Asylum
- Written By // Bill Dial
- Director // Michael Miller
- Music // Danny Lux
Reviews
// Earth Prime
// External Reviews
Worlds Visited
Secession World
Southern California is seceding from Northern California. Commence obligatory aerial bombardment.
Former Kromagg Outpost 112
A Kromagg supply raid has decimated this earth, leaving its citizenry intact but without natural resources. California has formed its own nation in the aftermath.
Details
- The door to the hospital reads:
Van Nuys Hospital
An HMO Care
Facility From
Your Friends At
TRICOMM - The address of the hospital is 278 [obscured].
- The doctor on the intercom needs a neonatonist in Five West.
- Another doctor on the intercom asks that a cardio tech report to Four Northwest.
- The license plate on the ambulance is 3MDA636.
- Doctor Venable sends Rembrandt to #5 with mild shock.
- Doctor Venable sends Quinn to ICU with skull hemorrhaging.
- Charlton Heston spoke to the Santa Cruz Bazooka Club about gun control.
- The Kromagg battles ended in 1995 on this world.
- Canadian MI-5 lets Hackett borrow a plane out of Vancouver and it will arrive at Agua Dulce airport.
- Articles that Colin reads include:
- “Thatcher Signs Non-Aggression Pact”
- “Thatchers Flee to U.S.”
- “Secret Service Tracking Thatchers”
- “Kromagg Invasion”
- “Kromagg Collaborator Believed in Southern California”
- Hackett has UK, Danish and German passports.
- Helen Donovan was at the Kromagg Evacuation Center in Belgium.
Cultural References
- Ralph Hackett’s comment about death “to those who give them comfort” concerning the Thatchers is a reference to Senator Edmund Muskie, a presidential candidate running against Nixon in 1972. In one of his televised speeches, Muskie described critics of President Nixon’s Vietnam policy as “giving aid and comfort to the enemy.”
Dining at Miguel San
“Where Ranchero Cooking meets the Pacific Rim”
The restaurant itself is a hybrid of Japanese and Mexican cultures. After the Kromagg invasion, many multicultural restaurants as this popped up. There is a fajita bar that closely resemble a wok style cooking setting, and hosts wear kimonos and sombreros.
Items for sale include:
- Seas urchin tacos
- Tempura with green salsa
- Tokyo rolls: crab, avocado and cucumber in a flour tortilla
Each dish comes with complimentary nachos and agave tea. Miguel San is also stocked with the finest in sake or tequila.
Character Information
- Colin can use computers, as evidenced by his research in the Van Nuys library. Must be a fast learner.
- Rembrandt’s belief in God is apparent in his discussion of the multiverse with Grace.
- Colin’s knowledge of pistols is obvious. Check out the move he makes on the wagon at the airport.
Notable Quotes
- “What, are you tired of me already?”—Grace, to Rembrandt, after he tells her he feels like he’s known her for a very long time.
- “No matter what world we land on—the heavens and the stars are always the same. Big Dipper, Orion, north star. And nature it’s always working the same way. It’s got gravity, light, motion. Two and two always turn out to be four. I’ve thought about it a lot.”
“And what do you think it means?”
“I think it means that the same God is in all these worlds.”—heartfelt conversation between Rembrandt and Grace. - “Well now, what’s your pleasure? I’ve been with dinosaurs, zombies, androids, dragons, wizards. One particular worlds we went to the polar ice caps had melted and everyone had a boat. On another world I was a famous opera singer.”—Rembrandt, after Grace asks about some of the crazier worlds he’s been to.
- “I guess I overslept.”—Quinn, after waking up from his coma.
- “I can’t.”—Grace, to Rembrandt after he asks her if she was forced by the Kromaggs to help them.
- “It’s a long story, and it doesn’t have a happy ending.”—Colin, to Quinn, after he asks what’s happened during his sickness.
Money Matters
- Maggie and Colin have enough money to pay for a room at the Chandler for three days and for any meals during that time, including Colin’s side trip to Miguel San before hitting the library.
- It’s assumed that Quinn and company skipped out on the hospital bill.
Nitpicks and Errors
- Hackett’s UK passport has BP7855683 written on the outside, but BP7855681 written on the inside.
- Rembrandt’s speech about God is very stirring, but it’s wrong with concern to the physical constancy of nature. In The Last of Eden and in Slidecage, the Earth had more natural satellites. In The Exodus, a stellar fragment headed straight for Earth. In As Time Goes By, time flows in the opposite direction. In The Guardian, time flows at a slightly slower pace. In Dragonslide, physics are different enough to allow for magic. With State of the Art, the light was different because of a difference in the refractive qualities of the atmosphere. The list goes on.
- For a Brit, Grace’s accent isn’t very noticeable.
- If you look at the icons of the encyclopedia program Colin is running, you’ll realize that they don’t make any sense.
- If California is its own country now, why does the CD-ROM have a U.S. symbol on it?
Neatpicks
- California president Charlton Heston is in favor of gun control. On Earth Prime, Charlton Heston is a rabid gun proponent and president of the National Rifle Association.
- Did you see Boss Hogg walking by in the Chandler Hotel?
- Rembrandt’s quote about some of the worlds he’s visited is a virtual Who’s Who of bad third season episodes. He casually references In Dino Veritas, Dinoslide, Sole Survivors, State of the Art and Dragonslide. I’m assuming the polar ice cap world he talks about is a throwaway line about the water world at the beginning of Prince of Wails, and the opera singer crack is meant to reference a deleted scene from World Killer.
Guest Starring
- Valarie Pettiford as Doctor Grace Venable
- Thorsten Kaye as Ralph Hackett
- Roger Hewlett as Driver
- Larry McCormick1 as TV Anchor
- Scott Kloes2 as Man
- Marilyn Randall as Nurse
- Larry McCormick was a news anchor for KTLA Channel 5, Los Angeles. He also plays anchor Paul Leonard in The Unstuck Man.
- Scott plays Hal the Bartender in Lipschitz Live and The Unstuck Man.
Script Archive
Click on the links below to download rare scripts, outlines, and memos associated with this episode.
November 21, 1997
Production Draft
December 1, 1997
1st Pink Revisions
December 2, 1997
1st Blue Revisions
December 5, 1997
1st Yellow Revisions
December 5, 1997
1st Green Revisions
December 8, 1997
2nd White Revisions
December 10, 1997
2nd Pink Revisions
December 11, 1997
2nd Blue Revisions
December 11, 1997
2nd Yellow Revisions
January 12, 1998
2nd Green Revisions
Related Articles
What a Trip
OnSat Magazine #24
The Inside Slide
The working title for this episode in pre-production was “Rembrandt’s Romance.”
· · ·
Some of the little touches that made it into the final product were part of writer Bill Dial’s concerted effort to bring some of the show’s roots back to life.
“We’re going back to [broad social satire], because this show provides a great opportunity for satire,” says Dial. “We’re going into one world, for example, where California is an independent nation. Its President is Charlton Heston, who goes out on a political limb by saying the people in Santa Monica don’t have to carry firearms if they don’t want to, strange as it may seem to those of us who wouldn’t think of leaving the house without a gun.”
Charlton Heston is the president of the National Rifle Association in reality, but little touches like that, as well as “Miguel San,” show that the current staff is capable of infusing humor into the show.