Revered by his students (and by his art teacher girlfriend), college physics professor Nick Conrad’s strong sense of justice lands him in trouble. He’s present during a mob-organized attempted bank robbery, and when two of the three robbers are shot by bank guards, the third runs – until caught by Nick and handed off to the police. This puts Nick in the mob’s crosshairs, and after one of his student lab assistants is killed by a bomb meant for Nick, he himself is attacked by a hit man who has to leave Nick alive to evade capture. Nick is paralyzed from the waist down, and threats on his girlfriend’s life convince him to stand down as the state’s star witness in the bank robbery prosecution. Dejected and confined to a wheelchair, Nick sullenly returns to his classes and his physics research, which finally bears some fruit – metal than can store enough energy to move itself. Nick sets about building himself an exoskeletal, bulletproof suit that will restore his mobility and protect him…and sets about gathering information on his assailants. Nick’s first test of the Exo-Man suit results in the accidental death of a man he intended to deliver to the police, but not due to Nick’s own actions. It also proves to be a very flawed alpha test, as the suit’s speed, battery capacity and oxygen supply prove to be inadequate. Nick returns to the lab to make the necessary improvements, but does he plan to use the Exo-Man suit to help restore law and order…or to take justice into his own (now very powerfully augmented) hands?
teleplay by Henri Simoun and Lionel E. Siegel
story by Martin Caidin and Henri Simoun
directed by Richard Irving
music by Dana KaproffCast: David Ackroyd (Dr. Nick Conrad), Anne Schedeen (Emily Frost), A. Martinez (Raphael Torres), Jose Ferrer (Kermit Haas), Jack Colvin (Martin), Harry Morgan (Arthur Travis), Donald Moffat (Wallace Rogers), Kevin McCarthy (Kamenski), Richard Narita (Jim Yamaguchi), Jonathan Segal (Eddie Rubinstein), Martin Speer (Ted Kamenski), George Sperdakos (Dr. Garrick), Randy Faustino (Larry), Nick David (Jack), Wina Sturgeon (TV Newswoman)
LogBook entry by Earl Green