To Tell the Truth
Nitcentral's Bulletin Brash Reflections:
Outer Limits:
Season Four:
To Tell the Truth
Dr. Larry Chambers helped build the colony on the Janus Five. He and fellow scientist Amanda Harper run computer simulations that show the planet's star will flash over in a matter of days, emitting waves of deadly radiation. So Dr. Chambers urges evacuation, but this is not a popular recommendation, especially among the colony's leaders who include council chairman Franklin Murdock, security head Montgomery Bennett, and Amanda's father, Ian Harper. They point out that Chambers has been wrong before--the colony had to be moved at great cost after he warned of deadly volcanic activity--and suggest that his judgment has been clouded by the death of his wife, Elise. When that doesn't stop Chambers, Murdock and Bennett discredit him by falsely accusing him of being one of the aliens who originally inhabited the planet, suggesting that the evacuation plan is a plot to reclaim the planet for his people. Imprisoned and threatened with death, Chamber's only hope is that Amanda will uncover the truth in time to save him and the colony.
The head security officer is in fact one of the original alien inhabitants of the planet. He deceived others and assisted in developing a mob so that the male protagonist's claims of the aliens' existence would appear to be false and would soon be triturated as the male protagonist is clobbered to death by the mob. Furthermore, the weaponry and star-ships on the planet were desired to be in the aliens' possession, and convincing everyone that not only is the male protagonist's theory invalid, but that the male protagonist is an alien would prevent any of the colonists from fleeing, except for the love interest and her father. Ultimately, the male protagonist was correct and the colonists suffer from an all-vanquishing "storm" the planet undergoes every so many years.
By D. Stuart, The Outer Limits moderator on Thursday, December 23, 1999 - 1:45 pm: My nitpicks are as numerically proceeds:
1) Not truly a nitpick, but Seven Days' Bradley Talmadge (Alan Scarfe) appears in this episode.
2) In the scene in which the male protagonist and the love interest are confessing their feelings regarding one another under the night sky, a drill-like device is being assembled and placed in the background by two men. However, these two men inexplicably vanish in a sequential scene or two.
3) The colony on the alien planet is named Janus, which in Greek mythology is a Roman God that is represented artistically with two opposite faces. This in it of itself would be my first indication that something is not quite right.
By Tim McCree (Tim_m) on Thursday, February 08, 2024 - 5:43 am:Well, at least that scientist and his daughter made it out.