Baret's species are an unnamed agrarian Human-like species from an unnamed idyllic Earth-like planet, located somewhere incredibly far from Earth, possibly extragalactic.
Biology[]
Baret's species appears externally indistinguishable from Humans, with the only known difference in physiology being their ability to read minds and gleam general aspects of one's history and personality, such as a desire for peace.
Culture and society[]
Baret's species are agrarian, with a level of technology and general aesthetics reminiscent of early colonial North America. Their society is peaceful, with no religion other than to show love to one another, and no laws other than to be kind. They are understandably frightened by the accounts of Earth, which at the time was going through the Cold War. Members of other species, such as Humans, are allowed to permanently live among them, and will be given everything they need to survive. Baret notes that her species have no possessions to steal, implying that everyone has what they need to survive, and there is no desire for wealth or power among them. They appear to have no true leader, although Baret served as a sort of unofficial representative to the Human astronauts. The only known measure they have taken to preserve the peace of their society has been to obscure the fact that the portal to Earth reopens at night from the most recent astronaut, as the other astronauts informed them that the military could disrupt and potentially destroy their society. Baret's species has domesticated animal species native to their homeworld, which all bear striking resemblance to Earth creatures, such as cattle and llamas.
Technology[]
Baret's species only has fairly primitive technology, mostly those that one would find in European villages around the 17th and 18th century, nothing powered by anything other than an organic operator, such as a member of Baret's species or an animal.
History[]
At some point in the past, Baret's species developed a utopian agrarian society. On Earth in the 1980s, a secret US military project successfully opened a wormhole to Baret's species' homeworld, but the wormhole's opening was destructive, killing the inventors and destroying their recording equipment, preventing any exact replication of the technology, although the portal generators remained active. The military sent in four volunteers to investigate what was on the other side, where they met Baret's species. Learning of the species' peaceful ways, the volunteers took a vote and decided to permanently stay on the planet, knowing that if they returned to Earth, the military would misuse the portal technology and possibly destroy the peaceful planet. In addition, the portal would be closed from the side of the planet during the day. A fifth volunteer, Colonel Alex McAndrews, was sent in to retrieve the volunteers, and came across both Captain Kincaid of the volunteer crew and Baret, a native of the idyllic planet. While Alex is suspicious of the aliens at first, he decides to stay for a bit at the urging of the other volunteers, who tell him that there is no way back and that the planet is the perfect paradise, later talking with Baret and revealing that he doesn't have much on Earth. However, he decides to go back, thinking that the only thing he has in life is being a good soldier, discovering that the portal exists at night. Striking Kincaid to escape, he makes it back to the portal despite Baret pleading with him not to go, getting through the portal and arriving back on Earth, where he informs his superiors of what he saw. However, upon overhearing government officials proposing using Baret's homeworld as a staging ground for soldiers and nuclear launches to any point of the globe, Alex breaks the computers keeping the portal active, crossing through it before it closes. On the other side, he meets with Baret again, now willing to leave in peace with her people, and assures her that the military would be unable to reach her planet again.
Appearances[]
- The Twilight Zone, s03e58, "The Wall" (1989)