ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

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All Sci-Fi member Pow offers these additional thoughts cjoncerning The Inheritors, the only two-part story which The Outer Limits presented.
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From The Outer Limits Official Companion:

Seeleg Lester's intention was to use "The Inheritors" two-part episode as a series pilot.

Century 21 was the title. Lester got someone at RandCorp to give him a decade-by-decade prognosis of life in the US, leading up to the year 2000. He wanted to have a Secretary of Science' character in the President's Cabinet, and he and his assistant would investigate things of a scientific nature.

For example: Someone discovers a drug that will prolong life to 180 years. Who's going to use it? How do you apportion it? It might become the object of theft or murder.

That problem would go to the Secretary of Science. "I used that character in 'The Inheritors,' and got my ownership of him written into the contract. But CBS wouldn't do the series. They had no imagination. And all the things that RandCorp guy predicted in 1962 have been coming to pass."

Sidebar: What an intriguing concept for a television series. It really could be rebooted today. Contact RandCorp, if it still exists, and sit with their experts and have them project outward what the coming decades may create and develop in all the scientific fields of endeavor.

If RandCorp is still around though I'd not limit my research to just one organization, as impressive as they might be. I'd consult many such corporations and think tanks. That way you could create a plethora of source material for your stories.

Beyond the futuristic predictions you would have to delve into what nefarious political agendas this 'Secretary of Science' would encounter. Not only on a worldwide scale but right in his own backyard.

No doubt there would be American politicians who would use their might to influence, thwart, pilfer, and override the SoS as he goes about his mission. Yes, we do have such men and women serving in our government...sad to say.

What happens when the POTUS & the SoS have a disagreement? Is the V.P. on board with all of this, or a constant thorn in the side for the SoS? Corruption is everywhere in the world, so no end of storylines on that front.

How are the inventors of these new and wonderous breakthroughs affected by their discoveries for good or ill? Their families and co-workers and friends would all come into the picture.

Such a series could have it all with their plots: Espionage, homicides, romance, sex, corruption, power plays, deceit, wars, ethnic cleansing, fall of governments, assassinations, and, yes, even comedy.

This would give the series a vast scope to tell their stories each week. And it would certainly be different from any other TV show on now, or in the past. What a welcome breath of fresh air from the tsunami of law enforcement,
courtroom, and medical dramas that these unimaginative networks trot out each and every fall for viewers. Each and every one of these types of series have been done a zillion times. Sometimes quite well, other times quite poorly. Point being is that we will never have a lack of these genres....ever!

The western shows have all ridden into the sunset, but cop shows, lawyer shows, and doctor shows pop up continuously with no end in sight.

Rant over.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)