The "Phantom" kept tapping out a code, first with the scissors and later, at the end on the scaffolding; something like "1; 1-2, 1-2-3".
I wonder what it was? Or what the director or writer had in mind?
I always thought he was trying to get them to help him -- that he needed his "air" supply, helmet and suit, his time was running out, he was not a menace, that sort of thing. It seemed desperate and a bit sad.
shareI would suspect that rather than a Close Encounters-esque type communication, the alien might have been trying to tell Barbara the atomic number for the missing element to re-create the atmosphere he needed to breathe.
Recall she said the gas was composed of methane and another element she couldn't identify? It also appeared as though the alien always sought her out and chose to listen/communicate with her because she was attempting to determin the composition of the gas.
It would seem logical to me, then, that he was trying to tell her what the missing element was. I don't have a periodic table of elements at hand, but I would hazard a guess that the 1-2-3 code may correspond to some element or combination of elements.
"If you don't know the answer -change the question."
"...but I would hazard a guess that the 1-2-3 code may correspond to some element or combination of elements."
That would be pretty much my guess, although the tapping code of 1, 1-2, 1-2-3 seemed a little too sequential and oversimplified.
My crack scientifical staff has with with an all-night effort translated the space phantom's code and it comes out something like --
"Wow...wow...wow...Barbara...you...some...babe...!!!"
He maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good... St. Matthew 5:45
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