Oh, the horror of the Earth/Kyben war.  You remember it don’t you?  No?  Those of you on the journey with us through our website have visited it before in The Outer Limits episode Demon with a Glass Hand.  The Kyben are beating Earth in the future so the humans construct Trent and send him back in time to save mankind.  But what does that have to do with this?  Nothing.  There’s no mention of it at all. However, I had the hardcover book by Harlan Ellison, Night and the Enemy.  It covers some events that took place during the Earth/Kyben war, and this is one of the stories.

Interestingly, when I got that graphic novel, there was one story that turned me off when I started reading because I don’t believe in merging standard books and graphic novels.  I like both individually, but a graphic novel is a cop-out if it has a story with a few pictures and massive swathes of text.  Then I read that story and loved it.  Loved it so much that when this episode started, it hit me; I knew I was in for a great one.  

Michael B. Jordan stars as Terrance, a man who crashed on a planet.  Injured, he makes his way to a “life hutch”, a little respite on a dangerous planet where he can recoup and await rescue.  The hutch is little larger than a room; I’m thinking around 12×12, with an island like one might find in a kitchen in the center.  There’s a robot there to assist, but it’s malfunctioning and ready to kill anything that moves.  Terrance is in for a rough night.

The Good

Motion capture and damned fine animation blend live action and CGI flawlessly.  I had actually forgotten that this episode was animated.  I had to look it up later.  Jordan’s face is captured to such an extent that there was no doubt in my mind who the actor was.  

While there are flashbacks to what happened that left Terrance on the planet, Jordan only ever says 6 words in the story.  His opening is enough to rope you in: “I’m gonna die here!”  The tension ratchets up throughout the episode and doesn’t ease up until the last 2 words, which offer a nervous, albeit relieved, laugh.  

The story itself was clever.  Terrance has to find a way to stop the killer mech without being able to move.  In effect, he has to play dead while tricking the machine into no longer being a threat.  I loved the story when I read it, and I loved it even more when I saw it recreated before my eyes.

The Bad

If stress is a killer, watching this one might cause a heart attack.  There’s one moment where the mech is climbing over Terrance and steps on his finger, breaking it.  He has all to do to remain unaffected.  It’s hard to watch.  

There is a lot of tension, very little blood or gore, and only one vulgarity which makes up the end when he hears that the onboard mech is malfunctioning. 

The Ugly

In season one, Helping Hand showed us how deadly space could be, but this doesn’t do a bad job of reminding us.  Granted there is a war on, but even so, just finding a small safe haven ends up being a challenge.

We’re also reminded of how dangerous our reliance on technology can be.  Terrance finds the life hutch but he is so dependent on the robot to help, he almost dies when it goes rogue.  I can see that in our reality as well.  He uses technology to defeat it, it’s a very simple solution using a flashlight.  This season started by reminding us that our reliance on technology could be dangerous and we’re close to wrapping the season with another reminder.  Let’s not lose sight of that as we continue to get better and better tech.  Just ask ChatGPT how bad things can get… 

Finally, ending on a positive note, let’s remember what human ingenuity can achieve.  Terrance pieces together that the only way to survive is to disable to robot, but he has no weapons, no room to move and no ability to move even if he had the space.  He thinks it through and finds a solution.  Sometimes the best way to solve a problem is to take a step back, look away, take a breather.  There usually is a solution; we just have to find it.  

The Game

The flashlight shows us the solution before the story even begins but we won’t know that for a while.  The explosion is representative of the battle going on in space.  The broken finger is painful to look at even in the glyphs.  When the series started, I thought these were going to be more esoteric; I don’t know if I’m happy or not that they are usually so simple.  

The Verdict:

I loved the source material and was amazed to see it come to life.  This is another short story, coming in at just about 12 minutes.  Jordan sells the pain and terror well and the animation doesn’t let me down.  With only one more episode to go, I wonder if they can create a perfect season.   ML