Episode 5: The Sixth Finger

This is the fifth episode in the series, and although a little slow at first, it quickly speeds up and becomes interesting towards the end.

Edward Mulhare plays Prof. Mathers, a cloistered scientist who has invented a device to speed up the process of evolution. He has already tried it on an ape and the results have proved to be successful, since the ape shows advanced form of intelligence. Enter Cathy Evans (played by Jill Haworth), a simple girl who finds out about Mathers' invention and asks him to try it on her, so that she can become smarter. Unfortunately her blood type is not suitable for the experiment. However, she feels sorry for her friend Gwyllm Griffiths (played by David McCallum), since he is a low-paid uneducated coal mine worker, and asks the professor if he can try the experiments on him. Griffiths accepts the offer, and the Professor starts inducing him with advanced stages of evolution. Griffiths first shows some physical changes such as his head expanding, and wanting to acquire knowledge. But, the more he learns and evolves, the more irritated he becomes towards the current human species, which seem primitive to him. With his advanced powers and knowledge, will anyone be able to stop him?

David McCallum stands out in this episode as the eerie advanced form of man. I got shivers when he started smirking at the professor, or when he secretly entered the professor's room at dawn, looking more creepy and advanced. The make up done for him was really good. This episode speaks in many levels, as people who are trying to discover anything in a new field, have to prepare for the consequences.

To quote Vic Perrin (The Control Voice): "An experiment too soon, too swift, and yet, may we not still hope to discover a method by which within one generation, the whole human race could be rendered intelligent, beyond hatred, or revenge or the desire for power? Is that not the ultimate goal of evolution?"

Avoiding the mad part of the scientist, it is worth watching

The plot of this show has been used so many times that it is tedious to watch, although it was much more original when it was made. A brilliant scientist, fortunately not of the mad variety, has found a way to accelerate the path of evolution. By subjecting a specimen to certain wavelengths, he can change them into the form that they would have if they were born thousands or millions of years in the past or in the future.
The professor lives in a small village in England where the primary industry is coal mining. A young woman of limited intelligence delivers fresh bread to him and notes how a primate that the professor has is capable of doing many things. She asks if she could be made more intelligent and after he samples her blood, tells her no. She has a male friend who mines coal but is disenchanted and wants more. He is very intelligent and understands that he could do much more. He volunteers and is turned into an advanced human with a larger brain, pointed ears and a sixth finger on each hand.
He has many powers and as time goes on, he continues to gain in cranial capacity and capability. He learns quickly, but as he learns he grows to despise the rest of humanity. After deciding that the village must be destroyed, he sets out to do so. As he is engaged in a confrontation with two police officers, he realizes what he is doing and goes back to the lab. His goal is to be accelerated so far into the future that his existence will become pure thought. However, his lady friend sets the machine back so that he is returned to normal. They fall into each other's arms and it is over. The presumption is that he will go back to the mines and they live "happily ever after."
David McCallum is appropriate as the brooding advanced man and Edward Mulhare is superb at the scientist who is carrying out the experiments and is genuinely concerned about the consequences. So many people are in the position of living in a dead end existence, they know that they could do better but have little hope of actually doing it. If the professor had been played as a fanatic, or if the villagers had destroyed the McCallum character a la Frankenstein, the episode would have been awful. Not the best episode, but by avoiding many of the obvious pitfalls, I give it four stars, giving it the benefit of my thinking back to the early sixties when it was made.