X Minus One – Nightfall. ep28, 551207

Booster rockets at the bottom of an Apollo, Saturn style rocket.
"Used with permission from Microsoft."

By Isaac Asimov. A planet on the far reaches of the universe has six suns, with At least two shining at any given time over the entire globe. A reporter tries to get the big story from the observatory, but the scientist isn’t talking. Instead, a local religious guru spouts off prophecies of the pending end of the world. Every 2000 years all the suns go out and mythical things called stars come out. Can it be true?

what is this nonsense about darkness, and stars? It’s enough to drive men mad. Haven’t these people ever been in a dark room, or tunneled underground? The reporter learns of such instances, and the fear and madness they brought on. what about blind people? I guess they don’t have those on this fictional planet. At any rate, the reporter continues to interview anybody he can. The man on the street, and how he believes about the impending dark, it’s religious, theoretical, and practical connotations.

will there be economic collapse, social ruin, chaos on the streets? Get ready. here it comes. will the darkness be the salvation of the religious set? will the doom and gloom predictions come true? As the world fades to black, so does the audio, but I think we can testify to what happens in the dark since we all experience it at least for half the day.

A nice story with self-important overtones, and a lesson to compare to our own self-important notions that we’re probably wrong about just as well.