Examination Day

Richard "Dickie" Jordan is an intelligent and curious youth. He and his family live in a dystopian future and it is David's twelfth birthday. This means he is required by law to report to a government testing facility for a mandatory examination. As David gleefully tells his parents how he was told by an older friend that the test is easy and that he's sure he will pass it, his parents appear stressed and avoid his questions (or give him obviously incorrect answers, such as "the sun is five thousand miles away"). When the time comes, they bring him to the facility and go back home to wait anxiously for the results.

When Jordan arrives at the testing facility, he is given medicine by an examiner who says it will ensure he tells the truth. He is then seated in a special chair with a microphone and abandoned by the examiner, subsequently given a series of intelligence tests. Much to his delight, he gets several answers correct.

After his parents await the test results at home for hours, they are contacted by the government. Jordan's test results are in: his intelligence has exceeded the legal limit that the totalitarian government allows and he was therefore executed. The parents burst into tears as the government examiners ask them how they would like to handle their son's remains.

The Evening Independent wrote that the episode was "a bit predictable, but the reason for the tragic climax was a shock".[1]

• "Examination Day" at IMDb
• "Examination Day" at TV.com