The Ray Bradbury Theater (1985–1992): Season 2, Episode 6 - The Small Assassin - full transcript
Alice delivers an unwanted child and Doctor Jeffers is apprehensive with the situation. He has a private conversation with her husband David, but he says that Alice will get used to the baby. When the family moves to their manor, Alice is scared, telling them that the baby wants to kill her. She swears that she is not being paranoid and asks David to protect her. Furthermore, she says that the baby never cries in his presence, and David says that babies do not do things like that. When Doctor Jeffers pays a visit to the family, he has a dreadful surprise.
[suspenseful music]
[door creaks]
[footsteps]
RAY BRADBURY: People ask,
where do you get your ideas?
Well, right here.
All of this is mine,
Martian landscape,
somewhere in this room
is an African veldt.
Just beyond, perhaps is a small
Illinois town, where I grew up.
And I'm surrounded on every
side by my magicians' toy shop.
I'll never starve here.
I just look around, find
what I need, and begin.
I'm Ray Bradbury, and this is...
Well, then, right
now what shall it be?
Out of all this, what do
I choose to make a story?
I never know where the
next one will take me.
And the trip, exactly
one half exhilaration,
exactly one half terror.
[heartbeat thumps]
[foreboding music]
ALICE: David!
[siren blares]
It's killing me!
[alice grunts]
[alice pants]
DOCTOR: We may have
to prep for a section.
ALICE: No.
No!
You, you, no!
[baby cries]
[heartbeat thumps]
Am I alive?
DOCTOR: Yes, thank god.
ALICE: Is it alive?
DOCTOR: Yes.
ALICE: Oh, what a shame.
[baby cries]
DOCTOR: Was this a wanted child?
DAVID: What do you mean?
Yes.
DOCTOR: It's as you say?
DAVID: Alice wanted it, too.
DOCTOR: Once upon a time, maybe.
It's hardly now.
DAVID: Well, she'll,
she'll get used to it.
DOCTOR: Tell me, is that enough?
DAVID: I'll love our
son to start with,
and Alice will catch up.
DOCTOR: Yes, all right,
but she will need help.
It was a near thing.
DAVID: What do you mean?
DOCTOR: Well, I didn't
want to worry you,
but now Alice is safe,
it was a very hard birth.
You almost lost her.
[baby breathes]
NURSE: There we are.
Get to know each other, you two.
DAVID: What have
we got here, then?
ALICE: What, indeed.
DAVID: Oh, look.
He's beautiful.
ALICE: Is he?
DAVID: Doctor?
DOCTOR: Hmm?
DAVID: You're terrific.
DOCTOR: Just happened
to be passing by.
Special delivery.
Thank you, nurse.
Thank you.
[heartbeat thumps]
There, then.
You two been introduced?
Baby, mother.
Mother, baby.
Give me a call later,
David, will you?
[foreboding music]
DAVID: Here we are.
You can watch mom
do the cooking.
Have dinner with mom
and dad, tonight.
Are you going to be too
hot in that, my dear?
[baby coos]
ALICE: What's he doing here?
DAVID: What do you mean,
what's he doing here?
He likes company, don't you?
Hm?
There's a good boy.
Get to know mother
and dad tonight.
Hello, what's the celebration?
ALICE: I'm alive.
DAVID: Well, I'll drink to that.
Cheers.
ALICE: Cheers.
DAVID: No champagne
for you, you know.
Hey, what's wrong?
ALICE: Him.
Him.
All day.
DAVID: All day, what?
ALICE: He never cries when
you're here, so you don't know,
but as soon as you walk out the
door, the minute you're gone,
he screams, he
shrieks, he yells.
And as soon as you come in,
the minute the door opens,
he shuts up.
Oh, I'm a fool.
I've said it all in
front of him, and look.
He's listening.
DAVID: Come on, son.
Your mother needs a little rest.
[foreboding music]
[music box plays]
ALICE: Thank you.
DAVID: Here's to silence.
ALICE: I wish we could
start all over again,
be like we once were,
just the two of us.
DAVID: I love you.
ALICE: Does your
love protect me?
DAVID: It's what
love's about, isn't it?
ALICE: Yes.
Does my baby love me?
DAVID: Well, he better.
Look, it takes time.
ALICE: Say there
isn't enough time.
Say there isn't time
for the child to learn.
DAVID: Well then, you've got a
little monster on your hands,
haven't you?
[cries softly]
[baby fusses]
[foreboding music]
ALICE: I tried to
go get in the bath.
He keeps me awake.
He keeps me weak.
He lies there listening
to us talking,
waiting for you to go away so
he can try to kill me again.
I swear it.
And I'm not being paranoid.
DAVID: Alice, this, this
business trip tomorrow,
perhaps I shouldn't just now.
ALICE: Oh, no, you must go.
It's important.
And it is only one
night, after all.
EXECUTIVE: It's a
natural recognition
of this new position
of strength,
in an area of exciting
commercial development, that we
welcome David onto the board.
And we hope that what
has happened in his area
will be echoed in
our other sectors,
as the company
develops its strength
throughout the country,
widens its financial base
outside the metropolis.
And not that this
means, Nigel, that we're
any the less concerned with
our traditional commitments
in the southeast.
DOCTOR: It's all
right, I've, I've given
her something to calm her down.
DAVID: What happened?
DOCTOR: At three o'clock
this morning, she called.
She was going to kill the baby.
The baby cried for
three hours, and she'd
gone over to his crib.
And she was going to pull
the clothes up over his face,
press him down, run
out of the room.
DAVID: Where is the baby?
DOCTOR: Oh, I've, I left him
in the little room, just now.
No, he's fine, fit as a fiddle.
The baby stopped
crying, as babies do.
And then Alice phoned.
Now, don't worry, David.
I thought about admitting
her and decided against it,
because what she really needs
now, most, is her home and you.
So she'll, she'll,
she'll sleep a little bit
and, well, she'll
be fine, as soon
as she knows that you're here.
DAVID: Thanks, doctor.
[heart thumps]
ALICE: (WHISPERING) Baby.
He knew I was weak from the
hospital, and so he cried.
He lies there, thinking
of ways to kill me.
DAVID: Alice.
ALICE: Because he knows
I know so much about him.
I have no love for him.
And there never will be.
[heart thumps]
David.
Wake up.
There's someone in the house.
DAVID: What?
Can't be.
I checked the deadbolts.
ALICE: Sh, sh.
[crib creaking]
No.
DAVID: Damn it, wait.
What?
ALICE: Look.
DAVID: What?
ALICE: Why is his face so red?
DAVID: Alice.
ALICE: He hasn't been crying.
So why is he covered
with perspiration?
DAVID: I'll get
you some hot milk.
[baby cries]
That is ridiculous,
impossible, and stupid.
ALICE: Why impossible?
DAVID: Because babies
don't do things like that.
ALICE: Maybe he's a genius.
DAVID: A gen-- good god, Alice.
The baby is three weeks old!
ALICE: Keep your voice down!
DAVID: What, so
that he can't hear?
I'll tell you something, he's
being moved to his own room
today.
You're only three
weeks old, see?
So your mother says,
you're not to keep
leaping in and out of
your crib, and waltzing
around the house at midnight!
And keep your damn
toys off the stairs!
[foreboding music]
[door slams]
[baby cries]
ALICE: Do you
remember being born?
DOCTOR: Well, no
one remembers that.
ALICE: I do.
DOCTOR: That makes you
a very unusual person.
ALICE: I am.
I haven't told many people.
They always laugh.
But I remember, the pressure,
the being forced out,
the shock, my crying.
I hated it.
It was all so comfortable,
so easy before
and suddenly I was
thrust out into the cold,
out into the world.
And I hated my
mother for making me
give up all that warm, sleepy
comfort, for abandoning me.
DOCTOR: That's a very
peculiar way of putting it.
Babies don't hate their mothers.
They can't reason.
ALICE: Exactly.
But they can feel, can't they?
Imagine that my
genes, my chromosomes,
have been passed
down to my baby.
Imagine that, like me,
it's born fully aware.
That he's able to
see, hear, feel
from the very moment of birth.
And imagine that baby feeling
as I felt, but more so.
I mean, real resentment, anger,
a sort of rage at being born.
Wanting to go back to
the warm, dark comfort,
but no, forced out and
angry, and saying to itself,
feeling to itself,
who did this to me?
I tried not to be born.
I tried to destroy my
mother in the very act.
It didn't work.
Now I'm in the world,
and I hate her.
DOCTOR: Mrs. Lieber.
ALICE: Alice.
DOCTOR: I, I'm sorry, Alice.
ALICE: And what if the
baby is born, not only
fully aware, but able to move?
Crawl around the house?
Weeks, months before most babies
are able to move or crawl.
DOCTOR: It's impossible.
ALICE: I wish I
had your certainty.
And David, I wouldn't dream
of telling him so where
does that leave me, alone?
Unprotected?
No one would believe if I said.
No one would help.
DOCTOR: But it's the baby.
ALICE: The small
assassin, you mean?
My lovely child.
DOCTOR: Forgive me
for saying this,
but do you think that, perhaps
a few days on your own?
ALICE: My sister
has no children.
She's babysitting
for us at the moment.
Well, she's always wanted a son.
Perhaps if she takes charge,
our child will change.
DOCTOR: Alice, have you, have
you talked to David about this?
ALICE: I've decided,
from tomorrow, the baby
can't stay with me any longer.
DOCTOR: Shouldn't you give it
just a little more thought?
Hmm?
Are you going to tell the baby?
[phone rings]
[baby breathes]
DAVID: Hello, darling?
It's me.
Look, I've just had a
chat with Dr. Jeffers.
Why don't you make yourself a
nice cup of tea and go to bed
and try and sleep.
I'll be back before you wake.
ALICE: What's more,
before the baby does.
I think he's fast asleep.
DAVID: Is he?
Good.
Love you.
Bye.
ALICE: And you.
Good bye, darling.
[heart thumps]
DAVID: I've no more appointments
this afternoon so I'm off home.
[baby breathes]
[heart thumps]
[suspenseful music]
[church bells toll]
DOCTOR: David?
Alice?
[foreboding music]
My god.
Alice.
Alice.
[baby breathing]
Did the door blow shut?
So you couldn't get
back into the crib?
My god, what am I saying?
[baby breathing]
[baby breathing]
[suspenseful music]
[baby breathing]
Say I helped bring
you into the world.
See baby?
[baby breathing]
Something bright.
Something pretty.
[baby breathing]
[eery music]
[door creaks]
[footsteps]
RAY BRADBURY: People ask,
where do you get your ideas?
Well, right here.
All of this is mine,
Martian landscape,
somewhere in this room
is an African veldt.
Just beyond, perhaps is a small
Illinois town, where I grew up.
And I'm surrounded on every
side by my magicians' toy shop.
I'll never starve here.
I just look around, find
what I need, and begin.
I'm Ray Bradbury, and this is...
Well, then, right
now what shall it be?
Out of all this, what do
I choose to make a story?
I never know where the
next one will take me.
And the trip, exactly
one half exhilaration,
exactly one half terror.
[heartbeat thumps]
[foreboding music]
ALICE: David!
[siren blares]
It's killing me!
[alice grunts]
[alice pants]
DOCTOR: We may have
to prep for a section.
ALICE: No.
No!
You, you, no!
[baby cries]
[heartbeat thumps]
Am I alive?
DOCTOR: Yes, thank god.
ALICE: Is it alive?
DOCTOR: Yes.
ALICE: Oh, what a shame.
[baby cries]
DOCTOR: Was this a wanted child?
DAVID: What do you mean?
Yes.
DOCTOR: It's as you say?
DAVID: Alice wanted it, too.
DOCTOR: Once upon a time, maybe.
It's hardly now.
DAVID: Well, she'll,
she'll get used to it.
DOCTOR: Tell me, is that enough?
DAVID: I'll love our
son to start with,
and Alice will catch up.
DOCTOR: Yes, all right,
but she will need help.
It was a near thing.
DAVID: What do you mean?
DOCTOR: Well, I didn't
want to worry you,
but now Alice is safe,
it was a very hard birth.
You almost lost her.
[baby breathes]
NURSE: There we are.
Get to know each other, you two.
DAVID: What have
we got here, then?
ALICE: What, indeed.
DAVID: Oh, look.
He's beautiful.
ALICE: Is he?
DAVID: Doctor?
DOCTOR: Hmm?
DAVID: You're terrific.
DOCTOR: Just happened
to be passing by.
Special delivery.
Thank you, nurse.
Thank you.
[heartbeat thumps]
There, then.
You two been introduced?
Baby, mother.
Mother, baby.
Give me a call later,
David, will you?
[foreboding music]
DAVID: Here we are.
You can watch mom
do the cooking.
Have dinner with mom
and dad, tonight.
Are you going to be too
hot in that, my dear?
[baby coos]
ALICE: What's he doing here?
DAVID: What do you mean,
what's he doing here?
He likes company, don't you?
Hm?
There's a good boy.
Get to know mother
and dad tonight.
Hello, what's the celebration?
ALICE: I'm alive.
DAVID: Well, I'll drink to that.
Cheers.
ALICE: Cheers.
DAVID: No champagne
for you, you know.
Hey, what's wrong?
ALICE: Him.
Him.
All day.
DAVID: All day, what?
ALICE: He never cries when
you're here, so you don't know,
but as soon as you walk out the
door, the minute you're gone,
he screams, he
shrieks, he yells.
And as soon as you come in,
the minute the door opens,
he shuts up.
Oh, I'm a fool.
I've said it all in
front of him, and look.
He's listening.
DAVID: Come on, son.
Your mother needs a little rest.
[foreboding music]
[music box plays]
ALICE: Thank you.
DAVID: Here's to silence.
ALICE: I wish we could
start all over again,
be like we once were,
just the two of us.
DAVID: I love you.
ALICE: Does your
love protect me?
DAVID: It's what
love's about, isn't it?
ALICE: Yes.
Does my baby love me?
DAVID: Well, he better.
Look, it takes time.
ALICE: Say there
isn't enough time.
Say there isn't time
for the child to learn.
DAVID: Well then, you've got a
little monster on your hands,
haven't you?
[cries softly]
[baby fusses]
[foreboding music]
ALICE: I tried to
go get in the bath.
He keeps me awake.
He keeps me weak.
He lies there listening
to us talking,
waiting for you to go away so
he can try to kill me again.
I swear it.
And I'm not being paranoid.
DAVID: Alice, this, this
business trip tomorrow,
perhaps I shouldn't just now.
ALICE: Oh, no, you must go.
It's important.
And it is only one
night, after all.
EXECUTIVE: It's a
natural recognition
of this new position
of strength,
in an area of exciting
commercial development, that we
welcome David onto the board.
And we hope that what
has happened in his area
will be echoed in
our other sectors,
as the company
develops its strength
throughout the country,
widens its financial base
outside the metropolis.
And not that this
means, Nigel, that we're
any the less concerned with
our traditional commitments
in the southeast.
DOCTOR: It's all
right, I've, I've given
her something to calm her down.
DAVID: What happened?
DOCTOR: At three o'clock
this morning, she called.
She was going to kill the baby.
The baby cried for
three hours, and she'd
gone over to his crib.
And she was going to pull
the clothes up over his face,
press him down, run
out of the room.
DAVID: Where is the baby?
DOCTOR: Oh, I've, I left him
in the little room, just now.
No, he's fine, fit as a fiddle.
The baby stopped
crying, as babies do.
And then Alice phoned.
Now, don't worry, David.
I thought about admitting
her and decided against it,
because what she really needs
now, most, is her home and you.
So she'll, she'll,
she'll sleep a little bit
and, well, she'll
be fine, as soon
as she knows that you're here.
DAVID: Thanks, doctor.
[heart thumps]
ALICE: (WHISPERING) Baby.
He knew I was weak from the
hospital, and so he cried.
He lies there, thinking
of ways to kill me.
DAVID: Alice.
ALICE: Because he knows
I know so much about him.
I have no love for him.
And there never will be.
[heart thumps]
David.
Wake up.
There's someone in the house.
DAVID: What?
Can't be.
I checked the deadbolts.
ALICE: Sh, sh.
[crib creaking]
No.
DAVID: Damn it, wait.
What?
ALICE: Look.
DAVID: What?
ALICE: Why is his face so red?
DAVID: Alice.
ALICE: He hasn't been crying.
So why is he covered
with perspiration?
DAVID: I'll get
you some hot milk.
[baby cries]
That is ridiculous,
impossible, and stupid.
ALICE: Why impossible?
DAVID: Because babies
don't do things like that.
ALICE: Maybe he's a genius.
DAVID: A gen-- good god, Alice.
The baby is three weeks old!
ALICE: Keep your voice down!
DAVID: What, so
that he can't hear?
I'll tell you something, he's
being moved to his own room
today.
You're only three
weeks old, see?
So your mother says,
you're not to keep
leaping in and out of
your crib, and waltzing
around the house at midnight!
And keep your damn
toys off the stairs!
[foreboding music]
[door slams]
[baby cries]
ALICE: Do you
remember being born?
DOCTOR: Well, no
one remembers that.
ALICE: I do.
DOCTOR: That makes you
a very unusual person.
ALICE: I am.
I haven't told many people.
They always laugh.
But I remember, the pressure,
the being forced out,
the shock, my crying.
I hated it.
It was all so comfortable,
so easy before
and suddenly I was
thrust out into the cold,
out into the world.
And I hated my
mother for making me
give up all that warm, sleepy
comfort, for abandoning me.
DOCTOR: That's a very
peculiar way of putting it.
Babies don't hate their mothers.
They can't reason.
ALICE: Exactly.
But they can feel, can't they?
Imagine that my
genes, my chromosomes,
have been passed
down to my baby.
Imagine that, like me,
it's born fully aware.
That he's able to
see, hear, feel
from the very moment of birth.
And imagine that baby feeling
as I felt, but more so.
I mean, real resentment, anger,
a sort of rage at being born.
Wanting to go back to
the warm, dark comfort,
but no, forced out and
angry, and saying to itself,
feeling to itself,
who did this to me?
I tried not to be born.
I tried to destroy my
mother in the very act.
It didn't work.
Now I'm in the world,
and I hate her.
DOCTOR: Mrs. Lieber.
ALICE: Alice.
DOCTOR: I, I'm sorry, Alice.
ALICE: And what if the
baby is born, not only
fully aware, but able to move?
Crawl around the house?
Weeks, months before most babies
are able to move or crawl.
DOCTOR: It's impossible.
ALICE: I wish I
had your certainty.
And David, I wouldn't dream
of telling him so where
does that leave me, alone?
Unprotected?
No one would believe if I said.
No one would help.
DOCTOR: But it's the baby.
ALICE: The small
assassin, you mean?
My lovely child.
DOCTOR: Forgive me
for saying this,
but do you think that, perhaps
a few days on your own?
ALICE: My sister
has no children.
She's babysitting
for us at the moment.
Well, she's always wanted a son.
Perhaps if she takes charge,
our child will change.
DOCTOR: Alice, have you, have
you talked to David about this?
ALICE: I've decided,
from tomorrow, the baby
can't stay with me any longer.
DOCTOR: Shouldn't you give it
just a little more thought?
Hmm?
Are you going to tell the baby?
[phone rings]
[baby breathes]
DAVID: Hello, darling?
It's me.
Look, I've just had a
chat with Dr. Jeffers.
Why don't you make yourself a
nice cup of tea and go to bed
and try and sleep.
I'll be back before you wake.
ALICE: What's more,
before the baby does.
I think he's fast asleep.
DAVID: Is he?
Good.
Love you.
Bye.
ALICE: And you.
Good bye, darling.
[heart thumps]
DAVID: I've no more appointments
this afternoon so I'm off home.
[baby breathes]
[heart thumps]
[suspenseful music]
[church bells toll]
DOCTOR: David?
Alice?
[foreboding music]
My god.
Alice.
Alice.
[baby breathing]
Did the door blow shut?
So you couldn't get
back into the crib?
My god, what am I saying?
[baby breathing]
[baby breathing]
[suspenseful music]
[baby breathing]
Say I helped bring
you into the world.
See baby?
[baby breathing]
Something bright.
Something pretty.
[baby breathing]
[eery music]