The Hundred Days of the Dragon

"The Hundred Days of the Dragon"
The Outer Limits episode
Episode no.	Season 1 Episode 2
Directed by	Byron Haskin
Written by	Allan Balter Robert Mintz
Cinematography by	Conrad Hall
Production code	7
Original air date	September 23, 1963
Guest appearance(s)
Sidney Blackmer Phillip Pine Mark Roberts
Episode chronology

"The Hundred Days of the Dragon" is an episode of the original The Outer Limits television show. It first aired on 23 September 1963, during the first season.

Introduction

An Asian government develops a reliable means of changing a person's physical appearance, and uses it to replace a U.S. presidential candidate with a spy.

Opening narration

“

Somewhere south of the Mongolian border and north of the Tropic of Cancer, in that part of the world we call the Orient, a slumbering giant has shaken itself to wakefulness. Passed over in most histories as a nation forgotten by time, its close-packed millions in the short span of twenty years have been stirred to a fury by one man: Lee Ching Sung. A benevolent despot in his homeland, Sung stands as an irresponsible threat to peace in the eyes of the rest of the world. William Lyons Selby, candidate for the presidency of the United States, predicted by every poll, survey, and primary to be a certain winner in the forthcoming election.

”

Plot

An unspecified Asian government plans to take over America by infiltrating and substituting all the officials at the White House. During the presidential campaign, William Lyons Selby (the candidate predicted to win the next election) is murdered and then replaced by a lookalike spy. Selby is elected, and the impostor assumes the office of the President of the United States. Though he fools the nation at large during his first few months in office, his daughter, Carol, soon begins to suspect that the man in the White House is not her father. She voices her concerns to the Vice President, Ted Pearson, who disbelieves her, at first, until he is targeted for substitution by an assassin who breaks into his home during their conversation, is discovered lying in wait, and is chased off before he can commit the act already in the guise of Pearson. Now convinced that Carol's story is valid, Pearson informs the head of the Secret Service detail assigned to the President of the plot, and the suspicion that Selby is an impostor. After several failed attempts by the Secret Service in identifying Selby through dental records and other means, the leader of the Asian government confers with his spy at the White House prior to a planned summit meeting, where he reveals the second phase of their operation to substitute various cabinet members, heads of state, and private industry tycoons. When Selby arranges a second attempt at replacing his Vice President, the perpetrators are captured, brought before the President during a state reception and exposed, along with Selby, himself, with the real Pearson arresting and then charging him with murder and attempting to overthrow the United States government.

Closing narration

“

To Theodore Pearson not even so monstrous a crime as the assassination of William Lyons Selby justifies an act of war, because there is no war as we know it, only annihilation. A great American has been killed in the service of his country. Now it is the job of those who continue to serve to carry on guarding our freedom with dignity and unrelenting vigilance.

”

Cast

Sidney Blackmer – as William Lyons Selby and doppelganger
Phillip Pine – as Theodore Pearson
Joan Camden as Ann Pearson
Nancy Rennick as Carol Selby Conner
Richard Loo as Li Chin-Sung
Mark Roberts as Dr. Bob Conner
Aki Aleong – as Dr.Su Lin
Clarence Lung as Major Ho Chi Wong
James Hong as Wen Lee
James Yagi as Li Kwan
Bert Remsen as Frank Summers
Dennis McCarthy as Carter
Richard Gillings as Briggs
Robert Brubaker as Bryan
Eugene Chan as Oriental in Hotel
Henry Scott – as FBI Agent Marshall
Vic Perrin as Voice of Mr. Schumacher
Leslie Stevens – as the Election Returns Commentator (uncredited)

Notes

The plot bears some similarity to that of the novel The Manchurian Candidate by Richard Condon and the 1962 film adaptation starring Frank Sinatra.
The episode was featured in the film Mrs. Doubtfire (1993). The kids were watching this episode before Mrs. Doubtfire arrived at the Hillard residence.
In a possibly intentional "coincidence", Selby is missing half of the third finger of his left hand. Actor Sidney Blackmer starred in the film, Third Finger, Left Hand (1940).

External links

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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