Masters of Science Fiction (TV Series)

The Discarded (2007)

Brian Dennehy: Bedzyk

Photos 

Quotes 

• Samswope : I am extremely whipped. Rilla never manifested herself for the KP shift. Lowly as though it may be, I worked both. Do I make myself pellucid? Eight detestable hours. I may have to kill that woman.

  Bedzyk : You're too late.

  Samswope : [Sam looks out the window, where body parts are floating]  Rilla? I was perturbed she didn't wish to do her garbage shift.

  [to his murmuring second head] 

  Samswope : Would you kindly be quiet! - Now, it seems, she *is* the garbage shift.

  [Sam looks down to the plant on the ground, whose trailing leaves had tripped him] 

  Samswope : Fortuitous I didn't knock over the plant.

  Bedzyk : Well, if you had, there'd have been two all-meat pizzas floating out there.

• Samswope : Come on, Bedzyk, it's not that bad. We'll find a landfall. We will. All in the fullness of time.

  Bedzyk : Ah, come on, Sam. We've been to all six terraformed types in the system. Some of them more than once. Always the same. 'Keep moving, scum, hit the road, get lost, and take this piece of junk with you.' If we had any sense, we'd fly this garbage scow right into the Sun. Better still, crash it right up there.

  [They look up at planet Earth] 

  Samswope : Ah, yes. Into the bosom of our succoring Mother Earth.

• Samswope : So, we're down to, what, 96?

  Bedzyk : 93.

  Samswope : Two-thirds of our original little party of discarded freaks dead and gone. It's tragic. Just tragic. We've been orbiting too long. What are you going to do?

  Bedzyk : What am *I* going to do?

  Samswope : In spite of your surly - or, I might even venture - taciturn nature, mon ami, you remain an imposing and, whether you like it or nay, a de facto executive figure aboard this enchanted scow, the mutant horrors of which hold you in the very highest esteem. And I suspect, beneath your snarls, you actually care what happens to them.

  Bedzyk : I'm just a passenger, pal. I'm just another steerage-class passenger, and I got my ticket to prove it.

  [He waves his grossly oversized left arm] 

• Bedzyk : Harmony, this is Bedzyk. What?

  Harmony Teet : We got a ship coming in, dead-on trajectory from Earth.

  Bedzyk : Yeah, so?

  Harmony Teet : So I checked the ephemeris and the new ETA readout, and there's nothing supposed to be there.

  Bedzyk : All right. So our loving friends and neighbors have sent us an unscheduled load of toilet paper. Why bother me with it? I'm a tourist here, myself!

  Harmony Teet : Come on, Bedzyk. They'll dock in eight hours. What the hell do you want me to do?

  Bedzyk : Call me in eight-and-a-half hours if you're desperate for my company.

• Bedzyk : Did you ever wonder why you were discarded, Annie?

  Annie : Yeah. Yeah, I do, but... It's that thing about Malthus. At least that's how they always explained it to me. Too many people on Earth. No place to stand. The sheep look up.

  Bedzyk : Yeah, that's what they always say. It's too crowded. Somebody's gotta go. Why not send the infected ones? I don't buy it.

  Annie : So what is it, then? Hm?

  Bedzyk : You ever hear of Father Damien?

  Annie : No. Who's he?

  Bedzyk : He was a priest. He worked with lepers. They used to send people with leprosy to this island to die, okay? Like they shipped us up here - the "Gulag."

  Annie : Where are you going with this? Hm?

  Annie : The real reason they sent us out here, Annie, is because they can't stand to look at us. It's the ugliness that scares the hell out of them, not the infection. We're just like those lepers.

• Bedzyk : All right, let's hail them. Attention, Earth vessel! Attention, Earth vessel, do you read me?

  [pause] 

  Bedzyk : What are they, deaf?

  Harmony Teet : Could be.

  Bedzyk : Attention, Earth vessel. Listen, guys, save yourselves the effort, okay? We are leaving Earth space.

  [No response] 

  Bedzyk : What is this?

  Harmony Teet : Maybe they're all dead and purple and full of maggots in there. Tongues hanging out, guts spilling out of their noses, eyeballs all -

  [She mimes protruding eyeballs] 

  Samswope : One can only hope.

  Bedzyk : I don't get it. They're here. We know they're here. Why won't they talk to us?

  Harmony Teet : [the "Gulag" suddenly rocks and Harmony mutters over her receiver-transmitter]  They're boarding us!

• [an airlock enters and Barney Curran enters. He has a friendly face and wears white regimentals] 

  Barney Curran : Hello. I was sent from Earth Central... to make you a really terrific offer.

  [the mutants are watching him in twitchy, grunting cynicism] 

  Barney Curran : My name's Curran. And you must be the Captain.

  [He holds his hand out to shake Bedzyk's. Bedzyk merely eyes him. After the commercial jump, the mutants are all shouting and pleading. Samswope begins pounding his cane against the side of the "Gulag" in a slow, menacing percussion] 

  Bedzyk : All right, listen up!

  [the mutants fall quiet. Samswope stops pounding] 

  Bedzyk : You all wanted to go to the Terraforms. Have we been to the Terraforms?

  [the crowd calls, "Yes!"] 

  Bedzyk : You wanted to go to Europa. Have we been to Europa?

  [the crowd calls, "Yes!"] 

  Bedzyk : Have we been to Mercury?

  [the crowd calls, "Yes!"] 

  Bedzyk : Have we been to Venus?

  [the crowd calls, "Yes!"] 

  Bedzyk : Callisto? Ganymede? Twice! TWICE we went to Ganymede! All right, then, back off! Back off. Let me talk to this guy.

• Bedzyk : All right, speak your peace; shove off; stop sucking up our air.

• Bedzyk : Let me see if I can guess, Mr. Sanhedrin Earth neighbor. You want us to move our little load of misfits off L5 orbit or 'we'll blast your asses away.'

  Barney Curran : Oh, no, no, no, it's not that at all! In fact, I don't think any of us down there have any idea how hard it's been for you all.

  Bedzyk : Without the lubricant, huh? Just spit it out.

• Barney Curran : And then a doctor, a Hungarian, came up with a serum.

  Harmony Teet : Do you hear what he's saying? Don't you get it yet?

  Barney Curran : A cure. The only thing that stops it from spreading is a serum synthesized from prepandemic enzymes that are only found in blood - in the blood of...

  Bedzyk : Of discards. Of us! Are you kidding me? You want our blood!

• Bedzyk : Never trust an Earthman! Never!