The Outer Limits (TV Series) The Hundred Days of the Dragon (1963) User Reviews

The Perfect Spy

[claudio_carvalho · 7/10 · 11 February 2018]

During the presidential campaign in the USA, the candidate William Lyons Selby (Sidney Blackmer) wills the probable winner. The Asian dictator Li-Chin Sung (Richard Loo) develops a technique to shape the face and the fingerprints of any man and murders and replaces Selby by one skilled spy. Selby wins the election and the impostor becomes the American President. Li-Chin Sung plots to replace others prominent American leaders by infiltrated Asian spies to take over America. Will he succeed in his intent?

"The Hundred Days of the Dragon" is another great episode of the original "The Outer Limits". The story reflects the paranoia of the American people in the 60´s with the communism but it is worthwhile watching. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Os 100 Dias do Dragão" ("The Hundred Days of the Dragon")

A disturbing story with critical plot defects

[accordeoniste · 7/10 · 4 October 2014]

I again started watching "The Outer Limits" several nights ago after a fifty-one year hiatus. I first saw it when I was a kid. I liked "The Hundred Days of the Dragon". Unfortunately there are a couple of flaws in the plot which damage the credibility of the episode. However, one of its strengths is the way it depicted the lack of security surrounding a presidential candidate, at a time when such candidates were more vulnerable than they are today.

The sight of the real Selby being ambushed, shot to death, and replaced by a look-alike spy in his hotel room was disturbing.

Also disquieting is the thought that, with all the advances in technology since this episode was first aired, a serum may indeed exist that gives someone the ability to precisely resemble someone else. Some of our leading politicians and business leaders may have already been replaced by spies without our knowledge. That would be one explanation for the steady erosion of citizen's rights in the U.S. and the dumbing-down of U.S. citizens. Face-transplant surgery is another viable substitution method, as was demonstrated in the movie "Face-Off", with John Travolta and Nicholas Cage.

The Selby impersonator is given the key to Selby's hotel room by his assistant, who has been watching Selby's room from across the hall. This is a serious plot defect. How did he obtain the key? Surely the hotel management and staff would've been in a state of alert due to Selby and his entourage staying there. They wouldn't be expected to just give the key, or a copy of it, to the assistant. The assistant might've used a subterfuge, or he might've taken it by force, but it would've been helpful for us to know how it was obtained.

If the key to the real Selby's room wasn't in the assistant's possession, it would be difficult to imagine how the imposter could've gained entry to his room without risking immediate exposure and arrest. The plot to replace Selby could've been foiled right there and then.

Flaw no. 2: After the first failed attempt to assassinate Vice President Pearson and replace him with a duplicate, the President Selby imposter acted as though Pearson wasn't aware of the plan to replace him. In a Presidential blunder to rival the Bay of Pigs for sheer stupidity, he had called Pearson to ask him to go somewhere and perform some duty, knowing that his replacement would be there waiting for him. Pearson had confronted the imposter and had seen his face during the bungled assassination attempt, so of course his suspicions were aroused; the Selby imposter would likely have been alerted. Especially considering how brilliantly the fake Selby and his true countrymen's scientists had previously carried out their leader's sinister plan, it's implausible that the fake President Selby would be so naive as to think Pearson would willingly walk into a trap without taking precautions. The result of the spy's naivete? Pearson stopped his replacement, captured him and exposed the Presidential imposter, putting an end to Li-Chin Sung's plan to conquer the United States.

Regarding the lack of security, prior to Robert F. Kennedy's assassination, when this episode was first aired, presidential candidates weren't entitled to secret service protection. The real candidate Selby or his Campaign Manager might have hired at least one bodyguard for him, but Selby would likely have refused such protection as he preferred to have direct contact with people. He wasn't an aloof candidate.

The Outer Limits--The Hundred Days of the Dragon

[Scarecrow-88 · 7/10 · 3 January 2011]

Disturbing political parable regarding "the great red threat" and how the unnamed(obviously China)country is able, through a successful experimental procedure known as "molecular plasticity", to substitute a candidate for the Presidency of the United States with one of their own by actually shaping their undercover Asian's face to look exactly like Governor William Selby(Sidney Blackmer), popular with the American people. Li Chin Sung(Richard Loo), an evil dictator, is the orchestrator of their diabolical plot which ultimately is to replace the entire Presidential cabinet with members of their country, faces altered through the chemical/molecular process. It may very well be up to Vice President Ted Pearson(Phillip Pine) to stop the fake Selby from carrying out the plans of his leader. I think this kind of story seems rather aged considering the shape of our world today, but consider the idea that the United States were to be invaded through a process where members of our own Presidential party are replaced by those who would use the power to destroy the country from within. Blackmer sells the idea of a sinister "replacement" having taken over the role of a man who had integrity and strength, a wisdom and kindness that isn't so easy to duplicate. There are nuances in a person that a daughter, son-in-law, and Vice President could notice even if the one who takes over his role has well studied the behavioral and physical characteristics of the man he's substituting..that's the undoing of the great red threat's diabolical scheme. Blackmer squints his eyes just a bit to recall the man he really is nestled secretly behind the face of another. Pine effectively shows a Vice President uneasy with his President's desire to meet with a major threat to the United States, not over as much the idea of peace with the country as giving up specific real estate Li Chin Sung covets. The face altering process(which is essentially putty)is a bit laughable, but the story behind it is food for thought.

Starring Composer Dominic Frontier

[StuOz · 25 June 2014]

A political thriller about the strange events of a face-changing President.

What is a political thriller doing as the 2nd episode of The Outer Limits?? When seen in my 1980s youth I was not too big on this episode but repeat viewings do wonders for Limits and now, aged in my 40s, I rather like The Hundred Days Of The Dragon. However, I must admit that the hour would not be half as good without that wonderful music playing over the whole thing. The score is playing in my head as I type this review.

It is also rather fun to see the Asian actor - Richard Loo - in this as in 1965 he would go on to play much the same type of character in the classic Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea episode: Time Bomb.

Imposter President

[AaronCapenBanner · 6/10 · 10 March 2016]

Sydney Blackmer stars as U.S. presidential candidate William Lyons Selby who seems to be a shoo-in for the upcoming election, but unfortunately this makes him a target of a rogue, unnamed Asian country run by a dictator(played by Richard Loo) who has plans to conquer the States by proxy, as one of his top scientists has developed a serum that somehow makes the skin and features of a human face plastic, making it easily molded into anyone they choose, and they have selected their own candidate to be an impostor, but not if the Vice President(played by Philip Pine) can expose them publicly... Daring if far-fetched story is interesting but such lax security around Selby is astonishing!

Cold War Paranoia, New Frontier Style

[telegonus · 10/10 · 16 March 2010]

THE HUNDRED DAYS OF THE DRAGON is one of the most chilling episodes of the original OUTER LIMITS series, and also one of the best. It tells the story of a presidential candidate, on the brink of winning election, killed and replaced by an impostor in a scheme cooked up by Asian Communist nation which is never named and which the viewer can reasonably assume is China. We learn in the prologue that the man chosen to take the candidates place has been prepped as to the nature of the president's personality, his tastes, his manner of speaking. By a sophisticated form of molecular rearrangement the impostor's face is totally changed, altered to resemble exactly the soon to be killed presidential candidate, and worse for our side, the replacement looks, walks and talks just like the man the man soon to be elected president.

At first the ruse is wholly successful, and then little things start to go wrong. On a hunting trip with the vice president the fake president shoots a snake that was about to strike, which puzzles the v.p., as he had known the real man in the past, and knew that he was a lousy shot, yet the impostor was a perfect shot. Then the new president turns out to be all too conciliatory with the Communist regime in Asia that he is in fact working for, as a kind of super-mole; this disturbs the vice president, as it is way out of character for the man he once knew and whom he thinks he's still serving. Then the late president's daughter confesses that since his election that her father doesn't seem like the same man she new before, has become a stranger to her. The plot unfolds quickly soon thereafter, as it must, since this is a television show, not a movie, as the viewer learns that the country the fake president represents plans to replace all high government officials with their own kind by the same method they used on the man the presidential impostor replaced, and this includes the vice president. The general idea is, as if the viewer has to be told, for this foreign power to take full control of the United States government

This is a well paced, nicely written and extremely well acted OUTER LIMITS entry, consistent with the themes the show often explored, such as government conspiracies of one kind of another. As a purely genre piece, it's one of the least "science fictional" shows of the series. There are no "bears" (i.e. monsters), and the emphasis is more on intrigue than science, which is really used more as a plot device than as an end in itself. The mood of the JFK New Frontier is captured to near perfection despite the limited budget, the back lot and sound stage Washington. We see the ups,--optimism, idealism, youthfulness--of the period, as well as, and this is worth keeping in mind, the paranoia and fear, that was an almost equal part of the Kennedy era, and which this now nearly fifty year old show offers the viewer as an alternate take on that time, and as such a corrective sorts, and a none too comforting one at that, as we learn once more, as we must, that the world beyond our borders is a very dangerous place.

"And not a single shot will have been fired."

[classicsoncall · 7/10 · 14 April 2022]

The plot for this episode is perhaps more devious and sinister than that of "The Manchurian Candidate". Interesting too, since America's Cold War foe during the era was the U. S. S. R., whereas the political enemy here is positioned as China, even if the country remained unnamed in the story. You really have to suspend disbelief over elements in the program, a major one being the obvious lack of security protection for presidential candidate William Selby (Sidney Blackmer), both before and after the election. There's also the question of credibility in the demonstration of 'molecular plasticity' to rearrange faces like silly putty; the first time it was done to Chi Wong's (Clarence Lung) face, his nose was obliterated, so how was he able to breathe? The "Mission: Impossible" series of the Sixties would have handled it much better, as they were disposing of dictators using rubber masks all the time. But putting those issues aside, the show depicted how an enemy government might look to take advantage of any opportunity to infiltrate American government and business leaders in the most sensitive positions to achieve their nefarious objectives. I thought more would have been made of that 'lucky' shot the fake Selby made to kill the rattlesnake, especially when Li Chin Sung (Richard Loo) happened to mention to his mole Chi Wong - "An archer is known by his aim, not by his arrows".

A Traitor In The White House

[ShadeGrenade · 10/10 · 21 September 2006]

'Senator William Lyons Selby' ( Sidney Blackmer ) is the hot favourite to be the next President of the U.S.A. Over in Asia, dictator 'Li-Chin Sung' ( Richard Loo ) has commissioned his top scientists to create a means of transforming one of his men into a perfect double. Injected with a 'molecular plasticity' serum, a mold is then placed over his face. The night before the election, Selby is quietly assassinated and the double takes his place. As expected, he wins by a landslide. On entering The White House, the double starts to undermine U.S. defence and foreign policy. His daughter 'Carol' ( Nancy Rennick ) notices the change in her father's character, as do his aides. But how do they prove he is an impostor?

The second broadcast episode of 'The Outer Limits' is noticeably different from all others; being more of a political thriller akin to Richard Condon's 'The Manchurian Candidate'. The only fantasy element is the method used to turn a Chinese agent into Selby's double. Director Byron Haskin, in his first episode for the series, achieves some disturbing moments, most notably when the fake Selby is watching the election results on live television, his eyes narrow evilly. Anti-Communist propaganda? Certainly. But in 1963 the West did feel genuinely threatened by the East, and this story caught the mood of the time.

As Selby, Blackmer is superb, one could easily picture someone like him becoming President. The only false note struck by this otherwise chilling episode is the melodramatic finale in which Vice President 'Ted Pearson' ( Phillip Pine ) exposes the conspiracy in the middle of a White House reception. Dominic Frontiere's eerie music is also a major contributory factor in this episode's success.

A jokier version of the premise was done four years later in the spy spoof 'In Like Flint' starring James Coburn.

This seemed like it aired on the wrong show!

[planktonrules · 6/10 · 26 September 2011]

"The Hundred Days of the Dragon" isn't a bad TV episode, though it seems to have nothing to do with the series. There were a few shows that just seemed totally out of place--and it was definitely true of this one. What does espionage have to do with sci-fi or fantasy?! The show begins in a fictional Asian communist country. Their despot leader is being shown a new weapon. This weapon involves a new formula that briefly makes the flesh malleable--so a similar looking person could be made to look exactly like another. Their plan involves substituting one of their agents for a man who appears posed to win the presidency in the United States. It's an interesting plot--and a bit reminiscent of "The Manchurian Candidate".

If you've seen more than a few episodes of the show, you should recognize that the above plot just isn't "The Outer Limits". It's interesting and reasonably well-acted but it's obvious the producers were still uncertain WHAT the series would become.

An Interesting Episode

[somejava · 8/10 · 28 December 2019]

I'm not going to nitpick details. These older anthology series were often meant to provoke thought and insight. To critique them in a literal way is proof that certain people should maybe stick to watching reality programs. Where what you see is what you get.

What I do find interesting about this episode is that it airs about 2 mos. before JFK is assassinated. Which makes the narrative at the end quite prophetic. And the second thing is that at the party...near the end of the episode...there's a woman whose face is clearly shown twice as she dances in front of our view. She clearly resembles Jacqueline Kennedy. I have to believe that that was no coincidence.

An Interesting tale, even if a little far fetched!

[b_kite · 6/10 · 4 January 2018]

Episode 2 has a U.S. presidential election drawing near and candidate William Lyons Shelby (Sidney Blackmer) seems to be a show in to win, However, Elsewhere, the communist nation of dictator Li Kwan (James Yagi) has achieved a remarkable breakthrough: a serum that renders human flesh plastic. A simple injection and a process of molding allows an agent to quietly murder Selby and take his place! Everything seems to be going as planned until an additional assassination to the vice president Ted Pearson (Phillip Pine) fails, now its up to Pearson and Shelby's daughter (Nancy Rennick) to uncover the truth behind the evil scheme.

I always thought that this was a very unusual choose to set up the second episode of your science fiction series with. You go from a tale of a alien being accidentally getting transported to earth to a bizarre tale of espionage within two foreign countries were the only actual science fiction element is the face changing serum. The story here is very nice and creepy and makes you wonder about advancements with foreign countries and spying on one another. However a lot of this is sadly far fetched, the mask molding plate thing they use is rather corny and I don't really know how I feel about it, and another thing that gets me Is if it changes the shape of your face how and why does it change you voice as well??? The episode also suffers from being a little talky, the final even tho its good, feels a little rused like they knew they were running out of time. There isn't many effects but, we do get several body molding movements, including a man getting his face practically ripped off at the end, it all looks pretty decent. The cast is all on board here as well with Blackmer and Pine being the two best things, also look for a young James Hong making an appearance here as well. All in all its a very creepy and disturbing tale once you think of it, but, I walked away with mixed emotions about the final product. Still worth the view tho.

One of the most memorable TV episodes from my childhood

[sportingman40 · 10/10 · 4 January 2018]

The Outer Limits had a number of great episodes...and a lot of clunkers This is still great 50 years later.

So Far Fetched, Even If You Buy the Technology

[Hitchcoc · 5/10 · 1 January 2015]

A renegade Chinese political leader finds a way to change the appearance of people so they can be substituted for important figures in the American government, in this case, a man running for President (who is likely to win the election). Problems arise when, after a successful effort to accomplish this, they get in too deep, trying to cover their tracks. Their not so subtle approach (including killing those who are suspicious) draws attention. For all their fine planning, they really screw the pooch. The dead President's daughter starts to realize that the new dad ain't quite what he used to be. Someone mentioned "The Manchurian Candidate." This should not be mentioned in the same breath. The other hard thing for me was that the device that is used to turn people into other characters looks like an aluminum bowl used with a Mixmaster. I know I sound a bit picky, but there so much to be taken on faith that I just never bought into it.

Cold War paranoia inspired episode.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 8/10 · 16 February 2023]

Senator William 'Bill' Lyons Selby, who's set the become the next president of The USA, falls foul of Chinese agents, who have perfected a process for transforming people into exacting doppelgangers.

What a difference to the opening episode, I'm watching this series for the first time, I'd been expecting another alien based story, instead, was as a cold war inspired tale of infiltration, with a foreign power set to cause massive political unrest.

Now what I had expected, but equally as entertainment as the previous episode, albeit for different reasons.

In this day and age, when you see what certain celebrities are doing to their faces, with Botox, fillers and surgery etc, is it too much to dismiss the idea of huge facial changes, I wonder.

One little blip I noticed, considering that they went to such lengths in the early stages of the episode to establish that he had a mainly missing finger, why did they show full fingers? It seemed an unnecessary detail.

Well acted and well produced once again, this show really is offering up something a little different. Amazing to see how the landscape looks now, compared to back then.

Enjoyed it, 8/10.

Bizarre!

[rixrex · 17 August 2014]

This is a really strange episode that just doesn't make it to the level of any other Outer Limits episodes, even the lesser ones.

I admit that the idea is intriguing, a method discovered to alter the face and fingerprints of anyone to them look like another person. But the idea of it being a presidential candidate and how it's accomplished is just extremely outlandish, The story has so many plot holes and illogical maneuvers that it just cannot hold up to any serious review, like the following:

1. They (the enemy) replace the presidential candidate first, and nobody else, killing the real one, with the great hope that he wins. What if the opponent won?

2. He does win, and then they go about replacing other high officials and businessmen, Why not do that first?

3. A stupid attempt by a bungler to replace the VP fails and alerts the real VP to what is going on. You have to see the attempt to believe how inept it was and how ridiculous.

4. The secret service around the Pres accept wholesale that the VP is right in telling them the Pres is an impostor, no real proof needed and no skepticism, hah!

5. The murdered Pres is exhumed, and is discovered to have been cremated, how convenient.

6. The official announcement of the Pres being an impostor is done at a dinner party where nobody disputes the announcement and they just cart off the impostor after exposing him. Hah again!

The whole thing was set up by communist Asians, where did that come from? And the phony Pres, on occasion, will squint his eyes as if he were an Asian underneath the skin, which looks just dumb.

The more I think about this episode, the sillier it gets.

Fascinating idea (akin to The Manchurian Candidate) - but a glaring script flaw

[donnythed · 9/10 · 16 January 2023]

Fascinating script idea (akin to the motion picture, 'The Manchurian Candidate') - absent a glaring script flaw, of which there are many - cited by other reviews in this 'User reviews' section. The POTUS candidate (protagonist), bedded down for the evening... is reviewing his acceptance speech. However, the antagonists are able to easily access his unguarded hotel room without anyone noticing. Obviously, POTUS candidates would have been afforded enhanced protection, despite not necessarily receiving United States Secret Service protection, as this policy was not implemented until 5-yrs. After this episode aired.

The Hundred Days of the Dragon

[Prismark10 · 5/10 · 12 February 2023]

A nefarious plan hatched by those from the far east. Aided by communists from the Soviet Union.

Presidential candidate William Lyons Selby (Sidney Blackmer) is likely to be the probable winner in the forthcoming elections. He has a get tough policy for the far east dictatorships.

The fictional communist country plans to replace Selby with an impostor. Using technology to change a mans face to make him look and act like Selby.

Th real Selby is abducted and killed. Over time Selby's daughter and the Vice President have suspicions. Especially when the president goes soft on the far east.

The story is deadly serious but looks like hokum. The kind that was done in shows like The Man from Uncle and Mission Impossible.

Less sci fi and more fantasy in this one.

Coups may be easy but switcheroos are easy-peasy.

[fedor8 · 9 September 2021]

Undeniably one of the 5 worst episodes.

A fairly dull, generic switcheroo episode.

Utterly idiotic and far-fetched too. The notion that a Chinese man can be molded into the EXACT replica of a Caucasian American presidential candidate, voice and mannerisms included, is so stupid it simply doesn't hold up, not even to a half-way intelligent 12 year-old. This is the kind of cheap pulp BS you can find in old American comic-books, recycled in many versions. Translated from drawings onto the small screen its nonsense levels only get even more amplified. What works in a comic-book usually doesn't on film - but they sure do keep trying.

The ease with which the Chinese replace and kill the real political candidate is hilarious. If political sabotage and assassination were this easy, we'd have a different Prime Minister or President each month, in every other country.

"Put an end to your treachery, here and now!"

What treachery?! He was a Chinese spy. He'd be a traitor only if he'd betrayed the Chinese. That's how stupidly this is scripted. The vice-President is basically claiming that the President is a fraud - yet he also labels the impostor a traitor! What a Mickey Mouse script.

Naturally, this astoundingly bad episode gets a 7,3 average from the IMDb crowd...

anyone know Phil?

[brabryant · 12 July 2014]

Just wondering if anyone knows who played the part of 'Phil', the President's press secretary? He is not listed anywhere.

His face is familiar to me, but I just can't recall his real name or where I've seen him before.

Anyone? Anyone? Please? Thanks! Just wondering if anyone knows who played the part of 'Phil', the President's press secretary? He is not listed anywhere.

Just wondering if anyone knows who played the part of 'Phil', the President's press secretary? He is not listed anywhere. Anyone? Anyone? Please? Thanks! Just wondering if anyone knows who played the part of 'Phil', the President's press secretary? He is not listed anywhere.

Did JFK watch this while sitting in the Oval Office?

[donaldkingdarkenergy · 15 January 2022]

I wonder if JFK and the First Lady sat and watched this second episode of the Outer Limits. It was broadcast only two months before the assassination in Dallas. The 'Manchurian' candidate (Welby) looks more like LBJ than the current President. Sidney Blackmer squints his eyes now and then, but the truth came out in 'Rosemary's Baby' - Blackmer is married to Ruth Gordon, and they're not Communists, but satanists! I wonder if Oliver Stone saw this episode, and gradually became obsessed with JFK.