2.08 --- Lost and Found

Directed by : Gus Trikonis Written by : George R. R. Martin (story by Phyllis Eisenstein) Starring : Akousa Busia, Cindy Harrell First aired : 18th of October, 1986. Jenny Templeton (Akosua Busia, The Colour Purple), a young political sciences student, is visibly distressed when she discovers her trash mysteriously empty, and her mug in which she keeps her pencils missing. She hears a noise from the closet, and after checking it out, is convinced that there is someone in it. Her roomie, Kathy (Cindy Harrell), thinks Jenny is imagining things, but when she swings the closet door open she finds out that there are indeed two persons in there ! The "closet people" are in fact time travellers, coming from future to bring Jenny her mug back. As they casually address her as "president", they apologise for distressing her and promptly disappear. Before doing so, the male time traveller mumbles out that she will eventually become the very first president of earth, to be nicknamed "the great peacemaker". And this was just enough incentive for Jenny to stop her studies, and see that her future lies elsewhere. *** A five-minute short which reunites teen scream queens Busia and Harrell (after starring together in The Final Terror), Lost and Found is a rather uninspiring piece which significantly diverts from the original course as thought by the storywriter Phyllis Eisenstein. In the original story, Jenny is a chemistry student, the time-travellers drop a hint she eventually graduates anthropology, and there was no further hints about "president of Earth". George R. R. Martin discards these elements in his adaptation, switches Jenny to political science, and gives us no clue where does she go next, or indeed, what does one study to become "president of Earth" (somehow, political science does seem appropriate for such a function). But since it's only five minutes long, it's easier to observe it as a mere curiosity, than just simply condemn it. And let it be so.