Expanding Human

This is an odd little episode of "The Outer Limits"--and very timely. It's as if they've taken the story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and adapted it for the 1960s. Now, with the increased popularity of LSD, the show was able to capitalize on it and make an anti-drug message AND entertain at the same time.

The show begins with a weird primordial sort of man breaking in and stealing some chemicals. He's interrupted and brutally kills a guard with the strength of many men. Soon it becomes obvious that this is someone who has transformed himself into a super-intelligent, super-powerful and super-amoral man--and he's bent on killing again and again if needed. The clues lead to a group of men who have been dabbling into the concept of 'consciousness raising' (a term used by scientists like Timothy Leary when discussing the use of LSD).

All in all, a worthwhile episode even if it is a bit obvious in its underlying message as well as the story itself being a bit of a revised version of the old Robert Lewis Stephenson story. It's also worth noting that this show is one of the few of the era that actually showing a person bleeding. It was necessary for the plot but normally deaths were quite bloodless on TV during this era.

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.

A man becomes superhuman through the use of drugs. He murders a security guard and a man who held the pursestrings on his research project. The research is into mind and body expansion. The stuff of Timothy Leary. A police detective played by James Doohan (later of Star Trek as the inimitable Montgomery Scott) comes to investigate. The college campus is fraught with craziness, students who have become absorbed into these going on. The problem with this episode is it goes on forever and nothing much happens. This is one of the most forgettable episodes of the series. It is indeed appropriate to the time but is there anything prophetic about it? I don't know.

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.