"The Brain of Colonel Barham"
 
Original Title: "The Brain of Donald Duncan"
Production and Broadcast Order #47
Shooting Days: 23-30 October 1964
First Air Date: January 2, 1965
 
Production Credits:
Teleplay: Robert C. Dennis
Story: Sidney Ellis
Director: Charles Haas
Assistant Director: Robert H. Justman
Director of Photography: Kenneth Peach
Composer: Harry Lubin
Cast of Characters:
Grant Williams as Major Douglas McKinnon
Anthony Eisley as Colonel Alex Barham
Elizabeth Perry as Jennifer Barham
Douglas Kennedy as General Daniel Pettit
Martin Kosleck as Dr. Leo Hausner
Wesley Addy as Dr. Rahm
Paul Lukather as Technical Assistant Ed Nichols
 
Opening Narration:
"With the world growing more crowded, the great powers strive to conquer other planets. The race is on. The interplanetary sea has been charted; the first caravelle of space is being constructed. Who will get there first? Who will be the new Columbus?"
 
Plotline:
Colonel Barham is a bitter disabled man with a terminal illness and that moves on a wheelchair which is selected to go on Mars but only his brain under the envelop of a robot will be aboard the ship. More frustrated than ever, the bodyless brain turns out to be megalomaniac and rebels against the Officials to rule. Armed with a rifle, the General in charge of the project shoots down and makes the brain's room explode.
 
Closing Narration:
"Progress goes on. One experiment fails, but even out of failure valuable lessons are learned. A way will be found, someday, somehow. It always is."
 
Quote:
"The subconscious' drives may be released. The disciplined could simply collapse. And for someone who is an egocentric, it wouldn't take much to do it... No, in my opinion, Colonel Barham was the wrong choice for this experiment."
—Major Douglas McKinnon (Grant Williams)
Comments:
The prologue recycles the start of the dream scene from "Cold Hands, Warm Heart". To save that poor drama, the writer injects matrimonial melodrama elements: Barham accuses McKinnon to have an affair with his wife but we learn Barham used to go with other women. Only two scenes allow us to watch some action: the brain orders, hypnotize (see the cheap jolts of electricity) and turns two men into zombie-slaves: technical assistant Ed Nichols to kidnap his wife and surgeon Dr. Rahm to gun down McKinnon. Music supervisor John Caper Jr. turn in Harry Lubin's cues very camp and formulaic: ad nauseum; he also uses the sound effects of "The Human Factor" to suggest the brain activity into the dials. This episode shows a cruel dilemma: a man has to undergo the mutilation of his body for the benefit of space advancement that reminds the case of Allen Leighton from "The Architects of Fear"—as Leighton, Barham's brain communicates with a voice box: "I feel pain". This is the bottom of season 2 and a real snooze job that makes you yawn with boredom... conventional, static, anemic, hackneyed, grey and cheap military and hospital drama with an unengaging and uninvolving cast and implicitly inspired by Curt Siodmak's novel: "Donovan's Brain"—whose screen's adaptation was directed by Felix Feist who has also ended this season. This is the last Space program plot (see "Cold Hands, Warm Heart" and "The Invisible Enemy") with the idea of colonization (see "The Mutant" and "Cold Hands, Warm Heart"). The figure of the brain was subtly treated during season 1. Now, it's much too literal-minded. Once again, find an actor who used to play in Robert Aldrich's "Kiss Me Deadly" and John Frankenheimer's "Seconds": Wesley Addy. Anthony Eisley also plays in Samuel Fuller's "The Naked Kiss" along with Constance Towers. Grant Williams used to be the lead in Jack Arnold's "The Incredible Shrinking Man". TV Ananlogy: The pilot of Roald Dahl's 1961 anthology "Way Out": "William and Mary" also deals with a brain divorce.