There are a significant number of people living on a planet where the biology has been controlled. Earth is overpopulated and under control of a very strict government. This is the hope of the future. Gregory Harrison plays a botanist who has been instrumental in the success of this project. He is also looked at with disdain because at one time he predicted a catastrophe and it didn't happen. Now, in running simulations, he has recognized that if everyone doesn't evacuate the settlement, they will be destroyed by predictable forces having to do with the sun. Of course, because of the previous mistake, no one will believe him. Evacuation will bring financial ruin. It will also set the project so far back, it will never be renewed. There are other factors. One is that in a kind of Native American purge, the colonists destroyed the alien culture, but it is suspected there may still be a presence which would move in if they left. An overzealous man who wants control, leads the people in opposition to the botanist, even accusing of being an alien himself. He has a little fascist group that supports him. Things play out nicely a rather depressing, but excellent, episode.
2 Reviews
The colony was right not to believe this guy
bgaiv7 November 2021
Warning: Spoilers
He made a false apocalyptic prediction before, panicking this small colony.
The administrator of the colony is absolutely reasonable and correct. ALL of the administrator's technical disagreements are correct. And the administrator is right to suspect the scientist's motives relate to the death of his wife.
The scientist's current prediction comes from simulations that mostly predict rainbows and daffodils. His claims are largely based on interpreting ancient alien art and he doesn't even want to share that. He's not even all that sure of the prediction himself.
Of course, he's not only ultimately correct, but there's also a shape shifting alien pulling the strings. This just seems like a completely unearned twist.
In the real world, I absolutely would trust the administrator and not this crazy loon's hunches. Of course the episode cheats again by making him go a bit Nazi toward the end.
The cherry on top is the moralizing controller "mankind will be doomed to destruction if we continue to ask for the truth and refuse to listen". This ridiculous and unsupported by the episode. Go downtown in some big city and ask the raving guys for the truth and listen to them.
The administrator of the colony is absolutely reasonable and correct. ALL of the administrator's technical disagreements are correct. And the administrator is right to suspect the scientist's motives relate to the death of his wife.
The scientist's current prediction comes from simulations that mostly predict rainbows and daffodils. His claims are largely based on interpreting ancient alien art and he doesn't even want to share that. He's not even all that sure of the prediction himself.
Of course, he's not only ultimately correct, but there's also a shape shifting alien pulling the strings. This just seems like a completely unearned twist.
In the real world, I absolutely would trust the administrator and not this crazy loon's hunches. Of course the episode cheats again by making him go a bit Nazi toward the end.
The cherry on top is the moralizing controller "mankind will be doomed to destruction if we continue to ask for the truth and refuse to listen". This ridiculous and unsupported by the episode. Go downtown in some big city and ask the raving guys for the truth and listen to them.
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