Expanding Human

Skip Homier stars as Dr. Roy Clinton, who works at a University lab that has recently experimented with a new drug formula called CE, or consciousness expansion. It puts one colleague into a suspended animation that is(almost fatally) mistaken for death, but on poor Roy, it turns him into a ruthless(yet intelligent) hulking brute with no conscience yet super strength and delusions of grandeur, as he as already killed two, and it may become more. Keith Andes costars as a friend named Dr. Peter Wayne, and James Doohan as a police detective investigating the case. Mostly dreary and static episode has the right ingredients but comes out flat.

A scientist named Doctor Roy Clement discovers a way to chemically enhance the functioning of the brain, the problem is that it removes the sense of morality and humanity.

Expanding Human is a well plotted and well realised episode. For me it seemed like a reworking of Jekyll and Hyde, an almost identical plot, with Clement unaware of his actions, and undergoing something of a physical change.

I wouldn't necessarily say it's a ground breaking episode, nor or it hugely imaginative, but it's still a very good watch.

It's perhaps the strongest episode of the second series so far, I particularly liked the horror vibe of it, and Clement's physical transformation is very well done.

Skip Homeier stood out for me as the central villain of the piece.

8/10.

I remember seeing Keith Andes in an episode of Perry Mason and thinking how much he reminded me of Skip Homeier. Similar appearance and voice. Those two should have been cast as brothers many times but I haven't run across any occurrence of it. Too bad. Anyway, it is good to see I'm not the only one who noticed the resemblance.

I think Homeier had the better career with many movies in the 1950s while both actors were staples on tv in the 1960s. Not sure why Skip retired at the young age of 50. He seemed to have made the decision well before time and casting directors would make the decision for him. Both men were good actors and producers could do a lot worse than have them in the cast.

Similar concept as season one episode titled The Sixth Finger. Someone trying to speed up evolution and discovering the consequences. Interesting to take that same general concept and take a different approach to it. This episode is a more modern approach while the earlier episode feels like the approach in an earlier time in history.

Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde at a 1960s university.

It is nice to see "Scotty" just before doing Star Trek, a couple of episodes back we had William Shatner, so this season is started to feel like a weekly pilot to Star Trek (1966). And it has been reported that Gene Roddenbery was actually "around the set" when The Outer Limits was being made...so maybe Gene was getting ideas here.

But this is not Star Trek, it is The Outer Limits, with a touch of Jekyll and Hide, set in a university. Sound a bit different? It is.

The hour holds me from beginning to end, but the episode can only be called okay.