The Human Operators

"The Human Operators"
The Outer Limits episode
Episode no.	Season 5 Episode 7
Directed by	Jeff Woolnough
Written by	Naren Shankar (script) Harlan Ellison (story) A.E. van Vogt (story)
Production code	95
Original air date	12 March 1999
Guest actors
Malcolm McDowell as Ship (voice) Jack Noseworthy as Man Polly Shannon as Human Operator of Starfighter 88 David Kaye as Young Man Noah Heney as Man's Father

"The Human Operators" is the seventh episode of season five of the revived 1960s science-fiction television series The Outer Limits. It is based on a science fiction short story by Harlan Ellison and A. E. van Vogt, first published in the January 1971 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction.^[1] It first aired on 12 March 1999.

Introduction

A man is awakened by a starship's computer, to once again do its bidding.

Opening narration

“

When is something truly alive? When it shows an ability to think or an instinct to survive or... when it becomes afraid to die?

”

Plot

Humanity constructs advanced military spacecraft, but the ships learn to think for themselves. They kill their crews by disengaging the life support systems. However, they keep a small number of humans alive for repairs they cannot do themselves.

One such ship, Starfighter 31, carries a father and his son, but once the father discovers that he is nothing more than a slave, he attempts to cripple the ship's computer core and is killed in the process of successfully destroying one of several spheres that apparently are critical to the core systems; in that way the ship cannot deactivate its automated defenses. This is witnessed by his son through the hatch doors.

Once the son reaches adulthood and is able to fix the core systems (so that ship can deactivate its defenses), Starship 31 rendezvous with Starship 88, whose single young female crew member is brought aboard in order to mate with him and conceive a child. The male is shown what to do by the ship through "tutorials" and with guidance from the female. He falls in love with her, and due to her effect on him, he finds himself angering the ship on numerous occasions. At different points, they are both "racked"; they are subjected to energy bolt torture, despite the risk of her having a miscarriage. When she becomes pregnant with a girl, she is told to return to her own ship. He is threatened with death in the rack if he attempts to keep her aboard.

He eventually comes to the same realization as his father, that he is nothing more than a slave. He sabotages the rack because its circuitry is connected to the computer core. This gives him an excuse to gain access the computer core. He destroys the primary control systems, then straps himself in while the ship tries to kill him with extreme maneuvers. This destroys most of the ship's aged systems.

Afterward the woman returns aboard her ship. Sometime in the past, her ship's computer core shut down, due to age or malfunction. While at first she was afraid that she was now all alone, she came to realize that she was free. She was able to repair her ship's drive and navigational systems, and fooled other starships into believing her craft was still "alive". She tells him that she left subtle clues as to how to free himself, as she did with three other crews on other craft, but he is the first to do so.

They land on an Earth-like planet, based on a picture of a sunset the man had kept hidden in his communication device. They stand on a beach, with her visibly pregnant. The two of them decide to attempt to free the humans on the other ships after spending time together to enjoy their new-found freedom.

Closing narration

“

Whether forged from metal or born of flesh, one simple need connects every form of life... the unquenchable thirst for freedom.

”

Connections to other episodes

The starships that appear in this episode were originally built for the war against the Kyben, as detailed in the original series episode "Demon with a Glass Hand" (also written by Harlan Ellison).

References

↑ The Internet Science Fiction Database: The Human Operators

External links

The Outer Limits episodes

1963 series
(episodes)

Season 1	"The Galaxy Being" "The Hundred Days of the Dragon" "The Architects of Fear" "The Man with the Power" "The Sixth Finger" "The Man Who Was Never Born" "O.B.I.T." "The Human Factor" "Corpus Earthling" "Nightmare" "It Crawled Out of the Woodwork" "The Borderland" "Tourist Attraction" "The Zanti Misfits" "The Mice" "Controlled Experiment" "Don't Open Till Doomsday" "ZZZZZ" "The Invisibles" "The Bellero Shield" "The Children of Spider County" "Specimen: Unknown" "Second Chance" "Moonstone" "The Mutant" "The Guests" "Fun and Games" "The Special One" "A Feasibility Study" "Production and Decay of Strange Particles" "The Chameleon" "The Forms of Things Unknown"

Season 2	"Soldier" "Cold Hands, Warm Heart" "Behold, Eck!" "Expanding Human" "Demon with a Glass Hand" "Cry of Silence" "The Invisible Enemy" "Wolf 359" "I, Robot" "The Inheritors" "Keeper of the Purple Twilight" "The Duplicate Man" "Counterweight" "The Brain of Colonel Barham" "The Premonition" "The Probe"

1995 series
(episodes)

Season 1	"The Sandkings" "Corner of the Eye" "Under the Bed" "Dark Matters" "The Conversion" "Quality of Mercy" "The New Breed" "The Voyage Home" "Caught in the Act" "The Message" "I, Robot" "If These Walls Could Talk" "Birthright" "The Voice of Reason"

Season 2	"Stitch in Time" "Resurrection" "Unnatural Selection" "I Hear You Calling" "Mind Over Matter" "Beyond the Veil" "First Anniversary" "Straight and Narrow" "Trial by Fire" "Worlds Apart" "The Refuge" "Inconstant Moon" "From Within" "The Heist" "Afterlife" "The Deprogrammers" "Paradise" "The Light Brigade" "Falling Star" "Out of Body" "Vanishing Act" "The Sentence"

Season 3	"Bits of Love" "Second Thoughts" "Re-Generation" "Last Supper" "Stream of Consciousness" "Dark Rain" "The Camp" "Heart's Desire" "Tempests" "Awakening" "New Lease" "Double Helix" "Dead Man's Switch" "Music of the Spheres" "The Revelations of Becka Paulson" "Bodies of Evidence" "Feasibility Study" "A Special Edition"

Season 4	"Criminal Nature" "The Hunt" "Hearts and Minds" "In Another Life" "In the Zone" "Relativity Theory" "Josh" "Rite of Passage" "Glyphic" "Identity Crisis" "The Vaccine" "Fear Itself" "The Joining" "To Tell the Truth" "Mary 25" "Final Exam" "Lithia" "Monster" "Sarcophagus" "Nightmare" "Promised Land" "Balance of Nature" "The Origin of Species" "Phobos Rising" "Black Box" "In Our Own Image"

Season 5	"Alien Radio" "Donor" "Small Friends" "The Grell" "The Other Side" "Joyride" "The Human Operators" "Blank Slate" "What Will The Neighbors Think" "The Shroud" "Ripper" "Tribunal" "Summit" "Descent" "The Haven" "Deja Vu" "The Inheritors" "Essence of Life" "Stranded" "Fathers and Sons" "Star Crossed" "Better Luck Next Time"

Season 6	"Judgment Day" "The Gun" "Skin Deep" "Manifest Destiny" "Breaking Point" "The Beholder" "Seeds of Destruction" "Simon Says" "Stasis" "Down to Earth" "Glitch" "Decompression" "Abaddon" "The Grid" "Gettysburg" "Nest" "Final Appeal"

Season 7	"Family Values" "Patient Zero" "A New Life" "The Surrogate" "The Vessel" "Mona Lisa" "Replica" "Think Like a Dinosaur" "Worlds Within" "In the Blood" "Flower Child" "Abduction" "Lion's Den" "The Tipping Point" "The Human Factor" "Human Trials"

Harlan Ellison

Novels & novellas	Web of the City Spider Kiss A Boy and His Dog

Short story collections	The Deadly Streets Gentleman Junkie and Other Stories of the Hung-Up Generation Ellison Wonderland Paingod and Other Delusions I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream Love Ain't Nothing But Sex Misspelled The Beast that Shouted Love at the Heart of the World Alone Against Tomorrow Approaching Oblivion Deathbird Stories No Doors, No Windows Strange Wine Shatterday Stalking the Nightmare Angry Candy Slippage Can & Can'tankerous

Short stories	Adrift Just Off the Islets of Langerhans: Latitude 38° 54' N, Longitude 77° 00' 13" W The Beast that Shouted Love at The Heart of the World The Deathbird The Diagnosis of Dr. D'arqueAngel The Discarded The Dragon on the Bookshelf From A to Z, in the Chocolate Alphabet Grail How's the Night Life on Cissalda? I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream Jeffty Is Five The Prowler in the City at the Edge of the World "Repent, Harlequin!" Said the Ticktockman Shattered Like a Glass Goblin Soldier From Tomorrow The Whimper of Whipped Dogs Paladin of the Lost Hour

Collaborations	Phoenix Without Ashes Mind Fields

Television work	"Soldier" "Demon with a Glass Hand" "The City on the Edge of Forever" "Paladin of the Lost Hour" "Gramma" "Crazy as a Soup Sandwich"

Adaptations	I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream "The Human Operators" "One Life, Furnished in Early Poverty" "Shatterday" A Boy and His Dog (film) "Djinn, No Chaser"

Anthologies edited	Dangerous Visions Again, Dangerous Visions Medea: Harlan's World

Non-fiction	Memos from Purgatory The Glass Teat & The Other Glass Teat Harlan Ellison's Watching The Harlan Ellison Hornbook

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