The Duplicate Man
The Outer Limits (1963)
The Duplicate Man, directed by Gerd Oswald.
By this time, late in the series history, everyone knew it would be canceled, but they produced an SF-thriller episode packed with intriguing ideas, a melancholy tone and eerie ambient score:
In the space traveling future -- sometime after 2011 -- it is a capital crime to bring any member of the intelligent, violent Megasoid species to Earth.
Our scientist has secretly done just that. When it escapes he and the rest of the human race are in big trouble.
To hunt it down and kill it he employs another forbidden technology: a clone of himself with a 5 hour lifespan.
The duplicate man is not supposed to know his true nature. Who reveals that, granting him brief humanity? The Megasoid itself.
We have sympathy for the alien, dangerous as it is. Wounded, caught up in a human drama it wanted no part of, just trying to survive the night so it can reproduce.
The scientist's wife has to face two husbands: the duplicate is like his younger self, more like the man she married.
We have two countdowns: the Megasoid must be killed before dawn and the duplicate dies after 5 hours. While he lives he grows more like the original.
We think we know which of the two men has survived, but the story ends before we can be sure.
A calm, bitter conversation between the scientist and his clone near the end:
quote
James: You can't kill me.
Duplicate: No. I came because you have programmed me to return. And because my mind has started to become crowded with your life and memories. Those that I have seen have great promise.
James: Well, I'm sorry for that.
Duplicate: Why must I die?
James: Not die. You'll just go back to nothingness.
Duplicate: Must I? Now that I know what living is, why can't I have the same rights as other human beings? The same dreams.
James: You poor fool, you still don't see, do you? In time you'd catch up. You'd be just like I am now. You think you'd find that attractive?
Duplicate: Would I despise myself then?
James: Don't try and find the answer.
Duplicate: Could it be worse than nothingness?
Exploited, disposable and time-limited synthetic humans obviously suggests Blade Runner (1982), an adaptation of Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? However, this episode was based on an earlier story by Clifford D. Simak, one of those grand master SF writers unknown to Hollywood or the public at large. His work is part of that vast body of 20th century literature now fading into darkness.
Our cast:
Ron Randell was a once-familiar face, never a star. His coldness suits both the scientist and -- heartbreakingly -- the duplicate just discovering the joy of life before it is taken from him.
Constance Towers is his wife, last seen in The Horse Soldiers (1959) and The Naked Kiss (1964).
Sean McClory, born to be a bluff Irishman, is the spaceship captain who lost much of his face smuggling the Megasoid to Earth.
Notes:
The futuristic disc-house is the Chemosphere, last seen in Body Double (1984).
Videophones of the future still have rotary dials.
The alien costume is a bird head and furry suit. No budget.
In the Blu-ray commentary track Tim Lucas says this episode is the closest thing on American TV you will find to the French New Wave of that time, which he calls Nouvelle Vague. The plain setting and lack of effects is part of the method. He particularly cites Jean-Luc Godard's Alphaville (1965), supposedly taking place in another galaxy but filmed in Paris without any attempt at concealing that. Lucas provides the commentary track on the Kino Blu-ray of that film.
