- The Sandkings
Infobox Television episode
Title = The Sandkings
Series = The Outer Limits
Caption =
Season = 1
Episode = 1
Airdate =26 March 1995
Production = 1
Writer =Melinda M. Snodgrass (Based on the work byGeorge R. R. Martin )
Director =Stuart Gillard
Guests =Beau Bridges as Dr. Simon Kress
Helen Shaver as Cathy Kress
Dylan Bridges as Josh Kress
Kim Coates as Dave Stockley
Lloyd Bridges as Colonel Kress
Patricia Harras as Debbie
Episode list = List of "The Outer Limits" episodes
Prev =
Next =Valerie 23 "The Sandkings" is the first episode of the revived 1960s science-fiction television series "
The Outer Limits ", based on the short story "Sandkings " byGeorge R. R. Martin . first published in "Omni Magazine " August,1979 . The episode premiered on26 March ,1995 on Sci-Fi Channel and features three generations of the Bridges family, which was used to promote the new series.In the episode, a scientist steals some specimens of Martian life from his workplace laboratory to continue his research at home.Opening narration
Plot
Dr. Simon Kress' (
Beau Bridges ) research for the government on Martian life is aborted because one of his specimens almost escapes into the natural environment. However, Kress doesn't agree with the abandonment of the project and decides to continue his experiments in his barn. He steals some sand containing Martian eggs from his lab and creates a make-shift incubator to hatch more of the Martian lifeforms.In the meantime, Kress deals with growing discord with his wife (
Helen Shaver ) over financial troubles and his obsession with work and the stress of concealing the stolen Martian lifeforms from his former supervisors at the government lab. Kress comes to believe that he is a god to his sandkings when they build sand structures that resemble his face (the face is looking across, unlike theFace on Mars , which is looking up.). He begins to mistreat them and eventually the sandkings turn on Kress. In the end, Kress attempts to destroy all the sandkings but fails. In the ending of the episode, a colony of sandkings is shown surviving in the wilderness.Aftermath
During the final episode of season one, "The Voice of Reason", clips from this episode are used to support an argument that the Earth is undergoing a number of different alien invasions. Later in the episode, two alien conspirators acknowledge, in private conversation, that the sandkings could become a serious problem in about thirty years assuming that they could survive in a methane-based atmosphere, which the aliens intended to gradually transform from the earth's human-friendly one.
In the sixth season episode "Final Appeal", we discover that it took "the better part of a decade" to eradicate the sandking plague.
Closing narration
External links
* [http://www.theouterlimits.com/episodes/season1/114.htm Episode at The Outer Limits site]
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