Expanding Human

As usual, the Outer Limits was once again ahead of the curve with this episode. Universities were heavily experimenting with LSD during this time and were coming forth with amazing, positive and promising results until the Nixon admin shut the whole thing down and loaded on masses of negative propaganda about the drug. It is one of my personal favorites because of story matter and a well conceived plot, with Skip Homeier doing some excellent acting. C.E. drugs are in play throughout this episode. C.E. stands for consciousness expansion, aka LSD, DMT, STP, Peyote, Mushrooms, etc... The storyline figures, heck, if you can expand the consciousness, why not the intellect, physical prowess, ESP, the whole ball of wax? Great! But at what price to humanity? Many consider this episode too talky, almost like an old Perry Mason episode. And yes, if you are looking for mind blowing science fiction this will not be your cup of tea. It is much more subtle and I'm sure an episode that saved them a ton during production. But the story had me hooked from beginning to end. Also, an Asian professor gives the most poetic and accurate description of a mind expanded by the use of LSD that I have ever come across. It almost blows the minds of the policemen listening to him.

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.

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.

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.

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.