October 5 2023 Retake

October 25, 2023. A regular morning for many families tuning into CBeebies. The episode was set to feature Numberblocks — a playful, educational show beloved by young children. The episode was titled "Twelve’s Battery Boost," an episode that, on the surface, appeared to follow the typical pattern of the series. But what aired that morning was anything but ordinary.

The sequence begins as expected: Twelve, the rectangular numberblock, attempts to fill a giant Number Battery with her special number power. But then something… strange happens.

Cut to footage of the episode, the screen jittering for a fraction of a second before it flickers and cuts to static.

At approximately 8:32 AM, something went wrong. A brief technical glitch—at first, it seemed like nothing more than an ordinary broadcast error. But viewers soon realized that this was not just a glitch. It was a disturbance that would haunt the minds of parents and children alike.

The screen suddenly darkened, replaced by erratic static. The characters froze. Twelve, standing in front of the battery, looked up in confusion. And then, the voice—a distorted whisper—was heard over the speakers.

Voice (from the show, distorted):
“DO NOT FILL THE BATTERY.”

What followed was not what viewers had come to expect from the educational show. The cheerful characters, usually filled with life and energy, seemed to... hesitate. Twelve, previously confident and playful, paused, her usual bright expression now replaced with something eerily blank.

*In a moment of sheer confusion, the scene transitioned to the space station setting. The camera panned out to reveal an unsettling sight—the Number Battery was gone.

Cut to images of the space station, silent, abandoned, with the glowing battery missing. The remaining Numberblocks—Five, Six, Seven, Eight, and Nine—moved around, visibly distressed.
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The atmosphere turned tense. The voices of the Numberblocks trembled with confusion. Something was terribly wrong. Where the battery had once been, there was only a void. The voice from earlier returned—this time colder, more commanding.

Voice (distorted, low):
“THE BATTERY IS GONE. YOU CANNOT FIX IT.”

Panic set in. The Numberblocks began to scatter, searching for answers, trying to understand what had happened. But it was too late. The screen turned red.

Cut to a shot of the space station, now shrouded in a deep, unnatural glow, pulsating ominously. The Numberblocks’ movements became erratic, glitching, as if their very existence was being distorted.

And then—without warning—the entire space station exploded. Not in the usual spectacle of colours and fireworks, but in a sudden, terrifying burst of darkness. The shockwaves of the explosion rippled across the screen, and the characters were thrown into chaos, their bodies contorted and twisted.

Cut to a clip of the explosion, the screen flashing white before cutting to black.
At this point, viewers were left in stunned silence. The show cut to black. Silence. Then, after what seemed like an eternity, the static returned—flickering on the screen like a pulse. What followed was a chilling message that sent shivers down the spines of everyone watching.

Cut to a screenshot of the on-screen text:
“SIGNAL INTERRUPTION — PLEASE WAIT”

For thirty agonizing seconds, the screen remained blank. The familiar theme music never returned. The usual ending of the episode was nowhere to be found. Instead, there was only a haunting silence.

When the screen finally came back on, the Numberblocks were no longer the friendly, colourful characters parents and children knew. Their once-smiling faces were replaced by jagged, twisted forms. Their rectangular shapes now cracked, distorted, as if corrupted from within.

The voice returned. This time, it was barely a whisper, rasping through the static:

The characters did not speak. They did not move. They stood frozen, lifeless, their eyes empty.

And just like that, the screen went black again.

When the broadcast resumed, the Numberblocks were gone. The transmission was lost, and no one knew if it would ever return.

“Oops! We have a problem! we'll get back to you as soon as we can.”
In the days that followed, the incident remained shrouded in mystery. CBeebies issued a statement claiming it was a technical error, but no explanation could fully account for what had been seen. Parents and children were left with unsettling questions. Was this a glitch? Or something… more sinister?

As for the Numberblocks, they never returned to the screen again.

End credits roll with the words “The Transmission Was Lost.”