The Sixth Finger
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| "The Sixth Finger" |
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"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.
Introduction
A scientist develops the means to advance the evolution of man by hundreds of thousands of years.
Opening narration
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?
Plot
Set in a remote mining town, the story is about a rogue scientist who discovers how to affect the speed of evolutionary mutation. A disgruntled miner who volunteers for the experiment enables the professor to create a being with enhanced mental capabilities, who, incidentally, begins growing an overdeveloped cortex and a "sixth finger" on each hand. But when the mutation process begins to operate independently of the professor's influence, the miner takes control of the experiment. Now equipped with superior intelligence and powers of thought that are capable of great destruction, such as telekinesis, the miner seeks vengeance on the mining town he loathes. Later, however, the miner ends up evolving beyond concepts such as "love" and "hate," and instead intends to turn himself into a pure, shapeless intellect with the help of his girlfriend. Out of love for him, however, she reverses the process at the last second, bringing him back to his former self, though he also appears to die, or at least end up brain-dead, in the process.
Production note
As originally scripted, Griffiths devolves back to a fish. 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.
Closing narration
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, revenge, or the desire for power. Is that not after all the ultimate goal of evolution?
Quote
- The human race has a gift, Professor, a gift that sets it above all the other creatures that abound upon this planet: the gift of thought, of reasoning, of understanding. The highly-developed brain. But the human race has ceased to develop. It struggles for petty comfort and false security; there is no time for thought. Soon there
Cast
- David McCallum – as Gwyllm Griffiths
- Edward Mulhare – as Prof. Mathers
- Jill Haworth – as Cathy Evans
- Nora Marlowe – as Mrs. Ives
- Constance Cavendish – as Gert "the Bread" Evans
- Robert Doyle – as Wilt Morgan
- George Pelling – as Policeman
External links
- Detailed episode guide by 'Monsieur Vincent'
- Template:Tv.com episode