Gerontocracy in US 1960s’ TV science fiction

Hodges

In this episode, Barbara Polk (played by Constance Ford), has, for the past 25 years, taken care of the elderly, detested and sadistic Simon (Cedric Hardwicke), who is a noted scientist and inventor. After waiting patiently and subserviently for him to die so that she can inherit his vast wealth, Uncle Simon accidentally but mercifully falls to his death down a flight of stairs while trying to strike Barbara with his cane. His will, however, stipulates that, in order for Barbara to claim her inheritance, she must in perpetuity take care of Uncle Simon’s latest invention – a robot. To her horror, Barbara discovers that Uncle Simon has transferred his demonic personality into the robot ’s program- ming. Taking on all of Uncle Simon’s most dis- agreeable character traits,as well as his voice, the robot gradually assumes Uncle Simon’s mission to ‘shriek at, insult, berate, humiliate, and step on’ Barbara. Unwilling to endure another lifetime of such persecution, Barbara resolves to push the robot down the stairs, but this only leaves the robot with a limp identical to Uncle Simon’s. She eventually realizes that she will never be free from Uncle Simon’s brutal influence. The message buried in this nihilistic narrative is that the despotic rule of the male gerontocracy is absolute and eternal. Science and technology will always carry the malevolent imprint of its geriatric male creators and can never serve the needs of the young. In the hands of the aging male, science is merely a new and more powerful instrument of control and oppression. THE OUTER LIMITS Produced by Leslie Stevens and Joseph Stefano, who also wrote many of the episodes, The Outer Limits took audiences each week on a strange science fiction journey that ranged from the inner mind to outer space. Each episode intelligently developed a single theme – one usually rooted in the bleakest Cold War fears and anxieties – into a highly imaginative yet believable adventure. As was typical for the era, the holders of power and the keepers of science were resented as elderly males. In ‘The Borderland ’2, a wealthy, aging and obsessive industrialist spends a fortune on tricksters and psychics who promise to put him in spiritual contact with his deceased son. When a trio of scientists exposes his current medium, Mrs Palmer, to be a fraud, the industrialist agrees to fund the

trio’s scientific research project into opening a door between our world and another dimension. The industrialist’s very unscientific motivation for funding the project, however, is to find a new way to contact his beloved son. Here, the aging male is presented as economi- cally powerful but intellectually weak. He is willing to foster scientific advancement but only if its products serve his primitive emotional needs. Scientists are forced into the uneasy role of supplicants at the feet of a fickle and unpredictable aging male whose patronage is just as easily attracted by charlatans and by other anti-scientific representatives of religion and superstition. As a result, science is forced into a pointless and distracting competition with superstitious belief systems and evaluated according to its ability to produce soul-comforting results equal or superior to those of superstition or religion. Because of the burden placed on culture and society by the power of aging males, pure science is made nearly impossible and must remain leashed to material and emotional concerns. In the episode ‘The Production and Decay of Strange Particles’3, the aging male once again represents the archetypal scientist. Here, an accident at a nuclear power plant threatens to destroy the earth. Radiation from a newly created isotope has torn open a dimensional hole within the reactor but has also enabled a seething, glowing, crackling and deadly sentient force to enter our universe. This force kills and possesses the forms of the young and heroic reactor workers who battle desperately to forestall nuclear melt- down. Acknowledging that his own scientific experiments allowed these electrical beings to enter our dimension and imperil the world, the aging reactor chief, Dr Marshall (played by George Macready), engages in a desperate search for a solution that will save the world and undo the damage he has caused. Initially, Dr Marshall quickly gives up the search for a solution and remorsefully, albeit catatonically, accepts that he is responsible for the impending disaster and destruction of humanity. His wife, however, puts pressure on him to re-engage his vast intellectual and scientific abilities. Eventually, he finds the solution and is able to prevent the meltdown and close the fissure between the two dimensions. Despite the superficially happy ending, this dramatic exploration of the impact

The Aging Male

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The Twilight Zone, 'Uncle Simon'. Barbara Polk (Constance Ford)  menaced first by Uncle Simon (Cedric Hardwicke).

The Twilight Zone, 'Uncle Simon'. Barbara Polk (Constance Ford)  menaced now by Uncle Simon's robotic creation, played by  Robby the Robot

 
 

	The Outer Limits, 'The Borderland'. The wealthy industrialist (Barry Jones).	The Outer Limits, 'The Borderland'. The industrialist's medium. Mrs Palmer. exposed as a fraud. (left to right: Philip Abbott, Gladys Cooper, Alfred Ryder)
The Outer Limits, 'The Borderland'. Laboratory, funded by the industrialist, where the door to 'the boarderland' is pryed open.	The Outer Limits, 'The Borderland'. Scientists experiment with polarity reversal as the industrialist looks on (left to right: Mark Richman, Nina Foch, Barry Jones).	The Outer Limits, 'The Borderland'. Chief scientist (Mark Richman) being transported to 'the borderland.'
The Outer Limits, ‘The Production and Decay of Strange Particles’. Reactor chief (George MacReady) confronted by his wife (Signe Hasso)	The Outer Limits, ‘The Production and Decay of Strange Particles’. Radioactive force from another dimension inside the radiation suit of a nuclear power plant engineer.	The Outer Limits, ‘The Production and Decay of Strange Particles’. Menacing radioactive force from another dimension animating the dead bodies of plant engineers.
The Outer Limits, ‘The Production and Decay of Strange Particles’. The atomic mushroom cloud. A horrifying image of the results of reckless experimentation by the reactor chief.