Episode no. Season 1
Episode 4 Written by Jerome Ross Production code 8 | Directed by László Benedek Cinematography by Conrad Hall Original air date October 7, 1963 | |
"The Man with the Power" is an episode of the original The Outer Limits television show. It first aired on 7 October 1963, during the first season.
Contents
Introduction
An experiment endows a college professor with powerful telekinetic abilities, which his subconscious mind uses to destroy his enemies, including his employer, Dean Radcliffe.
Plot
An unassuming college professor develops a device that, once implanted in the brain, can manipulate objects through mind power. Although disregarded as talentless by his family and coworkers, the teacher makes an impact with a U.S. space agency in the hopes that he can assist them in retrieving unreachable, space-bound, element-laden asteroids. However, as the professor becomes more familiar with his device, he learns that his subconscious mind has been utilizing it, and taking involuntary revenge (via a storm cloud) on those who demean him, including his harping wife, whom he almost kills. As his invention is scheduled to be implanted into the brain of an ambitious astronaut with questionable motives, now realizing its destructive power, the college professor becomes alarmed, and is determined to stop the procedure. He enters the operating theater, just as the surgeon is preparing to implant the device, and destroys him and the head of the asteroid project, along with himself.