Original subtitles

There is nothing wrong with your television set.

Do not attempt to adjust the picture.

We are controlling transmission.

If we wish to make it louder, we will bring up the volume.

If we wish to make it softer, we will tune it to a whisper.

We will control the horizontal.

We will control the vertical.

We can roll the image.

Make it flutter.

We can change the focus to a soft blur or sharpen it to crystal clarity.

For the next hour, sit quietly and we will control all that you see and hear.

We repeat, there is nothing wrong with your television set.

You are about to participate in a great adventure.

You are about to experience the awe and mystery which reaches from the inner

mind to the outer limits.

KXKVI is located on Highway 601, just six miles south of Cotterfield, where

the supermarkets meet the people, serving all of Los Feliz County in sunny

Southern Cal.

KXKVI is brought to you, good people, at 1820-1820 on your radio dial.

Keep listening now for your top ten tunes brought to you by your boy, Buddy.

Number six, Come Rock With Me, an up-and-swinging vocal offering by the

High Lifers.

Shoe store spot, Barney's drive-in, and the news and weather is on top.

Al, get Al and tell him to come in here quick.

What's wrong?

Look at that dial. That needle has just dropped about ten points.

What is it?

The power output.

We're broadcasting on just about half.

Go on, babe. Go get him.

I can't.

What do you mean you can't?

He knows about it.

How could he know about it? It just happened. He's in the transmitter shed.

Are you telling me he cut down the power? On purpose?

Well, that's against the law.

These people pay us to cover an area of 200 miles.

We guarantee them over a million audience.

All right, he's stealing power.

Stealing power?

He's been doing it for weeks. He steals equipment, too.

Transistors, condensers. We've got bills up to here. We can't let him shut down.

Let everything go to pot.

Go tell him, Carol. Tell him that if he doesn't boost us back on the air, we're

going to have our contracts ripped up by the sponsors.

He won't open the door.

Own him.

Come over here right away. I want you to see something.

He said for me to come over.

He's probably picked up a program from Telstra.

Well... I'll go humor him, you watch. Before he knows it, he's going to be

cleaned up, dressed up, and ready to go.

I'll kill him.

This is Gene Buddy Maxwell bringing you your Saturday Dance Parade.

Come in.

Close the door, please.

Carol, look.

What is it?

Oh, I thought it was hydrogen static, but it isn't.

Static? Listen.

Most of that is hydrogen radio waves coming in at 21 centimeters.

Except for that high pitch tone, I don't know what that is.

That's my teeth on edge.

I fed it through the TV monitor, tried to get a visual analysis.

What good is it?

It's coming from out there.

Out where?

Space.

Just space?

We haven't been able to pinpoint it yet.

It's taken a lot of power just to get this much.

Yeah, you cut the station down about half.

Well, I can't help that.

Well, you know we can lose our sponsor.

This is more important.

More important than drive-in commercials?

More important than paying the bills?

The bills will be paid.

Carol.

i want you to see what i've done alan do you even care anything about your own

family sure look see that's a three-dimensional tv scanner it's the

same as a conventional television except it shows the image in three dimensions

height width depth that shows the sound you just heard in three dimensions see

by scanning it three ways i'm able to give it solidity solid static it's

formed out of microwaves alan

I know that it makes you angry when I ask you questions like this.

What good is it?

Well, it's interesting.

You have spent thousands of dollars on transistors and circuits and

cathode ray...

You're just bleeding electricity out of that transmitter until there is nothing

left of KXKDI, but just a feeble beep, and all you can say is it's interesting?

Carol, it's more than interesting. It's important.

Do you realize that every important change in the world for the last 30

years has come out of research in microwaves, radar, television, even the

H-bomb?

But what makes you think that you can discover anything?

Who are you?

Nobody.

Nobody at all.

But the secrets of the universe don't mind.

They reveal themselves to nobodies who care.

Isaac Newton was a nobody.

Michael Faraday was a bookbinder's apprentice.

Yes, but now they have big laboratories that work on all those things.

The big laboratories spend millions of dollars, Carol. And they work slowly and

surely. And they get results, but not the big steps.

Not the breakthroughs. Those come from the human mind, not from the laboratory.

Call them inspiration.

Call them intuition.

Maybe blind luck. Maybe it's God saying now's the time.

I'm sorry, Alan. I don't like it.

Because every day it takes you away from me more and more.

Till I hardly know you.

You have friends.

We love you. We want to honor you.

We want to see you and be with you.

Well, I don't have time for that sort of thing.

You don't have time for friends and

everyday life, but you have all the time in the world for a

cloud of static?

Well, I'm sorry, Alan. Don't ask me to appreciate it because I can't. It's

cold.

It sounds like sleep and snow, and it looks like electricity

frozen.

I don't like it. I'm sorry.

Do you, uh... Do you happen to remember that...

Half the town is turning out to honor you tonight.

Tonight?

Yes, it's a testimonial dinner.

They have a scroll and a plaque, and you can't disappoint them.

No, I'll try not to let them down.

Alan, you've known about it for months, and you can't hurt people. You just

can't.

No, I don't. I don't want to hurt people.

All right, does that mean that you'll get dressed and you'll... Be ready on

time?

Uh,

yeah. Yeah, yes. Thank you very much.

Who are you?

Can you hear me?

Can you see me?

Solar system Sun Mercury

Venus Earth I am transmitting from Earth

Where are you transmitting from?

Outside the solar system My antenna is centered on the edge of the

constellation Pegasus.

Are you beyond you understand?

How can I communicate with you? Words?

Numbers?

Mathematics?

Can you translate your binary pulses into my computer?

word patterns using binary systems.

My computer can translate your pulses

into my language.

My

name

It's Alan Maxwell. I am transmitting from a station on the third planet

in the solar system.

Earth. Are you receiving

dimensional image?

I am scanning the microwaves coming from somewhere beyond the

constellation of Pegasus.

whole chart, whole image, universe.

point the great spiral andromeda yes transmission northwest

quadrant star system with three one

satellites solar system three one satellite

31 planets yes three one planets

Do you see me?

Very dim.

You are in Rome.

Electronic Rome. Do not increase your power.

Galaxy orbits.

Contact of planets beyond central system.

We're both breaking the rules.

I'm not allowed to use the station for research.

I am not allowed to use equipment for exploration.

Do you have a name?

Numbers not same as yours.

Four dimension numbers.

Answer question.

What is below ice?

Below eyes.

Holes in face.

Nose.

Mouth.

Why?

Smell.

Eat. Speak.

Smell. Eat. Do. Talk.

Explain.

Smell.

Molecules flow through air.

Two olfactory lobes.

Eat. Carbon cycle.

Plants, animals, H2O.

Talk.

Communication. Is that why mouth holes moving?

You hear me, don't you?

Yes.

Do you have life?

Not the same. You are carbon cycle.

We are...

Nitrogen cycle.

Where you are, do you have death?

We have end of being.

We stop moving, stop breathing, no thoughts,

nothing. We call it death.

Property of carbon cycle in three dimensions.

No death in our dimension.

Electromagnet.

Infinity.

Do my brain waves go on?

Yes. What about wars?

Do you have wars?

Repeat.

Battles.

Atom bombs.

Radiation fallout.

Other galaxies.

What about God?

Do you have a God?

Explain.

An all-powerful being.

A force.

Underlying everything.

Electromagnetic.

No, I mean an intelligent force.

God.

Electromagnetic force.

Intelligence. Matter.

Space. Time.

All the same.

All the same.

You look great, pal.

Thank you, sir.

Your voice sounds in good working order. Yeah, I use lemon and honey.

Say, I brought some albums. I wonder if you'd check them over for clearance. No,

take them to Gene. He's waiting for you inside.

Oh, okay. I'll see you later.

Are you ready to go?

No.

I can't.

What do you mean you can't?

I can't, Carol. Something has happened. I've got to write out a report.

But you promised.

I'm all dressed up.

Gene's waiting. We even hired a relief announcer to take Gene's place.

It doesn't matter, Carol. Something tremendous has happened. I've made a

discovery. Well, I don't want to hear about it.

Well, come in and see. Now, I don't want to see.

I just want my husband.

And I want him here, now, in this world tonight.

We can't keep the mayor and his wife waiting any longer.

I don't care what you've discovered, Alan. One evening, one hour is not going

to make any difference.

It might make all the difference in the world. I'm not going to ask you to

choose between me and... whatever that is, because I would probably lose.

So I'm going to force you to accept the honor that's due an outstanding member

of the community.

I'm going to tell everyone that you invited them here.

Here?

If you won't come to your own party, then I'll bring the party here.

No, you can't, Carol. They wouldn't understand.

Oh, can I?

I think they'd just love to see your workshop and your experiments.

We can jam 50 people in there without breaking too much equipment.

All right.

All right.

I'll be there.

I mean it, Alan. If you don't follow us in that station wagon, I'm going to

bring everybody right back here, and the mayor can give you your plaque while you

work.

All right, I'll be there.

Oh, this needle might give you a little trouble. It kind of cuts down on power

once in a while.

What do I do?

Just leave it alone.

Okay. You want to bring me on after this record?

Yeah, yeah. Give me a voice level.

One, two, three. This is Eddie Phillips, the voice of Los Feliz, subbing for

Gene, Buddy Maxwell.

Fine.

Here he comes, the slim one, Eddie Phillips.

Great to have you on board, Eddie boy. Pleasure to be here, Gene, buddy

Maxwell. Eddie Phillips will substitute for the next three hours, bringing you

the best of music from KXKVI, your dancing station, covering Los Feliz and

Cotterfield. This is Gene, buddy Maxwell, signing off for now.

Please stay tuned for Eddie Phillips' record review.

Edward, you got it.

Many thanks, Gene, and my congratulations to your brother Alan on

his testimonial shindig tonight.

He's made KXKVI the beacon of the Southwest, and all of you in the Maxwell

family deserve a big round of applause.

We start off this evening's celebration with a musical salute to the Maxwells.

Brother Alan, the electronic wizard, and Brother Gene, Buddy Maxwell, your

favorite DJ in the desert area.

Here we are with the deuces in the trays, singing Big Time Daddy.

Nice and easy.

Same to you.

I have to go.

To Cutterfield Center.

If I don't, other people will come in.

No,

keep the channel open.

I will keep the selectors locked.

If your signal drifts, it will keep them centered.

I'll be back in one hour.

Passage of time it takes Earth to revolve 1 24th of its circumference.

Do not change power level.

Don't worry.

Your selectors are locked.

Your channel is centered.

Keep transmitting I'll return in one hour wait for me

Thank you, deuces and trays.

Coming up now, an all-time favorite selected for you by yours truly, Eddie

Phillips, the voice of Los Feliz.

I'm Eddie Phillips.

What do you say, Alan?

Oh, Eddie, did Carol go on? Oh, yeah, Gene drove her on in. You're supposed to

take the station wagon.

Yeah.

Eddie, this is the power transmitter control.

This is the output monitor.

Yeah, it's a pretty weak signal you're putting out.

Oh, yeah. Well, I blew some fuses, knocked out half the breakers.

I doubt if you're carrying over 30 miles. Yeah, well, that's exactly where

I want it. No more, no less. Now, Eddie, if that needle creeps to either side,

just keep it centered right where it is. Hang on now. I'm not an engineer.

No, I don't expect any trouble. But if it does move, just keep it right there

where it is.

Does that knob boost the power?

Yeah. How much of a load will it take?

Now, we're tied into the substation, high-tension substation plus generator.

I mean, how far can you carry with a full load, in case you ever had to pour

it on?

Full-power broadcast, they'll hear you in Canada, SHF, anywhere in the world.

Oh, no wonder you blew the fuses.

Look, Eddie,

don't even touch it unless you have to. I'll be back in about an hour. Okay.

When they're toasting you, have one on me.

of the young people and citizens to you, Alan McClure.

Look, Carol, I've got my plaque. The mayor's happy. The party's fine.

Nobody's going to notice if I take off.

I'll notice.

Well, you'll be the only one. I've been here almost an hour. Nobody's even said

hello.

You've been in cold storage so long, nobody knows who you are.

I could come back and pick you up after midnight.

If you leave me, I'll leave you.

Let's get a breath of air.

If we have to toast Alan one more time, they'll carry me out.

Thank you very much. Good to see you. Yeah, thank you. Thank you very much.

You know, I feel pretty special.

Sneaking away with the brother of a guest of honor.

Well, you are special, babe.

Cool night air.

Cool music.

And the cool lips of Jean Buddy Maxwell on your fevered brow.

Look, honey, I'm talking as loud as I can. I got the power trimmed down.

Trying to save a buck on my time.

You know it.

Before I'm through, the whole country's going to know it.

This is Eddie Phillips, booming out at you from here to Canada and east to the

Mississippi. Keep your set tuned on. Listen to how it soups up.

Yeah, I'll call you back on the next record.

Eddie Phillips, the voice of Los Feliz, welcoming all you new listeners from

here to Canada and the East.

What's he doing with that?

He's fooling around with the transmitter.

I'd better tell Alan.

Yeah, but something's going on down at the station. The car radio started to

blast and then it turned to solid static.

Solid static? Yeah.

When did it start?

A couple of minutes ago.

Yeah, it's way over reach.

He says something about welcoming new listeners in Canada.

not to turn up the power. Where are you going?

Make a telephone call.

It's busy.

He's probably taking record requests.

No, I don't think so.

Hey, you want to drive out?

No, the phone's quicker. I've got to get to him and tell him to cut down on that

power.

Is there any danger?

All kinds.

Check the operator, see if it's out of order.

No, I'll, uh... I'll call Collins over at the warehouse, ask him to run a

message over.

No, it's dead.

It's dead.

You going out to the station?

Doesn't sound like 1820, does it?

Frequency cycle.

At least the static's quieted down.

I'm going out there.

Tell Carol.

Babe, come on. He just probably took a walk. He'll be back in a few minutes. I

don't care why he went.

Please, just leave me alone.

Come on.

I am not. Listen, Carol, I don't want you to get excited, but something has

happened. Don't get excited. The main thing is to be calm and come with me.

It wasn't.

Read him the highway report.

Glowed and flickered like a person made out of blue light.

That's right.

Captured your brother and his wife.

Yeah, when I heard the screaming, I ran inside. They came by me. I tried to stop

it.

Oh.

They found the car smashed up in a ditch on 601.

The hood was crushed, the wheels broken, the paint burned off the front end.

And no survivors.

Put in a call to the state headquarters.

Request assistance outside the county police.

Yes, sir.

Did your brother say anything else?

Yeah, he said KX, KVI.

Those are the call letters of our station.

Let's go.

But it's got a mind similar to ours. Please let me go. It didn't want to come

here. But it made contact out of curiosity, don't you understand? We

brought it here.

I've got to get it back.

Now be quiet or I'll get chilled.

What happened?

Waiting for you.

No way to stop.

No way to get out.

Transmission of atomic structure.

Transmission of man.

Can you get back?

Too late.

They know I am...

Destroy I am danger to my galaxy

Okay,

I'll take a look.

No!

Tell him it's all right! Go on!

Don't touch her! Stop damage.

Burn with radiation.

Line up on the transmitter shed.

Don't fire.

Don't shoot. It's my brother. Hold it.

We got orders to kill it. By any and all means.

You can't kill a man with it. Give me that speaker.

You get him out of there. We'll let him go.

Come out. Make a run for it. We'll cover you.

No.

I'm staying right here.

Now listen to me.

It won't hurt you.

You saw what it did.

It's using him.

Come out.

This is your last chance.

Come out. My wife is in there.

She was wounded.

But it has helped her.

It saved her life.

There it is.

You know.

You have to learn.

You must explore.

You must reach out.

Go to your own.

Go and give thought to the mysteries of

the universe.

I will leave you now.

What are you going to do?

Reduce the microwave intensity.

Reduce mass.

You'll disintegrate.

There is no death for me.

What will happen?

Unknown.

Unknown.

End of transmission.

The planet Earth is a speck of dust, remote and alone in the void.

There are powers in the universe inscrutable and profound.

Fear cannot save us.

Rage cannot help us.

We must see the stranger in a new light, the light of understanding.

And to achieve this, we must begin to understand ourselves and each other.

We now return control of your television set to you until next week at this same

time when the control voice will take you to The Outer Limit.