Friday, October 17, 2008

ANOTHER THING ABOUT MACHINES

On this week's 'Fringe' episode, "Power Hungry", Joseph Meegar displayed an uncontrollable power over electrical machinery. If he had the power at all from the beginning, it was augmented by experiments conducted by Dr. Jacob Fischer.

Forty years ago, another TV character exhibited the same powers. But for Bartlett Finchley, they came naturally; although he was just as incapable of controlling them. (This happened in "A Thing About Machines", an episode of 'The Twilight Zone'.)

Finchley was full of self-loathing and his sub-conscience turned this power against himself. His typewriter typed out threatening messages; his electric razor attacked him as if it was a snake. Finally his own car chased him into his swimming pool, where he drowned. (Although the car could have been some former enemy reincarnated, a la Mrs. Crabtree in 'My Mother The Car'.)
It's another example of mutant powers manifesting long before 'Heroes' or 'Mutant X' or 'The X-Files'.....

BCnU!
Toby O'B

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

They never made the claim in the episode that the machines were being powered by his own mind. They came to life on their own!