episode #45 - The Duplicate Man

episode #13 of 2nd season; Air Date: 12/19/64
writer: Robert Dennis, from a story by Clifford Simak Director: Gerd Oswald

This one, in a way, combines a couple of premises. The first has to do with a dangerous alien creature on the loose; the second involves another take on identity, as in creating a clone of oneself. This takes place in the future, in year 2025. Mankind had already begun exploration of outer space years back and ran across several alien species. Some of these - stuffed versions - are exhibited in a local museum. But one - a Megasoid - is secretely a live version. It's a hairy gorilla-like creature with a large beak. It was smuggled in years back, escaped its cell and now is hiding in the museum. The rich scientist (Ron Randell) responsible for all this decides to have an illegal duplicate of himself made to find & destroy the creature. Makes sense, eh?
Well, it didn't to me. It seems to me that two seperate stories were grafted together in an attempt to create a single storyline, but I just didn't see the point to all this. Why, for example, compound your problems by creating an illegal clone of yourself? As for the Megasoid - it's the latest prototypical O L monster; it's hinted in the beginning that it's at least as intelligent as humans and, when it speaks, it sounds like an older woman's voice. However, it tends to be very hostile, for some reason (maybe it didn't like being smuggled in). The whole issue about a duplicate or doppelganger which will become just like you and in theory deserves to live just as you do is brushed over because there's just not much time for this portion of the episode. Constance Towers plays the confused wife. BoG's Score: 6 out of 10