Episode no. Season 5
Episode 21 Written by Chris Ruppenthal | Directed by Helen Shaver Original air date 13 August 1999 | |
"Star Crossed" is an episode of The Outer Limits television show. It first aired on 13 August 1999, during the fifth season.
Contents
Plot
It is 2056, six years after the Hing, a humanoid race, invaded Earth. While America fights on, Russia has reached an uneasy truce with the aliens, leaving some regions under their control and others declared neutral. In the neutral city of Archangel on the Barents Sea, cynical American expatriate Michael Ryan (Nathan Fillion) runs Heaven, a small coffee bar and music club, where shady Russians mingle with Hing soldiers and other dubious characters.
Everything is agreeably corrupt until Alexandra Nevsky (Natasha Vasiluk) informs Michael that Hing commander Sulat Ray (Derek de Lint) is on the lookout for two NATO soldiers who might be interested in buying a Hing scout vehicle that has gone missing. Those soldiers, Winston Meyerburg (Louis Ferreira, listed as Justin Louis) and Cass Trenton (Angeline Ball) have dodged Hing patrols and found their way to Michael's bar.
Cass, who was Michael's lover before the war — she only took up with Winston because she thought he was dead — suspects Michael can get them the scout vehicle. She appeals to his sense of patriotism, revealing that she is carrying a deadly parasite that she and Winston stole from the Hing and, if it can be replicated, might defeat the Hing.
But it becomes clear that it's going to take more than flag-waving and high ideals to get Michael to risk his neck in this situation.
Trivia
The story is a futuristic reinterpretation of "Casablanca" where a couple is carrying a parasite that might win the war for the humans. The couple flee to the city Archangel looking for a way to escape the Hing and gain the support of a former lover Michael who owns the cafe.
The character of Alexandra Nevsky is very likely a reference to Alexander Nevsky, a canonized Russian noble.