Carbon copy does not an homage make

A good idea is in the mind of the beholder.

UPN’s decision to remake the classic “Twilight Zone” episode “Eye of the Beholder” is not necessarily a bad one. (It airs tonight on “The Twilight Zone” from 9 to 9:30, followed by another episode, “Developing,” from 9:30 to 10.)

But because the producers copied the Rod Serling original so exactly, replicating the dialogue, the scenes, even the camera angles, the result is a pointless exercise.

The original “Eye of the Beholder,” in which a hideously ugly woman (her face hidden by bandages) is facing her 11th corrective medical procedure so that she can fit into her totalitarian society, was a pointed commentary on conformity, both in personal and political life. In particular, the 1960 episode seemed to be an attack on Nazi eugenics and the quest for one perfect race.

There is plenty of fodder today for a great updated version of “Beholder,” from “Extreme Makeover” and the mainstreaming of plastic surgery to what some see as our current administration’s attack on individual rights in the interest of “national security.”

With no new social commentary to focus on, however, all the viewer can do is judge the new version against the old, and today’s “Beholder” suffers by comparison. Although model Molly Sims does an adequate job as the frantic “deformed” woman, Donna Douglas was much more subtle and moving in the original. And the ending of the new one doesn’t have the same visual impact as the first.

The new “Eye of the Beholder” was perhaps conceived as an homage, but it seems more an exercise in laziness. Of course, those who haven’t seen the original won’t know what they are missing -- and the issue Serling addresses is timeless. But then they ought to seek out the earlier version at the video store so they can see the difference for themselves.