Produced by Robert Bennett Steinhauer, Karen Harris, Jill Sherman
Written and Directed by Kenneth Johnson
A potentially destructive meteor is spotted by a space observation centre closing in on Earth's atmosphere, subsequently being tracked during the hours before it crashes in Utah. In the vicinity David is helping a blind woman who's moved away from the city, trying to adapt to a more solitary life. He sees the flash through the sky just prior to the impact explosion and heads through the forest to investigate. As he gets closer to the object the gamma radiation being emitted from the object interferes with his body chemistry, causing him to stagger backwards. Putting his hand into a wasp's nest the resulting swarm prompts a transformation that leads to some small scale destruction before Hulk wanders back towards the woman's cabin. There the frightened blind woman is present during the reverse metamorphosis, but it stops half way - David's body becomes jammed into a halfway state between the two beings, both physically and mentally. Returning to the crash site the military close in on the scene and mistake David/Hulk for a possible extraterrestrial, capturing him in a solid steel prison for further analysis back at a laboratory (Prometheus) designed to exploit lifeforms originating from outer space.
What a corker of a story to open season four. As a whole the episodes veer completely from the formula that has been established in the series, with the possible exception of having David help the almost-annoying blind woman whose presence seems to be a little contrived in order to elicit sympathy. The first part builds tension quickly as a near science fiction scenario is developed (it is suggested that the meteor is flying at an angle that leads to speculation that it is piloted) until David's reverse change results in a rather creepy hybrid, interestingly using two actors (Bixby himself for close-ups, and Ric Drasin - obviously a little more muscled than the former but not quite up to the mass of Ferrigno - for medium to long shots). Bixby again shines as an actor, pulling off his diffused mental intellect mixed combined with bouts of uncontrollable anger convincingly. Part 1 concludes with a classic cliffhanger leading to the second part taking place largely at the military base where the creature has been captured, and McGee has tricked his way in hoping to finally learn the secret behind the monster. The tidy conclusion wraps things up with marginal dissatisfaction, and over-use of a musical theme during Hulk's rampage during the finale of Part 2 are the only real negatives in an otherwise great double episode.
Number of Fists: *****/****½
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