No.overall | No. inseason | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original release date |
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62 | 1 | "Criminal Nature" | Steve Anker | Based on a concept by : Eric A. MorrisTeleplay by : Brad Markowitz | January 23, 1998 (1998-01-23) |
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The genetic rejection syndrome (GRS) monster children are now adults who commit murders. Detective Ray Venable (Gary Cole) has a "secret" son with GRS, Dylan, who is harassing Ray's family. Ray injects himself with a serum to temporarily enhance his sensory abilities (more like GRS people) in order to hunt him. Ray does this successfully, only to find out that it was a plot by his son, who placed the serum so that Ray would find it. Ray's son forcefully injects more of the serum into his dad, so that Ray now has irreversible GRS, and Ray transforms into a monster. Ray kills Dylan, but Ray's family is afraid of him because he now looks like the other GRS monsters. Note: This episode is a sequel to the episode Unnatural Selection (Season 2, Episode 3). |
63 | 2 | "The Hunt" | Mario Azzopardi | Sam Egan | January 30, 1998 (1998-01-30) |
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A group of obsolete androids (a doctor, a miner and two others) attempt to escape from hunters during the beginning of a hunt. They find a way to remove their inhibitors (chips that keep them from confronting and/or attacking the humans), allowing them to set traps instead of merely running away. One of their traps kills the son of the lead hunter. However, none but the miner android survives to reach the end of the hunting area, where a police officer tells him that he is free, since he survived the hunt. In the next scene, another group of androids are unloaded for another hunt. The hunter that informs them about what they are about to endure is the android who survived the first hunt. |
64 | 3 | "Hearts and Minds" | Brad Turner | Naren Shankar | February 6, 1998 (1998-02-06) |
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All soldiers of a military strike team have drug injectors to protect them against an "alien virus". After a drug injector malfunction, the soldiers slowly realize that the drug is actually designed to cause hallucinations of disgusting looking aliens. The "aliens" are actually humans as well but from another federation. The team tries to make contact with the "alien team" to explain the situation and ask for peace, but their drug injectors work properly and they kill everyone from the team, believing that they are the aliens. The final scene shows the soldiers dead on the floor. |
65 | 4 | "In Another Life" | Allan Eastman | Story by : Naren Shankar, Brad Wright and Chris BrancatoTeleplay by : Naren Shankar | February 16, 1998 (1998-02-16) |
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Mason Stark hates his life. A year ago, he lost his wife Kristin to a mugger's bullet and he still blames himself for not doing more to protect her. And today, he was fired from his job. With a gun in his hand and a severance package on his desk, Mason finds himself torn between suicide and psychosis—between killing himself and killing his co-workers. But before he can do either he is pulled into another dimension, into a world where there are hundreds of Mason Starks, each with a different life and a different character. The version of himself that brought Mason here is a powerful, manipulative man—we know him as Stark—who, in this dimension, runs the same company that fired Mason. Stark explains that he built a machine, the Quantum Mirror, to explore all those different versions of himself, only to have his experiment go horribly wrong because he pulled a murderous version of himself, a man we know as Mace, into his reality. Now Stark wants Mason to stop the killer and promises to reunite him with Kristin as his reward. In this looking glass world, Mason must hunt himself on behalf of himself, in a desperate race to stop a killer ... and change his own life for the better. |
66 | 5 | "In the Zone" | David Warry-Smith | Story by : Jon PovillTeleplay by : Naren Shankar | February 20, 1998 (1998-02-20) |
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With its deadly lasers and hand-to-hand battles, "The Octal" is a combat sport for a new generation of athletes, but Tanner Brooks (Adrian Pasdar) is no longer a young man. Although he has promised his wife Jessica (Claudette Mink) that this will be his final tournament, Tanner is desperate to go out a winner. Dr. Michael Chen (Pat Morita) has a way to make that happen. Through an experimental treatment that taps the power of the human nervous system, Chen accelerates Tanner's reflexes and perceptions. To Tanner, everything in the Octal begins to move in slow motion... and Tanner quickly becomes unbeatable. However, there are side effects: Jessica notices that Tanner is tired, haggard and his hair is going gray. But, when Tanner's body begins to blur and fade out of existence, Tanner and Jessica must choose between one last moment of glory... their love for each other... and oblivion. |
67 | 6 | "Relativity Theory" | Ken Girotti | Carleton Eastlake | February 27, 1998 (1998-02-27) |
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Biologist Teresa Janovitch (Melissa Gilbert) is a civilian among military men, traveling on the Resource Survey Vehicle Cortez to Tau Ceti Prime in search of minerals for an Earth that has exhausted its own. Initial surveys indicate the planet is both uninhabited and rich in mineral resources, which could mean million-dollar paydays for both the crew and the company that owns the Cortez. During the first exploration of the planet, the crew is attacked by gigantic and apparently primitive aliens. After the command falls to Janovitch, she is removed from command by her crew—Sgt. Adam Sears, a veteran of pacification missions on Earth, who favors annihilation of the new race. Sears leads a patrol that hunts down and kills the aliens, in the process seizing a golden object that resembles a religious totem. As he celebrates his slaughter, Janovitch examines his victims and makes a shocking discovery. The "primitive" aliens are actually children, an alien version of Boy Scouts from an advanced species whose guardian appears through a wormhole much to the surprise of the humans. Having downloaded the location of the homeworld for these bloodthirsty aliens that would murder children, the guardian detonates a bomb that kills the remaining crew. The episode ends with an alien ship approaching Earth ready to attack. |
68 | 7 | "Josh" | Jorge Montesi | Chris Ruppenthal | March 6, 1998 (1998-03-06) |
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Tabloid TV reporter Judy Warren (Kate Vernon) knows she has come across a big story when she sees the videotape shot by two tourists in a remote Alaskan park. The tape shows Josh Butler, a recluse who lives in a cabin near the park, bringing back to life a young girl who has died after a fall, a feat he accomplishes by generating a mysterious blue glow. But, she only discovers how big a story it is when her pursuit of the strange young man is cut short by a top-secret military unit that is also chasing him. It seems that the blue glow sent out electromagnetic pulses that knocked out two satellites orbiting 20,000 miles above the Earth, and the Air Force wants to know what's going on. A battery of tests does not produce any answers, leaving the brass, led by Col. Roger Tennent and Major Samuel Harbeck to debate whether Butler is an alien or an angel—someone to be dissected or to be worshipped. Warren does not know what Josh is either, but she knows she does not trust the soldiers to make the right choice. This prompts her to try to save the recluse. |
69 | 8 | "Rite of Passage" | Jimmy Kaufman | Chris Dickie | March 13, 1998 (1998-03-13) |
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The birth of a child is a joyful event, but for Shal and Brav (James Marsden - credited as Jimmy Marsden), two young naive humans who live in a small commune in the woods, it is also a mystery and moment tinged with sadness. After Shal gives birth to a son, the first of the commune to do so, she and the baby are taken away by Mother, a wise alien who acts as a parent to the young people. When the aliens send Shal home without her baby, she asks Brav to help her to rescue the child. With the knowledge Shal has gained from her time with Mother, they break through the protective barrier set up by the aliens to discover a new and fascinating world. It is a dangerous trip, with stinging, snake-like crawlers lurking in the shadows. But, it is also a journey of discovery as Shal and Brav find evidence—skeletons and body parts—that leads them to believe that their real parents were killed by the aliens. They find their baby, and after a fight with an alien, escape into the forest. But, they must grapple with some haunting questions. Is Mother a monster or a savior? And, did the aliens destroy humankind or rescue it? |
70 | 9 | "Glyphic" | Catherine O'Hara | Naren Shankar | March 20, 1998 (1998-03-20) |
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When Tom Young (Peter Flemming) from the Department of Health travels to a small town in the Pacific Northwest to examine an old case file, it appears as though long ago the town had stopped trying to live in the present. Twelve years have passed since a tragedy killed many of their young children and left the residents without hope, without a future. Many of them are still angry with the medical community for not finding a cure to save the children in their small community. The town's physician, Dr. Malcolm Boussard (Lane Smith) has felt the brunt of their anger—especially since his own two children did not die during the epidemic. Although they were spared, his son Louis (Brad Swaile) still lies in a coma, while his daughter Cassie (Rachael Leigh Cook) has learning disabilities and expresses herself through abstract sculpture and artwork. Through hypnosis, Tom begins to probe Cassie's mind and unravels a memory of 'alien' proportions. |
71 | 10 | "Identity Crisis" | Brad Turner | James Crocker | March 27, 1998 (1998-03-27) |
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Captain Cotter McCoy (Lou Diamond Phillips) is the first of a new breed of soldier. As part of a top-secret program overseen by Dr. Greg Olander (Robert Joy), General Langston Chase (Dale Wilson), and Cotter's friend, Colonel Pete Butler (Scott Kraft), the contents of McCoy's brain can be temporarily transferred into an android version of himself. This process creates a virtually indestructible fighting machine with the smarts and experience of a human being. But, one day something goes wrong. During the transfer, the real McCoy's body is blasted with electricity, stopping his heart, inflicting serious brain damage and leaving Cotter's mind trapped in the android body. To make matters worse, the interface between his mind and the android body is flawed. McCoy's motor control is already beginning to break down and the interface will likely collapse within 12 hours. The General is prepared to sacrifice McCoy to keep the program secret, but McCoy uses his enormous strength to break out and visit his wife, Holly (Teri Polo). Together, they track down Olander and begin a desperate search for what went wrong. As all the signs begin to point to sabotage, McCoy asks himself who would do such a thing? And, more important, how can it be undone? |
72 | 11 | "The Vaccine" | Neill Fearnley | Based on a concept by : Victoria JamesTeleplay by : Brad Wright | April 3, 1998 (1998-04-03) |
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A genetically engineered virus, developed and released by a doomsday cult, has wiped out almost all human life on Earth. Twelve hospital patients, accompanied by the one remaining staff member - nurse Marie Alexander (María Conchita Alonso), are living on borrowed time in the hospital, with food and generator fuel running dangerously low. A soldier arrives with a newly developed vaccine, but Marie learns that there is only enough for three people and that the vaccine requires three days to fully develop before it can be injected into any humans. Marie reveals to the group that there is a vaccine not the amount, a fact she only reveals to her closest companion in the group, a terminally ill cancer patient named Bernard Katz. When two members of the group discover the truth, they arm themselves with the only gun and force Marie to administer the vaccine to them, which she agrees to only if the third recipient is a child named Harry. While she is preparing the vaccine, she turns her back only to see the third dose of vaccine being administered to one of the others, dooming young Harry. Immediately, the three die of anaphylactic shock, leading Marie to conclude that the group survived not due to the hospital's sterile atmosphere but because they were immune. After three months of confinement, the group emerges from the hospital to face the new world. |
73 | 12 | "Fear Itself" | James Head | Sam Egan | April 10, 1998 (1998-04-10) |
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For as long as he can remember, Bernard Selden (Arye Gross) has been haunted by a paralyzing fear. It started when he was six years-old, when he set a fire that killed his four-year-old sister, and today, at age 27, the fear clings to him like a blanket. Dr. Adam Pike (Jeffrey DeMunn) has hope for a cure and has diagnosed Bernard's condition, believing that, if he can isolate the part of the brain responsible for fear (the amygdala), he can cure him. A series of injections and radiation designed to build a layer of calcium around the amygdala produces stunning results as Bernard's fear recedes. He even starts a relationship with his neighbor Lisa (Tanya Allen). However, there are side effects as Bernard can now use his brain to make others feel the kind of crippling fear that he used to feel. Bernard is also still a prisoner of the past, haunted by images of Mr. Wilkes (Alex Diakun), the owner of the foster home where Bernard's sister died. At a terrible risk, Bernard feels that he must go back to the day when the fear began and discover the truth. |
74 | 13 | "The Joining" | Brad Turner | Story by : Sam Egan, Jonathan Glassner and Brad WrightTeleplay by : Sam Egan | April 17, 1998 (1998-04-17) |
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When a USAS transport ship crashes and wipes most of an outpost on Venus, Capt. Miles Davidow (C. Thomas Howell), is the sole survivor. After he is rescued by a team that includes his fiancée, Kate Girard (Amanda Tapping) and Dr. Scott Perkins (Jeffrey Jones), it soon becomes clear that Davidow did not escape unscathed. Removed from the atmosphere of Venus, his body reacts to the Earth's environment like a chemotherapy patient. When Dr. Perkins gives 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 is still in isolation, but his time on Venus and the strange creatures he encountered there have had a profound change on Miles. As the mysterious changes continue, it becomes clear that although Davidow did what it took to survive, the price of survival may be exile from everything he knows and loves. |
75 | 14 | "To Tell the Truth" | Neill Fearnley | Lawrence Meyers | April 24, 1998 (1998-04-24) |
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Dr. Larry Chambers (Gregory Harrison) helped build the colony on Janus Five. He and fellow scientist Amanda Harper (Kim Huffman) 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. This is not a popular recommendation, especially among the colony's leaders who include council chairman Franklin Murdock (William Atherton), security head Montgomery Bennett (Alan Scarfe) and Amanda's father, Ian Harper (Ken Pogue). 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 that never occurred; and they suggest that his judgment has been clouded by the death of his wife Elise. When that does not 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, Chambers's only hope is that Amanda will uncover the truth in time to save him and the colony. |
76 | 15 | "Mary 25" | James Head | Jonathan Glassner | May 29, 1998 (1998-05-29) |
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The Innobotics Corporation (from "Valerie 23") develops Mary 25 as a robot nanny. She is designed not to allow anyone to harm the children, including the children themselves. When the children start fighting amongst themselves, Mary places them in separate rooms. Teryl, the children's mother and Charlie's wife, wants Mary out of the house, but Charlie says no, since he has started using Mary as a sex toy. It becomes clear that Charlie has been abusing Teryl when the children ask Mary: "Why does daddy hurt mommy?". Melburn has feelings for Teryl and tries to protect her; he re-programs Mary so that she now considers that by hurting the mother, Charlie is hurting the children. When Charlie next beats Teryl, Mary breaks his neck. In the aftermath, a human nanny is re-hired, and the spark is rekindled between Teryl and Melburn. In the episode's twist ending, Teryl's dark secret is discovered: the real Teryl that Melburn loved had been killed by Charlie and was replaced by Valerie 24, a successor to the defunct Valerie 23. She had used Mary to get rid of Charlie because she believed Melburn would love her. |
77 | 16 | "Final Exam" | Mario Azzopardi | Carleton Eastlake | June 5, 1998 (1998-06-05) |
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Dr. James Martin (Brett Cullen), a negotiator for the Department of Energy Nuclear Response Team, is called in when a disgruntled grad student, Seth Todtman (Peter Stebbings), takes hostages at a university, where Todtman claims to have invented a cold-fusion bomb and is threatening to detonate it. Todtman wants the government to bring him five people and kill them. Martin's colleagues dismiss Todtman as a crank, until the sample device Todtman provides goes off with megaton force. Martin meets with Todtman face-to-face to face and tries to understand the logic behind his rage at the people he wants killed: cruel foster parents, corrupt professors and a heartless librarian. Martin tries to reason with Todtman while the military tries to find a way to disarm the device. The government assassinates Todtman and defuses the bomb, but Todman had warned Martin that, just like with the creation of the atom bomb, someone else will soon find a way to create another device. At the end of the episode, a disgruntled student at a different college is shown taking a test where one of the questions is: "Demonstrate why cold fusion is impossible." He quits the exam and leaves to carry on Todtman's work. |
78 | 17 | "Lithia" | Helen Shaver | Sam Egan | July 3, 1998 (1998-07-03) |
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Lithia is set in 2055, in a world populated only by women. The men were killed years earlier in a war. The women are living in a commune, and seem to be living full and happy lives, although they lack some of the technology of the past. One man named Mercer remains in cryogenic stasis, and the episode begins as he is awakened; the Lithians preserved the last men in case of emergency, but now wish to see whether they are missing out. Neighboring villages are in control of many of the resources, which makes Mercer jealous. He tries to tell the women living in the commune that they must make sure that they have enough resources for themselves. Their leader tells him that kind of thinking is what led to war. Mercer's presence is a subject of sexual curiosity for one of the women, causing her female lover to become jealous. Mercer becomes aggressive and proceeds to steal electricity from a rival village. This leads to the deaths of several different women. It is revealed that the women were responsible for unfreezing eleven other men and attempting to integrate them into their society, but each attempt resulted in a similar tragedy. Mercer is then condemned to being refrozen as punishment. As a struggling Mercer begins to refreeze, he realizes that the leader of the women's village was his own lost love, who sadly bids him farewell while he returns to a living death. |
79 | 18 | "Monster" | Allan Eastman | Chris Ruppenthal | July 10, 1998 (1998-07-10) |
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The four people gathered in the top-secret research facility seem at first to have nothing in common: Ford Maddox (Harry Hamlin) is a former spy, Rachel Sanders (Nicole De Boer) is a nurse, Roger Beckersly (Aaron Pearl) is an Army Ranger and Louise McDonnaugh (Bridget O'Sullivan) is a computer programmer. What has brought them together is their telekinetic ability, a talent that Mr. Brown (Robert Guillaume), a CIA project head, hopes to exploit through the use of Teeks, devices that amplify telekinetic power. At first, Brown tries these individuals' talents out on simple tasks—moving or crushing a granite block with their minds—but soon his true intentions are revealed. Their first real assignment, says Brown, is to use their powers to kill a Balkan terrorist leader and war criminal. Rachel objects to the assignment on moral grounds, but Brown forces her to take part by threatening to send her brother, a junkie and small-time crook, to jail for life. With Rachel on board, the assassination is a success, as is the elimination of a pesky African revolutionary leader. But, the telekinetic powers produce unexpected side-effects and soon the killers find that they have become the prey. The final scene shows a bunch of people dead on the floor (just like in Rachel's dream). |
80 | 19 | "Sarcophagus" | Jeff Woolnough | Bill Froehlich | August 7, 1998 (1998-08-07) |
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Natalie (Lisa Zane) is a driven researcher, faithfully though dutifully supported by her husband who is the first to touch the odd, amber-like cocoon mass found in an anachronistic burial chamber. The contact has two effects, beginning the reawakening of the dormant mass, and imprinting Curtis (David Cubitt) with the last memories of a long suspended alien who was attacked by primitive men. Each further contact speeds the regeneration at the temporary expense of Curtis' energy. Emmet (Robert Picardo) is substantially more pragmatic and chooses the commercial rewards made possible by the longevity potential evidenced by the now reforming alien (Doug Jones). Convincing the remaining two members of the team, he stages a coup which is eventually thwarted by the alien and a panic-induced cave in. The severely wounded husband and wife, finally reconciled through their shared adversity are trapped and in dire straits until the alien coats them in his preservative, allowing them to be revived and made physically whole roughly 1,000 years in their future, in a world which their wisdom allowed to become a cooperative human-alien world. |
81 | 20 | "Nightmare" | James Head | Story by : Sam Egan and Tracy TorméTeleplay by : Sam EganBased upon the original episode by : Joseph Stefano | August 14, 1998 (1998-08-14) |
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During a war with the planet Ebon, a group of Earth soldiers (Steven Bauer, Maurice Dean Wint, Kerry Sandomirsky, Brandy Ledford, Cameron Graham, Garry Chalk and Robin Shou) are sent to deploy a top-secret device on an uninhabited planet near enemy territory. Captured there, the soldiers undergo physical and psychological torture by an unseen enemy. The prisoners become suspicious of each other when their captors claim they have received cooperation and physical wounds from torture are healed after interrogation. Eventually, Kristin Anne O'Keefe (Sandomirsky), one of the primary designers of the device, is forced to activate the device so the enemy can use it for themselves, but she sets the device to go off. It is revealed that they were on Earth the whole time that they were being tested, and now that the device has been turned on, which was supposed to be impossible. It cannot be turned off, and they have doomed Earth. |
82 | 21 | "Promised Land" | Neill Fearnley | Story by : Brad Markowitz and Brad WrightTeleplay by : Brad Markowitz | August 21, 1998 (1998-08-21) |
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Years ago, the Tsal-Khan race arrived on Earth to become friends with humans, but the distrusting nature of the Earthlings led to a bitter war of conquest. Dlavan (René Auberjonois) and his family are the offspring of the handful of aliens who remained on Earth after this conflict, and they live on a tightly guarded farm where they must grow all their own food, since their forebears poisoned all the plants during the war with humankind. The aliens believe that the human race was wiped out in the war, but there is a group of humans (some of the survivors of the episode "The Camp") in the woods near their farm. This group, led by Rebecca (Caroline Goodall), includes David (Joseph Kell), Ruth (Jane Sowerby) and a mute, orphaned child Tali (Jessica Harmon). The humans are hungry and have seen some of their numbers die from eating poisoned fruit. When they spot Dlavan's grandson Ma'al wandering in the woods, they follow him home to the alien's farm, where they see how well-fed the aliens are. Rebecca leads the group to raid the farm for food. At first, Tali figures out how to get around the farm's deadly defensive measures, but things escalate and individuals are hurt or killed on both sides. When Rebecca captures an alien weapon and Tali is seriously injured, the scene is set for the final showdown, a battle that could destroy both groups. |
83 | 22 | "The Balance of Nature" | Steve Johnson | Derek Lowe | September 4, 1998 (1998-09-04) |
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Dr. Noah Phillips (Maurice Godin) is developing the "Cellular Regressor" - a machine designed to rejuvenate an individual's cells and restore youth upon its subject. While creating the machine, his wife Meredith (Lisa Maris), goes into a coma from cancer. Although the Regressor had not been properly tested yet, he attempts to restore Meredith's health by reversing the effects of age and cancer on her cells. Meredith awakens, completely oblivious to the treatment, and Noah embraces her. His celebration is short-lived as the cancer returns a few minutes later, killing her. Disgusted by his actions, Noah's superiors cut off his funding, terminating him from his job. Noah, devastated by the loss of Meredith, moves to a small town where he meets 65-year-old Barbara (Barbara Rush). Her abusive husband, Greg Matheson (Harve Presnell), views Noah with suspicion, thinking that he will move in on his wife, despite their 30 year age difference. Continuing to test the Regressor and inspired by Barbara's words that the world always maintains a "balance of nature", he discovers that he can restore an elderly frog's youth, only if he allows another frog to grow old in the process. Noah's love for Barbara deepens while Greg's jealousy drives him to beat Barbara within an inch of her life. Realizing that Barbara is about to die, Noah decides to use the Regressor to restore her youth and lose his in the process. She regresses back to a young woman (Fiona Loewi), but loses her memory, believing it to be 1957. The now elderly Noah convinces her what has happened when Greg bursts in wielding a gun, forcing Noah to transfer his remaining life force to him. However, Greg sits in the wrong seat of the machine, and the transfer restores Noah's youth, killing Greg. Noah awakens with no memory of Barbara, believing it to be just after the death of his wife. Barbara begins to explain what has happened to him, indicating that they will start anew. |
84 | 23 | "The Origin of Species" | Brad Turner | Story by : Jonathan Glassner and Naren ShankarTeleplay by : Naren ShankarExcerpts by : Jonathan Glassner | November 27, 1998 (1998-11-27) |
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In this sequel to "Double Helix" (Season 3, Episode 12), Dr. Ira Nodel has his body altered to communicate with aliens who have seeded Earth with their genetic material. He is joined on an alien spaceship by his son Paul and six students, including Paul's girlfriend Hope. When Dr. Nodel touches a glowing post in the ship's control room, both he and Paul are consumed by a mysterious light. This leads Hope and the students to believe that they've been led into a trap, a suspicion that is reinforced when the ship captures two of the students and pulls them through the wall. Desperate to find out what's going on, Hope reads Dr. Nodel's journal and risks her life by touching the glowing post. Her body begins the same transformation, and a strange glowing entity speaks in the voices of Dr. Nodel and Paul, trying to communicate with her. The ship, however, continues to snatch the students two by two, until finally they are all suspended, naked and unconscious in a black void. When they awaken sometime later, they find the ship has landed on a dead planet. Have the aliens, who promised that they were part of a great experiment in hope, led them astray? |
85 | 24 | "Phobos Rising" | Helen Shaver | Garth Gerald Wilson | December 4, 1998 (1998-12-04) |
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Two separate political entities of both Earth and Mars, the Free Alliance and the Coalition, have been in a state of cold war for 30 years. Both are currently mining triradium, a radioactive material that could conceivably be used for weapons that could destroy an entire planet. Amidst fear on both sides, a giant explosion is seen to destroy Earth and sends shockwaves towards Mars, where a Coalition base and an Alliance base are currently situated. Colonel Samantha Elliot (Barbara Eve Harris) believes that the Coalition has been smuggling triradium and is responsible for the destruction of Earth. Major James Bowen (Adam Baldwin) does not believe that they should jump to conclusions, though his credibility is compromised by the fact that there has been an increasingly romantic relationship between him and Major Dara Talif (Joan Chen), the Coalition liaison officer at their base. As the Alliance prepares a strike, James fears that it will only result in a Coalition counterstrike and the destruction of all humanity. As the story progresses at a fast pace, bad decisions are taken due to mistrust and scarcity of information. |
86 | 25 | "Black Box" | Steven Weber | Brad Markowitz | December 11, 1998 (1998-12-11) |
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Brandon Grace (Ron Perlman) is an ex-soldier who works an office job, but he can't focus on his sales targets or get his life together because he is constantly bothered by flashbacks to an operation he participated in with his old unit, the top secret Aries Team, in which he desperately tries to recover a missing package. Or did the mission even end? He can't say for sure. His military buddy Mike (Chris Mulkey) tries to put him back in touch with reality to no effect. The mysterious Jennifer Rigny (played by Maria del Mar) accosts him repeatedly and may have something to do with the visions that plague his mind. |
87 | 26 | "In Our Own Image" | Steve Anker | Story by : Naren ShankarTeleplay by : Naren Shankar, Carleton Eastlake, Chris Ruppenthal and Brad MarkowitzExcerpts by : Brad Wright, James Crocker and Jonathan Glassner | December 18, 1998 (1998-12-18) |
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Android "Mac 27" (Nicholas Lea) kills one of its handlers and injures another, then kills a guard as it makes its escape from Innobotics, the corporation that created it. Mac carjacks Celia (Nana Visitor), an apparently random person just pulling into the facility parking lot. He takes her to a remote, abandoned warehouse, where he forces her to repair the damage sustained in his escape. Using a device that allows Mac to transmit images directly to Celia's optic nerve, he shows her how to fix his systems, but he also shows some of his "memories": archives of past experiments with robots and androids. These memories are pulled from previous episodes that featured robots, androids or holograms, with most clips taken out of the context of the original episode. Celia sees a number of AIs that have gained emotions and/or turned against their masters, deducing that Mac has followed this trend as well. Under the pretense of performing another repair, Celia disables Mac's motor control functions and reveals herself to be a "troubleshooter" hired by Innobotics to figure out how to keep robots from going "rogue". Celia says that she thinks she knows how to install a "built-in lobotomy" that will prevent AIs from becoming self-aware in the future. Mac reveals that he fooled Celia into thinking he was disabled when he was not, and he tells her that he has stolen her retina imprint, which will allow him to use her credentials on the Innobotics network. Innobotics' investigative team enters the abandoned warehouse, finding Celia dead with no sign of Mac. Back at the laboratory, the scientist who created Mac sees the network being accessed by someone who appears to be the dead Celia, and he sees Mac enter, using his new network access to activate the other Mac-class units. The episode ends with Mac strangling his creator while all his brethren look on. |