Simon Says (The Outer Limits)

"Simon Says"
The Outer Limits episode
Episode no.	Season 6 Episode 8
Directed by	Helen Shaver
Written by	Scott Peters
Original air date	10 March 2000
Guest appearance(s)
Joel Grey Tammy Pentecost Riley DeMeyer Cathy Weseluck Mikela J. Mikael Hiro Kanagawa Rice Honeywell
Episode chronology

"Simon Says" is an episode from the sixth season of The Outer Limits. It originally aired on 10 March 2000.

Synopsis

A man who lost his wife and his son in a car crash several years ago has built a robot which has his son's memories.

Opening narration

“

There is no greater tragedy for a parent than the loss of a child. But when does grief become obsession?

”

Plot

Gideon Banks, an electronic engineer, twenty years ago lost his wife Liz and son Simon in a horrific car crash. At that period of time he was working at the so-called Neural Archiving Project — NAP for short. This technology was developed to create smart computers by transferring human engrams into computers.

The company eventually gave up on the technology, but Gideon didn't. After years of quietly perfecting it, he built at home a small robot, using parts he stole from Concorde Robotics, where he now works. Zoe, Gideon's niece, discovers Gideon's secret, that the robot contains actual neural engrams from Gideon's dead son Simon, which Gideon has integrated into the robot in hopes of re-creating his son. And now, the robot actually has memories of the real Simon.

Zoe becomes worried not only about Gideon but also about the robot that sounds and acts a lot like her little cousin used to. And she begins to realize that Simon may not have been the lovable little angel that everyone believed he was.

"Simon" becomes more and more demanding, putting pressure on Gideon, who could lose his job. When he asks Zoe to "babysit," the robot attacks during a tantrum and injures her. When Gideon returns they argue about "Simon" being a robot or as Gideon insists, a true boy. Zoe leaves upset. Later, Gideon apologizes over the phone and asks her to look after Simon again as he has to work. Zoe does so, but this time gets along much better with "Simon" who also apologizes for hurting her.

Gideon's boss finds out about the robot, and claims that since it was built from company equipment, it belongs to the company. When he tries to forcibly take "Simon" away, Gideon becomes enraged and clubs the man on the head, killing him. Gideon and Zoe begin to argue, but "Simon", who becomes distraught at recognizing the seriousness of the situation, shouts for them to stop and claims that he is ultimately the one at fault. Upset, "Simon" confesses that "he" was responsible for the car crash: when Liz refused to take Simon to the toy store, Simon angrily grabbed the steering wheel, causing the fatal crash. To him, that unwise tantrum was the first domino to start the chain reaction that has now led to this moment.

Realizing what he's done could seriously impact Zoe, Gideon ushers her out, assuring her that he'll remedy the situation and do the right thing without affecting her. Soon afterwards, Zoe hears a gunshot and rushes back in, only to discover that Gideon has copied his own mind into another robot before committing suicide. Zoe can only look on in horrified silence as the two robots chat like father and son.

Closing narration

“

When we endeavor to fill a terrible void, sometimes the void can consume us.

”

Nominations and Awards

Scott Peters has been awarded in 2001 by WGC Award (Writers Guild of Canada) for the episode «Simon Says».^[1]
John Van Tongeren won in 2001 the Gemini Awards in «Best Original Music Score for a Dramatic Series» nomination for this episode.^[1]

Cast

Joel Grey as Gideon Banks
Tammy Pentecost as Elise Banks
Riley DeMeyer as Simon
Cathy Weseluck as Voice of Simon
Mikela J. Mikael as Zoe Kemp
Hiro Kanagawa as Ron Hikida
Rice Honeywell as Co-Worker

References

1 2 Awards for «The Outer Limits» (1995-2002)

External links

"Simon Says" at The Outer Limits official website
"Simon Says" at TV.com
"Simon Says" at the Internet Movie Database
"Simon Says (The Outer Limits)" at Hulu.com
"Simon Says (The Outer Limits)" at YouTube

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"

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