#06: Half Life

Air Date: 10/31/77 written by Shimon Wincelberg Directed by Steven Stern

As the trio of searchers/fugitives move along in their craft, Rem detects that they are being scanned. Suddenly, they are attacked by primitives - but these are not who scanned them. The primitives are chased off by dwellers from a nearby city, dressed in funky futuristic garb, referring to themselves as "Positives." The trio are taken inside this city, to see "The Patron" - the one in charge (William Smith). Logan is startled to see that The Patron looks like a twin of one of the primitives, the one who almost damaged their craft with a bazooka. The Patron quickly realizes that the newcomers have lied about being "processed" and makes plans to process them. Jessica is the first - a special machine divides her into two, one positive, the other negative. This society practices this division among all its members, so that all the good, positive halves live inside the city, while all the negatives - the evil - live as outcasts in the wilderness. The Patron's wife (Kim Cattrall), however, harbors a secret - one which shows that all is not perfect here. She will be the key in providing an epiphany for The Patron - though it seems like he is slow on the uptake, in any case.
This episode takes its cue from the Star Trek TOS episode The Enemy Within, in which Capt. Kirk was accidentally divided in the same manner by the transporter, exploring the duality of human nature. That older episode showed that both halves were required for Kirk to function as expected. This Logan's Run episode comes to the same conclusion, though in a less direct fashion. Here, there's merely the obvious realization that the negatives have all been shortchanged by this policy, forced to live without the comforts enjoyed by their doubles. It's suggested that the process is not all-perfect, that either half retains traces of good and bad; therefore, the outcasts do not deserve their exile. I don't know why this society forced their machine on the newcomers (who are not citizens and could have simply been sent on their way), but it was an opportunity to see a different side to the nice Jessica. There was also seventies baddie Smith in a dual role. This episode expanded on the premise of just one individual being divided, but was obviously limited to showing only about a dozen people of each side to represent a city-full of people. Also, aimed as this was towards kids, there was a definite limit as to how nasty a negative person could be. BoG's Score: 6.5 out of 10