Episode no. Season 4
Episode 1 Production code 4851 | Directed by Perry Lafferty Original air date January 3, 1963 | |
Written by Charles Beaumont (From his short story.) | ||
"In His Image" is an episode of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone aired on January 3, 1963. This was the first episode of the fourth season. Each episode was expanded to an hour (with commercials) from "In His Image" until "The Bard'". The fourth season is the only season of The Twilight Zone to have each episode one hour long.
Contents
Plot
Alan Talbot seems to be an average man leading a normal life. He falls in love with a woman named Jessica Connelly. One day, he starts hearing strange noises that give him headaches and the urge to kill. He throws a religious fanatic under a train.
He takes Jessica to visit his hometown, but his memory seems to betray him. Nothing in the town is as he remembers. While seeking answers, he comes face to face with his double. It turns out that he is an android created by Walter Ryder in his own image, provided with Walter's memories from twenty years before. Walter has been trying to create a less flawed image of himself with mixed success. Alan is the third such creation, and has been "living" for only eight days. Alan is mentally flawed and can't be fixed; when Walter explains this to him, Alan stabs Walter with a pair of scissors and escapes.
Finally accepting the truth, Alan returns to Walter and tells him about Jessica. Alan wants Walter to replace him with a properly functioning android who will love and care for Jessica, but after seeing a religious pamphlet on which Alan writes Jessica's address for Walter, Alan malfunctions again and tries to kill Walter. After the struggle, the survivor goes to Jessica and asks her to marry him. In the final scene, it is revealed that the survivor is Walter and that Alan's broken form lies amid the wreckage of the laboratory where he was "born".
Allusions
The opening sequence between Alan Talbot and the old woman is sampled in the song, The Seer, The Poet by Killah Priest.
The Rod Serling monologue is also used as the ending of the song "Threatened" by Michael Jackson. The sample ends with a fading echo of the word "beginning" repeated as the sound decreases.