“Impossible Planet” is episode two of season one of Philip K. Dick’s Electric Dreams and is based on the short story The Impossible Planet.
This episode opens on a spaceship where what look like tourists are watching the lightshow of an aurora as a man, presumably their tour guide, narrates. The show is a bit fake as, following a warning about dust reducing visibility, the guide adjusts what they are seeing. Which doesn’t appear to have a huge correspondence to real life.
Following the tour, the guide is knocking off and about to leave work when someone knocks on the door. Repeatedly, despite his probably boss telling them to go away, in a manner not conducive to customer satisfaction. Outside the door is an elderly lady (who is really old), accompanied by a robot (she’s deaf). She wants a tour, but they aren’t giving tours until next week. She wants a tour to Earth. Apparently they can’t take her to Earth – because Earth no longer exists. The woman, Miss Gordon, is willing to pay cash for the trip. A lot of cash. Enough cash that they are willing to travel to a planet that doesn’t exist.
The boss, Ed, is perfectly willing to travel to a planet that looks dead, but otherwise matches the specifications of Earth (it looks like where Earth was located has been forgotten). The guide, Brian, is less willing, but two men are needed to fly the ship. He doesn’t want to risk a transfer to head office of Primo, Primo Central (Primo seems to be a company that runs pretty much everything). When that is turned down, yet again, and his girlfriend is less than happy, the trip looks a whole lot better.
Miss Gordon’s grandmother used to tell her stories about Earth – which date back about half a millennia. Those stories are why she wants to visit Earth. Her robot is rather less trusting of Ed than Miss Gordon is, especially as no paperwork was filled out regarding the rather large sum of money paid. The robot, RB29, seems to start investigating and Brian starts having second thoughts about taking money from Miss Gordon to go to a place that no longer exists. Ed isn’t.
Something odd is going on. Brian has been having visions since he saw Miss Gordon, and he and RB29 seem determined to make her dreams of Earth come true. Even if it’s impossible.