Demon With a Glass Hand

Production Order #09

Broadcast Order #05

Original Airdate: 10/17/64

Starring Robert Culp, Arlene Martel, Abraham Sofaer.

Written by Harlan Ellison.
Directed by Byron Haskin.

Strapped with a glass hand, Trent (Culp) must run up an infinite amount of stairs an infinite number of times, being chased by aliens from the future. Why is he being chased? The answer, literally, is in his hand, lacking a few fingers. When he finds those missing digits, things will become clearer. 

 PE: Well, here we are, perhaps the most famous and critically acclaimed episode of Outer Limits. "Oh Boy!"

JS: Oh, boy! is right. We get our Season One best actor Robert Culp, a fascinating story from Harlan Ellison, some amazing lighting and photography, creepy music, and how better can one say it... location, location, location! I even have grown to love the inarticulate lucite hand through the years. But there is one element that prevents me from giving this episode the highest possible Zanti rating, the damn Kyben!

PE: Culp has a strange kind of prance in chase scenes, like he's not being given good direction. "Should I walk or should I run?" He also stands on his tiptoes a lot. You  may say "Enfantino, pay attention to the nuances." Well, I am. The guy spends 44 minutes of the running time (and that's an adequate description) running up and down the same stairs, through the same corridors, past the same shadows. It's hard not to notice his feet. Dig those tennis shoes. I'm tellin' ya, it was in his contract. $500 a day and ten pairs of Keds.

JS: The use of the Bradbury building as the primary set for this episode was a brilliant choice. I haven't seen a stairway look so creepy since Robert Wise's The Haunting. The building provides fantastic production values, but the way in which the story is built to take advantage of the geography is what makes its use that much more effective.

PE: He's such a gallant hero, he uses Consuelo (Martel)  as a shield.

JS: I thought the relationship has an interesting arc through the course of the show. From their introduction, during which Trent must do whatever it takes to survive, to her resurrection of him, and ultimately their climactic split, I was invested from start to finish. I thought the lovely Arlene Martel was great (I got a Gina Gershon in Curb Your Enthusiasm vibe from Martel! -PE).

PE: Our aliens sure like to talk in front of doors and right in each other's faces.

JS: Okay, let's talk about what (for me) prevents this episode from earning a perfect rating. The Kyben have been altered to look like humans. Now unless they did their human sampling on the set of Carnival of Souls, why the black raccoon eyes? And where might an alien race from the future get the idea that leotards and swim caps made for a reasonable outfit? Unfortunately in almost every scene they appear in, the look tears down any tension that has been built up. Surely they could have come up with something between normal looking humans (a la Invasion of the Body Snatchers) and an interpretive dance group. On the bright side, it was nice for a change for the aliens brandishing good old Earth-bound firearms in lieu of Thetan Disintegrator Ray Guns (but then that brings to mind the ludicrous scene of the Kyben buying guns down at the gun shop. -PE).

JS: I think they bought them from Diemos' Pawn Shop down the street. In all fairness, there is one scene with a Kyben that I thought was effective, when Trent is on top of one and right up in his grill.

When I first saw this as a youngster, I always had a problem that the lucite hand never matched up with Trent's gloved hand. Now, I appreciate it as almost a quaint relic, and it does not detract from my enjoyment of the show.  Too bad Sideshow never made a talking/light-up prop replica hand with removable fingers. I have to add that when we see Trent's chest light up, it always makes me think of Dr. Theopolis from Leslie Stevens' future hit series, Buck Rogers.

PE: And I thought that was a strangely filmed scene. One minute the coat is zipped up and then, at the moment of revelation, voila, the chest is exposed. Magic hands on the zipper?

JS: Did anyone else think the design of the Time Mirror paid homage to Tone's Time Tilter from "Forms of Things Unknown"?

PE: Nice, nasty climax. After assembling his fingers, the glass hand reveals to Trent that he's actually a robot. When she hears this, Consuelo, who'd been trying to get Trent in the sack all episode long, shrinks from him and weasels away, leaving the poor android a lonely savior.

JS: Yeah. On the one hand, can you blame her? But when you consider all they've been through, you have to admit that a gal could do worse than a robot Robert Culp...

PE: Call me a rebel but this episode has never really blown me away. I've tried to get into it but it's pretty much a bore other than that achingly sad ending. Further, I think this is the least of Culp's three performances on Outer Limits (but that may be because he's not doing much but jogging). I know it's won awards (but so did Titanic) and it's got that reputation as perhaps the greatest science fiction drama ever written for TV, but just as with Thriller's "Pigeons from Hell", it escapes me why. Please don't tell Harlan. (Right now I'm humming that line from The Ballad of John and Yoko: the way things are going/they're gonna crucify me! -PE)

JS: To each his own. I think Culp's performance is perfect for the material. Allow me to drive in the first nail...

Does it rate one and a half glass digits?

Two and a half?

Three and a half?

Four and a half!?!

Come on, give me that one back. The scale only goes to four.

JS RATING:

PE RATING:

David J. Schow on "Demon With A Glass Hand":

From The Outer Limits Companion, Copyright © David J. Schow, 1986, 1998.  All Rights Reserved.  Used by permission and by special arrangement with the author.

DEMON WITH A GLASS HAND

A tennis-clad, glass-handed Demon
Set time-jumping Kyben to steamin’
    He yanked on their chains
    Leaving time-travel stains
And medallions all golden and gleamin’.

The Hispanic hottie Consuelo
Stays hottest on Mister Trent’s tail-o
    He’s really a bot
    So make love, he cannot
And Consuelo then hits the ole trail-o.

Trent’s digital palmtop computer
Gave data that at once eschewed her
    Robot love she forsook
    With each lobe that he took
And now he’s the loneliest dude-er.

(In his dreams he actually screwed her.)

Be sure to check back later today for Ted Rypel's Spotlight on "Demon With A Glass Hand."

Next Up...

Spotlight on "Expanding Human"

By Larry Blamire

Larry, what are you thinking? Have you taken leave of your senses? Are you insane?

Questions I'm asked every day, of course, but in this case specifically regarding the utter foolhardiness of attempting to put a positive spin on "Expanding Human", an OUTER LIMITS episode usually croaked in the same breath as "Behold Eck!" or "Counterweight" as the most abysmal samples of Season Two.

Certainly nothing I say here will make you, the OL fan, "like" or even "go steady with" this lesser episode of the lesser season. I myself don't think it's great, wouldn't even call it good really. But in recent years some aspects of the show have come to appeal to me more and more.

Let me back up.

My favorite period for crime films is the 1950s when cinematic lawbreaking was dragged kicking and screaming into broad, cold daylight. It was a new realism, fueled by NAKED CITY and other location-based pseudodocumentaries, often with authoritative stentorian narration. The postwar shadowy, canted camera, crazy-quilt darkness of brilliant Anthony Mann/John Alton noir collaborations like T-MAN and RAW DEAL gave way to equally brilliant bleached black and white mean city streets of Don Siegel's THE LINEUP and Stanley Kubrick's THE KILLING. The Cold War down-and-dirty doc approach put an audience hungry for realism smack in the midst of the action--in their very own city, right around the corner or up the block.

The transition in OUTER LIMITS' season break (and regime) curiously resulted in something similar, though not entirely by design. In some cases, the shadowy, canted camera, crazy-patterned darkness of the Stevens/Stefano/Oswald/Hall period morphed into the warts-and-all starkness and minimalism of shows like "Expanding Human".

As a genre piece, it shares a berth with such 50s low budget location-fests as THE INDESTRUCTIBLE MAN, HAND OF DEATH and THE HIDEOUS SUN DEMON (or for studio fare, MONSTER ON THE CAMPUS), entertaining cheapies that share that monster-in-the-streets sense of simple fun. It was while enjoying a bout of these, wearing my appropriate Mindless 50s Fun Headset (you should see it, it's cool), that I saw "Expanding Human" as not an OUTER LIMITS at all, but a more superficial guilty pleasure--a harmless and diverting little grade B monster movie (much the way S1's "Specimen: Unknown" or "Tourist Attraction" resemble higher grade efforts).

BUT FIRST, THE NEGATIVES:

1) Yes, it would have been fascinating had the show tackled consciousness-expanding drugs with any kind of serious thought or imagination, as the setup promises. As DJS points out, it's merely a vehicle for Dr. Leary and Mr. Hyde, like the coelocanth blood that turns Arthur Franz into the previously noted campus monster. Sorry--no ALTERED STATE-of-the-union here, folks.

2) The "expansion" in question is pretty dubious. The UberClinton promises "a world of glories", but indicates executions, "maybe in the thousands". Let's face it, he may be psychic, super-strong, and smart--but really, folks, he's a monster pure and simple. in fact, I'd say the only thing NOT expanded is his consciousness.

3) As DJS notes, Homeier's leaps of logic via the Vegas angle are absurdly accepted by the authorities. Really?

4) Finally, even as a B movie cheapie I have to say the show somewhat lacks thrills. A couple more gratuitous monster attacks wouldn't have hurt. However, there is another aspect I will get to, that helps make up for this.

NOW, THE GOOD STUFF:

The opening is one big tease of a Season One reminder; dark and shadowy with creepy low angles. The murder of the watchman is chilling in its effortless simplicity, particularly the victim's nasty gasp. The shot of his feet lifting off the floor would become a cliche in cinematic demonstrations of great strength to come (yeah, yeah, Darth Vader). And that's it for shadows. No such darkness pervades the remainder of the episode.

But something else does. A strange mood. I can't quite put my finger on it, but there is a kind of bargain basement queasiness here that I find appealing, a kind of depressed ambience that seems to exude from its very blandness--a welcome relief from S2's preoccupation with cocktails and barbecues.

Take that pasty-faced LA courtyard I've grown fond of. It reaks of crime scene, just begging for police tape. You can't throw a knife in Hollywood or the Valley without hitting one of these places. Makes no difference how close it might be to Daystar or Paramount--all we know is its bleak neo-noir ambience of sun and seed would be right at home in Polanski's CHINATOWN, its dishwater dull interiors something out of Nathaniel West. Our first daytime view of a pumped-up Dr. Clinton is there, via a well executed obscuring by foreground lamp.

Another location that lends cheapie street cred is the office building; a real building with real elevators. There are no extras inside or out, no doubt due to budget, which also probably nixed us seeing the penthouse murder. But the emptiness, the strange desolation, help make up for that by fueling the vaguely dreamlike quality that lingers throughout the episode. It's there when Dr. Peter Wayne thinks he sees Clinton through the fountain (another nice foreground obscure), and when the elevator op and receptionist have no recollection of the murderous visitor. It's there too with the discovery of Akada's corpse lying peacefully in that bleak apartment at midday, not to mention his sudden return from the dead (the actor's rather strange delivery doesn't hurt).

These two different sensibilities working on me--low budget 50s monster movie and dream ambience--might not be as disparate as they first seem. Many of my favorite vintage scifi-horror films are marked by an undeniable surrealism. Here it seems somehow in keeping with Clinton's fugue state, his dissociative behavior. What's responsible for this? Purely an accident of budget? Oswald pitching, Peach catching, bases loaded in the ninth? A different colorful metaphor I can't think of?

The climax disappointed me initially; after effective shows of strength from our title character--well sold a couple of times by the strapping Keith Andes--culminating in a most impressive lift-and-toss of a cop through a window, the end seemed too quiet. Where's the hail of bullets for the monster that we've been leading up to? Now I think it's effective in its simplicity; the drug wears off and Clinton bleeds to death. Dream over B movie.

As a kid I confess I did not like Skip Homeier (or "poor Skip" as a veteran character actor friend of mine calls him). He was in one of the weakest episodes of my beloved COMBAT (no, not a Nazi--a GI) and probably the most embarrassing STAR TREK ever (again, not the Nazi one, "The Way to Eden"--I think Charles Napier sings). For me, there was just something about that great voice that sounded too controlled, too radio-announcerish. Homeier did play a few Nazis, but really he became more of a western guy, beginning with an important (almost iconic) portrayal in Henry King's THE GUNFIGHTER with Gregory Peck, as what would later become a stock character; the cocky young fast draw who wants to beat the top gun.

The years have softened my opinion of him. Just recently I caught an episode of THE VIRGINIAN where he was quite engaging as a dogged San Francisco police detective. Then there's the bizarro RAWHIDE episode "Incident of the Blue Fire" where he is subject of a truly startling climactic scene that I won't spoil, acquitting himself rather well. In "Expanding Human" his haughty superman has grown on me.

Keith Andes--who admitted to being mistaken for Homeier, and vice-versa--had a similarly rich baritone. But he usually came across as more natural, seeming to effortlessly convey both intelligence and sincerity. I enjoy those 1950s ZIV half-hour shows like HIGHWAY PATROL, shot on location which lend them some grit. In one of their lesser known series, THIS MAN DAWSON, Andes starred as a close-cropped supercop given unprecedented leeway in a fictional city overrun with criminal scum. I've seen some and they're fun, fairly violent procedurals. It also has one of the most ominous and intimidating title sequences for a TV series ever.

So you love it now, right? Cool.

Okay, I realize I'm largely reveling in surface quality, and limited at that--not to mention tweaked by my typically oddball perceptions. A quirky little B movie with at times the verisimilitude of a dream. I do know that I'd rather watch this one than a lot of S2; a favorite by default, perhaps?

As I said, I'm not trying to (or likely to) change anyone's opinion of this one. All I'm doing is offering a different wacky filter.

Expanding Human

Production Order #08

Broadcast Order #04

Original Airdate: 10/10/64

Starring  Skip Homeier, Keith Andes, James Doohan.

Written by Frances M. Cockrell.
Directed by Gerd Oswald.

A strange serum that expands the human brain as well as the cheekbones may be behind a series of brutal murders and good nights at the craps table.

PE: The opening of this show gave me a "1950s Mexican Monster Movie starring Santo" vibe. Same kind of grainy photography (or is that the transfer?), nice shadowy hallway shot, and cheesy Mr. Hyde make-up.

JS: And are you saying that is a good thing or a bad thing?

PE: Classic OL moment: Lt. Branch (Doohan) talks Akada's manager into letting him into Akada's apartment. There the pair find the body of Akada, lying on his sofa. The camera gives us a very tight close-up of Branch's weathered face. "Oh boy," he mutters. Priceless!

JS: Jimmy (Scotty) Doohan's brief appearance outshines Leonard Nimoy's OL cameo in "Production and Decay of Strange Particles"), and for that matter, The Shat's in "Cold, Dead Hands." As far as lost spin-off pilots of OL characters go, I could imagine watching The Adventures of Lieutenant Branch. "Oh, boy," would be his trademark line.

PE: Talk about good timing: Akada (Aki Aleong) wakes up on the morgue slab just before being eviscerated.  Good thing too because he had some dinner at Chico's just before lights out. Could have been nasty. As the slightly hyper Akada, Aleong does a good job of nearly stealing the show, along with Doohan, despite their brief air time. But someone's going to have to explain to me what the significance of the Akada character is.

JS: If ever an actor playing a not-quite dead character should have stayed dead, this was it. He was convincing as a corpse—not so much as a living, breathing human being. And having him wake on the autopsy table as the ME's sharpening his scalpels is just plain silly.

PE: I'm still trying to figure out how Roy Clinton added a crafty Las Vegas gambler, a superhuman good Samaritan and a vicious night watchman murderer together to come up with the same guy. Isn't that stretching it a bit? And yet, Lt. Branch says he'll check it out. It's lucky Clinton didn't throw in the old lady who works the 7-11 on the corner of 15th and 8th Street in Brooklyn. (I'll just add, after watching the entire show, that maybe Clinton was going off some bit of memory left in his brain from his Vegas jaunt. -PE)

JS: Yeah, that puts Lt. Branch in the caliber of the Thriller cops we got to know so well. Although there's an interesting party game to be made of that scene. Play Alibi! I know you saw me at the scene of the crime, but here's what I think happened: A 93-year old lottery winner from Des Moines was involved in a drive-by shooting in Oakland, and continued their crime spree by breaking into my next door neighbors house and killing his wife. All wearing the clothes he snuck out of my closet. Does that seem reasonable???

PE: Am I the only one here who thinks Keith Andes is a dead ringer for Jeff Morrow in This Island Earth?

JS: You may be onto something there...

PE: L-OL dialogue! Clinton forces Peter Wayne to drink the serum:

Clinton: Now then, if you'd care to sample this, I'll promise that you'll be charmed with its effect. You may find it slightly reminiscent of cucumbers. A characteristic I'm unable to account for at the moment.. but it's... not bad at all!

PE: More L-OL: After Clinton unceremoniously drops dead from his bullet wounds, Peter burns the formula in an ashtray in Clinton's apartment just as the brilliant detective and sleuth, Lt. Branch ,walks up and says "Well, we've torn this place apart and can't find any notes for the formula. Any ideas? "(He leans over and lights a cigarette off the still burning papers). "I'm stumped!"

JS: I'm surprised you didn't mention the return of your Hydra's Teeth theme from "The Invisible Enemy" when evil Clinton was around. Did anyone else think, when the landlady comes running out of Akada's apartment, that we were about to launch into Lalo Schifrin's Mission: Impossible theme? I have to admit, I'm a big fan of Skip Homeier, who played opposite Don Knotts in one of my all-time favorites, "The Ghost and Mr. Chicken." I thought they did a decent job hiding 'Clark Kent' Clinton behind the 'Superman' Clinton make-up.

PE: Where has this show been all my life? "Expanding Human"would have fit in nicely with the series of horror flicks released in the 1950s: Son of Dr. Jekyll, Daughter of Dr. Jekyll, Blood of Dracula, Monster on the Campus. Those all had better monster make-ups (Clinton/Hyde looks like freakin' Arnold Schwarzenegger!) I'll admit, but this is a fun little time-waster. There's never really any doubt who the crazed killer is. And the scenes of Clinton/Hyde roaming the streets and entering an office building without drawing notice (he even talks to a secretary at one point without so much as a gasp!) are a hoot. Is it my imagination or does the transformation even change his shoes? This episode has all the lapses of logic of those nutty monster flicks and provides the same kind of entertainment. I'll roll this one on a triple bill with "The Invisible Enema" and "Cold Feet, Warm Intestines" the next time the ladies are over. The only disappointment, of course, is that Clinton doesn't try to colonize Mars in the end.

JS RATING:

PE RATING:

David J. Schow on "Expanding Human":

From The Outer Limits Companion, Copyright © David J. Schow, 1986, 1998.  All Rights Reserved.  Used by permission and by special arrangement with the author.

EXPLODING HYMEN

Doc Clinton has cheekbones a-swelling
And a Nazi agenda a-jelling
    But Scotty shoots first
    And hits him the worst
The ending? Well, that would be telling.




 Be sure to check back later today for Larry Blamire's Spotlight on "Expanding Human."

Next Up...

Collecting Ikar!!

For some odd reason, no one volunteered to document the classic that is "The Keeper of the Purple Twilight." In lieu of a spotlight, Outer Limits Museum curator David J. Schow sends along some pics from his private collection. These are all toys inspired by today's hero, Ikar. David's still searching for his life-size Gail Kobe doll. It's here somewhere...

Loosely translated: "No Royalties Paid."

Ikar Hulks Out!

The Christmas present for the girl you love: Ikar in a Box

"Brother Power" Ikar

"Brother Power" Ikar says "Kiss My A** Human!"

Competing Outer Limits hoarder Mark Holcomb writes:

Not long after David and I launched our OL site, an Australian fan sent us the attached postcard ad(vert) for goeureka.com.au (a search engine long since Googled out of existence) featuring a flattering head shot of Ikar. You can count the rings on his neck fat! I knew I was hanging on to this for a reason...

Keeper of the Purple Twilight

Production Order #07

Broadcast Order #12

Original Airdate: 12/05/64

Starring Robert Webber, Warren Stevens, Gail Kobe.

Written by Milton Krims, story by Stephen Lord.
Directed by Charles Haas. 

Ikar (Webber), leading the charge of an alien invasion, solves the equations of a despondent scientist (Stevens) in exchange for human emotions. Little did he realize that doing so might just derail his whole plan for world domination.

PE: I love that opening shot. Very Thriller-esque. And no dawgies amid the cacti. But where exactly is the Purple Twilight? And who keeps it?

JS: That's because it was shot on a soundstage, Peter. But I agree, it was an atmospheric opening. Of course that atmosphere did not permeate the entire episode.

PE: Another great shot that brought back memories of Thriller ("The Well of Doom" perhaps?): Ikar materializes into Eric's back seat while the scientist is driving way past the speed limit, chastises him for breaking the law and then vanishes, leaving the brainiac shaking his head (but adjusting his speed). Just me picking nits but why would Ikar re-materialize into the back seat of the car, then open the door and get out?

JS: Clearly he was enjoying the Driving Miss Daisy vibe. Eric, on the other hand, was in that funk knowing he was two equations away from the answer to his life's work... We've all been there—unfortunately we all don't find salvation in the form of a big-brained alien in a velour track suit.

PE: Little known fact: Janet Doweling (Gail Kobe) got sick and tired of her pigheaded husband Mike (Richard Jaeckel), had a romp in the rain with Colonel MacWilliams, gave up fighting killer plants, divorced Mike, and settled down with another egghead (Stevens). This girl's got real bad luck. She can't dress worth a damn either. What's with the dress with the bow bigger than Ikar's head? From the picture to my left, it looks like a little wishful thinking on Janet's part.

JS: I thought she did that to give herself as a gift to Ikar.

PE: Back to back episodes populated by scientists who can't seem to find a little room in their hearts for the fairer sex. This dope pushes his sweetheart right into the arms of Klaatu Ikar. Eric's highstrung, acts like a selfish little school boy (in one scene, he actually runs to his room and locks the door, telling Janet "Leave me alone, I don't like girls!"), and abuses his girlfriend time and again. You can see why Janet's sweet on him. She's pretty good-looking but she's got terrible peripheral vision. She walks into Eric's lab, after hearing him arguing with Ikar, and doesn't even see the man standing right across from her until Eric introduces them. That might explain her bad dressing habits. The triangle that's formed, when Janet falls for the alien, is an odd one to say the least. Ikar and Eric switch roles (not that Eric was much of a boyfriend in the first place), Ikar adopts a passion for the blonde and Eric can't be bothered.

JS: Webber does a great job as the alien learning about human emotions, and Stevens does a nice job portraying a man free of them. I like when Eric grabs the alien rifle and takes care of business. And as we all know—in the OL universe, nothing gets the job done like a Thetan Ray Gun™.

PE: The discussions of love are tedious affairs but they produce some howlers:

Ikar: The woman who was here, you said you loved her.

Eric: I have no more love to give her.

Ikar: How much did she get from you?

Eric: I have no way of measuring.

Ikar: Then you can't say that you gave me all of this emotion.

Eric: I cannot say yes or no.

So Ikar heads off to Janet's place, learns the definition of Peeping Tom, and asks the woman to give him Eric's love back:

Ikar: Please define it for me.

Janet: There are very many different kinds of love. There is the love of a man and woman, of course, and there's love of children, and God, and nature, and also it's a beautiful thing. There are so many different kinds of love, it would take me a very long time to show them all to you.

Ikar: Well, I want only that love that belongs to Eric Plummer.

Janet (looking a bit embarrassed): Oh... well, I've....uh... I've given that away to others

Ikar: Why?

Janet: Because that's what love is for.

The show gets progressively more tedious, boring, and just plain dopey. At one point, Janet inexplicably decides the best thing to do with a dangerous alien is take him on a picnic (Ikar eating the fried chicken, bones and all, is a nice touch).

JS: I used to confuse these aliens with those from "The Chameleon." But whereas those worked really well in that they didn't obscure the actor's mouths, these are back to full overhead masks that have a silly mouth motion when they're talking. On the bright side, the alien voice is one of the better ones.

When the alien thugs show up (recognizable by their egg-heads, as opposed to Ikar's inflata-brain), I was looking forward to a Sergio Leone-style showdown. Unfortunately, the visual effect for their weapon looks like a nice, old fashioned beam scratched right into the film itself.

PE: So much of this episode reminds me of golden moments from such 1950s classics as Robot Monster: the the bad spfx, the goofy suits, and the blaringly annoying Universal-International rip-off score (at any moment Clint Eastwood could have dove down from the heavens in his jet fighter and taken care of the marauding aliens).

JS: My L-OL moment: Security conscious Hunt asks Eric if he's vetted Ikar, and he's dismissed with the notion that the project isn't classified—yet. Um, does that mean you share info with enemy agents? Fortunately it all works out because shortly thereafter, Ikar spills the beans on the alien invasion to his new gal pal.

PE: "Oh. Ikar!" has the ring of "Oh Eck, you're wonderful!"

JS RATING:

PE RATING:

David J. Schow on "Keeper of the Purple Twilight":

 

From The Outer Limits Companion, Copyright © David J. Schow, 1986, 1998.  All Rights Reserved.  Used by permission and by special arrangement with the author.

Next Up...