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Man Becomes Machine

The hus and I have been watching old Twilight Zone episodes lately. I remember a surprising number of them from when I was a kid. They scared the living day lights out of me then, but now I think most of them are funny.

All except for the episode called "Steel." Steel is about prize fighting robots and a human ex-prize fighter named, well, Steel. Steel's robot breaks, so he decides to fight in its place. He obviously loses.

None of this was freaking me out. What was freaking me out was the ending. This is the ending that I remembered:

Steel is wheeled back into the ready room with a robe and mask on. He is left there and locked in the room for the night. No one remembers that he is not a robot. He is left there to die.

The actual ending:

Steel is wheeled back to the ready room with robe and mask on. His friend takes his mask off and asks him if he's okay. His friend puts a blanket under his head. Steel tells his friend to go get the money. The friend comes back with only half the amount. Steel complains, fade out with the friend sitting on the floor tending to Steel.

Big difference huh? Weird, too since I remembered the rest of it pretty well. The masks the robots wear scared me when I was a kid. They are so depersonalizing, and I guess that's where the whole "man becomes machine" idea came from.

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