The Message (The Outer Limits)

Infobox Television episode
Title = The Message
Series = The Outer Limits


Caption =
Season = 1
Episode = 18
Airdate = 16 July, 1995
Production = 18
Writer = Brad Wright
Director = Joseph Scanlan
Photographer =
Guests = Marlee Matlin as Jennifer Winter, Larry Drake as Robert Vitale
Episode list = List of "The Outer Limits" episodes
Prev = Caught in the Act
Next = I, Robot

"The Message" is an episode of "The Outer Limits" television show. It first aired on 16 July, 1995, during the first season.

Introduction

A deaf woman is given a revolutionary implant to restore her hearing — but it does not help her hear normal sounds. Instead she suffers nightmares, head pain and begins scribbling page after page of ones and zeroes.

Opening narration

:"There is the silence of the oceans and the unending silence of space. There is the welcome silence of serenity and the everlasting silence of death. A cry for help is lost in the shrill noise of the world, but the faintest of whispers, when spoken in silence, can resonate across a universe."

Plot

Jennifer Winter (Marlee Matlin), deaf since birth, has had a revolutionary implant placed in her ear, to help her hear for the first time. The device doesn't help her to hear normal conversation and sounds, but she does hear something, and no one believes her.

While on a routine visit to the hospital to check on the implant, Jennifer befriends the janitor, Robert (Larry Drake) who empathizes with her.

Suddenly, Jennifer is plagued by nightmares and searing pain in her head, all at 3:16 in the morning or afternoon. Once the pain starts she begins furiously writing in binary code.

It's Robert who suggests that perhaps the binary code's, 0's and 1's might be able to be translated. As a former astrophysicist who had mental problems that forced him to work as a janitor, Robert enters the code into his computer to try to translate it.

Meanwhile, Jennifer's husband Sam, concerned for his wife and their young baby, is convinced that Jennifer is going crazy. But as the sounds and dreams become more pronounced Jennifer and Robert are determined to break the code.

What they discover is an alien force, trying to communicate a cry for help through Jennifer's implant. The aliens are in a ship hurtling toward the sun and they need help from Earth to save their ship. The message sent was really instructions for a high energy laser designed to push the ship out of a terminal path. They build and activate it just in time to see the ship pushed away from the sun and towards safety.

Closing narration

"There is no sound, no voice, no cry in all the world that can't be heard... until someone listens."

External links

*
* [http://www.theouterlimits.com/episodes/season1/111.htm Episode at The Outer Limits site]
* [http://www.scifi.com/outerlimits/episodes/season1/117message.html "The Message (The Outer Limits)"] at Sci Fi