- Number 12 Looks Just Like You
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This article is about a TV episode. For the band, see The Number Twelve Looks Like You.
"Number 12 Looks Just Like You" The Twilight Zone episode 
Marilyn after forcibly undergoing the Transformation.Episode no. Season 5
Episode 137Directed by Abner Biberman Written by John Tomerlin
(adapted from Charles Beaumont's story "The Beautiful People". First published in the September 1952 issue of if credited to Beaumont alone.)Featured music Stock [portions of it from Bernard Herrmann's score for the 1956 CBS Radio Workshop production of Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World"] Production code 2618 Original air date January 24, 1964 Guest stars Collin Wilcox: Marilyn Cuberle
Suzy Parker: Lana Cuberle - Eva - Doe - Grace - Jane - Patient - Number 12
Richard Long: Uncle Rick - Dr. Rex - Sigmund Friend - Dr. Tom - Tad - Jack - Attendant
Pam Austin: Valerie - Marilyn (after transformation) - Number 8Episode chronology ← Previous
"The Self-Improvement of Salvadore Ross"Next →
"Black Leather Jackets"List of Twilight Zone episodes "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, 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."
18-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 (we learn that he committed suicide upon the loss of his identity).
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.
Program notes
This episode was originally sponsored by American Tobacco (Pall Mall), with an "alternate sponsor's" message (from Procter & Gamble) in the middle.
Cultural influence
This episode highlights Hollywood's age-obsession and youthful looks for women: Collin Wilcox (b. 1935) and Suzy Parker (b. 1932) were only three years apart, yet Wilcox played Parker's daughter. This obsession is written into the script, through the speech of the psychiatrist - "You would not deny your mother her youth?"
The book Uglies and its sequels by Scott Westerfeld have plots similar to this episode.
The band The Number Twelve Looks Like You took their name from the title of this episode.
Goofs
- When Marilyn first walks into Dr. Rex's office, part of her arm is cut off by the split screen process used to enable Suzy Parker to appear on screen as two different characters.
Marilyn's arm is obscured by the splitscreen process.
See also
References
- Zicree, Marc Scott: The Twilight Zone Companion. Sillman-James Press, 1982 (second edition)
- DeVoe, Bill. (2008). Trivia from The Twilight Zone. Albany, GA: Bear Manor Media. ISBN 978-1593931360
- Grams, Martin. (2008). The Twilight Zone: Unlocking the Door to a Television Classic. Churchville, MD: OTR Publishing. ISBN 978-0970331090
External links
Categories:- 1964 television episodes
- The Twilight Zone episodes
- When Marilyn first walks into Dr. Rex's office, part of her arm is cut off by the split screen process used to enable Suzy Parker to appear on screen as two different characters.
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