Influenced by the Twilight Zone television show, Night Springs is the name of fictional TV series that players can watch episodes of in their travels across Bright Falls. There are six episodes that you can watch, which will earn you the Couch Potato reward.
Location:
Episode One. Waking Up To A Nightmare. Just before heading into the lumber yard, the player can enter the cabin to the right of the gate. Inside there will be an old TV showing the Quantum Suicide episode of Night Springs.
Overview:
Dr Barclay Colven called a press conference to reveal his latest invention that would give himself "Quantum Immortality" from being harmed by a specific weapon.
Recording:
Transcript:
NARRATOR: Science. It bestows immortality on those who advance it, to elevate all of mankind. Newton. Einstein. Sagan. Princes among men. But the price for such a legacy is steep indeed. In Night Springs... Tonight's episode. A Quantum Suicide.
(A group of journalists sits down in a classroom. One reporter (REPORTER #1) accidentally puts his foot through a cable loop under his table as he sits down.)
NARRATOR: If our lives are already written, it would take a courageous man to change the script. Having called a press conference, Dr Barclay Colven is about to demonstrate that very courage.
(Dr Barclay Colven enters the room and takes his place at the front.)
DR BARCLAY COLVEN: Ladies and gentlemen of the press. I am Doctor Barclay Colven, and I'm glad so many of you could join me here at the Moorcock Institute. Tonight, I'm going to give a practical demonstration of the many worlds interpretation.
(The doctor raises a gun from his plinth.)
DR BARCLAY COLVEN: As you can see, this is a loaded 9mm pistol. It shall be part of a thought experiment. And now... a real experiment, known as a Quantum Suicide.
REPORTER #2: Did he say suicide?
REPORTER #3: Suicide?
DR BARCLAY COLVEN: Please! Please! Stay calm. There is no risk. Observe what occurs when I place the weapon against my own forehead.
(The gun clicks, but nothing happens.)
DR BARCLAY COLVEN: Now, you might think this round is merely a dud. Not so. Observe the flower pot.
(The doctor points the gun at a nearby flower pot and presses the trigger. The bullet breaks the pot.)
DR BARCLAY COLVEN: And yet! I, myself, cannot be harmed with this gun. With each pull of the trigger, two new realities branch off; one in which the weapon didn't fire and one where it did. With my machine here, I have ensured that this reality is always the former. I have bestowed upon myself Quantum Immortality.
(The reporter's foot around the cable shifts slightly in his seat.)
DR BARCLAY COLVEN: Under no circumstances can this gun kill me.
REPORTER #3: So, wait, wait, wait. What you're saying is that every time you pull the trigger, in another reality you... die?
DR BARCLAY COLVEN: Yes. Yes, of course. But that's completely trivial. There's an infinite number of things that could happen at any moment, and they always do happen somewhere.
(REPORTER #1's foot moves and they pull out a plug from the socket.)
DR BARCLAY COLVEN: The point is, this one thing did not happen here.
REPORTER #3: You're insane, Colven!
DR BARCLAY COLVEN: Insane? Insane?
REPORTER #1: Hey, is this thing supposed to be plugged in? I stumbled on it.
DR BARCLAY COLVEN: You fools! Gaze upon Quantum Immortality!
(The shot is fired and the screen goes dark.)
NARRATOR: Poor, poor Doctor Colven. Felled by his own hubris, or the ignorance of the masses? Perhaps, he should have left the crate unopened. The decaying atom unobserved. Curiosity often kills the cat... in Night Springs.
Notes from Quantum Suicide:
- Quantum Break Ties. In an interview with Red Bull on Remedy's then-upcoming game Quantum Break, the Night Springs episode "Quantum Suicide" gave the team "initial inspiration thanks to its time-travelling premise". It goes on to say that it would ultimately be Alan Wake's abandoned sequel that would be the biggest creative push. (Source: Red Bull)
- Tony Elias. The live-action portions of Night Springs were recorded by Microsoft. As a result, you may see some familiar faces! In this episode. Tony Elias can be seen as the character we labelled in the transcript as "reporter #3". He worked closely with the narrative team during Alan Wake and Quantum Break as Microsoft's Game Editor / Writer. (Source: Alan Wake Forums)
- Episode Rewatch. As the voice-over and live-action segments were recorded separately, Remedy was reluctant to share HQ versions of the TV shows. As there was interest from the community, the shows were released via Joystiq to celebrate the Night Springs-based game, Alan Wake's American Nightmare. While Jostiq closed down, these recordings can still be found online.
Night Springs in American Nightmare:
In Alan Wake's American Nightmare, Alan expands on what Night Springs is and its meaning to him in a series of manuscript pages:
- Alan Wake, The Writer. "My name is Alan Wake, and I’m a writer. I didn’t become one overnight. Like most writers, I struggled with it -- a short story here, an article there. Then I got lucky and spent a year as a staff writer on the Night Springs TV show. It wasn’t the great American novel of my fantasies, but it taught me discipline and craft, and the difference between wanting to be a writer and actually writing."
- Night Springs, the Cult TV Show. "Night Springs doesn’t exist. It’s a fictional town from the TV show I used to work on. It was Anyplace, USA, a place we used as a backdrop for whatever strange story we had that week. One of the stories I wrote for the show involved a man, “the champion of light,” fighting his evil double, “the herald of darkness”. It was something I’d written back in the real world -- something I had a link to, a framework I could build on. I adapted it into a new story. This story."
