A mutant child is a link to another dimension and a scientist tries to save him from secret government manipulation.
Opening narration
| "Tragedy touches many lives, seemingly without reason. But is there a hidden purpose that lies beneath our apparently random fates?" |
Plot
Dr. Anya Kenway (Joanna Going) suffers from a condition that will result in her death within a year. However, her expertise in physics brings her aboard a government experiment at Burkmeer Research Facility to study a malformed child that seemingly has no higher brain functions but can project unusual levels of radiation. The child, identified as "URS-28" but originally named "Sasha Vadimsky," was born from a mother who worked as a scientist as Chernobyl, and was kept alive in Russia before being transferred to Burkmeer.
Anya and her colleague and former lover, David (Geraint Wyn Davies), work to figure out how to trigger the bursts of radiation from the mutant child, including inducing the child to create tachyon radiation, which could be used to manipulate time. While working with URS-28, Anya has a vision of a young boy, and begins to believe that it is Sasha attempting to communicate. Anya continues her research and attempts to socialize with her colleagues, but becomes obsessed with Sasha's background and the possibility that they would be torturing him by subjecting his body to intense radiation.
After more time, Anya solves the problem of how to get Sasha to create the desired radiation. While Anya rests, she receives another vision of Sasha in the lab with another scientist who believes it is wrong to keep Sasha alive under the torturous conditions, and resolves to kill Sasha by cutting off his oxygen. Sasha defends himself and kills the scientist by vaporizing him. Anya returns to the lab but keeps the fate of the missing scientist a secret.
After touching Sasha through a protective shield, Anya's consciousness is taken to another dimension in which Sasha's mother still exists alongside a sleeping Sasha. His mind has been serving as a bridge between dimensions but has also been trapped in Anya's reality. Sasha's mother asks for Anya's help to free him so he can join her in the other dimension.
Anya's colleagues refuse to believe her story, and they attempt to remove her from the facility to prevent her from interfering with the experiment. Anya figures out how to free Sasha from this dimension using the facility's equipment and convinces David to assist her. Anya enters Sasha's chamber and is exposed to dangerous radiation as she completes the modifications to free Sasha while the other scientists helplessly watch. The procedure is a success and Sasha is reunited with his mother.
Suddenly, Anya is returned to the moment when she was first introduced to Sasha and the experiment. Sasha's physical form is gone, having moved to the other dimension. Anya resumes her life knowing that she accomplished something far more important than scientific research.
Closing narration
| "Despite our ever more sophisticated technology, sometimes an open mind and a caring heart are more important tools to fathom our reality, all the way from its deepest inner reaches to its most distant outer limits." |
Notes
- Clips from this episode are used in a simulation in Season 7's "Human Trials".
- This is the only episode of the revival series to feature the phrase "outer limits" in the Control Voice's opening or closing narration.
- This is the only episode written by Michael Sadowski.
Cast
- Joanna Going as Dr. Anya Kenway
- Geraint Wyn Davies as Dr. David LaSalle
- William B. Davis as Dr. Frank Biemler
- Haig Sutherland as Dr. Roy Evereznak
- Samantha Grant as Mrs. Vadimsky (as Samantha Sewell)
- Khaira Ledeyo as Jane
- Joannah Newmarch as Nancy LaSalle
- Shawn Reis as Jensen
- Devin Douglas Drewitz as Sasha Vadimsky
- Marcy Goldberg as Obnoxious Woman
- Glenn Ennis as Guard
- Igor Morozov as Russian Scientist
- Kevin Conway as the Control Voice (voice)