Dinosaur-like aliens have set up an installation on the Moon to teach humans interstellar teleportation. When an accidental duplicate of a woman is created by the teleportation process, it creates an ethical dilemma.
Opening narration[]
| "We believe that human advancement should be attained at almost any cost, but what if the ultimate payment is one's soul?" |
Plot[]
Michael Burr is the only permanent human occupant of the Tuulen station, situated on a vast empty plain of the Moon. His companions are the Hanen, an emotionless, dinosaur-like alien species who have developed a highly-advanced means of long-distance travel by 'jumping' through space. Achieved by creating an exact duplicate of the jumper, the copy is reconstituted at the destination point and the original destroyed, thus leaving only one.
Kamala Shastri is one of the test jumpers to arrive for travel to the planet Gend, but in the final stage of the transfer, something inexplicable happens. Confirmation of her duplicate's arrival is not received from Gend and the procedure is temporarily aborted. When it's later determined that Kamala's copy does indeed exist, Michael is called upon to 'balance the equation' and eliminate the original. Michael knows the human race is desperate to access a technology that would allow them to leave behind a planet now virtually destroyed by pollution and over-population. He also knows it is imperative that he avoid a protocol breach with the Hanen, but can he bring himself to kill Kamala?
Michael slowly develops feelings for Kamala, and he remembers his deceased wife Karen whom he could not save from disease. Because of this, he can't bring himself to kill Kamala. Michael is eventually convinced by the Hanen that "duplicates" create too many problems, and he deceives Kamala into thinking he will help her escape only to release her from an airlock. Two years later, the "real" Kamala returns (she's actually a copy of the copy since she jumped back) and recognizes Michael as her co-ordinator on that original jump. Obviously tormented from murdering her original, Michael claims that she must be mistaken.
Closing narration[]
| "As we pursue technological advancement we should be careful not to abandon our humanity in the process." |
Notes[]
- The Hanen are reptilian, dinosaur-like creatures, described as pacifist and vegetarian by Michael. However, they completely lack anything similar to human emotions. Their planet has a different atmosphere to that of Earth. Consequently, they must have specially conditioned facilities in the moon interstellar transportation station. Hanen's native atmosphere is three times denser than Earth normal and consists of far more carbon dioxide. The leader is a male named Administrator Linna who opposes sharing the technology with humans. Burr's ally is Silloin, a female who supports sharing it.
- This species is perhaps related to the reptilians that can be seen in other episodes such as "Quality of Mercy" and "The Light Brigade". However, these aliens are more anthropoid looking and omnivorous as they feed on some insect like lifeforms. Another reptilian species, the Torkor who enslaved humanity, is featured in the second season episode "The Deprogrammers".
- The jumper is given releases to sign, and ordered to fast and avoid drinking. At the time of entering the chamber to be transported, the jumper is given an unappetizing grayish beverage to drink, which Michael describes as similar to a drink on Earth at that time. Later, as the jumper enters the chamber completely naked, the chamber locks itself and the Hanen initiates the procedure through controls similar to a static ball. Then the scientist must activate the incinerator to eliminate the duplicate, manually pushing a red button.
- Scott McNeil, who provides the voices of Silloin and Linna, was well-known for voicing Dinobot in the animated series Beast Wars: Transformers from 1996 to 1999.
- Will Carson, Karen Burr, Molly Burr and Steve do not appear in the short story by James Patrick Kelly.
- The handgun used by Michael Burr is a reuse of the Timecop Beretta created for the 1994 film Timecop. It also appeared in "Relativity Theory", "Abaddon" and "Human Trials", the Rand Protectorate pistols in the Stargate SG-1 episode "Icon" and the Genii pistols in Stargate: Atlantis.
- This is the only episode of the revival series to take place on the Moon.
Cast[]
- Enrico Colantoni as Michael Burr
- Linnea Sharples as Kamala Shastri
- David Lewis as Will Carson
- Peter Grier as Steve
- Scott McNeil as Silloin / Linna (voice)
- Kevin Conway as the Control Voice (voice)