Twilight Zone episode review — 5.17 — Number 12 Looks Just Like You

Episode 5.17 “Number 12 Looks Just Like You”
Original air date: January 24, 1964
Writer: John Tomerlin, adapted from Charles Beaumont’s short story
Director: Abner Biberman

Rating: 8/10

“Number 12 Looks Just Like You” takes place in a dystopian world where when people hit a certain age, they get to have some kind of surgery to become beautiful. There are only a select few models to choose from apparently, hence why everyone has their first names on their clothes.

I do like this concept a lot. It’s a little silly, of course, but it’s also thought-provoking.

Marilyn Cuberle (Collin Wilcox) doesn’t want to have the surgery. She complains about the Transformation as shallow and materialistic, and she’s in turn thought of as a radical. These views go back to her father, who felt depressed after having had the surgery, and gave Marilyn a bunch of books that are now banned before killing himself.

That’s the one aspect I don’t much care for in this episode. I’m all for dystopian worlds that have banned books — Fahrenheit 451 is one of my favorite novels — but this little tidbit kind of comes out of nowhere, and makes this world seem a bit more silly. It goes along with one thing that really bothers me about the humanities in universities; many people — professors and fellow graduate students — seem to think you the only way you can engage in the human experience is if you read or study literature, and that you’ll be a bad person if you don’t. I always find that funny, considering Richard Spencer has an MA in humanities from one of the best univeristies in the US. But whatever; I digress.

The episode doesn’t have the best acting, but I like the conflict a lot, since Marilyn’s best friend, mother, and of course doctors are pushing her for this surgery. It has a real downer ending, too.

It’s not perfect, but the concept is one of the most interesting in the series. It’s a pretty strong episode.