalition plot but her second-in-command Major James Bowen cautions that they should go slow.
Episode 25
Black Box
Fri, Dec 11, 199845 mins
Former army Lieutenant Colonel Brandon Grace is working in a real estate development firm. The pressure is on however - they've lost the last six contracts they've bid on - and Brandon is having horrific flashbacks involving violent scenes of death and destruction. He visits his ex-wife hoping to see his daughter Cammi but she is run over by a car driven by someone wearing an army uniform. He's approached by Jennifer Rigby who says she's from the Veterans Administration but nothing is at it appears and the military is seeking a key piece of information: the identity of the traitor in his military unit.
Episode 26
In Our Own Image
Fri, Dec 18, 199845 mins
When scientists at Innobotics Corporation attempt to debug an android, it goes berserk, escaping to the parking lot where it takes a secretary, Cecilia Farman, hostage. He expects her to repair him - his circuitry was damaged from several gunshots - and with his help does as best she can. He is a MAC 27 model developed for use as a farm laborer and is supposed to be emotionless, though Cecilia begins to have her doubts. He shows her some of the images he saw just before he had an uncontrollable urge to escape. She develops feelings for him and is prepared to kill to help him. It's not all as it seems however.