Episode no. Season 5
Episode 17 Production code 2618 | Directed by Abner Biberman Original air date January 24, 1964 | |
Written by John Tomerlin (adapted from Charles Beaumont's 1952 story "The Beautiful People") Featured music Stock (from Bernard Herrmann's score for the 1956 CBS Radio Workshop production of "Brave New World") | ||
"Number 12 Looks Just Like You" is an episode of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone.
Contents
Synopsis
In a future society, all young adults go through a process known as "The Transformation," in which each person's body and face are changed to mimic a physically attractive design chosen from a small selection of numbered models. The process gives everyone a beautiful appearance, slows deterioration due to age and extends a person's lifespan, and makes the recipient immune to any kind of disease.
The motive of the Transformation is social harmony. According to Professor Sig (aka Sigmund Friend), a psychologist with the Transformation service, "Years before, wiser men than I ... saw that physical unattractiveness was one of the factors that made men hate, so they charged the finest scientific minds with the task of eliminating ugliness in mankind."
Eighteen-year-old Marilyn Cuberle decides not to undergo the Transformation, seeing nothing wrong with her unaltered appearance. Nobody else can understand Marilyn's decision, and those around her are confused by her displeasure with the conformity and shallowness of contemporary life. Her "radical" beliefs were fostered by her now-deceased father, who gave Marilyn banned books and came to regret his own Transformation years earlier, committing suicide upon the loss of his identity. When Marilyn becomes upset, talking about how the transformation makes everyone beautiful and therefore the same as everyone being ugly, they offer her a glass of "Instant Smile".
Despite continued urging from family, doctors, and her best friend, Marilyn is still adamant about refusing the operation. She insists that the leaders of society don't care whether people are beautiful or not, they just want everyone to be the same. Her pleas about the "dignity of the individual human spirit" and how "when everyone is beautiful, no one will be" have no impact. After being driven to tears by the inability of anyone to understand how she feels, she is put through the procedure and (like all the others) is enchanted with the beautiful result.
Dr. Rex, who operated on Marilyn, comments about how some people have problems with the idea of the Transformation but that "improvements" to the procedure now guarantee a positive result, thus indicating that there may be modifications made to the mind as well. Marilyn reappears, looking and thinking exactly like her best friend Valerie. "And the nicest part of all, Val," she gushes, "I look just like you!" The last shots are of her, admiring herself in the mirror and smiling.
Cultural influence
This episode highlights Hollywood's age-obsession and youthful looks for women. Although Collin Wilcox (b. 1935) and Suzy Parker (b. 1932) had only a three-year age difference, Wilcox played the daughter of Parker's character. Wilcox was aged 29 playing an 18 year old.
The 2005 novel Uglies shares several themes with this episode. It also takes place in a future where teens receive an operation to look 'perfect' and live healthier and longer and centers on a girl who initially refuses the operation.
The band The Number Twelve Looks Like You took their name from the title of this episode.
Charlie Brooker stated in an interview that this episode influenced "Fifteen Million Merits", an episode of his anthology series, Black Mirror.