Feb 21, 2021
Out of the Unknown: The Counterfeit Man (1.2, BBC, 1965)
"I've thought about this until I'm sick of thinking about it! I tell you, I'm afraid, I'm so afraid I can't sleep. This... this thing, it's here, it's - it's loose in our ship, and we can't even prove or detect its existence. If it were good, or friendly, or peaceable, it would have made itself known from the start. But it didn't do that. Don't you see what that implies? It murdered. Twice, it murdered."
#Out of the Unknown#The Counterfeit Man#Single play#Alan Nourse#BBC#1965#classic tv#George Spenton Foster#Philip Broadley#Alexander Davion#David Hemmings#Charles tingwell#Peter Fraser#Tony Wager#Keith Buckley#David Savile#Geoffrey Kenion#Barry Ashton#David Munro#Hedger Wallace#Derek Martin#Lew Luton#Oof oof oof. It's tempting whenever watching old TV Sci fi (particularly BBC stuff and particularly 60s stuff) to end up comparing it to Dr#Who; this is only the 2nd ep of OotU but already it's clear that this series had an entirely different remit beyond anything DW could do.#This is a blisteringly dark play that also contains some body horror and gore the likes of which I have never seen in shows contemporary to#It. The final scenes are so horribly tense and disturbing that even tho the direction of the plot is fairly obvious at that point its still#Something you're begging the episode not to do. Oof. Genuine chills from this one. Goofy model rockets and men in rubber suits this is not.#Despite.. Actually featuring both of those... But you know what I mean. The tone. The tone is so horrific. Think The Thing (and I mean the#Carpenter version here) only with more psychological torture and a lot more blonde wigs (yeah idk what the wigs are about it never comes up#I guess the future is just.. Very blonde.)
