ABC airs the eighth episode of Leslie Stevens’ anthology series The Outer Limits. Gary Merrill, Sally Kellerman and Sally Kellerman star in a script by David Duncan.
An engineer at an isolated military outpost in Greenland is ordered to undergo psychiatric treatment when he begins repeatedly talking about an alien presence on the base – and his desire to destroy it by destroying the base itself. Using a device he has secretly been developing, psychiatrist Dr. Hamilton can join his mind to that of Major Brothers, peering into the disturbed man’s thoughts, but one of the frequent earthquakes in this region induces a large power surge, accidentally swapping the two men’s minds. Now in the body of Dr. Hamilton, Brothers is now free to carry out his threat with almost no interference. Trapped in Brothers’ body, Hamilton is powerless to stop him unless he can convince his assistant that he is who he says he is.
written by David Duncan
directed by Abner Biberman
music by Dominic Frontiere
Notes: The military base in this episode may have been based on the DEW Line (Distant Early Warning) radar sites built by the United States during the height of the Cold War, which included several sites in Greenland and the neighboring Nunavut region of Canada, which includes Baffin Island.
LogBook entry by Earl Green