Clifford Simak is a fairly well-know science fiction writer though I am not very familiar with his work. I expected quite a lot by word of mouth, however. And maybe in the hands of OL's first season staff this could have played out more credibly and incredibly. We start off by being injected into a group of students being given a tour of a museum's collection of alien creatures thus far discovered. They are all stuffed and, therefore, dead -- or are supposed to be. However, the creatures are ridiculous in appearance and sport incredibly naive names (Megasoid!? c'mon!). By the time the tour guide (or is he the museum guard?) gets to the Megasoid and provides his ever so brief blurb about the characteristics and habits of this dreaded creature - closeup of the eye reveals that this creature isn't a stuffed museum prop. In fact, it reveals a very human eye looking out of an all too obvious eyehole in a bulky mask. Now I realize that OL doesn't have a budget and their effects don't always hold up well (refer to 'The Man With The Power' and the very visible wires for a levitating boulder), but viewers were able to get around bad effects because the stories eclipsed the lapses imposed by the budgets. In this episode it looks like they didn't even try. The Megasoid is, frankly, terrible. It's a large overly hairy fat kangaroo with a pronounced bony cranium (too hold all of that brain power they keep referring to, I imagine), a huge beak of some kind which probably doesn't function that way since the Megasoid has a very human mouth and teeth (groan). The only part of this costume that registers as potentially worrisome is its claws. Just a terrible costume (and I was able to accept George Barrows' in a gorilla suit with a space helmet in 'Robot Monster'). Even the Megasoid's voice is surprisingly articulate and meek - almost Roddy MacDowall-like.
Well, fortunately the Megasoid is mostly a plot vehicle for a man, who illegally brought this creature to Earth in the first place, to have a sort of clone of himself created with initial programming to kill the Megasoid and then return to the residence at midnight to be destroyed. The 'clone' must not be allowed to live passed five hours or it will begin to resurrect the memories of its source and become 'aware'. Shades of 'Blade Runner!! Considering that this 1964, this concept alone is worthy of a good OL episode and we dump the Megasoid altogether. But for some reason we had to have the ridiculous monster imposing himself on the plot at convenient interludes in order to provide a motivation for the characters.
I am not going to dwell further on this episode since my patience with OL season 2 is just about used up. I admit giving up on season 2 at the 4th episode in 1964 and have only recently seen this. The idea of clones or robot lookalikes and the eventual moral play surrounding this was done so much better in Twilight Zone's 'In His Image'. For me, alas, this is one OL episode I have no desire to see again.
Well, fortunately the Megasoid is mostly a plot vehicle for a man, who illegally brought this creature to Earth in the first place, to have a sort of clone of himself created with initial programming to kill the Megasoid and then return to the residence at midnight to be destroyed. The 'clone' must not be allowed to live passed five hours or it will begin to resurrect the memories of its source and become 'aware'. Shades of 'Blade Runner!! Considering that this 1964, this concept alone is worthy of a good OL episode and we dump the Megasoid altogether. But for some reason we had to have the ridiculous monster imposing himself on the plot at convenient interludes in order to provide a motivation for the characters.
I am not going to dwell further on this episode since my patience with OL season 2 is just about used up. I admit giving up on season 2 at the 4th episode in 1964 and have only recently seen this. The idea of clones or robot lookalikes and the eventual moral play surrounding this was done so much better in Twilight Zone's 'In His Image'. For me, alas, this is one OL episode I have no desire to see again.