"Number 12 Looks Just Like You"

"Number 12 Looks Just Like You"

A woman resists efforts to give her perfect beauty.

Stars Collin Wilcox, Suzy Parker, Richard Long.
Original air date: January 24, 1964.

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An underrated and wrongfully ignored episode, definitely a ten.

Early in the show, Marilyn's mother shows a disdain for the maid,
referring to her as "you people" despite the fact
that she is played by the same actress!

I think this is an indication that even when we all look alike,
humans will find new ways to hate each other.

I really go back and forth on this one. I was fascinated by this ep as a child. But as an adult I see it differently

Pros:

Brilliant acting by Collin Wilcox
Believable performances by the others showing their superficiality
Good moral of the story about conforming/non-conforming
The full figure look being the norm

Cons:

I have always been disappointed by Marilyn's caving in. Some on the board believe she didn't have a choice. But it isn't really clear at the moment when the final decision is made. She seems to stand so firm in her convictions and loved her father and his beliefs. For her to just conform doesn't track.

Further thoughts:

I think if Richard Long had lived long enough this performance would have made him a shoe-in for a guest starring role in "Will and Grace" as an older love interest of Will or Jack!!! Love the leotard and finger thing. Long would have been 78 this year.

Leen

I think it's a good idea for an episode, but it just doesn't have much energy for me. I would have liked more of an edge, and of course more energy. I agree with Kanamit about the "you people" moment, that is a nice touch. And I like Collin Wilcox,, but other than that it just doesn't really grab me in any earth-shaking way.

Gave it an 8. It really said a lot that is important BUT the ending was so disappointing to me! Still though, a really great episode about human nature...

It's not bad.

I just thought that Marilyn, in trying to escape, runs right INTO the transformation chamber, was WAY too predictable.

And it was nice to see women who looked like women, and not Barbie dolls come to life!

SPOILER

It's hard to determine what actually happens at the end of this episode.
Why does Marilyn seem to disappear so completely?
The new Marilyn is not the old Marilyn in body OR mind.
Has the process become more efficient since her father's time?

I hadn't thought about that. It's a nice point. Not that we ever have a way of finding out, but a reasonable explanation is that her father's behavior (and perhaps that of many others) might have convinced the Powers That Be that the Transformation process was flawed and needed fixing, which has since occurred.

Another good question is how old Mr. Cuberle was when he was Transformed. Was he only 19, the dictated age of transformation? If he then committed suicide soon afterwards, how did Marilyn have time to know him, or maybe even be born? Perhaps the age was lowered at the same time the process was fixed (maybe one of the flaws was that people had too much time in their old bodies to acquire subversive thoughts), or men and women were Transformed at different ages.

Yes, "The new Marilyn is not the old Marilyn in body OR mind." That's the whole point of the conclusion. Transformation is both physical and mental.

As for her failure to escape, I've always assumed that she sees escape is impossible, so she just lets herself be led away in a daze. It's the same logic in force when condemned prisoners walk the Last Mile without a struggle.

SPOILER

It certainly seems as if Marilyn and her father had enough interaction
so as to allow such "subversive" attitudes to foment in her mind.

But how did her father retain his sense of personal identity for so long?
How strong-willed must he have been to survive such an ordeal?

And only to kill himself? Did he really? Or was he eliminated?
There's already an "official" account of his death, which is fictitious.

For a character so absent from the story, he carries much mystique.
And how did such a strong-willed person as Marilyn change so completely?

It might not have been that long. Almost all of that sense of personal identity might have occurred before the Transformation.

As for Marilyn, I figure that the Transformation was a thorough brainwashing beyond anything she could control.

I watched this one again today. This really is an excellent episode in the sociology department.

It is very deep (Marilyn and her insight) and very shallow (everybody else's lack of insight) all at the same time.

Not only is one's individuality in looks taken away but so is one's individuality in mind! There must be a brainwashing accessory added during the procedure.

The ending reminded me of when Janet Tyler just so happened to run into the room where Edson Stroll was waiting. I watched carefully to see if Marilyn changed her mind, but she really didn't. She just accepted the reality that they were going to transform her no matter what. I still don't like that part of it.

Leen

I find "Number 12" and "Ninety Years Without Slumbering" disturbing for similar reasons. Both characters fight so hard for what they believe only to have miraculous conversions at the end. Perhaps Leen is right--maybe there was an added brainwashing accessory in "Number 12."

As I see it, Janet Tyler never makes peace with her circumstances. It's precisely that tension at the end of the episode that makes "Eye of the Beholder" so powerful and memorable.

great episode..very underrated

my take
at the end marilyn is trying to run away from the hospital but when she runs into the operating room she just gives up. i think when she talks with val at the hospital marilyn realises that the transformation is more than just physical and when she runs to the operating room she knows that there is nothing she can do.

time problems with the episode.. it is said that marilyn's father died five years before yet val tells marilyn that she knows marilyn has had nine fathers since the first. though plausible, seems unusual for us, so maybe time is different for them.

and i agree that the transformation process has improved since the previous generation. just the difference between lana and val.. lana reprimands the maid for calling her madam while nothing really seems to bother val.. even when marilyn screams at her about her father.

-ag

8
I would have thought this to be a Matheson creation, as the ending is outright horrifying.

A very powerful story. The ending is quite devastating. Collin Wilcox and Richard Long were both terrific in their roles. The only negatives, in my opinion, were the performances of Pamela Austin and Suzy Parker. I can certainly see the rationale for hiring both actresses as they were both clearly epitomes of the beauty standards that society apparently possessed.

Personally, I believe that Suzy Parker and Pam Austin were perfectly suited
for their roles as vapid beauties, but I am unsure if real acting was required.
If it was, I apologize to these fine thespians. The result is truly frightening.

regarding the acting skills of suzy parker and pam austin.. i think it was part of the transformation of #8 and #12 to act the way they did. nothing seems to bother them and they are happy. they may not be "master thespians", but their acting, at least to me, fit the roles they were playing.

I gave it a one but only because there's no zero option. This boring episode is nothing more than a cup of instant sleep for me.

A solid "10" from me, making my top 20 list. It has the most frightening ending of any episode for me.

One'a my fav episodes I say 10!

Highly underrated epsiode! It's definitely creepy! I felt so sad for Marilyn in the end! It reminds me of Eye Of The Beholder, because you have a woman who doesn't want to be the way society says she has to be. She wants to be her own self! Very sad.

I saw this in Hollywood recently...

http://img60.imageshack.us/img60/2020/photo00348vc.th.jpg

WHISKEY A GO GO? Is that where you've been hanging?

Actually I was on my way to play a gig at the Viper Room when I passed this and just had to get a picture. If I weren't playing myself I probably would have gone in to hear "Number 12". I haven't been to the Whiskey in a while, and I don't miss it.

I watched this one yet again this am. As I mentioned upteen times I was always bothered by the fact Marilyn caved without notice. Well I saw one clue today as to what may have happened besides her running into the transporter room (hehe)

After Marilyn tells him she doesn't want the transformation and saying, "You can't make me do it can you?!" Dr. Rex says, "You see the problem is simply to discover why you don't want it and then make the necessary corrections."

Perhaps without our seeing it, this is what happened.

My daughter says Dr. Rex's pinky thing to the mouth is a mannerism of Dr. Evil in Austin Powers.

I think this Episode is pretty cool, some of the elements in there are actual fact in our society today, pretty scary somtimes how TZ actually made predictions that are fact today.

That is why i like the TZ simply becuase the insight the writers had at that time is now fact today.

i gave it a 9 based on my post above.

MP0

A very strong 9! As with the problems mentioned by Leen & Dan, I would have scored it a 10. Shades of the Obsolete Man State approved mandates and EotB Totalatrian Conformity themes.

Why did she go so willingly and comeout so completely changed? Maybe as Dan states, she realized resistance was futile. Yes, not only do you get a new body but an attitude adjustment to go along with it to never question the state or the lifestyle they have presented you with.

How old was her father when he had the transformation? Probabaly much older than 19, and he probabaly wasn't the only suicide afterwards. I'm taking the Logan's Run train of thought on this and saying 30 was the original age. But, by then, everyone was accustomed too their bodies, so they lowered it - maybe more than once - until they found the suitable age of 19. {Note: 1964 at 18 you could serve in the mlitary - but still couldn't vote!} Just my rational behind this episode.

DrM

I think her father had the transformation at 19 as well. I always got the impression that the Ganymede project was an attempt to improve on the transformation, but it didn't work.

The math doesn't exactly work for that. We may infer that his suicide occurred not too long after his transformation, but during his lifetime he had conversations with Marilyn that she couldn't have been all that young to comprehend. Even if she were an impressionable five-year-old, that would have made him her father at age 14 at most.

I'm more inclined to believe that cases such as his led to a drastic lowering of the transformation age.

Happy 2520th post, Dan!

Oh, yes, that's right. The least common multiple of all of the integers from 1 through 10 is 2520, isn't it? It's amazing what milestones we can find.

Just to get this back on topic, 2520 is a multiple of both 12 and 8 -- but not 17, I'm afraid. Might that be the real reason for Mr. Cuberle's suicide?

That's odd.

Seroiusly, I've noticed before that both women's numbers that we see are even and the man's number that we see is odd. I would imagine that this is no accident.

That's odd.

That's not odd, Captain. Odd is when you go thirty days on the line and you don't lose a man. That's odd! Odd is when you walk twenty-five miles and you don't get a blister. Now you're talking odd! This isn't odd, Captain -- this is nightmare!

Speaking of odd my daughter thought it so that Marilyn didn't even choose #12.

That may have been artistic license so that Mother Cuberle at least looked older than Daughter Cuberle. One item not addressed in the episode is entire families, spanning several generations, all looking exactly alike, even in age.

I love this one. You really feel for Marilyn. There she is, making impassioned pleas for freedom, soul, the dignity of the human spirit, and all she gets in return are dumb looks and comments like "Gee honey, you seem upset." ARRRRGH!

Unlike many people, I think the ending is just right. Just as power corrupts, so does privilege. When you don't have it, it's easy to hate it. Once you do, it's much easier to enjoy it.

Having said that, I also think it's one of the saddest endings in the Zone.

Really? I found the ending to be nothing less than horrifying.

I thought it was sad because it showed how even heroic rebels can be bought off. Like that Jackson Browne song, The Pretender -- "You started out so young and strong/only to surrender."

i watch this episode on tv but didn't tape it but i shadow have it has good music too it