The Outer Limits episode review — 1.5 — The Sixth Finger

Original air date: October 14, 1963
Director: James Gladstone
Writer: Ellis St. Joseph

Rating: 9/10

“The Sixth Finger” is the best Outer Limits episode so far. It has a great sci-fi story that’s truly prescient, as it’s about advancement in human evolution, even though this may not eliminate our basest urges for domination and power.

I was a bit worried early on. It starts with a young woman, who works as an assistant to a cutting edge scientist. She has a friend who wants a job, and I was really worried he was in a kind of blackface.

But it turns out he’s just a miner. This takes place in a small Welsh mining village, which might seem a bit odd or pointless, but I like the backdrop of the desperation and poverty here — the kinds of things that would make a man sign up to be a guinea pig in a highly advanced scientific experiment.

Eventually he’s turned into a kind of alien, basically, as this represents the future of human evolution.

I love how mid-century sci-fi the alien looks. It’s great stuff, as long as you can put up with just a bit of cheese. The makeup is actually pretty good, but the design is incredibly dated. But that’s alright by me.

The story unfolds so that this creature wants to convert others to its advancements, and it attacks police officers and the like.

It’s not handled in a silly way, and it easily could have been, in 1963. It’s all very well done, and that’s why it’s my favorite episode so far.