This was one of the 2nd season shows, produced after the departure of the great Joe Stefano-Leslie Stevens team. As has been related in the book "The Outer Limits Companion", ABC-TV never quite understood the whole premise of "The Outer Limits," and was always pushing for a standard "monster-of-the-week" show. Ben Brady, the network-picked successor to Stefano-Stevens, knew he had to give them what they wanted, and so many of the 2nd Season episodes with promising story-lines got "mucked up" by the unnecessary inclusion of an alien or monster. "The Duplicate Man" is a case in point -- what started out as an interesting psychological and philosophical piece regarding cloning and the moral questions it raises sadly got dragged down by the presence of an alien.
In this case a ridiculous-looking "Megasoid" -- with costume parts left over from the 1st season's Empyrian of the "Second Chance" episode (played by Simon Oakland). This may have been economical, but the Empyrian was not among the great OL aliens to begin with. Not only is the Megasoid rather cheesy, and speaks with a surprisingly weak human voice, but it just doesn't seem very menacing. Hard to see why this Megasoid is worthy of the vast dread it obviously inspires among all the characters. So allegedly "dangerous and menacing" is the beast that Henderson James, who's shown as something of a coward, resorts to cloning himself so his duplicate will go out and kill it.
There are some serious plot holes regarding the first appearance of the Megasoid, as well. We're told that it was James, himself, who illegally imported the thing to earth a couple years before, but no explanation is given as to how it was suddenly able to break out of the room in his garden-house where it's been kept all this time. The iron bars are twisted like spaghetti -- but why didn't the Megasoid do this long before? Our first view of the Megasoid is while it's hiding out in a museum, in the display for a Megasoid, but there's no explanation of why it even went there. The duplicate James shows up at the museum armed with only a pistol (a snub-nosed .38 modified to look "futuristic") and succeeds in wounding it with one shot. Granted, at the end it does take a few more bullets to drop the Megasoid, but is this is the terror that all humanity has come to live in fear of? Aside from entering a "reproductive stage" the Megasoid's motives are murky; at times it seems to be simply sitting back and enjoying the show, telling the duplicate what he is, then watching the resulting melodrama.
The story does touch on some weighty moral issues, such as at what point does a clone become truly "human", and what is the morality of destroying these obviously living, feeling duplicates. Also how it is seemingly okay for the government to create these duplicates, but Henderson James subjects himself to "life imprisonment" for bootlegging one. The plot also highlights how, in turnabout fashion, the duplicate slowly gains emotions and memories of James' life, and it is he whom exhibits much more humanity, while the real James has become totally unfeeling and uncaring. When the duplicate comes home, James' wife notices the difference and correctly guesses the truth, and even seems to desire the duplicate take her real husband's place. The climax of the story is well-handled, with a nice twist woven in, and is photographed so we don't know immediately which of the two Henderson James' has been killed by the Megasoid.
This was definitely a story that, under the previous "Outer Limits" regime, might have dispensed with the alien altogether and concentrated on the moral dilemma of the situation. Many top OL episodes managed to delve into psychological and moral issues without resorting to an overt monster/alien menace (or at least keeping such menace in the background). Even the 2nd season's "I Robot" managed to keep the proceedings on a high philosophical plain, despite the actual presence of a robot as the major protagonist of the story-line. Still, for it's obvious warts, "The Duplicate Man" is an interesting, if not altogether successful, episode. (And worth a look for the famous futuristic "Chemosphere House" in Los Angeles -- the exteriors being filmed on location at the house!)
In this case a ridiculous-looking "Megasoid" -- with costume parts left over from the 1st season's Empyrian of the "Second Chance" episode (played by Simon Oakland). This may have been economical, but the Empyrian was not among the great OL aliens to begin with. Not only is the Megasoid rather cheesy, and speaks with a surprisingly weak human voice, but it just doesn't seem very menacing. Hard to see why this Megasoid is worthy of the vast dread it obviously inspires among all the characters. So allegedly "dangerous and menacing" is the beast that Henderson James, who's shown as something of a coward, resorts to cloning himself so his duplicate will go out and kill it.
There are some serious plot holes regarding the first appearance of the Megasoid, as well. We're told that it was James, himself, who illegally imported the thing to earth a couple years before, but no explanation is given as to how it was suddenly able to break out of the room in his garden-house where it's been kept all this time. The iron bars are twisted like spaghetti -- but why didn't the Megasoid do this long before? Our first view of the Megasoid is while it's hiding out in a museum, in the display for a Megasoid, but there's no explanation of why it even went there. The duplicate James shows up at the museum armed with only a pistol (a snub-nosed .38 modified to look "futuristic") and succeeds in wounding it with one shot. Granted, at the end it does take a few more bullets to drop the Megasoid, but is this is the terror that all humanity has come to live in fear of? Aside from entering a "reproductive stage" the Megasoid's motives are murky; at times it seems to be simply sitting back and enjoying the show, telling the duplicate what he is, then watching the resulting melodrama.
The story does touch on some weighty moral issues, such as at what point does a clone become truly "human", and what is the morality of destroying these obviously living, feeling duplicates. Also how it is seemingly okay for the government to create these duplicates, but Henderson James subjects himself to "life imprisonment" for bootlegging one. The plot also highlights how, in turnabout fashion, the duplicate slowly gains emotions and memories of James' life, and it is he whom exhibits much more humanity, while the real James has become totally unfeeling and uncaring. When the duplicate comes home, James' wife notices the difference and correctly guesses the truth, and even seems to desire the duplicate take her real husband's place. The climax of the story is well-handled, with a nice twist woven in, and is photographed so we don't know immediately which of the two Henderson James' has been killed by the Megasoid.
This was definitely a story that, under the previous "Outer Limits" regime, might have dispensed with the alien altogether and concentrated on the moral dilemma of the situation. Many top OL episodes managed to delve into psychological and moral issues without resorting to an overt monster/alien menace (or at least keeping such menace in the background). Even the 2nd season's "I Robot" managed to keep the proceedings on a high philosophical plain, despite the actual presence of a robot as the major protagonist of the story-line. Still, for it's obvious warts, "The Duplicate Man" is an interesting, if not altogether successful, episode. (And worth a look for the famous futuristic "Chemosphere House" in Los Angeles -- the exteriors being filmed on location at the house!)
