The Outer Limits: The Sixth Finger

This is the absolute universal episode because the theme of Man's Evolution is always fascinating. This seminal Celtic segment makes reference to Hegel's theory of the Master and the Slave ("Must the pupil explain to the teacher?") and as in "The Man With The Power", the emotions (but also the social frustration) ruin the scientifical advancement and here, alters the moral values of the human guinea pig ("The whole town must be utterly destroyed... An example must be made!"). As in "The Hundred Days of the Dragon", a scientist measures the skull's size of his subject. The top-notch acting of David McCallum who plays a bitter young coalminer (a hidden reference to the long corridor can be figured out throughtout the fate of the mine), from a village of Wales, accused by his boss of being a subversive agitator ("spreading discontent, and acting myself superior..."), turned into a tyrannic and hypercephalic superman who quickly plays Johann Sebastian Bach's "The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I" (Prelude n° 2 in C minor and 5 in D, followed by Fugue n° 5 in D and Prelude n° 1 in C) a la Glen Gould, deals with Man everlasting conformism and wants to become a god ("... a vortex of pure intelligence in space...") makes this episode unforgettable—the episode introduces to the audience the concept of “speed learn” when super Gwyllm quickly absorbs books and scores: "Fetch me books... books about everything... all the books you have. I want to read them all, do you understand?". The religious side is mentioned twice: first, Bach (1685-1750), the religious organ-harpsichord composer and then, the Man's destiny: "... he first learned the idea of the angels!" Gwyllm's anti-mass conformism statement ("It struggles for petty comfort and false security; there is no time for thought") is a criticism of Western World's artificial hedonist and materialistic way of life which keep Man from elaborating any interior and metaphysics art of living. As in "The Galaxy Being", the bear deals with the concept of "infinity" but in the context of the Mankind's future. The first part of the piano's soliloquy is actually written by Joseph Stefano: "Amazing, isn't it, the things that endure the ravages of time and taste? This simple prelude, for instance. Bach will quite probably outlive us all...". The makeup is still very convincing thanks to John Chambers' uncredited input. This is a cult episode; in a way, a tribute to James Whales' "Frankenstein" due to the man-made monster in a remote rural land ("It was in her mind to run to the village and arise its inhabitant. They'll come with their primitive weapons to obliterate me.") and director James Goldstone's finest one with the best-remembered dialogue of the series: "Your ignorance makes me ill and angry. Your savagness must end." When Professor Mathers contradicts cold the new superior moral values and is pushed back by Gwyllm's will, the backwire is visible. Music supervisor John Elizalde adds a bit from a "Stoney Burke" episode: "Point of Entry". TV Analogy: two episodes of "Star Trek" season 1 make reference to "The Sixth Finger" themes, first a superhuman with growing abilities and ambitions in "Where No Man Has Gone Before" (directed again by James Goldstone), second, a race of beings capable of turning into spiritual forms (bodyless) with noble moral values not spoiled by the psyche and the flesh in "Errand of Mercy". Notes: Stuntman Janos Prohaska plays Darwin the evolved Monkey (notice the name). David McCallum returns in "The Forms of Things Unknown" and Robert Doyle in "Expanding Human".