I want an action figure of Robby the Robot… but with a metallic face under his translucent dome, as opposed to the tubes, wires, spheres and flashing lights seen in the 1956 sci-fi film “Forbidden Planet.” The reason for this is simple: Without that cold, cruel visage staring back at me, I wouldn’t know for sure that I was holding a plastic statuette of Uncle Simon II.
Uncle Simon II is the robotic antagonist of “Uncle Simon,” an unappreciated gem from “The Twilight Zone” that first aired in 1963. Penned by chief “Twilight Zone” scribe Rod Serling and starring Cedric Hardwicke and Constance Ford, it tells the story of Barbara Polk, a middle-aged and lonely woman who lives with and cares for her wealthy Uncle Simon in the hope of inheriting his estate. Simon assures her that her greed will be rewarded, but at a price: While he still lives, she must endure a parade of creative verbal abuse from the emotionally sadistic old man, who is perfectly content working on his science experiments in solitude when he isn’t forcing Barbara to cater to his every whim.
Eventually Simon dies (this isn’t much of a spoiler, as the story practically advertises where it is going) and Barbara is told that she must care for Uncle Simon II in order to receive her inheritance. The ensuing story is a powerful object lesson in the ways we will debate ourselves in the name of becoming rich. Simon’s constant jabs at Barbara are cruel and undeserved — and, at one point in the plot, particularly ill-advised — but his observations are accurate. She is a joyless grouch, clearly self-absorbed and basic, and Simon is perceptive when he says she cares nothing for either him or his work. This does not make Simon sympathetic (no one should be treated the way he does to Barbara), but it makes his diatribes more than indulgent dramatic flourishes. They constitute a kind of angry poetry, a hostile tribute to the personality traits that so often accompany authentic avarice, and are matched only by Barbara’s equally eloquent denunciations of Simon’s abusiveness.
This episode also includes a useful lesson in the danger of the sunk cost fallacy. People frequently will stick with self-destructive decisions if they feel they have invested too much time into those choices to back away from them. Even though Barbara is technically a free woman throughout the story, she clearly feels enslaved by the sheer volume of time spent waiting to receive Simon’s money. Her persistence is rewarded with one moment of ecstasy — Ford’s acting gifts hit a crescendo as she crows about her plan to “reap” — but that quickly fades. When you choose to shackle yourself to one future, you risk being committed to bad things you didn’t see coming.
This brings us back to Uncle Simon II. Robby The Robot has appeared many times in sci-fi movies and literature, and I’m sure there are nerds with other favorite appearances. Even “Twilight Zone” fans can check out a different version of Robby in the 1964 episode “The Brain Center at Whipple’s.” For my money, though, I will always prefer Uncle Simon II. He embodies the danger of myopic greed, a threat that sadly is not limited to The Twilight Zone.