In Our Own Image

"In Our Own Image"
The Outer Limits episode
Episode no.	Season 4 Episode 26
Directed by	Steve Anker
Written by	Naren Shankar
Production code	88
Original air date	18 December 1998
Guest appearance(s)
Nana Visitor Nicholas Lea Timothy Webber Bill Dow Tim O'Halloran Dana Pemberton John Wardlow
Episode chronology

"In Our Own Image" is the 26th episode of The Outer Limits television show. It first aired on 18 December 1998, as the fourth season finale.

Introduction

A new advanced android begins to behave erratically. It escapes from the corporation that created it and takes a hostage.

Opening narration

“

It is nature’s way that life expands to fill any vacuum. But when human minds become circuits and human flesh becomes steel, what will that new life reveal?

”

Plot

The Android "Mac 27" is seen to kill one of its handlers and injure another, then kill a guard as it makes its escape from Innobotics, the corporation that created it. Mac car-jacks and kidnaps Celia, an apparently random person just pulling into the facility parking lot. He takes her to a remote abandoned warehouse, where he forces her to repair the damage he sustained in his escape. Using a device that allows Mac to transmit images directly to Celia's optic nerve, he shows her how to fix his systems, but also shows some of his "memories"—archives of past experiments with robots and androids. These are all pulled from previous episodes that featured robots, androids, or holograms, with most clips taken out of the context of the original episode.

She sees a number of AIs that have gained emotions and/or turned against their masters, and deduces that Mac has followed this trend as well. Under the pretense of performing another repair, Celia disables Mac's motor control functions. She reveals herself to be a "troubleshooter" hired by the corporation to figure out how to keep robots from going "rogue", and declares that she thinks she knows how to install a "built-in lobotomy" that will prevent AIs from becoming self-aware in the future. Mac reveals a double-cross, whereby he fooled Celia into thinking he was disabled when he was in fact not. He also lets on that he has stolen her retina imprint, which will allow him to use her credentials on the Innobotics network.

The corporation's investigative team enters the abandoned warehouse and finds Celia dead, but no sign of Mac. The scene shifts back to the laboratory, where the scientist who created Mac sees the network being accessed by someone who appears to be Celia. Since he has learned of Celia's death, he realizes this must be an intruder. He sees Mac enter, and the android uses his new network access to activate the other Mac-class units. The episode ends with Mac strangling his creator while all his brethren look on.

Closing narration

“

If we teach our children by example, then we only have ourselves to blame for whom they become.

”

Trivia

This episode is a clip show, Mac's "memories" being made up from clips from other episodes of The Outer Limits. Three clips are used with complete disregard to their context and backstory (at least no other connection was established), but "Valerie 23" is used in context, within the series story arc of "Innobotics Corporation".
Referenced Episodes:

Cast

Nana Visitor as Cecilia Fairman
Nicholas Lea as Mac 27
Timothy Webber as Martin Nash
Bill Dow as Dr. Keeler
Tim O'Halloran as Security Chief
Dana Pemberton as Security Guard
John Wardlow as Dr. Blake

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"

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