Robotics scientist Dr. Charles Link has developed a synthetic human named Adam. In the course of working on Adam's program, Adam kills Dr. Link, seemingly without reason or provocation. It is up to Dr. Link's daughter, Mina, and her lawyer Thurman Cutler to represent Adam in the legal system.
Opening Narration[]
| “ | It is said that God made man in His image, but man fell from grace. Still, man has retained from his humble beginnings the innate desire to create. But how will man’s creations fare? Will they attain a measure of the Divine? Or will they, too, fall from grace? | ” |
Plot[]
Dr. Link is working on the central memory of a robot, Adam, when it suddenly activates and attacks him. A lab assistant enters the room in time to see Adam smashing up the laboratory before crashing through a window and escaping. Dr. Link is left dead. Some time later, a police officer finds Adam in a back alley. It asks the officer to contact Dr. Link, and it apparently remembers nothing of the incident. Adam is taken to a cell and preparations are made to disassemble it. Mina, Dr. Link's daughter, contacts a lawyer, Thurman Cutler.
Cutler pushes for a murder trial, insisting that Adam is his client and not simply a machine. A court hearing begins, and the prosecutor pushes for dismissal of the case and immediate disassembly on the grounds that Adam is just a machine. Cutler argues that, although Adam is clearly not human, it possesses intelligence and will, and on that basis, deserves a trial. During the hearing, one of Dr. Link's colleagues reveals that he had lost his funding. Cutler begins to look into Dr. Link's financial records and finds that he was working for a defense contractor, and eventually discovers that he was working to turn Adam into a weapon.
Cutler is threatened by a shady representative of the defense company, but brings the matter up in court anyway. He argues, with supporting evidence of financial accounts and company memos, that Dr. Link was forced into attempting to rewrite Adam's central programming, effectively lobotomizing it. Adam reacted in the way any human might when faced with death. The court eventually finds that Adam is a person and will stand trial for the murder of Dr. Link. As it is being led away, Adam sees the prosecuting attorney in danger of being run over and rescues her, sacrificing its own life in the process.
Closing Narration[]
| “ | Empathy. Sacrifice. Love. These qualities are not confined to walls of flesh and blood, but are found within the deepest, best parts of man's soul, no matter where that soul resides. | ” |
Notes[]
The episode is a remake of "I, Robot", an episode of the original series. Like the original episode, it starred Leonard Nimoy.
While, Leonard Nimoy, father of co-director Adam Nimoy, co-stars in both this episode and the 1960s Outer Limits version of "I, Robot," he actually plays different characters. Neither version has any connection to the famous "I, Robot" stories of Isaac Asimov who took the title without permission to use for his own work.
Cast[]
- Cynthia Preston as Mina Link (as Cyndy Preston)
- Barbara Tyson as Carrie Emerson
- Nathaniel DeVeaux as Col. Birch
- Leonard Nimoy as Thurman Cutler
- Ken Kramer as Judge Clancy
- Eric Schneider as Detective Barclay
- Robert Clothier as Dr. Linstrop
- J.B. Bivens as Security Guard
- Robert Moloney as Lab Technician
- Don MacKay as Dr. Link
- John Novak as Voice of Adam (voice)