The Duplicate Man

"The Duplicate Man"
The Outer Limits episode
Episode no.	Season 2 Episode 13
Directed by	Gerd Oswald
Written by	Robert C. Dennis (teleplay) Clifford Simak (story)
Cinematography by	Kenneth Peach
Production code	45
Original air date	December 19, 1964
Guest appearance(s)
Ron Randell Constance Towers
Episode chronology

"The Duplicate Man" is an episode of the original The Outer Limits television show. It was first aired on 19 December 1964, during the second season.

Opening narration

Since the first day that Man stared up at the stars and saw other worlds, there has been no more haunting question than this: What will we find there? Will there be other creatures, and will they be like us? Or when that ancient dream comes true, will it turn into a nightmare? Will we find, on some distant, frozen planet, an alien life of unimaginable horror?

Plot

It is the year 2025; fourteen years previously wealthy research academic Henderson James had Captain Karl Emmet smuggle a Megasoid to Earth.^[1] It is illegal to possess a Megasoid as they are highly dangerous, always thinking about killing, unless in a reproductive cycle, which this one now is. When the Megasoid escapes to hide amongst the stuffed exhibits at a nearby space zoo, James, lacking the courage to track it down and kill it himself, has a clone of himself illegally made for the purpose by clone bootlegger Basil Jerichau. Strict guidelines govern the production of these "duplicates", which must be destroyed before vestigial memory renders them indistinguishable from the originals.

The clone botches its mission at the zoo and the Megasoid gets away after informing James that he is a duplicate. A trace of memory leads the duplicate James to the home of Captain Emmet. Emmet panics and tries to phone the police; the duplicate James knocks him cold; and, accumulating more of the real Henderson James memories as he goes, he finds his way to "his" own home. The wounded Megasoid returns to James home and hides in the bushes. Duplicate James meets the real James wife, Laura, who sees in him a more youthful version of her husband before he became obsessed with studying the Megasoid. The real James has gone to bribe Emmet into killing the duplicate James once he has completed his mission. Returning home, he leaves Emmett in the grounds to await duplicate James arrival. Unfortunately, Emmett is attacked and killed by the Megasoid. Entering his home, James meets his duplicate; seeing a more compassionate version of himself gives him the courage to kill the alien, as he believes Laura would be happier with the duplicate James.

Henderson James and his duplicate hunt for the Megasoid. James shoots the alien after it has torn his duplicate apart. He discovers that his clone was dying all the time, from a timed release poison in his blood stream, a precaution provided by the clone bootlegger. A less cynical Henderson James is now reconciled with his wife.

Closing narration

"In all the universe, can there be creatures more strange than the species called Man? He creates and destroys; he fumbles and makes mistakes. But the thing which distinguishes him is his ability to learn from his mistakes."

Background

Adapted from the short story 'Goodnight, Mr James' by Clifford D. Simak, first published in Galaxy Science Fiction magazine in March 1951, later published as "The Night of the Puudly" in 1964 in a collection of Simak's short stories. The original story begins and ends with the "duplicate" of Henderson James, who awakes on a street in an unnamed city with a mission to kill an alien called a Puudly. Using telepathy the Puudly informs "duplicate" James of his origins as a clone, before James kills it. James then decides to attempt to talk the real Henderson James into letting him live. The clone of James arrives at Henderson James' home just after the gardener, whose job it is to kill the clone, has mistakenly killed the real James instead. As the Duplicate prepares to become the real James, he receives a phone call from Allen, the clone bootlegger, who advises him of the poison: "Like a time bomb. No antidote for it even if he found out somehow." The duplicate says "It was good of you to let me know." Allen replies, "Glad to, Goodnight, Mr. James." (source - The Outer Limits: The Official Companion (1986), page 343.)

The Chemosphere House was used to great effect in this futuristic portrayal. Now part of Hollywood architectural history, this cultural monument was used in exterior shots as a futurisic domocile of the character Captain Emmet.

Cast

Ron Randell as Henderson James and his clone
Sean McClory as Captain Karl Emmet
Constance Towers as Laura James
Mike Lane as the Megasoid
Alan Gifford as Zoo Guide
Konstantin Shayne as Murdock
Jeffery Stone as Policeman
Steven Geray as Basil Jerichau
Ivy Bethune as Miss Thorson
Jonathon Hole as Pedestrian
George Robotham as Sean McClory's stunt double
George Paul as Ron Randell's stunt double

References

↑ http://wearecontrollingtransmission.blogspot.com/2011/03/duplicate-man.html

External links

The Duplicate Man at the Internet Movie Database
"The Duplicate Man" appreciation by Mark Holcomb

The Outer Limits episodes

1963 series
(episodes)

Season 1	"The Galaxy Being" "The Hundred Days of the Dragon" "The Architects of Fear" "The Man with the Power" "The Sixth Finger" "The Man Who Was Never Born" "O.B.I.T." "The Human Factor" "Corpus Earthling" "Nightmare" "It Crawled Out of the Woodwork" "The Borderland" "Tourist Attraction" "The Zanti Misfits" "The Mice" "Controlled Experiment" "Don't Open Till Doomsday" "ZZZZZ" "The Invisibles" "The Bellero Shield" "The Children of Spider County" "Specimen: Unknown" "Second Chance" "Moonstone" "The Mutant" "The Guests" "Fun and Games" "The Special One" "A Feasibility Study" "Production and Decay of Strange Particles" "The Chameleon" "The Forms of Things Unknown"

Season 2	"Soldier" "Cold Hands, Warm Heart" "Behold, Eck!" "Expanding Human" "Demon with a Glass Hand" "Cry of Silence" "The Invisible Enemy" "Wolf 359" "I, Robot" "The Inheritors" "Keeper of the Purple Twilight" "The Duplicate Man" "Counterweight" "The Brain of Colonel Barham" "The Premonition" "The Probe"

1995 series
(episodes)

Season 1	"The Sandkings" "Corner of the Eye" "Under the Bed" "Dark Matters" "The Conversion" "Quality of Mercy" "The New Breed" "The Voyage Home" "Caught in the Act" "The Message" "I, Robot" "If These Walls Could Talk" "Birthright" "The Voice of Reason"

Season 2	"Stitch in Time" "Resurrection" "Unnatural Selection" "I Hear You Calling" "Mind Over Matter" "Beyond the Veil" "First Anniversary" "Straight and Narrow" "Trial by Fire" "Worlds Apart" "The Refuge" "Inconstant Moon" "From Within" "The Heist" "Afterlife" "The Deprogrammers" "Paradise" "The Light Brigade" "Falling Star" "Out of Body" "Vanishing Act" "The Sentence"

Season 3	"Bits of Love" "Second Thoughts" "Re-Generation" "Last Supper" "Stream of Consciousness" "Dark Rain" "The Camp" "Heart's Desire" "Tempests" "Awakening" "New Lease" "Double Helix" "Dead Man's Switch" "Music of the Spheres" "The Revelations of Becka Paulson" "Bodies of Evidence" "Feasibility Study" "A Special Edition"

Season 4	"Criminal Nature" "The Hunt" "Hearts and Minds" "In Another Life" "In the Zone" "Relativity Theory" "Josh" "Rite of Passage" "Glyphic" "Identity Crisis" "The Vaccine" "Fear Itself" "The Joining" "To Tell the Truth" "Mary 25" "Final Exam" "Lithia" "Monster" "Sarcophagus" "Nightmare" "Promised Land" "Balance of Nature" "The Origin of Species" "Phobos Rising" "Black Box" "In Our Own Image"

Season 5	"Alien Radio" "Donor" "Small Friends" "The Grell" "The Other Side" "Joyride" "The Human Operators" "Blank Slate" "What Will The Neighbors Think" "The Shroud" "Ripper" "Tribunal" "Summit" "Descent" "The Haven" "Deja Vu" "The Inheritors" "Essence of Life" "Stranded" "Fathers and Sons" "Star Crossed" "Better Luck Next Time"

Season 6	"Judgment Day" "The Gun" "Skin Deep" "Manifest Destiny" "Breaking Point" "The Beholder" "Seeds of Destruction" "Simon Says" "Stasis" "Down to Earth" "Glitch" "Decompression" "Abaddon" "The Grid" "Gettysburg" "Nest" "Final Appeal"

Season 7	"Family Values" "Patient Zero" "A New Life" "The Surrogate" "The Vessel" "Mona Lisa" "Replica" "Think Like a Dinosaur" "Worlds Within" "In the Blood" "Flower Child" "Abduction" "Lion's Den" "The Tipping Point" "The Human Factor" "Human Trials"

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