reSee.it Video Transcript AI Summary
A report frames the interstellar radio arrival of Colonial Contact Inspector 37 to planet New Delaware, the first established contact in two hundred years. Colonial procedure calls for opening communication and then proceeding “overdrive for personal investigation.” On New Delaware, the town mayor—running the colony in place of Imperial Earth’s expected customs—orders the police chief Billy Painter to post signage, including “No aliens allowed within city limits,” and also pressures the town to rebuild normal institutions such as a red schoolhouse and the necessary “earth colony” forms of order.
The inspector’s broadcast states that there has been no contact with other colonies for centuries, but now he will inspect to ensure conformity with Imperial Earth customs, institutions, and traditions. He declares that there is room for only one intelligent species in the universe, man, and that all aliens must be suppressed and wiped out, with no radical departures from “free will, free speech, free elections” or other items on his prescribed list. When he learns New Delaware is still loyal to Earth, he says he will inspect in one week.
To avoid the implication of having no crime, Mayor appoints Tom Fisher as the town “criminal.” Tom resists, asking what the purpose of crime is, but the mayor explains that earth colonies “always have crime” and that the inspector will check the jail and expect prisoners or at least an active criminal institution. Tom receives a “skulking permit” authorizing him as a duly authorized thief and murderer, required to “break the law,” with details that the mayor will make up as laws are created. Tom then begins acting as a criminal in the community, including turning a tavern into a “criminal lair” and attempting minor thefts.
Police chief Billy Painter initially tries to arrest Tom for suspicious behavior around “gifers” brought by Mary Carpenter, but the mayor interferes: acting suspiciously isn’t a crime, and New Delaware needs a criminal record. Tom eventually receives equipment that includes weapons sent by Mary, and later receives pressure to complete a planned murder to prove “a single murder” exists, because the colony has had “not one” murder in two hundred years.
As the inspector arrives, he brings colonial authority figures and establishes strict guard procedures. Mayor presents the village as properly Earth-like: jail, post office, church, and the little red schoolhouse. The inspector criticizes the colony as “worthless” due to lacking industry and taxation and calls it “subversive,” but General-granting leadership shifts the purpose of the visit. He sees an important resource: able young men between ages 15 and 60 for Imperial Earth’s war effort. He proposes conscription, claiming it will “cleanses the blood” and “reduces crime.”
To satisfy the murder requirement before the inspector’s assessment, Mayor insists Tom must perform the killing. Tom cannot bring himself to kill someone he knows, including deciding against murdering George Waterman. He imagines stopping the problem by targeting the inspector instead, and suggests that if it must be done, it should be done in a way that matches the “earth” requirement of motive and execution. Tom attempts to improvise when a soldier drops a gun after drinking. He intends to confront Inspector 37, but hesitates at the moment of killing.
When Tom refuses to complete the inspector’s killing, the inspector tries to have him captured; the response escalates to search-and-control orders, including restrictions, ship personnel deployment, and aggressive pursuit. The mayor reveals to the inspector that Tom was appointed as the “criminal” precisely because the village requires a criminal assignment; New Delaware had no criminals because it rarely kills anything, having had no murders in two hundred years. The inspector concludes that the colony’s population cannot reliably kill; the inability to kill creates a “morale problem” and a risk of infection or operational failure in military positions. He orders troops back to the ship.
After the confrontation, Mayor and townspeople consider what to do with the institutions built to satisfy Earth’s expectations (jail, post office, schoolhouse, church). Mayor decides to build playgrounds instead. Tom’s skulking permit is no longer needed. Tom says that, in hindsight, he could have carried out the plan if he had treated the inspector “as a fish,” implying the alternative approach he didn’t consider earlier. The inspector escapes, leaving the colony to return to its former pattern of life and Tom to resume fishing.