[1] It is illegal to possess a Megasoid as they are highly dangerous, always thinking about killing, unless in a reproductive cycle, which this one now is.
Strict guidelines govern the production of these "duplicates", which must be destroyed before vestigial memory renders them indistinguishable from the originals.
Seeing a more compassionate version of himself gives him the courage to kill the alien, as he believes Laura would be happier with the duplicate.
But the thing which distinguishes him is his ability to learn from his mistakes.Adapted from the short story "Goodnight, Mr James" by Clifford D. Simak, first published in Galaxy Science Fiction magazine in March 1951, later published as "The Night of the Puudly" in 1964 in a collection of Simak's short stories.
The original story begins and ends with the "duplicate" of Henderson James, who awakes on a street in an unnamed city with a mission to kill an alien called a Puudly.
As the duplicate prepares to become the real James, he receives a phone call from Allen, the clone bootlegger, who advises him of the poison: "Like a time bomb.
The Chemosphere House in Los Angeles was used in exterior shots as the home of the character Captain Emmet.