"Demon with a Glass Hand" is an episode of the American television series ''
The Outer Limits'', the second to be based on a script by
Harlan Ellison
Harlan Jay Ellison (May 27, 1934 – June 28, 2018) was an American writer, known for his prolific and influential work in New Wave speculative fiction and for his outspoken, combative personality. Robert Bloch, the author of '' Psycho'' ...
, which Ellison wrote specifically with actor
Robert Culp
Robert Martin Culp (August 16, 1930 – March 24, 2010) was an American actor widely known for his work in television. Culp earned an international reputation for his role as Kelly Robinson on ''I Spy'' (1965–1968), the espionage television se ...
in mind for the lead role. It originally aired on October 17, 1964, and was the fifth episode of the second season. In 2009, ''
TV Guide
TV Guide is an American digital media company that provides television program
Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or t ...
'' ranked "Demon with a Glass Hand" #73 on its list of the 100 Greatest Episodes.
Opening narration
"Through all the legends of ancient peoples — Assyria
Assyria (Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , romanized: ''māt Aššur''; syc, ܐܬܘܪ, ʾāthor) was a major ancient Mesopotamian civilization which existed as a city-state at times controlling regional territories in the indigenous lands of the A ...
n, Babylonia
Babylonia (; Akkadian: , ''māt Akkadī'') was an ancient Akkadian-speaking state and cultural area based in the city of Babylon in central-southern Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq and parts of Syria). It emerged as an Amorite-ruled state c. ...
n, Sumer
Sumer () is the earliest known civilization in the historical region of southern Mesopotamia (south-central Iraq), emerging during the Chalcolithic and early Bronze Ages between the sixth and fifth millennium BC. It is one of the cradles of c ...
ian, Semitic — runs the saga of the Eternal Man, the one who never dies, called by various names in various times, but historically known as Gilgamesh
sux, , label=none
, image = Hero lion Dur-Sharrukin Louvre AO19862.jpg
, alt =
, caption = Possible representation of Gilgamesh as Master of Animals, grasping a lion in his left arm and snake in his right hand, in an Assyr ...
, the man who has never tasted death ... the hero who strides through the centuries ..."
(Narrator
Vic Perrin
Victor Herbert Perrin (April 26, 1916 – July 4, 1989)Cox, Jim (2007). ''Radio Speakers: Narrators, News Junkies, Sports Jockeys, Tattletales, Tipsters, Toastmasters and Coffee Klatch Couples Who Verbalized the Jargon of the Aural Ether fr ...
mistakenly says "Sumerican" instead of "Sumerian".)
Synopsis
Trent (
Robert Culp
Robert Martin Culp (August 16, 1930 – March 24, 2010) was an American actor widely known for his work in television. Culp earned an international reputation for his role as Kelly Robinson on ''I Spy'' (1965–1968), the espionage television se ...
) is a man with no memory of his life before the previous ten days. His left hand has been replaced by an advanced computer shaped like his missing hand and protected by some transparent material. Three fingers are missing; the computer tells him they must be reattached before it can tell Trent what is going on. Trent is being hunted by a handful of
humanoid
A humanoid (; from English ''human'' and ''-oid'' "resembling") is a non-human entity with human form or characteristics. The earliest recorded use of the term, in 1870, referred to indigenous peoples in areas colonized by Europeans. By the 20t ...
aliens called the Kyben; they have the missing appendages. The action takes place in a large rundown office building (the historic
Bradbury Building
The Bradbury Building is an architectural landmark in downtown Los Angeles, California, United States. Built in 1893, the five-story office building is best known for its extraordinary skylit atrium of access walkways, stairs and elevators, an ...
in downtown Los Angeles) which the Kyben have sealed off from the world. In this deadly game of hide-and-seek, Trent enlists the help of Consuelo Biros (
Arlene Martel
Arlene Martel (born Arline Greta Sax; April 14, 1936 – August 12, 2014) was an American actress. Before 1964, she was frequently billed as Arline Sax or Arlene Sax. Casting directors, among other Hollywood insiders, called Martel the Chamel ...
), a woman who works in the building.
For reasons unknown to him, Trent was sent into the past via a "time mirror", located in the building. A captured Kyben tells Trent that both of them are from a thousand years in the future. In that future, Earth has been conquered by the Kyben, but all the surviving humans except Trent have mysteriously vanished. The aliens are being obliterated by a "radioactive plague" that is killing all of the Kyben occupation force, a plague apparently unleashed by the humans in a last-ditch effort to repel the invasion. In a desperate attempt to find a cure for the plague and to extract whatever knowledge is stored in the hand/computer, the Kyben have followed him back in time with the missing fingers.
Eventually, Trent defeats all of his Kyben hunters by ripping off the medallion-shaped devices they wear to anchor them in the past. Trent successfully destroys the mirror and recovers the missing fingers, one by one. When the computer is whole, he learns the terrible truth: he is not a man, but a robot. Brain-scans of the human survivors have been
digitally encoded onto a gold-copper alloy wire wrapped around the
solenoid
upright=1.20, An illustration of a solenoid
upright=1.20, Magnetic field created by a seven-loop solenoid (cross-sectional view) described using field lines
A solenoid () is a type of electromagnet formed by a helix, helical coil of wire whose ...
in his
thorax
The thorax or chest is a part of the anatomy of humans, mammals, and other tetrapod animals located between the neck and the abdomen. In insects, crustaceans, and the extinct trilobites, the thorax is one of the three main divisions of the cre ...
. Immune to disease, he must protect his precious cargo for 1,200 years, after the Kyben invasion, by which time the plague will have dissipated. Then he will resurrect the human race.
Trent had thought he was a man, as he and Consuelo had begun to develop feelings for each other. With the truth revealed, she leaves him, pity mixed with horror in her eyes. Trent is left to face 1,200 years of lonely vigil.
Closing narration
"Like the Eternal Man of Babylonian legend, like Gilgamesh, one thousand plus two hundred years stretches before Trent. Without love. Without friendship. Alone; neither man nor machine, waiting. Waiting for the day he will be called to free the humans who gave him mobility. Movement, but not life."
Awards
The teleplay by Harlan Ellison won several major awards:
* 1965
Writers Guild of America Awards
The Writers Guild of America Awards is an award for film, television, and radio writing including both fiction and non-fiction categories given by the Writers Guild of America, East and Writers Guild of America West since 1949.
Eligibility
The ...
— Outstanding Script for a Television Anthology
* 1972 Georges Melies Fantasy Film Award — Outstanding Cinematic Achievement in Science Fiction Television
Production
Ellison's story outline depicted a sprawling, cross-country chase between the Kyben and Trent (then named Mr. Fish). Because this would have been prohibitively expensive, producer
Ben Brady suggested that Ellison contain most of the action in a single structure when he went to script. Ellison agreed, realizing that by forcing the plot into an enclosed space, the change from a linear pursuit to a vertical climb — ascending as the action developed — would make for heightened tension. Most of this episode was shot in the
Bradbury Building
The Bradbury Building is an architectural landmark in downtown Los Angeles, California, United States. Built in 1893, the five-story office building is best known for its extraordinary skylit atrium of access walkways, stairs and elevators, an ...
, the same location used for the final scenes of ''
Blade Runner
''Blade Runner'' is a 1982 science fiction film directed by Ridley Scott, and written by Hampton Fancher and David Peoples. Starring Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Sean Young, and Edward James Olmos, it is an adaptation of Philip K. Dick' ...
'' and a closing scene in the 1950 film noir classic, ''
D.O.A.
DOA may refer to:
* Dead on arrival
* Dead or Alive (disambiguation)
Film
* ''D.O.A.'' (1949 film), a ''film noir''
* ''D.O.A.'' (1988 film), a remake of the 1949 film
* '' D.O.A.: A Rite of Passage'' (1980 film), a documentary on the gene ...
''
Ellison's 10-page story outline was published in ''Brain Movies III'' in 2013.
Ellison's friendship with Robert Culp dates from the production of this episode. He found Culp to be very intelligent, quite a contrast to most actors, whom he described as "dips — strictly ''
non compos mentis
''Non compos mentis'' is a Latin legal phrase that translates to "of unsound mind": ''nōn'' ("not") prefaces ''compos mentis'', meaning "having control of one's mind." This phrase was first used in thirteenth-century English law to describe peop ...
.''" When Culp first met Ellison at the Bradbury building location for filming, Ellison introduced himself in a loud voice and told the actor that he had written the episode just for him. Culp also stated that he felt it was one of the best-written episodes of television in the history of the medium. Culp indicated that he felt the success of the series and this episode was due to the fact that it was, essentially, a morality play.
Adaptations and unproduced sequel
A
graphic novel
A graphic novel is a long-form, fictional work of sequential art. The term ''graphic novel'' is often applied broadly, including fiction, non-fiction, and anthologized work, though this practice is highly contested by comic scholars and industry ...
adaptation, illustrated by
, was published by
DC Comics
DC Comics, Inc. (doing business as DC) is an American comic book publisher and the flagship unit of DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery.
DC Comics is one of the largest and oldest American comic book companies, with thei ...
in January 1986. It was the fifth title of the ''
DC Science Fiction Graphic Novel
''DC Graphic Novel'' is a line of graphic novel trade paperbacks published from 1983 to 1986 by DC Comics.
The series generally featured stand-alone stories featuring new characters and concepts with one notable exception. ''The Hunger Dogs'' ...
'' series.
Ellison's original script was published in ''Brain Movies Volume One'', by Edgeworks Abbey, in 2011.
During the run of ''
Babylon 5
''Babylon 5'' is an American space opera television series created by writer and producer J. Michael Straczynski, under the Babylonian Productions label, in association with Straczynski's Synthetic Worlds Ltd. and Warner Bros. Domestic Tel ...
'', series creator
J. Michael Straczynski
Joseph Michael Straczynski (; born July 17, 1954) is an American filmmaker and comic book writer. He is the founder of Synthetic Worlds Ltd. and Studio JMS and is best known as the creator of the science fiction television series ''Babylon 5'' ( ...
often said that Ellison would be writing a sequel to this story (possibly called "Demon in the Dust" or "Demon on the Run") as an episode. However, the proposed sequel episode never appeared. Ellison was a creative consultant on the series and said in a behind-the-scene book about ''Babylon 5'' written during that show's third season:
"I want very much to write this script and Joe very much wants it, and I think it probably will get written during this next season, but one never knows. I don't want to promise because if you promise, then all of a sudden fans on the internet start screaming, 'Well, where is it, where is it? Why doesn't he do it, why isn't he doing it? He's late again, he's late again.' And then I have to get cranky, go to their house and nail their heads to a coffee table!"
In addition to "Demon With A Glass Hand", Ellison wrote other stories set against the backdrop of the "Earth-Kyba War." He adapted five of these"Run For the Stars", "Life Hutch", "The Untouchable Adolescents", "Trojan Hearse", and "Sleeping Dogs"into the graphic novel ''Night and the Enemy'' (1987), illustrated by
Ken Steacy
Ken Steacy (born January 8, 1955) is a Canadian comics artist and writer best known for his work on the NOW Comics comic book series of ''Astro Boy'' and of the Comico comic series of '' Jonny Quest'', as well as his graphic novel collaborations ...
; "Life Hutch" would later be subsequently adapted (by
Philip Gelatt) into an episode of the
Netflix
Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...
adult animated
An adult is a human or other animal that has reached full growth. In human context, the term ''adult'' has meanings associated with social and legal concepts. In contrast to a " minor", a legal adult is a person who has attained the age of major ...
anthology series
An anthology series is a radio, television, video game or film series that spans different genres and presents a different story and a different set of characters in each different episode, season, segment, or short. These usually have a differ ...
''
Love, Death & Robots
''Love, Death & Robots'' (stylized as ''LOVE DEATH + R⬮BOTS'', and represented in emoji form as ❤️❌🤖) is an adult animated anthology streaming television series created by Tim Miller and streaming on Netflix. Produced by Blur Studio ...
''. Also, Ellison's short story "
The Human Operators"which he co-wrote with
A. E. van Vogt
Alfred Elton van Vogt ( ; April 26, 1912 – January 26, 2000) was a Canadian-born American science fiction author. His fragmented, bizarre narrative style influenced later science fiction writers, notably Philip K. Dick. He was one of the ...
and later adapted into the
eponymous episode of the new ''
Outer Limits''is set in the same universe as this story; that story's ''Starfighter''-series of military spacecraft were originally built for the Earth-Kyba war.
Allegations of plagiarism
Some media outlets had previously reported that "Demon with a Glass Hand" was the basis of a settlement that Ellison received after it was allegedly plagiarized for ''
The Terminator
''The Terminator'' is a 1984 American science fiction action film directed by James Cameron. It stars Arnold Schwarzenegger as the Terminator, a cyborg assassin sent back in time from 2029 to 1984 to kill Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton), whos ...
''. Harlan Ellison clarified in a 2001 exchange with a fan at his Web site: ''"'Terminator' was not stolen from 'Demon with a Glass Hand,' it was a ripoff of my OTHER Outer Limits script, '
Soldier
A soldier is a person who is a member of an army. A soldier can be a conscripted or volunteer enlisted person, a non-commissioned officer, or an officer.
Etymology
The word ''soldier'' derives from the Middle English word , from Old French ...
.'"''
Sampling
The music group
Cabaret Voltaire sampled
Sample or samples may refer to:
Base meaning
* Sample (statistics), a subset of a population – complete data set
* Sample (signal), a digital discrete sample of a continuous analog signal
* Sample (material), a specimen or small quantity of so ...
bits of dialogue from "Demon with a Glass Hand" for several songs:
*"Stay Out Of It" from ''
The Voice of America'' (1980): "the third part of your brain ... you know where it is?", "don't kill me please please" and "and my hand...my hand...told me what to do".
*"
Yashar" from ''
2x45'' (1982): "There's 70 billion people of Earth, where are they hiding?"
*"Soul Vine (70 Billion People)" from ''Plasticity'' (1992).
*"Soulenoid (Scream At The Right Time)" from ''Plasticity'' (1992).
UK broadcast
This episode was first transmitted in the United Kingdom on
BBC Two
BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream an ...
on Friday, 28 March 1980. Although the first season had been screened in the UK in 1964 by
Granada TV
ITV Granada, formerly known as Granada Television, is the ITV franchisee for the North West of England and Isle of Man. From 1956 to 1968 it broadcast to both the north west and Yorkshire but only on weekdays as ABC Weekend Television was its ...
, and a few other ITV regions, it wasn't until the BBC transmitted all 49 episodes, in two seasons between 28 March 1980 and 17 July 1981, that the second-season episodes were first seen in the UK. The BBC chose "Demon With A Glass Hand" as the first episode to be broadcast; none of the episodes were screened in series order, with second-season episodes mixed in with first-season episodes. This was also its last UK terrestrial television broadcast - until being shown on Talking Pictures TV in September 2022.
Feature film
The episode was announced to be adapted as a motion picture in June 2014.
Footnotes
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Demon With A Glass Hand
The Outer Limits (1963 TV series season 2) episodes
1964 American television episodes
Television episodes written by Harlan Ellison
Fiction about robots
Television episodes about time travel