This isn't such a bad episode, but the presence of Bruce Cabot, the adventurer in the original "King Kong" seems odd. Obviously, anyone could play a doctor. There is no specific type, but he seems like the lunking, shy, bull in a china shop that his other roles portray. He is at odds with an older doctor who would like to show him up. This guy puts him in charge of the brain surgery of an honored scientist who is working on really serious stuff. If he fails, the older doctor will have killed two birds with one stone. He will get out of responsibility and send his younger friend packing, for good. Suddenly, a "European" shows up and give Cabot a pair of glasses that he says are needed. He also predicts that the older doctor will dump the surgery on Cabot. Because these things come to pass, Cabot uses the glasses with remarkable results. It's an interesting episode, and they sprung for some realistic looking props and scenery. Now, if only Fay Wray would have shown up.
3 Reviews
Pretty good.
planktonrules14 September 2012
Bruce Cabot plays a young doctor, Dr. Terrell, who seems to constantly be at odds with the Chief Surgeon. However, some of this might be because there is a hugely important surgery coming up and the boss is taking out his frustration on his colleague. It seems that a very important scientist needs a delicate brain operation and the two men will do it together. Now here is where it gets strange--that night an odd man, 'Dr. Xenon' arrives and gives Terrell some special glasses that will help him do the delicate operation. It gets even stranger when Xenon informs Terrell that he will be the man in charge of the surgery--not his boss. And, the next day when he learns his boss is ill, this really makes him think. And, who is this Xenon? Both he and his secretary cannot find out anything about him. What's next? Watch the show.
Some may dislike the rather vague ending but it didn't bother me. What did was that Cabot was 48 and playing the role of a man at least 10-20 years younger. Still, this was a minor problem--as were a few flubbed lines (I think it was aired live). Overall, an interesting installment of an unusual anthology series that predated "The Twilight Zone" by almost a decade.
Some may dislike the rather vague ending but it didn't bother me. What did was that Cabot was 48 and playing the role of a man at least 10-20 years younger. Still, this was a minor problem--as were a few flubbed lines (I think it was aired live). Overall, an interesting installment of an unusual anthology series that predated "The Twilight Zone" by almost a decade.
"The welfare of mankind is at stake."
classicsoncall19 April 2023
Warning: Spoilers
I've been fairly critical of some of these early 'Tales of Tomorrow' stories, but I thought this one was pretty good. It involves an eye surgeon who's been experimenting with new techniques but is admonished by his supervising surgeon for doing so. I thought it a little odd that Dr. Tyrell (Bruce Cabot) called his nurse assistant 'honey', but later on, Martha Larson (Constance Towers) gave him a peck on the cheek, so I guess they were a couple during off hours. Anyway, a critical brain operation needed to be performed on a noted scientist, and Dr. Foyle (Edwin Jerome), despite his criticism, selects Tyrell to perform the operation when he himself becomes incapacitated. Just prior to that, a mysterious Dr. Xenon (Joseph Holland) appeared and told Dr. Tyrell that Foyle wouldn't be performing the operation, and gave him a set of eyeglasses to use during the procedure. During the difficult operation, Tyrell recalled his conversation with Xenon and called for the glasses, which allowed him to observe the patient's brain at the cellular level. Following up afterwards, Dr. Foyle can't believe the written recap of the surgery and questions Tyrell. When the doctor pulls out the glasses, they prove to have no lenses! The stunning conclusion will appeal to fans of classic sci-fi and I found it to be one of the better ones that I've seen so far in this anthology series.
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