The New Breed

Very good episode, but I am shocked that Greg Bear got no writing credit. This is an almost verbatim adaptation of his novella and later expanded into novel 'Blood Music' In the original story, the 'infection' was a tailored virus, but in the expanded novel Bear jumped on the nano bandwagon and had the technology be tiny organic machines. I hope Bear got some sort of compensation for use of his ideas, even if he apparently got no screen credit.

Other minor differences involve who gets injected - in the story it was the inventor, who injected them into his own body to smuggle them out of the laboratory, after being told he was being laid off. The ending was visually interesting, and implied that the infection had spread to the wife. In the story the 'good' scientist tried to stop it by killing and bleaching the wife, too, but it was too late. Common 'Outer Limits' cautionary tale of our technology getting away from us and ultimately dooming us.

This episode is about a man who begins to play God. He actually announces to his critics that he will improve on God's work. Well, we know from Mary Shelley that this is not a good idea. When one starts to get a little smug about his accomplishments, he is going to hit the wall at some point. Richard Thomas is an arrogant nano-scientist who doesn't think he should wait to do the ultimate testing on living creatures. But unlike many of his predecessors, he doesn't inject himself. Instead, the honor goes to his cancer-riddled future brother-in-law. He sneaks into the lab and helps himself to the priceless little buggers and injects them into his bloodstream. How could any lab of this import have so little security. As a matter of fact, as Thomas works in his lab to try to counteract the horrors that are happening to his friend, there never seems to be anyone else around. I know this is a bit nit-picky, but it bothered me from the get go. Anyway, at first the stuff does amazing things, curing and enhancing any defects in the man's body. It even builds gills so he can breathe under water, but when the defense systems begin to be enhanced, he becomes less human and more jellyfish. Thomas, who previously would have done anything to get his way with the scientific community, now is faced with dealing with scientific ethics and his own morality. This is a thought provoking episode on some levels, but there are too many hard-to-swallow events to make it a really good one.

A terminal patient injects experimental nanobots and overnight the disease disappears, and he slowly turns into a superman. But what happens when nanobots have nothing more to fix?

This is another SF drama dealing with the consequences of human playing God. This time in the main roles are better-known actors, Richard Thomas and Peter Outerbridge. The story is interesting, nicely developed and, unlike most of the episodes of this and similar series, does not feel rushed. and for an additional atmosphere, it is enriched with a spicy sex scene and tastefully measured nudity of Tammy Isbell.

7/10

The story here isn't exactly original in any way, and is incredibly predictable since it's been done time and time again (and, honestly, it's been done far better elsewhere) but the one thing this episode does have in its favour is the two leads. Richard "John Boy Walton" Thomas and Peter Outerbridge are both wonderful actors who, although they've never quite hit The Big Time, are always a joy to watch.

Here Richard plays Dr Ledbetter, a scientist who 'discovers/invents/creates' nanobots with the potential to cure/heal all human disease and damage, while Peter plays his prospective BIL Dr Groenig, a doctor who has just received a cancer diagnosis and so 'goes rogue' and injects himself with said nanobots. Predictable hi-jinks ensue to a predictable end, but again it's all worth watching due to the performances of the two leads.

You won't see anything new here, but you'll likely enjoy the story nonetheless.

Even though Thomas is quite recognizable, I could easily believe this was a real life college professor/inventor.

It helps a lot that the inventor role was well written and avoided most of the crazy inventor and absent minded professor cliches. I suppose they transferred most of that to the other character.

Most of the inventor's technobabble seemed pretty real, with only one glaring flaw I caught, though I wasn't following it that closely.

This is a very adult level OL episode, like almost an R level rating. Thematically it was fairly heavy, even for a not exactly new plot. And all the actors were putting in solid feature film quality performances, so the dramatic elements really work.

It does have some OL cliches, of course, but they are relatively in the background for the most part.