8 year old Lili (Robin Morgan) is not only an exceptionally bright
young girl, she is a regular genius - so much so that all other (grown up)
geniusses pale in comparison, and so much so that the army shows an
interest in her and decides to abuse the girl's intelligence to the
nation's advantage (?) - meaning she is to develop new, even more
destructive bombs. However, Lili is so intelligent that she also has ESP
powers and can see into the future - and she predicts the destruction of
teh USA in less than two months. Now top army brass want to force the
identity of the opponent out of the girl to make a preemptive strike, but
the girl refuses to talk, claiming a) she will not change teh future, and
b) a preemptive strike will only lead to more destruction and solve
exactly nothing. Of course, army generals don't believe in the futility of
a preemptive strike, so they try to get the info out of her by injecting
Veramin, a highly potent truth serum - but with the only effect that the
girl's intellect - which was caused by radiation - temporarily recedes to
that of a normal 8 year-old, and she will be back to full force only after
the USA and most of the world are wiped out and she and others like her
will take leadership of the less than 150 million survivors. Considering
this is a piece of Cold War television from the time before the peace
movement has gained any momentum, this is a surprisingly thoughtful story
with an even more surprising pacifist message. And young Robin Morgan's
performance really helps to bring the point of this episode across.
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