Small Friends

Ralph Waite, late of The Waltons is a brilliant scientist who is in prison for taking a man's life. His guilt keeps him from even trying when he is offered the possibility of parole. The prison, recognizing his abilities, allows him to conduct experiments and research, returning each night to his cell. He has been delving into nanotechnology, creating robotic "bugs" that can leave their matchbox home and perform various functions. Unfortunately, he runs afoul of a psychotic inmate played by Roddy Piper. He realizes that the little guys can easily compromise the locks on the cell doors. Threatening Waite's family, he extorts him to participate in a jailbreak. There are some holes in the story. Waite can instruct these things to do all manner of repair work but probably could have done something to prevent them from harming his loved ones. Waite does a good job as a really kind man. We never know what the details of his crime were, but his research is a way of paying back, though he knows he falls short. Piper is creepy as the scary inmate. He did some film work over the years and I thing he was a good actor. Maybe all those phony body slams and head butts helped him embrace the Stanislavski method. What's really interesting about this episode are the implications of this technology which scientists continue to refine with each passing day.