THE OUTER LIMITS - Individual Vintage Trading Card from the Premiere Edition series issued by Rittenhouse in 2002
"The Sixth Finger" is an episode of the original The Outer Limits television show. It first aired on 14 October 1963, during the first season.
A scientist develops the means to advance the evolution of a man by 20,000 years. The process then continues beyond his control. The man who is evolving encounters police officers and says to them: "Your ignorance makes me ill and angry."
Where are we going? Life, the timeless, mysterious gift, is still evolving. What wonders, or terrors, does evolution hold in store for us in the next ten thousand years? In a million? In six million? Perhaps the answer lies in this old house in this old and misty valley ...
Working in a remote Welsh mining town, a rogue scientist, Professor Mathers (Edward Mulhare), discovers a process that affects the speed of evolutionary mutation. Mathers suffers guilt for his role in developing a super-destructive atomic bomb, and hopes his new discovery will better the human race. A disgruntled miner, Gwyllm Griffiths (David McCallum), volunteers for an experiment that will enable the professor to create a being with enhanced mental capabilities. As a man sent forward equal to 20,000 years of evolution, Gwyllm soon begins growing an overdeveloped cortex and a sixth finger on each hand. When the mutation process begins to operate independently of the professor's influence, Gwyllm takes control of the experiment. Now equal to 1 million years of evolution, and equipped with superior intelligence and powers of mind, such as telekinesis, that are capable of great destruction, Gwyllm seeks vengeance on the mining town he loathes. Before he acts on his thoughts, Gwyllm holds back. He has "evolved beyond hatred or revenge, or even the desire for power," and instead longs for "when the mind will cast off the hamperings of the flesh and become all thought and no matter – a vortex of pure intelligence in space." He enlists the help of his girlfriend, Cathy Evans (Jill Haworth), to operate the machine to push his evolution even further forward. Instead, out of love for him, Cathy reverses the process at the last second, bringing Gwyllm back to his former self. But, the out-of-control reversal is too much for Gwyllm, and he slowly succumbs to the adverse effects while Cathy comforts him.
An experiment too soon, too swift. And yet may we not still hope to discover a method by which within one generation, the whole human race could be rendered intelligent, beyond hatred, or revenge, or the desire for power? Is that not, after all, the ultimate goal of evolution?
Regarding Ellis St. Joseph's original script, a number of scenes and characters were removed or condensed to save money, including five speaking parts – Bryn Evans, Gert the Bread's legless, Bible-thumping husband (Cathy Evans' father); Wilks, the local police constable; Robbart and Emlyn, two coal miners, and the fat Mr. Caradoc, the pit owner. The dialogue between Gwyllm and Prof. Mathers at the end of Act Three, when Gwyllm declares his intentions to obliterate the village, was originally slightly longer. This shortened version of the script was only 40 pages long (one page roughly equaling one minute of screentime). To fill the gap, the sequence of Gwyllm discovering music was quickly written as a five-minute insert by Joseph Stefano. For this, the then-new Glenn Gould recordings of the Bach preludes were used, which were performed faster than anyone had done them before. The scene used three different preludes. As it opens, Gwyllm plays the Prelude and Fugue No. 2 in C Minor. Most of the conversation with Mathers uses Prelude and Fugue No. 5 in D Major. When he says "I shall stop soon anyway," he begins Prelude and Fugue No. 1 in C Major. The start of Act Four, showing Gwyllm's vengeful rampage against the mine, was removed. Originally, Gwyllm kills Wilks and his deputies, then proceeds on to the mine. The gatekeeper sees him coming, enveloped in a bituminous aura. Mr. Caradoc sets off the disaster whistle just as Gwyllm reduces him to smoldering ashes. Gwyllm then places a box of dynamite at the pit entrance, igniting the fuse with a burning glance. Emlyn, one of the trapped terrified miners, attacks him with a pickaxe and is flattened by a burst of kinetic force. Gwyllm then becomes translucent, evolving beyond the need for vengeance and abandons the burning fuse to walk back to Mathers' Lab. Robbart, another miner, stamps out the fuse. Gwyllm later tells Cathy his ghostly translucence is evidence of his further evolution: "I can now live by photosynthesis of pure light."
The ABC censor, Dorothy Brown, objected to the Darwinism and promotion of evolution inherent in "The Sixth Finger". One of the earliest deletions from the script was a speech by Prof. Mathers on the subject: "In the short span of nine months, every human embryo passes through a million years of its previous evolution, from protoplasm to fish, to amphibian, to furry ape with a tail, to man. I'm experimenting with a means of continuing this process in the same lifetime." – the dialogue foreshadowing the fate Ellis St. Joseph had in store for Gwyllm once Cathy pulls the lever on Mathers' machine, reversing his evolution. As originally scripted, Gwyllm devolves into the protoplasmic form of a jellyfish. However, ABC executives would only allow him to regress to the stages of early man, due to concerns that religious viewers who did not accept the theory of evolution would be offended.
The Welsh village was shot on English Towne Street on Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's backlot. Mrs. Ives' boarding house, where the experiments take place, was a Victorian mansion known as The Vinegar Tree house on backlot #2. The stock footage establishing the Welsh village was from How Green Was My Valley (1941).
David McCallum – Gwyllm Griffiths
Edward Mulhare – Prof. Mathers
Jill Haworth – Cathy Evans
Nora Marlowe – Mrs. Ives
Janos Prohaska – Darwin, Prof. Mathers' trained chimpanzee
Constance Cavendish – Gert "the Bread" Evans
Robert Doyle – Wilt Morgan
The Outer Limits is an American television series that was broadcast on ABC from September 16, 1963 to January 16, 1965 at 7:30PM Eastern Time on Mondays. The series is often compared to The Twilight Zone, but with a greater emphasis on science fiction stories (rather than stories of fantasy or the supernatural matters). The Outer Limits is an anthology of self-contained episodes, sometimes with a plot twist at the end.
The series was revived in 1995, airing on Showtime from 1995 to 2000, then on Sci-Fi Channel from 2001 until its cancellation in 2002. In 1997, the episode "The Zanti Misfits" was ranked #98 on TV Guide's 100 Greatest Episodes of All Time.
As of April 2019, a new revival was stated to be in the works at a premium cable network.
Each show would begin with either a cold open or a preview clip, followed by a "Control Voice" narration that was mainly run over visuals of an oscilloscope. Using an Orwellian theme of taking over your television, the earliest version of the narration ran as follows:
“There is nothing wrong with your television set. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are controlling transmission. If we wish to make it louder, we will bring up the volume. If we wish to make it softer, we will tune it to a whisper. We will control the horizontal. We will control the vertical. We can roll the image, make it flutter. We can change the focus to a soft blur or sharpen it to crystal clarity. For the next hour, sit quietly and we will control all that you see and hear. We repeat: there is nothing wrong with your television set. You are about to participate in a great adventure. You are about to experience the awe and mystery which reaches from the inner mind to– The Outer Limits. “
Later episodes used one of two shortened versions of the introduction. The first few episodes began simply with the title screen followed by the narration and no cold open or preview clip. The Control Voice was performed by actor Vic Perrin.
The Outer Limits was originally broadcast on the American television network ABC (1963–65). In total, 49 episodes were produced. It was one of many series influenced by The Twilight Zone and Science Fiction Theatre, though it ultimately proved influential in its own right. In the unaired pilot, the series was called Please Stand By, but ABC rejected that title (NBC would later approve the title for their 1979 comedy series). Series creator Leslie Stevens retitled it The Outer Limits. With a few changes, the pilot aired as the premiere episode, "The Galaxy Being".
Writers for The Outer Limits included creator Stevens and Joseph Stefano (screenwriter of Hitchcock's Psycho), who was the Season 1 producer and creative guiding force. Stefano wrote more episodes of the show than any other writer. Future Oscar-winning screenwriter Robert Towne (Chinatown) wrote "The Chameleon", which was the final episode filmed for Season 1. Two especially notable Season 2 episodes "Demon with a Glass Hand" and "Soldier" were written by Harlan Ellison, with the former episode winning a Writers' Guild Award. The former was for several years the only episode of The Outer Limits available on LaserDisc.
Season 1 combined science fiction and horror, while Season 2 was more focused on 'hard science fiction' stories, dropping the recurring "scary monster" motif of Season 1. Each show in Season 1 was to have a monster or creature as a critical part of the story line. Season 1 writer and producer Joseph Stefano believed that this element was necessary to provide fear, suspense, or at least a center for plot development. This kind of story element became known as "the bear". This device was, however, mostly dropped in Season 2 when Stefano left (two Season 1 episodes without a "bear" are "The Forms of Things Unknown" and "Controlled Experiment", the first of which was shot in a dual format as science fiction for The Outer Limits and as a thriller for a pilot for an unmade series The Unknown. Actor Barry Morse, who starred in "Controlled Experiment", states that this episode also was made as a pilot for an unrealized science fiction/comedy series. It was the only comedic episode of The Outer Limits).
Earlier Season 1 episodes with no "bear" were "The Hundred Days of the Dragon" and "The Borderland" made before the "bear" convention was established. Season 2 episodes with a "bear" are "Keeper of the Purple Twilight", "The Duplicate Man", and "The Probe". "Bears" appear near the conclusion of the Season 2 episodes "Counterweight", "The Invisible Enemy", and "Cold Hands, Warm Heart".) The "bear" in "The Architects of Fear", the monstrously altered Allen Leighton, was judged by some of ABC's local affiliate stations to be so frightening that they broadcast a black screen during the "Thetan's" appearances, effectively censoring most of the show's last act. In other parts of the United States, the "Thetan" footage was tape-delayed until after the 11pm/10c news. In others, it was not shown at all.
The series was shot at KTTV (MetroMedia Square) on sound stage # 2. Season 1 had music by Dominic Frontiere, who doubled as Production Executive; Season 2 featured music by Harry Lubin, with a variation of his Fear theme for One Step Beyond being heard over the end titles.
The program sometimes made use of techniques (lighting, camerawork, even make-up) associated with film noir or German Expressionism (see for example, "Corpus Earthling"), and a number of episodes were noteworthy for their sheer eeriness. Credit for this is often given to the cinematographer Conrad Hall, who went on to win three Academy Awards (and many more nominations) for his work in motion pictures. However, Hall worked only on alternate episodes of this TV series during the first two-thirds of the first season. The program's other cinematographers included John M. Nickolaus and Kenneth Peach.
The various monsters and creatures from the first season and most props were developed by a loose-knit group organized under the name Project Unlimited. Members of the group included Wah Chang, Gene Warren and Jim Danforth. Makeup was executed by Fred B. Phillips along with John Chambers.
Many of the creatures that appeared in Outer Limits episodes have been sold as models or action figures in the 1990s and 2000s. A variety in limited editions have been as model kits to be assembled and painted by the purchaser issued by Dimensional Designs, and a smaller set of out-of-the-box action figures sold in larger quantity by Sideshow Toys. The former produced a model kit of The Megasoid from "The Duplicate Man", and both created a figure of Gwyllm as an evolved man from "The Sixth Finger".
The series earned a very loyal audience in the first season. It was so devoted, some people were reported to take a TV set with them if they had to be away from home, so they would not miss an episode (as home video recording did not yet exist). However, the second season fared rather poorly in the Nielsen ratings after moving from Monday to Saturday night, going against Jackie Gleason. Producer Joseph Stefano chose to leave the show after the first year; he realized that competing against the more popular Gleason would kill his show (proven by its cancellation midway through the second season). However, the series retained a following for many years after its original broadcast. Many decades later, horror writer Stephen King called it "the best program of its type ever to run on network TV."
Originally scheduled to air on November 25, 1963, the episode "Nightmare" was delayed until December 2 due to television coverage of the state funeral of President John F. Kennedy.
Like The Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits had an opening and closing narration in almost every episode. Both shows were unusually philosophical for science fiction anthology series, but differed in style. The Twilight Zone stories were often like parables, employing whimsy (such as the Buster Keaton time-travel episode "Once Upon a Time"), irony, or extraordinary problem-solving situations (such as the episode "The Arrival"). The Outer Limits was usually a straight action-and-suspense show which often had the human spirit in confrontation with dark existential forces from within or without, such as in the alien abduction episode "A Feasibility Study" or the alien possession story "The Invisibles". As well, The Outer Limits was known for its moody, textured look in many episodes (especially those directed by Byron Haskin or Gerd Oswald, or photographed by Conrad Hall) whereas The Twilight Zone tended to be shot more conventionally.
However, there is some common ground between certain episodes of the two shows. As Schow and Frentzen, the authors of The Outer Limits: The Official Companion, have noted, several Outer Limits episodes are often misremembered by casual fans as having been Twilight Zone episodes, notably such "problem solving" episodes as "Fun and Games" or "The Premonition".
A few of the monsters reappeared in Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek series later in the 1960s. The moving microbe beast in "The Probe" later was used as the 'Horta' in "The Devil in the Dark", and operated by the same actor, Janos Prohaska. The "ion storm" seen in "The Mutant" (a projector beam shining through a container containing glitter in liquid suspension) became the transporter effect in Star Trek. The black mask from "The Duplicate Man", is used by the character Dr. Leighton in "The Conscience of the King". The Megasoid, from "The Duplicate Man" and the Empyrean from "Second Chance" (1964) were seen briefly near Captain Christopher Pike in other cages in the Star Trek pilot "The Cage".
The process used to make pointed ears for David McCallum in "The Sixth Finger" was reused in Star Trek as well. Lead actors who would later appear in the regular cast of Star Trek included Leonard Nimoy, who appeared in two episodes ("Production and Decay of Strange Particles" and "I, Robot") and William Shatner who appeared (in the episode "Cold Hands, Warm Heart") as an astronaut working on a Project Vulcan. Actors who would subsequently appear in the regular supporting cast of Star Trek were Grace Lee Whitney (episode "Controlled Experiment") and James Doohan (episode "Expanding Human"). Roddenberry was often present in The Outer Limits' studios, and hired several of its staff, among them Robert Justman and Wah Chang for the production of Star Trek.
Harlan Ellison contended that inspiration for James Cameron's Terminator had come in part from Ellison's work on The Outer Limits. Cameron conceded the influence. Ellison was awarded money and an end-credits mention in The Terminator (1984), stating the creators' wish "to acknowledge the works of Harlan Ellison". Cameron was against Orion's decision and was told that if he did not agree with the settlement, they would have Cameron pay for any damages if Orion lost Ellison's suit. Cameron replied that he "had no choice but to agree with the settlement. There was a gag order as well."
Filmmaker Kevin Smith has stated that, before offering him the chance to write Superman Lives in 1996, Warner Brothers offered him two projects: a remake of The Architects of Fear and Beetlejuice Goes Hawaiian. On June 20, 2014, The Hollywood Reporter revealed that Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer was developing a film version of The Outer Limits based on the "Demon with a Glass Hand" episode, with Scott Derrickson and C. Robert Cargill writing and Mark Victor producing.
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