Sleeping Dragon
In an Arctic research lab on a dark and stormy evening, Merrick (Kin Shriner), a believer in conspiracies and myths, brings in what he deems is a discovery that will rewrite history: a large egg-like object that emits a moderately powerful electromagnetic field. He claims it to be an ancient artifact dating back millions of years, and he wants his lab partner Lisa and her father Jeffrey (Beth Toussaint and Russell Johnson) to help crack it open. The object turns out to hold a type of dinosaur in a state of hibernation, having possibly evolved into an advanced species that apparently found a way to survive the Ice Age. When the dinosaur awakens, it looks for victims to kill and eat, and this leaves the trio scrambling to keep it from escaping.
Tropes:
- Acid Attack: Lisa splashes a beaker of acid at the dinosaur when it breaks into the lab, prompting it to flee.
- Actor Allusion: Russel Johnson, who plays Jeffrey, once again plays a scientist who acts as the sole voice of reason.
- Advanced Ancient Humans: Merrick theorizes that the advanced dinosaur is a member of an advanced species of humanoid reptiles who outlasted the Ice Age thanks to their capsules.
- Always Chaotic Evil: The dinosaur and its brethren, though they were intelligent enough to create radioactive capsules to hibernate in during the Ice Age. Jeffrey thinks that its act of killing Anita was the result of it being frightened after awakening from hibernation and tries to reason with it, noting that it was intelligent and therefore must recognize that he is too, which predictably gets him killed.
- Big Blackout: One of them occurs early in the first act, allowing the awakened dinosaur to roam the lab undetected.
- Bloody Horror: The dinosaur's killing of Anita is represented by her blood splashing on a metal cabinet and pooling onto the floor.
- Bolivian Army Ending: After they kill the advanced dinosaur, Merrick and Lisa learn through the phone that's been ringing early in the episode that hundreds more of the dinosaur's brethren have been unearthed and awoken.
- Conspiracy Theorist: Merrick has a history of believing and conjuring wild conspiracies, which Jeffrey has had the displeasure of listening to again and again.
- Distress Call: The phone in Jeffrey's lab rings early in the episode, but no one takes the call because they're either told to let it ring, or the line is dead from the power outage. The call is finally answered by Merrick at the end of the episode, and it reveals that at least 397 other dinosaurs were discovered.
- Expy: Given the references to an unstoppable force in an arctic research lab bent on destroying them, Merrick and Lisa are ersatzes of R.J. MacReady and Sarah Connor.
- Flat Character: Lab assistant Anita is only featured in the episode to become the dinosaur's first victim.
- Hollywood Magnetism: The hibernating dinosaur's capsule emits a strong electromagnetic field that attracts any metal that's placed on it. Merrick found it in Reno because its power screwed up his radio.
- Kill It with Ice: Lisa manages to kill the dinosaur by breaking a window and exposing it to a raging blizzard, which gradually ceases its life functions.
- Laser Cutter: A laser drill to be exact, which Merrick, Lisa, and a reluctant Jeffrey use to open the dinosaur's capsule when diamond-tipped drills failed to breach it. The disturbance awakens the slumbering creature, which opens the capsule itself and goes on to kill Anita, Merrick's assistant. Merrick himself tries to use it to stop the dinosaur, but it doesn't work.
- Living Dinosaurs: The one that Merrick finds hibernating in its capsule, which is likely a member of an advanced species that withstood the Ice Age with such capsules. The end of the episode has him and Lisa learning that 397 more of them (at last count) were found in the same dig site in Reno, and their capsules woke them at a specific time, like the one that harassed Merrick and Lisa.
- Logical Weakness: Its reptilian nature means that the dinosaur, as speculated by Lisa, is cold blooded. She exploits this by luring the dinosaur in front of a window and smashing it to expose it to the raging blizzard outside, which freezes it to death.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: As pointed out by Jeffrey, Merrick is the one who brings the dinosaur to the lab in the first place, and awakens it from hibernation thanks to the laser drill. His telling Jeffrey and Lisa to let the phone ring further results in him learning that hundreds more hibernating dinosaurs have been discovered, and because he and Lisa are exhausted from taking down just one of them, they're woefully unprepared for any more.
- Sacrificial Lamb: Merrick's assistant, Anita.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: The hibernating dinosaur is unearthed in a large, egg-like capsule that Merrick found in a Reno dig site and brings to the lab.
- Soft Glass: The dinosaur manages to punch in the window on the lab door with no complications.
- The End... Or Is It?: The monster is defeated, but sudden reports come in of its brethren awakening...
- Whole-Plot Reference: A research lab in frigid temperatures comes under siege by an ancient monster awoken from hibernation, quite similar to The Thing (1982).
