Title: “People Are Alike All Over”
Original transmission date: March 25 1960
Written by: Rod Serling, based on a story by Paul Fairman
Directed by: Mitchell Leising
Starring: Roddy McDowall as Sam Conrad
Susan Oliver as Teenya
Paul Comi as Warren Marcusson
Byron Morrow as First Martian
Vic Perrin as Second Martian
Vernon Gray as Third Martian
Setting: Earth
Timeframe: Some time in the future (not specified)
Theme(s): Fear, loneliness, animal cruelty, imprisonment, isolation, betrayal
Parodied? Many times. By
Futurama, for one
Rating: A++
Serling’s opening monologue
You're looking at a species of flimsy little two-legged animal with extremely small heads, whose name is Man. Warren Marcusson, age thirty-five. Samuel A. Conrad, age thirty-one. They're taking a highway into space, Man unshackling himself and sending his tiny, groping fingers up into the unknown. Their destination is Mars, and in just a moment we'll land there with them.
Two men stand looking at a rocket ship, on which they will both soon be blasting off on a (sorry) mission to Mars. One of the man, Sam Conrad, a scientist, is apprehensive about the mission, scared even, while the other, Warren Marcusson, has a firmly-held belief that, should they encounter Martians, they will be just like them. Conrad foresees disaster, but they are three hours from take off now and there is no way to back out. Turns out he’s right to worry, as they don’t land so much as crash on Mars, and Marcusson is badly injured. Conrad revives him but he’s still quite weak, and when he tries to open the hatch it seems to be stuck. Conrad tells him the hydraulics are out but Marcusson says that’s all right - the auxiliary power will allow it to open.
Conrad, though, for some reason, does not want to open the hatch. He seems very scared.
Marcusson seems to realise he’s more badly wounded that he thought, that he is in fact dying, but he says he wants to see what he’s dying for, and pleads with Conrad to open the hatch, saying that if there is life out there the aliens will surely help them. God made everything, after all, and if they have hearts they have souls, so why wouldn’t they help them? Conrad though is still reluctant, still terrified. As Marcusson collapses back into unconsciousness, Conrad retreats into his own private world of fear and dread and panic. Suddenly, the hatch begins to open. Conrad grabs a weapon and waits.
Outside is a large assemblage of… people. Humans. Men and women, dressed in a vaguely Roman/Greek style, togas and the like. They don’t say anything but they seem friendly and Conrad is relieved, putting away his gun. One of them goes to check on Marcusson, but he has passed away. Now they do speak, and in English, or, as they explain to Conrad, he is in fact speaking in and understanding their language, through a sort of - well they call it hypnosis or unconscious transfer - I guess we’d say telepathy. They offer to bury Marcusson and also repair Conrad’s ship. He is amazed to see that the late Marcusson was right: these are people, just like them.
They take him to a special house they say they have constructed overnight, using images from his mind, and ask him to remain there for a while. He’s happy enough - it’s a perfect replica of a 1950s suburban house, but the woman he has been talking to - and seems to have become attracted to - seems sad, preoccupied, ashamed even, though she says nothing.
Okay, for we sophisticated veterans of science fiction, it’s clear where this is going, but it’s still a shock when Conrad realises he is locked in, that the curtains that have been hung do not cover windows but bare walls, and as his euphoria dissolves into panic. Then the walls seem to move aside, showing a barred window through which people stare and point, as we learn that the house is really a cage, and that Conrad is now on display in the Martian zoo, a sign above his house reading EARTH CREATURE IN HIS NATIVE HABITAT.
Serling’s closing monologue
Species of animal brought back alive. Interesting similarity in physical characteristics to human beings in head, trunk, arms, legs, hands, feet. Very tiny undeveloped brain. Comes from primitive planet named Earth. Calls himself Samuel Conrad. And he will remain here in his cage with the running water and the electricity and the central heat as long as he lives. Samuel Conrad has found The Twilight Zone.
The Resolution
First time I’m sure it’s shocking, but the signs are there. Not to the actual truth perhaps, but it’s pretty clear the Martians are not what they seem. A nice eco-comment on the way we treat our animals and our zoos, and quite striking for its time.
The Moral
The more intelligent (presumably these are) creatures will always try to cage and tame the less so, and there’s always a buck to be made.
Themes
From the beginning the overriding atmosphere is one of fear, dread, worry, the terror of the unknown, the speculation about what may await them out there in space, on Mars. This fear only increases when the worst happens and they crash, and paranoia takes hold. Then this gives way to relief, joy, disbelief as Conrad sees the Martians are just like us, and are friendly. Emotions go from contented to worried again and finally to full-blown panic as he realises what has happened, and finally a fatalistic sense of acceptance.
The treatment of animals, or at least lower life forms, is dealt with here too. Not surely for the first time - Tarzan and other series had been helping man get back to nature and seeing animals in a new light for years before this - but cleverly putting humanity in the place of the lions and tigers and bears, and showing us that, to a higher civilisation, we are but animals, and they would treat us as such.
Man’s fear of confinement, of imprisonment comes up here too, and surely also loneliness and the need for a companion, as Conrad, though furnished with everything he needs to live his life, is left without the one thing he cannot survive without, human company. A sense of callousness, too, on the part of the Martians, who probably don’t know any better you could say, but have been able to ascertain that this creature is a sentient, intelligent species, as they have talked to it. Would we imprison a bear or a gorilla or a snake if we knew we could converse with it?
If there was a buck in it, you can be damn sure we would!
Oops!
Conrad steps out onto the Martian surface without any sort of space suit, and has no trouble breathing. Nor do the inhabitants, yet we know Mars’ atmosphere is poisonous to at least we humans. There’s also no sign of the red dust that we now know covers the planet.
And isn’t that…?
Roddy McDowall (1928 - 1998)
Who doesn’t know the star of the
Planet of the Apes movies and series, who also appeared in the movie
Fright Night (the original) and its later sequel as well as
The Longest Day, Cleopatra, The Greatest Story Ever Told, and series like
Columbo, Barnaby Jones, Ellery Queen, Wonder Woman, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, Fantasy Island etc etc etc.
Susan Oliver (1932 - 1990)
Perhaps best known for her role as Vima, the girl on Talos IV in the original
Star Trek pilot “The Cage”, she appeared in the usual run of series -
Mannix, Cannon, Streets of San Francisco, Bonanza, Wagon Train, The Man From U.N.C.L.E, and was also a pilot, having originally had such a fear of flying that she refused to travel in any aircraft, overcoming this to become Pilot of the Year for 1970 and being only the fourth woman to fly a single-engined plane over the Atlantic when she made the trip in 1967.
Paul Comi (1932 - 2016)
Comi would show up later in
Star Trek, in the episode “Balance of Power”, and also feature in future
Twilight Zone episodes, as well as starring in the original
Cape Fear, The Towering Inferno, Death Wish II and featuring in series like
Fame and
LA Law, and soaps such as
Falcon Crest, Dallas and
Knot’s Landing.
Vic Perrin (1916 - 1989)
Another who would make the transition from
Twilight Zone to
Star Trek, Perrin would guest in three episodes - “Arena”, “Mirror Mirror” and in “The Changeling”, in the last of which he would gain fame as the voice of the loopy probe Nomad. He also would be known for his stentorian tones announcing “Do not adjust your set! We are in control!” as
The Outer Limits began.
Questions, and sometimes, Answers
If this is a Martian zoo, where did the rest of the exhibits come from? We can assume, surely, that Conrad is not the only one caged here, so do the Martians have space flight technology? Given their power both to read minds and, apparently, construct a dwelling overnight, surely the answer there has to be yes. If not, how do they gather the rest of their specimens? Do they just wait in hope someone will crash on the planet? Seems unlikely.
And if they do have spaceflight, why have they not visited their nearest neighbour before, and taken samples of its life away with them? Have they done so? Are there other humans in the zoo, and can Conrad at some point hope to be reunited with them? A rather good extra twist would have been had the Martians consoled Conrad by telling him they had a female of his species, leading him to meet maybe a gorilla or something, Hey, they're all Earth creatures, right?
Iconic?
Absolutely. The idea of an alien zoo exhibiting humans has become a favourite theme in science fiction, though whether or not this, or at least Fairman’s story, was the first example of it I don’t know.
Personal Notes
Interesting that Tennya, the girl who assures Conrad, despite her own obvious misgivings and conflicted feelings, that everything will be all right is the same Susan Oliver who will a few years later play Vina, the girl on Talos IV who fulfils more or less the same role in “The Cage”. You can also see links here between this episode and McDowell’s later cult series, Planet of the Apes.
It’s also good to see that on this occasion they get the distance right: Mars is approximately 35 million miles from Earth.