Amazing Stories (1985) s01e23 Episode Script

One for the Books

Morning, sweetheart.
Oh, bonjour, Eva.
What? Wh-What did you say? I said, uh- What did I say? It sounded like Je bon- Fred, what is it? I don't know.
Sounded like, uh, French? French? What does it mean, Fred? You never talked French before.
I know.
Let's figure this out.
You say something else in French.
We'll just see what we've got here.
Fred.
Fred? What? Do you know what you just said? Yeah.
A moan was heard.
His mastiffs began to bark.
These gloves fit me.
He will soon be 15 years old, and he, uh- He had an exact copy made of the monster.
Mm.
Damn.
Eva, what are you doing up, honey? I was worried about you.
- Are you still talking French? - Mm, worse than that.
Why? What happened? It's unbelievable, really.
The main progress in producing fast particles was made by using relatively small voltages and repeated accelerations.
In most of the instruments used, the charged particles would- What? What are you saying? I don't know.
It's-It's just in my head.
You know, last night I cleaned up in a classroom where they teach French.
Now I talk French.
Then tonight, I cleaned up in a physics lab, a classroom in the mathematics building.
And now I know physics.
I know mathematics.
I know trigonometry.
We're going to go to see Professor Fetlock in the morning.
The psychology department? Whatever is happening is happening in your brain, isn't it? Yeah, I suppose so.
But, Eva, you don't think I'm going crazy, do ya? Oh, no, sweetheart.
Of course you're not going crazy.
The natural logarithms of whole numbers from 10 to 200.
Number one, zero.
2.
3026.
One.
2.
3979.
2.
4- I'm sorry.
I find this rather difficult to believe.
You see what I mean, Eva? There's no point- No, Fred.
Please.
Please? - What did you say? - I said, "I'm willing to be advised.
" Indeed.
You never studied French? No, sir.
- And never been to France? - No, sir.
You haven't suffered a sharp blow to the head lately, have you? - No, I haven't.
- Could you, uh, do some, uh, physics? In Volta's battery, two different metals in contact give rise to a flow of electrons which are conducted from one cell to another.
Mathematics? The sum of the interior angles of any polygon can be determined by using the quantity "n" minus two times 180 degrees, where "n"is the number of sides of the polygon.
- Fred.
- Hmm? What I'm going to do is speak to a few colleagues of mine, uh, discuss this more fully with them and then get back to you.
Is that all right? Well, can't you tell us something now? Not at the moment, Mrs.
Elderman.
No.
Except, of course, it's fascinating.
It wasn't exactly the Montreal Express, just a warning that the train was in the station.
Eat a little something, sweetheart.
Maybe- Maybe you shouldn't go to work tonight.
Oh, come on, Eva.
We can't afford for me to take off right now.
I know.
Try not to go inside the classrooms.
That's a good idea.
Really, that's a good idea.
You know, I'll, uh- I'll switch with Brady.
I'll do his work.
Oh, good.
Oh, good.
That's good.
I came as soon as I could.
Thank you for coming.
You said your husband had some kind of attack? That's what he said when he came home last night.
When he came home from where? The main library.
The main library? May I see him? Yes, of course.
In here.
Sweetheart, Dr.
Fetlock is here.
- Morning, Fred.
- Buon giorno.
Now it's Italian.
May I- This attack, how'd it happen? Well, I walked into the main reading room of the library to clean up, you know? And, like a ton of bricks, it came down on me.
Uh, on my head.
No, in my head.
Fred, I borrowed a book from the library yesterday.
It was a- I'm not gonna tell you what the book is about.
The catalog number is 429.
2.
Could you quote from that book? Leibnitz first advanced the theory that all language came not from some historically recorded source, but from protospeech.
What? Scholars have counted more than 3,000 languages in the world, exclusive of dialects and local forms of language, 13 of these- Fred, stop it! Shh! Hindustani has more than 300 million speakers, Chinese more than 750 million.
Source of Language, 1979.
3.
4 million- Fred! Stop! Stop! What is it? What's the matter? I'll tell you what I think it is, Fred.
Telepathy.
Thought transference.
Some form of it at any rate.
- This is incredible.
- Wait a minute, Doc, can't you tell me- No man has ever utilized the full learning potential of the brain before.
Perhaps you're the first.
But what is Fred supposed to do now? I don't know that.
However, I'm going to gather a group of faculty members tonight to question you.
Please, Doc, you must know something about what's happened to me.
That will emerge.
I'm so scared, Eva.
Oh, no.
No, sweetheart.
I mean it.
I'm here.
I'm here.
I don't know.
My brain is like a sponge, you know? It keeps soaking up more and more and more, and I don't know why.
I just don't know why.
Ladies and gentlemen.
May I have your attention, please? Thank you for coming tonight.
I would like to introduce to you Mr.
Fred Elderman.
One of the university's maintenance engineers.
16 years.
And Mrs.
Elderman.
Before we begin, let me emphasize that Mr.
Elderman has no formal education beyond the high school level.
All the extra knowledge in his brain has been acquired- God knows how or why- within the past four days.
Now then would someone like to start the questioning? The route between Au Sable and Tarva in the state of New York.
Professor, please.
I ask that you be serious.
Between Au Sable and Tarva, the route is through typical cutover land that was once covered with virgin pine, now has only second-growth oak, pine and poplar.
- Is this a trick? - I assure you that it is not.
Go on.
Ask your questions.
The sun in 15 million years.
If the sun goes on radiating at its present rate for 15 million years, its entire weight will be transformed into radiation.
- What is a root tone? - In harmonic units, the constituent tones - seem to have unequal harmonic values.
- Name the five orders of Roman architecture.
Tuscan, Doric, Corinthian, Ionic, composite.
Tuscan being a simplified Doric.
Romans used to eat flamingo tongues.
Los Angeles is bigger than Rhode Island.
A side effect.
The presentation of knowledge not requested.
"A moment ago," in French.
Romans considered it a sin to eat woodpeckers.
Please.
- Buffer capacity.
- The buffer capacity of a solution may be defined as - dx over dpH where dx is the small amount- - What are Rutherford's scattered equations? A rat's teeth never stop growing.
The moon weighs 81 billion tons.
- The brain.
- A tissue only moderately compressible.
It's against the law to hunt camels in Arizona.
Fred.
- Einstein's unified field theory.
- An attempt to explain gravitation.
Gravitation.
Gravitation.
What is gravitation? Stop it.
We need your help.
Why is this happening to my husband? Why? Mrs.
Elderman, we have to examine the phenomenon in all its aspects before we can make any judgment.
Fred.
- Fred? - Where's he going? Fred? Fred, where are you going? Sweetheart? What's going on? I have no idea.
Fred.
Fred, where are you? Fred? Fred.
Oh, Fred.
Fred, what is it? Fred, what is it? What's wrong? Speak to me.
Speak to me.
Eva.
What are we doin' here? Why are we at the stadium? You don't know? Know what? Let's- Fred.
Hmm? Say something in French.
What? Can you speak French? Eva, what are you talking about? Physics? Honey, what is the matter with you? Nothing.
Nothing at all.
Come on.
Darling, let's- let's go home.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, yeah.
I don't understand it.
What happened to it all.
I've been squeezed.
Huh? It's all right.
Come on.
It's all right.
Let's go home.
We'll just go home.
It's all right.
Come on.

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