User Reviews

In a manner of speaking. This was the first hour long Twilight Zone episode kicking off the fourth season of the series and it was an auspicious start. Most of the twenty five minute episodes blew by so quickly they seemed to be about half that length. Correspondingly, this one felt like it was a half hour show. At a time almost fifty years after the debut of this story, science and technology have progressed to the point that an Alan Talbot is closer to possibility than ever before. I'm not sure that's such a good thing, no matter how miraculous it might seem. There are always the unintended consequences, often coming at a time when it's too late for things to be undone.

Interestingly, the thought that came to me during the scene when Talbot (George Grizzard) peeled back his synthetic skin had to do with "The Terminator", and that film came out a little more than twenty years later. Can it be? The director of that film and 'In His Image' turns out to be the same guy - James Cameron! Talk about a Twilight Zone moment. This would have all made a lot more sense if the federal government weren't consulting Cameron on how to confront the Mexican Gulf oil spill disaster. Thankfully, that was in and out of the news in the span of about twenty four hours.

Besides the hour long format, this episode also managed to blend sci-fi and horror into a compelling story. Talbot's faulty memories manage to keep the viewer guessing until the payoff, at which point one wonders what direction the story will take to a resolution. In that respect, the finale falls back on a tried and true formula, with writers Serling and Charles Beaumont completing a twist with their lead character to close out the story. It might have been interesting for Jessica (Gail Gobe) to smoke out the 'phony' Alan Talbot, but that probably would have required a feature length movie.

This was the first hour long episode of "The Twilight Zone". This was something they just did for Season 4. It was weird watching these episodes because they really did feel more like movies. Again, could you make a Twilight Zone movie with just one long segment? Well, that wouldn't seem loyal to the series. Anyway, this episode features a guy who goes to his old hometown and finds things different, as if twenty years have passed.

He meets a guy who looks like him who reveals that he's a machine he created. I'm glad this wasn't the twist of the episode. He remembers things twenty years ago because that's the time his creator lived in that town and implanted those memories into him. The machine fell in love with a woman he soon plans to marry. At first, it's ambiguous whether or not the original person appears at the end, but then we reveal it is him. I guess it's more or less a happy ending. ****

The episode run-time has doubled and In His Image is a poor showcase. It could potentially offer something great, but with frequent duds like this it may become unbearable. Alan finds out his memories aren't real and that he's a robot with the urge to kill. The human creator himself steps into the identical robot's situation and gets the muscular girl, who my money would be on, if Walter happens to exhibit any of the violent tendencies of that of his creation.

Walter Ryder tries to make a perfect version of himself and he does to a point only it's that version we met first and he's called Alan Talbot. He has a murderous range but he also has a finacee and a background that doesn't seem to exist . Alan also finds something disturbing about himself ,something physical. This leads him unexpectldy to discover his creator Walter Ryder. Walter explains it all he's genius but not as personable or confident as he wishes .There were many failures before Alan . Now he's suceeded too well but not without the mentioned issues. This is the first of the hour long episodes and in some ways the best although many won't agree with that. In a way it's the most interesting of the hour long episodes and like The New Exhibit makes the best use of the hour format. I't a combination of science fiction with a dash of horror some mystery and romance mixed in but ultimeately not too dark . Strong performances by George Grizzard and Gail Kobe make you car about the characters. A story by Charles Beaumont and outstanding direction by Perry Lafferty make it one of the most interesting TZ episodes .

George Grizzard is a nice enough young man except one night on a lonely subway platform he begins to hear this electronic monkey music in his head and pushes an old lady to her death in front of an oncoming train.

This puzzles him a little, because after all he's an electrical engineer who works on computers, is visiting New York City, and in just a few days has met a pretty and companionable young woman who dotes on him. So where did that impulse to kill come from? Well, he overcomes his doubt and takes his girl friend, Gail Kobe, on a trip to his home town of Couerville to meet Aunt Mildred. (The viewer may or may not be surprised to learn that the back roads of upstate New York are shaded by eucalyptus trees.) Only they arrive in Couerville to find that things aren't what Grizzard remembers them to be. The hotel no longer has a restaurant. A modern new building appears to have been built in the past week. Aunt Mildred's house belongs to a burly and irritable stranger. The university where he works doesn't exist. The names on the headstones in the family plot are different from his own.

So far, so good. Grizzard may not know where he is but regular viewers will recognize that he is now in the town of Twilight Zone, New York, 13905. It's one of those stories in which a man without a past must discover his identity.

Before they return to New York City, Grizzard suffers a slight wound in his wrist and discovers that the inside of his forearm is filled with wires, cables, and electrical doodads, much like Arnold's in "The Terminator." Back in the city, Grizzard manages to run into his own inventor, a Doppelgänger who is a genius but a shy loner. He invented Grizzard as a phantom who would fulfill the inventor's own dreams, gave him his own twenty-year-old memories. But things have evidently gone awry.

Grizzard's brain isn't working the way it's supposed to. The electronic whirrs and sounds of static signal the breakthrough of promitive impulses to kill. The most recently evolved, the most sophisticated part of the brain not only serves as a center for reasoning but one of its main functions is to damp down those primitive pre-human impulses. He got that right, although he didn't put it quite that way. Beaumont, the writer, must have been boning up on Hughlings Jackson, the British neurologist. Medical discretion forbids the revelation of further plot points.

George Grizzard has always been a likable actor, projecting affability and common sense. He didn't come out until late in life. Frankly I didn't want to see either Grizzard the robot or Grizzard the inventor get hurt. Gail Kobe is attractive but thirtyish, a dangerous milestone for a woman, and her yearning to "build a home" (what a revolting phrase) is almost palpable. The second half of the film slows down a bit, what with all that exposition going on, but it's interesting in itself. It's the kind of explanation that the half-hour shows rarely had time to get into.

Anyway, I enjoyed it. Good performances, good effects, engaging story. What more could you ask for?

Alan Talbot (George Grizzard) wants to introduce Jessica (Gail Kobe), the woman he intends to marry, to his Aunt Mildred, but when they arrive in the sleepy town of Coeurville, it seems as though twenty years have passed since Alan last visited the place, just over a week ago. As Alan tries to solve the mystery, he uncovers the shocking truth about his existence.

I think that the original 25 minute format of The Twilight Zone is part of what made it so great: short, snappy tales of the bizarre that didn't waste any time with unecessary plot padding. The short format definitely helped when the material wasn't that strong as well... even the weak tales didn't feel much like wasted time. That said, there was the occasional episode that did feel like it could benefit from a bit more exposition...

In His Image is the first episode of Season Four of the show, in which each story was expanded to fifty minutes. Doubling the length allows for more build up and detail, which works well in this instance, director Perry Lafferty using the extra minutes to skilfully craft the mystery surrounding his protagonist's bizarre predicament. Trying to cram it all into less than half an hour simply wouldn't have worked. The result is a lot of fun, helped by a solid turn from Grizzard as both Alan and his creator Walter Ryder, a scientist whose dream it was to build a more perfect version of himself. It looks as though he succeeded, apart from his replica's uncontrollable urges to kill!

7.5/10, rounded up to 8 for the ending, in which Ryder replaces his replica and gets the gal.

N. B. The robot circuitry in the wrist effect surely inspired Stan Winston for The Terminator.

Another warning from the twilight zone...don't create yourself.

One thing of note was how the inventor stated he wanted to create a perfect replica of a human, with feelings and a nervous system that mimicked humans. However the "Allen" replica had no nerve sensations as shown when he lit a match under his hand.

Also, the "machine" murdered a human being at the beginning of the episode, that was never addressed and justice was never served...in the twilight zone.

Also the actress that played Jessica reminded me a lot of a young Anne Bancroft.

The four stars are for Gail Kobe. She was the only good thing about this genuinely bad episode. The story starts off on a weird note. Once Gail appears, you see the possibility of things improving. Not so. The story just reverts back to more weirdness. The George Grizzard character is clearly troubled. He does strange. Things and he's not sure why. I wasn't sure either, nor did I particularly care. As an example of the sudden hour-long format, this episode completely lacks the sublety and suspense that were typical of the half-hour shows. There can't be suspense when nothing generates your interest, in the first place. In the end, Grizzard's character finds out he is a robot. A spoiler, but there's not much here to spoil. This episode is also completely devoid of humor. The expression on Grizzard's face never changes. Again, Gail Kobe was the only bright spot here. She gave this stupid episode better than it deserved.