"A Special Edition" | |
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The Outer Limits episode | |
Episode no. | Season 3 Episode 18 |
Directed by | Mario Azzopardi |
Written by | Naren Shankar |
Production code | 62 |
Original air date | 25 July 1997 |
Guest appearance(s) | |
Bruce Harwood as Dr. Avery Strong |
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Bruce Harwood as Dr. Avery Strong
Alan Thicke as Donald Rivers
Michael St. John Smith as Dr. Richard Morgan
Louise Vallance as Sandra
"A Special Edition" is an episode of The Outer Limits television show. It was first broadcast on 25 July 1997, during the third season.
Donald Rivers, a journalist for the television show The Whole Truth, has found proof that the government and large defense contractors have been illegally and secretly cloning human beings. After locking himself in the studio with only a small crew, he plans to air his report to the world.
Rivers has the show of a lifetime: rock solid proof that the government and private defense contractors have been engaging in secret genetic cloning experiments. However, many mysterious and powerful forces are trying to stop him in order to keep their secrets. He goes on-air live, in a locked studio, accompanied only by a skeleton crew and Dr. Avery Strong, a live eyewitness to the history of the dark side of science. As he presents his evidence, the powerful begin to interfere. First, they try to block the transmission. Then, the network's parent company disavows the show. When thugs with guns break down the studio door, Rivers continues the show on the fly, transmitting live from the back of the show's mobile unit. However, during this, another signal overrides theirs, showing a clone of Rivers giving a fraudulent report, saying that Dr. Strong went crazy and killed everyone but Rivers and his driver, who managed to escape. Shortly thereafter, clones walk into the van followed by the Rivers clone, who pulls a gun on the crew. Stating that the viewers are already starting to forget due to the "fraudulent report", the Rivers doppelganger adds that no matter how influential he is, his show is just a show. Rivers, Strong, the producer, and the crew are summarily shot to death by the Rivers clone.