The Outer Limits - Demon with a Glass Hand

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Demon with a Glass Hand holds a really special place in my heart. It just does. When I had the chance to revisit this special episode of The Outer Limits on Hulu I was ecstatic. I only own the first season of “The Outer Limits” so all of the second season is of importance to get to eventually. If someone asks me why I don’t have the second season in my library I can’t really give an answer. I was looking over the second season episode list and was stoked, most definitely. Demon with a Glass Hand is one of those episodes that I just always retained from my youth. The TNT (Turner Network Television) of today wasn’t what I grew up with in the past. TBS isn’t either, not even close. TNT showed an all night marathon occasionally, and I remember watching episodes one after the other with my uncle. The nostalgia of my youth obviously is a heavy part of why I love the episode. Perhaps it could be scrutinized heavily, particularly the look of the Kyben alien race with their swimming diver skull caps, but I’m a big Culp guy (to me one of the ONLY reasons to watch Silent Night: Deadly Night III is because he’s in it) so this is such an iconic sci-fi role in his impressive resume which isn’t heavy on this particular genre.

There is no tongue-in-cheek Culp in this episode…a dead serious part mainly because his character (that revelation just knocked me out as a kid) is being hunted for the glass robotic hand that holds the key to survival for 70 billion human beings. I have to just continue to heap the praise on director of photography Conrad Hall. Damn, this guy’s B&W work, stark and sinister, sets such mood. If you read my user comments about Dark Shadows, I do throw the word mood around quite a bit because getting an atmospheric reaction from those watching, grooving to a particular tone that grabs you with its style, distinctive and overpowering, it certainly speaks to me. And to me Conrad was a “style whisperer”. Just the way the light is right where it needs to be and the dark is as it should be, while “Trent” (the name one of the Kybens call him when in pursuit of him) moves about a multi-story apparel building with ornately designed staircases and elevator lifts, I am captivated. But, quite frankly, The Outer Limits is what it is because of that opening monologue and Conrad’s photographic hallmark.

I think Twilight Zone fans will remember Arlene Martell as the haunting figure tormenting Barbara Nichols in Twenty Two and as T’Pring in the great Star Trek episode, Amok Time. I had completely forgotten she was the apparel store proprietor who unfortunately (or fortunately, at times, when her help does come in handy) happens to stay in the store late when Trent finds her while in the process of evading the constant threat of the Kymens. She is Consuelo, startled by Trent’s arrival and thrust into peril unexpectedly. Eventually she finds herself smitten with Trent as he protects her and tries to hunt down three missing fingers that, once locked into his glass robotic hand, will tell him where to locate the missing humans. She is afraid, obviously, but when the Kybens are aggressively hostile towards Trent, trying to kill him, Consuelo acts, a few times rescuing him from potential hurt.

What I just get so much of my excitement out of this episode is Trent (and Consuelo for a majority) having to covertly and cautiously move throughout this darkened building as the numbers are against him. Even if the Kybens could have been better designed (their eyes are done in raccoon makeup, the aliens clad in black costume), Conrad’s camera and lighting and Byron Haskin’s active direction makes up for it. Because Trent must always be on the move with nary much time to rest (although he does admit that he oddly doesn’t ever seem very tired or in need of sleep), only stopping momentarily in the attic (where mannequins and throwaway items rest under dust and cobwebs) with Consuelo, the Kybens are quite a dangerous lot. The necklaces they wear (including Trent) are how they can remain in the past, 1000 years in the future where they are from, entering through a time mirror that must be protected by the Kybens. Each finger in their possession is desperately needed by Trent in order to access precious information (like why the Kybens are after him, how can he protect himself against them, how they are able to travel to this time, his importance in the overall scheme of things, etc.), so he will need the Kybens to come through the time mirror with all of them. Trent’s situation is quite daunting, having to confront these aliens to either remove the necklaces (once removed they vanish, always in jeopardy which explains the importance they place on securing Trent’s hand because passing through the mirror into a different time comes with it clear and present danger) or gain control of the fingers they have.

As you might expect Trent will get his fingers but the information released to him will change everything he knows about his own identity and how Consuelo considers him after discovering just how different he is from her. Her walking away as Trent forlornly sees her leave, accepting that in 1200 years he’ll be needed to release the human race from “wire”; this conclusion is quite bittersweet. The human race will be saved thanks to Trent’s guardianship over them and the Kybens who will lead an attack on Earth, later to suffer a plague. The robotic hand has all the goods Trent needed to understand just why the Kybens were so adamant to take hold of him…and the information collected left Trent alone, never to be fully acclimated to the very race he is to protect.

In white suit and pants, Culp is slickly attired, and the glass hand quite an accessory. Written by Harlan Ellison, the episode also has some serious credibility behind its story. With the tragic conclusion where he doesn’t get the girl and must accept what he really is, despite successfully defeating the alien threat, Culp’s solemn walk all by his lonesome leaves us with yet another downer…The Outer Limits isn’t afraid to leave us feeling emotionally drained and / or decompressing with a sad sigh. This episode is no different.