The Man with the Power

Donald Pleasance, a sort of Casper Milquetoast college teacher, dominated by his wife and his boss, the college dean, has agreed to be a guinea pig in an experiment to use the brain to cause do things beyond the scope of normal machinery. It can actually be used to cause things to happen in other places, including space, to mine precious metals and elements. Unfortunately, Pleasance begins to lose control of his own id impulses, actually killing his boss and injuring his wife. Once he realizes how dangerous this power is, he tries to put the kabosh on the project, but his own impulses can't be curtailed. To make matters worse, a young astronaut is going to have the same implant that Pleasance has, and this guy won't listen to reason. Pleasance sounds like a nut, so drastic measures must be employed for drastic times. Unfortunately, the conclusion can be seen coming a mile away.

Donald Pleasence is the meek science professor Harold J Finley. He went through a secret experimental surgery for NASA. It increases his brain activity. Giving it the power of energy where it can move rocks.

The astronauts would be next in line for the surgery by NASA.

At first Finley does not notice the side effects to the surgery. When he gets angry, some dark clouds gather and destroys what has been upsetting him. Such as the construction workers at the roadblock who closed the highway. Their trucks later get damaged.

What is upsetting Finley now is the Dean of his college. He will not give Finley time off so he can finish his work with NASA. The Dean likes to demean Finley constantly.

Another person always humiliating Finley is his own wife. She has emasculated Finley and pretty soon he comes close to snapping. This time realising the dangers of the powers inherent in him.

An interesting premise, some good acting by Pleasance but it does not work. The Dean was horrid and I could not understand why the NASA like organisation could not give Finley permanent employment after doing surgery on him.

There were just too many weaknesses in the story.

Having had a technically advanced device installed in his head, Harold J. Finley has the ability to cause electric storms to appear and eviscerate those that get in his way.

It's another very high quality, impressive episode, this one is pure science fiction, the story of an everyday man being pushed into extreme action by those around him.

This comes at a really interesting point in the career of the late, great Donald Pleasance, definitely a big star by this point, with an already illustrious list of performances, and he was terrific here, adding real sincerity to the part.

Ok, so when you see Harold Finley use his powers to lift the rock, you can see the strings lifting it up, but we are watching things on a much higher resolution, I'm sure many wouldn't have picked up on it at the time.

Once again they were ambitious with the special effects, they attempted to do something pretty bold, it was a fair effort.

Good story, elevated by the lead performance.

8/10.

The college professor Harold J. Finley is a shy and little man married to the nagging Vera. After a surgery where a device he has developed is implanted in his brain, Harold achieves the power of moving heavy objects using his mind. The space agency decides to use his invent in an astronaut for the next spaceflight. However there is also an unexpected side effect and Harold unconsciously revenges humiliations and bad treatment vaporizing his offenders. He concludes that Earth may be destroyed and tries to stop the surgery the astronaut will be submitted. Will he succeed?

"The Man with the Power" is an intriguing episode of "The Outer Limits". Harold J. Finley learns how dangerous the human mind can be while feelings such as hatred, death wish or revenge are not capable to be controlled. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "O Homem com o Poder" ("The Man with the Power")

Those isn't really a review so much as a statement of my reactions. My bedroom was off the living room where our tv was. I was very young; so it may have been when the show started in the 60s. I wasn't allowed to watch the show but my dad liked it. I snuck out and peeked out my bedroom door and remember seeing the storm cloud following Donald Pleasance. Scariest thing I ever saw. Gave me nightmares for weeks. Recently rewatched it. Not bad for its age, but I slept well that night.