OK...this episode\'s not quite the \"Metal men\" (and they were robots, anyway, and as a kid I always thought the platinum one \"Tina\" was a dish &nbsp;) but it reminds me of a quote from Mr. Spock in the original Star Trek episode of \"The Savage Curtain\", as he was describing a life form the ship\'s sensors observed: For a moment it appeared almost mineral.

A woman real estate agent in New England has just lost a prospective client. She brought him into a house, but neither the lights nor the furnace works. In fact, NOTHING mechanical works in the house.

After he leaves in a huff and she\'s scratching her head as to what happened, she\'s startled by a man who\'s been hiding in the house. He explains (while seeming a bit flustered and maybe just on the verge of incoherence) that he\'s a scientist on a top secret defense project who\'s been reported missing in the past few days. He also says something else...that the lights, etc. won\'t work because he\'s in the house. As a demonstration, he leaves it and asks the realtor to turn on the lights, which now work. The furnace is humming, too.

He tells her that he and a fellow scientist, who died in a recent car crash, were using a very special computer on the project, when the other scientist demanded he shut it off. The scientist said the computer started talking to him, and that it threatened to kill him if it didn\'t do what the computer wanted...he said the computer promised that all metal would \"fail\" him. It apparently did...just after walking off the job (followed by the scientist telling the story) the other man got into his car, suddenly started driving at an uncontrollable speed and lost his life in an ensuing crash.

The scientist tells the realtor he, too, has heard the computer (nicknamed \"Delores\") talk to and threaten him. He says Delores and her compatriots (apparently the \"other side\" (Soviets) have been working on a similar computer) want to end all animal life on the planet, so that they, the metal \"life\" can control it.

The real estate agent thinks he\'s going bananas, in spite of his demonstration of the \"failing\" metal objects to her... <br>