Customer Reviews

Outer Limits: Demon With Glass Hand [VHS]

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Simply put, the best Outer Limits episode ever made. This because of, not in spite of, the bugetary limitations imposed on the second season.

Robert Culp playes Trent, a man without memory being chased by the insidious Kyban. Outworlders who conquored the Earth 1,000 years in the future, but have gone back in time to capture Trent to find out just where the 70 Billion earthlings have dissapeared to. The secret lies within Trent's glass hand. A computer that knows all the answers IF Trent can capture the three "memory lobes" or fingers the Kyban possess. Almost all the action takes place inside the Dixon Building where Trent finds Consuela Byros, a poor clothsmaker who eventually falls in love with Trent.

This one packs real tension as Trent scurries through hallways and up staircases to find the Kyban Time Mirror. Robert Culp is superb in what may be his finest performance. His cat-like moves through the building, the budding romance between him and the hapless girl, and the incredable music are highlights. Complete with a bombshell of an ending that's brilliantly hinted at throughout the episode, but whose revalation is still a shock.

Of course, no review would be complete without little nitpicks. The Kyban are nothing more than humans with bad eyeshadow and shower caps. While Trent's glass hand is a marvelous creation, the way it raises and lowers on the screen is not well executed. And this episode continues the Outer Limits tradition of NOT GUARDING ANYBODY, NO MATTER WHAT. Allowing the hero or villan to escape. Still, these are very minor nits and certainly doesn't detract from what is the finest episode in the Outer Limits original series.

The odd thing is, if this episode had been given a proper budget, I don't think it would have pulled it off as well. A lesson for producers and directors everywhere who think more money will solve the problem.

There's no way this thing should work, but it does, and brilliantly. The story is an overkill combination of pulp sci-fi elements: invaders from another world, time travel, and robots. It's performed as '40s noir melodrama, and succeeds by audaciousness and deadpan delivery. Amazingly, its reach does not exceed its grasp.

A thousand years in the future, Trent awakens in a world devoid of all humans but himself, surrounded by alien invaders called the Kyben who appear to be dying of some plague. He escapes through a Kyben time-mirror into 1964, and the aliens pursue him as though their life depends on it - which it does. One of Trent's hands is a computer, made of glass. And the Kyben somehow know the hand contains the answer to where the seventy billion conquered future Earthmen mysteriously disappeared overnight, as well as the solution to the plague that is equally mysteriously killing them off. A handful of Kyben imprison themselves in the Bradbury Building with Trent by means of a "force bubble," where they play a deadly game of cat-and-mouse.

The Kyben are men with dark circles around their eyes and showercaps tight over their heads (some of whom also wear nylon masks), in simple black leotards and gloves. Their weaponry, and Trent's, is nothing more than revolvers and everyday bullets - presumably, though it is never explained, to call less attention to themselves in 1964. The effects are as simple and cheap as the costumes, yet the whole is far greater than the sum of its parts. Harry Lubin's bizarre, atonal electronic score is highly effective at providing an otherworldly feel to the otherwise seemingly prosaic melodrama. The performances are serious as a heart attack, and generally underplayed for greater effect.

This one has to be seen, if for no other reason than to demonstrate the fact that great science-fiction does not require any kind of budget or incredible special effects - the script and the performances, and clever production, carry it all off.

Really a unique piece.

As great and original as many of the episodes of the Outer Limits were, 'The Demon With a Glass Hand' seems to stand alone.

Images that stick out in my mind: Robert Culp slinking around, sleek as a black cat. Tense, well-timed chases, and a general film-noir atmosphere that seemed to transcend the usual, sometimes cheesy, but always earnestness of your usual Outer Limits episode.

In retrospect, the Outer Limits seems to enjoy a greater reverence than its more well-funded cousin, the Twilight Zone. Actually, there were some real 'WOOF's in there, and probably only about a half dozen or so truly great episodes.

The Demon With a Glass Hand is perhaps the best of the best of these. It is truly a treat, especially for those uninitiated to the golden age of serialized science fiction on TV.

Some things should not be remade -- this episode of "The Outer Limits" is one those timeless pieces of drama that shouldn't be touched by another production team.
"Demon With a Glass Hand" is one of those jewels you keep looking at over and over again throughout the years. Sure it has rough spots -- the shower caps and eyeliner is one of those. To me, that makes this episode all the more endearing.
The eerie Black & White cinema photography (it was shot in 1964 when TV still had access to older film crews who had come through the studio system learning their craft on great B&W motion pictures back in the 1930s and 1940s) stirs a noir sense about the piece. It's got sort of a "Casablanca," "Lady of the Lake "and "D.O.A." feel to it. If it were to be remade today, this would most certainly be out the door (unless Ridley Scott wanted to do it, but he'd probably say he's already done this type of film before).
Set in the distant future, Robert Culp is Trent, and he has a mission of protecting humanity all of whom are stored on a copper wire. He's got to recover several "fingers" from his glass hand, which in reality is a computer/navigation/advisor for Trent.
Stuck in the remarkably timeless Bradbury Building in L.A. (seen Blade Runner? Then you'll know it.) Trent moves through the action of the plot in a literal up-and-down linear fashion -- unable to leave the building due to a force field. He battles beings from another time that, predictably, want to snuff out humanity. Along the way, he teams up with a woman who owns a dress making shop, Consuelo Biros, who starts to develop feelings for Trent.
I don't want to give too much away, just watch this episode.
An aside: Robert Culp is a real performer. He's not only an actor but a writer and director and a craftsman. It shows in his work. His three episode work on "The Outer Limits" sort of identifies him with the show to my mind. He was in "The Architects of Fear,""Corpus Earthling" and "Demon With a Glass Hand." All excellent, individual episodes, and probably the best, if not certainly three of the top five, from "The Outer Limits" vault.

Once again, "Outer Limits" has excelled in its portal of human nature. Yes we know it is a Harlan Hellison script and adjusted slightly for Robert Culp, unlike the hatchet job done to his script in "Star Trek - The Original Series, Episode 28: The City On the Edge Of Forever (1966) see my review June 10, 2000"

Trent starts his day confused and does not remember much history. He discovers his hand is glass and conversant. Trent must go through the process, as we all must, of discovering the purpose of his hand and himself. Pursued by bad guys (aliens), and befriended by a cleaning lady of who gains affection for him, he discovers the purpose. In the process, we may also learn a little about human nature.

A wonderful, if somewhat complex time travel story from the brilliant Harlan Ellison, finely played by Robert Culp. When I first saw this, we weren't so sophisticated so the cheesy alien costumes didn't detract. Until Blade Runner (ironicly filmed in and around the same Bradbury building--a distant relative of Ray Bradbury, no less!) this episode was the best fusion of science fiction and film noir, bar none. Worth watching for the lighting and camera angles alone--and yes, the Bradbury building was also the setting for the classic D.O.A. To think that this program was knocked off the air by the Jackie Gleason show! But then there are those who think Lost In Space was like Masterpiece Theatre.

This episode is one of the best of the original Outer Limits' second season, after the budget axe fell and the show's creators left. It was one of two OL episodes scripted by Harlan Ellison, who wrote some of the best episodes of 1960's TV scifi, including Star Trek. "Demon..." is a great show, and reflects a sharp contrast against today's standard of big-budget special effects and vacuously stupid "stories" peopled by obnoxious stereotypes designed not to offend anyone's socially conscious sensibilities. Flaws in the storyline (why are the amulets within such easy reach, as one reviewer here notes) give "Demon" an edge like the brute illogic of a nightmare, and thus do not diminish its mood, which is powerful, lingering, and enhanced by a great musical score and murky, almost "artsy" black and white photography. Likewise, it is refreshing in today's era to have a female character allowed to be frightened--dramatic credibility takes precedence here (YES!). As with all OL episodes, this comes from a time before story believability was sacrificed on the altar of "political correctness". This show will only gain stature as a classic with time, but you might not like it if things like "Independence Day", postclassic Star Trek shows, or the abysmal "Ripley Trilogy" (i.e., the "Alien" sequels) are more your speed.

Harlan Ellison's breathtakingly imaginative script dares to tell a tale about time travel, interstellar war, aliens, force fields and an immortal robot, and set it in a sealed hotel with a cast of a half dozen people. Never has so much been done with so little. Exciting, moving, and genuinely Epic. My pick for the greatest single episode of any science fiction television show.

My all-time favorite O.L. episode. For better or worse, as the New O.L. series wound down, and it appeared that the producers were beginning to run short of material, coupled with the proir remakes of several other original episodes(I,Robot, Nightmare, Feasability Study) they certainly missed a sure thing by passing over "Demon". With newer, more modern special effects & support, this episode could have again been a series best.
The only serious problem may have been casting an actor of equal caliber to follow Robert Culp repoducing the role of Trent. Who today could equal Culp's intense persona & cat-like moves. Too bad, we will never know now!

I have to admit that this is one of my favorite episodes, so my opinion may be a little bias. This is another classic episode from 1963, in times when TV was still new and the special effects where lousy at best. But what made these episodes so great was the superb story, writing and performances by actors like Robert Culp. I have watched this episode only twice: once when I was a kid and a few years ago, after becoming "senior citizen", and both times I felt the same excitement and awe.