The Purple Twilight

On Evangelization in an Age of Science

Dec 15, 2024

It is a fact that evangelization cannot be done in a vacuum. The story of Jesus in the Gospels is loaded with a cultural and historical background. In Acts Paul makes extensive use of cultural markers. In today’s world such markers include science fiction, perhaps even more so than science. I can recall years ago a priest trying to describe the Holy Spirit with allusions to the Force of Star Wars, a comparison that I found to be, um, rather forced (to be fair I think he knew that too). But overall the idea has merit. It’s just a matter of doing it correctly.

Recently I became a catechist for a fourth grade class. I found I had to struggle to keep them focused on the curricula. For example, I found that their perception of sports is paramount, and I had to reinterpret ‘sin’ as ‘spiritual slacking,’ a concept they had immediate resonance with. I resolved to make use of any media that would engage them. One video on my list is a very old science fiction show.

Keeper of the Purple Twilight is an episode of the original Outer Limits television series. The story concerns a scientist named Eric Plummer who is developing a theory of energy that will if successful dwarf nuclear energy. Eric is frustrated because he cannot finish the theory, he needs one or two more equations. An alien named Ikar appears and persuades Eric to make a Faustian bargain: Eric gives Ikar his human emotions in exchange for the last two equations. Ikar claims he needs the emotions to understand humans for the inevitable future contact.

It is a flawed story, though children will not notice. The plot as developed has several holes and continuity issues, which I will not list. Eric’s fiancee, Janet Lane, puts up with too much bad behavior from others and swoons when she sees Ikar for what he is, a demonstration of weakness in total conflict with the rest of her actions. There is a lot of time wasted on automobile traffic, scenes that I skipped in class (that allowed me to also skip the brief suicide dialogue, which I was determined to not show).

On the plus side there is good acting, dialogue, plot concept, costume, music and sound, and even special effects. The principal reason I decided to use it in my class, besides the entertainment value, is because it inadvertently highlights changes in our society regarding God. Before starting the video I asked my students to count the number of times God is mentioned and to try to remember those scenes. I also tied it in with the end of the liturgical year: I was asked what “purple twilight” meant, and I replied “The Purple Twilight is the end of the world. Have you noticed that the readings in church in the last two weeks have been from the book of Revelation? This is the right time of year to see this.”

The first mention of God comes when Ikar materializes with human appearance in Janet’s apartment while she is sleeping. She awakes and is frightened, but he appears calm and unemotional. He explains he has taken all Eric’s emotions except the love that Eric has given Janet, and so he has come to take it. When Janet asks he confesses he does not know what love is. He asks

“How many children have you produced?”
“None…I’m not married yet, you see!”
“In an orderly society women only serve one purpose, to produce children.”
“Wha, what happens to love?”
“That word again, please define it for me.”
“But there are very many different kinds of love…there is the love of a man and a woman, of course…and there’s love of children…and God, and nature…and also it’s a beautiful thing…there’s so many different kinds of love, it would take me a very long time to show them all to you.” She emphasizes ‘very long time’, obviously hoping to delay whatever nefarious purpose Ikar has for his intrusion.
Janet then tells Ikar that she has given Eric’s love away to others. He goes to the window and stares out, as if he is contemplating tracking down all the recipients of love. He then disappears. Janet realizes he is no ordinary stalker.

The second time God is mentioned comes after Eric demonstrates the immediate application of his completed theory to Frank Karlin, the laboratory director, and David Hunt, Karlin’s superior. He points the new device at a table and it disappears. Hunt is taken aback.

“What happened to it?”
“It no longer exists.”
“Why not? What did you do to it?”
“You aren’t a scientist, Mr. Hunt, you wouldn’t understand, but Mr. Karlin does. Perhaps he’ll explain it to you.”
“It’s big, Frank, really big.”
“We’ll talk in my office”
Karlin begins his plea to Hunt even before his office door is closed.
“I want no part of it.”
“Why?”
Karlin sits behind his desk. “It must be destroyed.”
“What are you talking about?”
“This horrendous, diabolical thing.”
“That’s rough talk.”
“I won’t approve of one cent more being spent on this monstrosity.”
“Why not?”
Karlin leans forward for emphasis.
“It destroys the magnetic forces that hold matter, any matter, together. You saw with your own eyes what that small instrument did.” Karlin then picks up the folder holding Eric’s proposal. “This pile of papers covered with neat harmless writing, if built into the size it calls for, would evaporate in one second everything it took God and the rest of us millions of years to build.”
Hunt refuses to see Karlin’s view, leaving Karlin worried and apprehensive.

I had told my students that the title of the episode really ought to be The Woman Who Stopped the Purple Twilight, and that they should hang on every word Janet says. She is disturbed by Eric’s change of behavior, his lack of emotion and pure utilitarianism, and the influence Ikar has over him, and so she begins a debate with Ikar that is full of values and meanings. Ikar confesses that possessing Eric’s emotions is changing him. Janet persuades him to reveal his alien nature and his reason for his work with Eric. Ikar admits he arrived on Earth to build a weapon that will wipe out humanity so that his kind can colonize it. Eric has unwittingly become the means to build what Ikar and his soldiers cannot bring from their planet. Janet’s brave penultimate words to Ikar reveal that in this extreme situation she has come to value love above life itself: “You have no use for the emotions you took from Eric, please give them back to him, so that when we die, he can love me as much as I love him.”

These sacrificial words of Janet’s are the tipping point. After hearing them Ikar rebels against the alien invasion. His soldiers attack him, but he makes his way back to the laboratory. He returns Eric’s emotions, and he and Eric then disintegrate his soldiers, though Ikar is killed. After a brief internal struggle Eric destroys the disintegration device by turning it on itself, and then in anger and guilt begins the destruction of his papers with the last two equations.

During the video I watched my students. Despite the show being black and white and the by today’s standards primitive special effects, they were fully engaged.

My students got the number of mentions of God correct when I asked after it was over. I then asked “Was there anything special about the way people talked about God?” Dead silence in response to this trick question, so I quickly told them the answer: “What was special is that there was nothing special. God is mentioned as if He was part of ordinary everyday life. The show you just watched was made in 1964, and that was really the end of the time when people spoke like that on TV. Now God is mentioned only in religious programming or in swearing or the talk of crazy people. You saw this show because I wanted you to understand how much life has changed in recent decades. Belief in God is now seen by many as something private, something not to be shared the way it was shared by the people in this video.” My hope lay in planting another seed that there are worlds beyond the here and now, and that my students will come to resist the Tyranny of the Now.

I also reminded them that love is not just an emotion but an act of will for the good of another.

Points I left out, mostly due to lack of time:

‘Magnetic’ is not the proper word for the forces that hold matter together. The proper modern terms were just entering public consciousness in 1964, so the writers cannot be faulted for using simplified language. Since this was not a science class I deferred any correction.
Karlin’s use of the word diabolical is not the only other reference to a religious outlook. We have the Faustian bargain already mentioned, which is a staple of spiritual literature. At one point Janet exclaims “He’s possessed!” to Hunt after Eric rebuffs her last plea to reject Ikar. Did she mean it literally, in the demonic sense? No, probably not. We knew that Eric was possessed by ambition and scientific curiosity, so that is the main possibility. Also, his situation was actually one of dispossession, his bargain with Ikar meant he no longer possessed the ability to love. What is striking is that these snippets of dialogue easily dovetail with assertions of certain contemporary religious leaders that so-called alien abductions and apparitions are actually demonic events. Should such assertions continue this episode might, in an odd way, be considered to be prophetic.

Was I successful? I don’t know yet. I will say that in the following weeks my students seemed to show some gratitude and appreciation for my unusual effort to bring another perspective to them. Hopefully we will build on that.