Well, I don't know about anyone else, but I thought this was a lamebrain idea right out of the gate. Who in their right mind would agree to be turned into an alien reptile, even if it meant a shot at saving humanity? I guess when I put it like that it's not so farfetched. But even when there's only a ten percent chance of being selected for this mission, it winds up being a hundred percent disaster for the unlucky 'winner'. The reptilian makeup effects for Allen Leighton (Robert Culp) were pretty decent for the era, but the final outcome had a decidedly goofy look, and not at all like the captured Thetan the scientists had caged in their lab.
Say, did you notice when Yvette Leighton (Geraldine Brooks) walked down the steps of the research facility to follow up an intuitive link with her husband? It looked to me like she cast a shadow of being pregnant even though she wasn't showing yet. If that was intentional, I'd give the filmmakers a bonus point for a neat visual sight trick. Go back and take a look, and see if it wasn't a case of me seeing things. I rewound the scene and that's what it looked like to me.
In any event, I just couldn't accept the idea of a group of scientists on their own deciding to undertake a monumental project affecting the entire planet like this. In Rod Serling's episode of The Twilight Zone from a year earlier titled "To Serve Man", he took the opposite approach by having an alien race similarly arrive at the United Nations with a message for mankind. The Kanamits brought the nations of the world together with wonderful inventions and technology that made life more enjoyable and productive for everyone. It's one of the few Twilight Zone episodes where you never see the twist coming the first time you watch it, making it one of the very best shows of that series.
Say, did you notice when Yvette Leighton (Geraldine Brooks) walked down the steps of the research facility to follow up an intuitive link with her husband? It looked to me like she cast a shadow of being pregnant even though she wasn't showing yet. If that was intentional, I'd give the filmmakers a bonus point for a neat visual sight trick. Go back and take a look, and see if it wasn't a case of me seeing things. I rewound the scene and that's what it looked like to me.
In any event, I just couldn't accept the idea of a group of scientists on their own deciding to undertake a monumental project affecting the entire planet like this. In Rod Serling's episode of The Twilight Zone from a year earlier titled "To Serve Man", he took the opposite approach by having an alien race similarly arrive at the United Nations with a message for mankind. The Kanamits brought the nations of the world together with wonderful inventions and technology that made life more enjoyable and productive for everyone. It's one of the few Twilight Zone episodes where you never see the twist coming the first time you watch it, making it one of the very best shows of that series.