An epidemic has broken out across Earth and most of humanity has been killed by a virus. The virus began with Patient Zero, a woman named Amy Barrett who came into contact with the three DNA strands necessary for this virus to come into existence. A soldier, Colonel Beckett (Michael Rooker), is sent back in time to kill her and prevent the virus from forming and becoming an epidemic.
Opening narration
| "Can the fate of mankind hinge on a single act, or are we helpless to change our destiny?" |
Plot
Colonel Beckett (Michael Rooker) travels back in time from a future in which a disease has decimated most of the population. The remaining humans live underground, and they use their limited resources to send soldiers back in time to kill the people responsible for spreading the disease. Beckett was sent back once already and failed to stop the outbreak, so he goes back again to kill a woman, Amy (Tanya Allen), who the scientists believe is patient zero.
Beckett convinces Amy to take him in and spends time with her. He becomes attached to her and decides not to kill her, but instead to simply keep her from making the contacts necessary to form the virus and begin the epidemic. He keeps the doctor who is linked with the virus from making contact, but in the course of protecting Amy, Beckett himself makes contact with all three individuals who carried the genetic material to create the virus, thus changing the history of the disease.
In the revised timeline, Beckett himself becomes patient zero; in his attempt to protect Amy, he himself contracts all three strains and becomes sick. A fellow soldier arrives from the future, and Beckett is given the chance to sacrifice himself when his friend administers a fatal dose of poison. Amy witnesses Beckett disappear as he returns to the future along with the other man, with the certainty that the epidemic will never occur and the future has been changed.
Closing narration
| "The answers to mankind's future problems can be found within, so long as there are those among us willing to make the sacrifice." |
Notes
- This episode bears remarkable similarities to the 1995 film 12 Monkeys and the later television series.
- Clips from "Music of the Spheres", "The Vaccine" and "The Grid" are used to represent the outbreak of the Gehenna Strain and its aftermath. Coincidentally, Laurie Murdoch also appeared in "The Vaccine".
- This episode is included on The Outer Limits: Time Travel & Infinity Collection DVD set.
- The scenes set in the 2015 underground base were filmed on the Stargate Command set of Stargate SG-1, as can be most notably seen in the isolation room - which is used as the time travel chamber - and quarters sets.
Cast
- Michael Rooker as Colonel Beckett
- Tanya Allen as Amy Barrett
- Laurie Murdoch as Quisling
- Gillian Barber as General
- David Cubitt as Colonel Faber
- Patrick McManus as Dr. Josh Mandel
- Myfanwy Meilen as Sarah Beckett
- Karina Carreck as Nurse
- Aaron Joseph as Basketball Kid
- Kyra Azzopardi as Catherine Beckett
- Bruce Campbell as Coffee Guy
- Kevin Conway as the Control Voice (voice)