Demon with a Glass Hand

I beg you to remember that this was written when most TV fans thought of science fiction as Buck Rogers or Flash Gorgon. The ideas and concepts were way ahead of their time for TV. Today we laugh at the special effects and Cosme's but also remember that TOL was made on a very tight budget. lighting effects and camera angles were used with he music to try and add the confused feeling that Trent and Consuelo were enduring. All in all it worked by 60's standards.

You can poke holes or take exception to certain issues that were not addressed but hey, they only had an hour (about 48 minutes without commercials). All in all I feel this is one of the most ingenious and in some ways eerie plots in early TV scifi. It has rightfully earned its place in the hearts of scifi fans.

I'm the eldest son of the Assistant to the Producer of this episode of The Outer Limits. It is in my opinion one of the best episodes he was involved in (the last year of production). The show aired Saturday night on ABC. On the Monday morning following the show, the phone in the producer's office rang and my father answered it. The voice identified himself as Ray Bradbury and asked to speak to Ben Brady the producer. My father at first thought it was a joke. It wasn't. Ray Bradbury told Ben Brady that he had watched the show on Saturday night and wanted him to know how much he enjoyed it. Not a bad sci-fi recommend I would think. Harlon Ellison (writer) also called Ben Brady and demanded his name be removed from "that piece of S***!" My father said Ben calmed him down, a little.

Please remember when you watch the original (B&W)Outer Limits that the budget was very limited $100k an episode I think. And that was for everything. So the aliens in this episode wore bathing caps and the "set" was the old Bradbury building in downtown LA. Shot the entire thing in one night. At least the run around the stairs, elevator scenes. For what it was and when it was done, it pretty good.

People occasionally ask,"do you know where the glass hand is?" I do not. I doubt it exists today. Most props are made in multiples, I would imagine there was more than one, and based on the budget limitations of the time, probably returned to a pop rental company. One more piece of trivia - the 1964 season of Outer Limits was shot at what was then called The Executive Producers Studio on Sunset Blvd. That is the original location where Al Jolson's The Jazz Singer (the first talking motion picture)was shot, and they had preserved the original stage he used. The studio has gone through several changes of ownership/function, its now called Sunset Bronson Studios. I had many a good craft services meal there (Dad hated to cook.)

I met and talked with Harlan Ellison at an early '70s Star Trek Convention, and the conversation drifted to DEMON, and how he hated the way the writers butchered & disgraced his story. "Imagine", he said: "Creatures from a far-future century fist-fighting and shooting at each other with pistols! Gimme a break!" Its saving grace, apart from its being a terrific sci-fi story, was actress Arlene Martel, who later gained fame as Spck's wife in a Star Trek episode AMOK TIME. That's the one that truly made her famous, previous to that one, she was but a struggling young actress. Her role in DEMON I thought outstandingly underplayed.

Directed by veteran Byron Haskin, this is one of two episodes by Harlan Ellison that earned 'The Outer Limits' it's exulted status among students of serious sci-fi, creating an unearthly setting merely by locating it's nightmare in a dilapidated old office block and photographing it in gothic black & white.

In additional to the perennially underused Robert Culp as "the last hope of humanity" the other members of the cast also provide interesting resonances since Arline Martel - already far from being a conventional heroine - later played Spock's bride T'Pring in the 'Star Trek' episode 'Amok Time', while Abraham Sofaer, who leads the pursuing aliens, actually played God himself in the classic 'A Matter of Life and Death'.

This is by far the best piece of 60's television that I have ever seen... and not only in the genre of sci-fi(sorry, Harlan, "fantasist") or episode of the original The Outer Limits. You can tell that it is by Ellison, and the part this(and the almost as good Soldier) played in inspiring The Terminator is impossible to ignore; I am a fan of Cameron, and I doubt he intended to plagiarize. The story is compelling, engaging, has stunning twists and turns and is smart without being convoluted or difficult to follow. This has amazing pacing, moves fast and keeps you on the edge of your seat the entire time, not overstimulating you at any point. The action is incredible, and this is exciting, suspenseful and tense throughout it. This has a chilling and unforgettable ending, and in spite of when this was made, nothing looks silly. The effects are rather well-done, and this was ahead of its time in its concepts and the way it explores them. This has excellent cinematography and editing. The acting is marvelous, and Culp, as well as everyone else, is spot-on. There is a bit of disturbing content in this. I recommend this to any and all fans of science fiction. 10/10