Flagrantly Random

The second episode of ABC’s short anthology series Masters of Science Fiction is called “The Awakening” and is based on the 1970 short story “The General Zapped an Angel” by Hollywood blacklist author Howard Fast. It stars Terry O’Quinn (Lost) and Elisabeth Röhm (Law & Order), and is directed and written by Australian Michael Petroni (Till Human Voices Wake Us).

Masters of Science Fiction: “The Awakening” ABC promo

The episode opens outside Baghdad, where a strange encounter occurs between an American soldier and an Iraq insurgent. They discover they are able to understand each other despite neither one being able to speak the other’s language. The story then jumps to a military lab where the two men are now being examined, along with another mysterious casualty - one they can’t even identify as human. The central question becomes not what the humanoid is, or how it has affected the men in the manner it has, but rather what the humanoid wants and how the governments of the world should respond.

The two main characters are a young female Lieutenant and a retired Military man of two years (played by Röhm and O’Quinn respectively), and their role in the film is to examine the humanoid and question humanity’s place in the cosmos. William B. Davis (The X-Files) guest stars as the President of the United States, who is ready to take an unpopular course of action without support from the rest of the world (another jab at the Bush administration?).

Stephen H Silver of The SF Site says ““The Awakening” isn’t as strong an episode as the debut episode, but it will appeal more to those who think science fiction needs special effects.”

Check out some preview clips after the jump.

Masters of Science Fiction: “The Awakening” - preview clip 1

Masters of Science Fiction: “The Awakening” - preview clip 2