It's the premise of "The Brain of Colonel Barham", an episode of the old Outer Limits series. It comes off quite well. One thing to note is that the titular colonel who's about to be cyborged is such an incredible asshole throughout that his story is more comical than depressing. You can look forward to him getting his comeuppance in the end. The medical professional on this project is played by Wesley Addy, a great character actor with a great Scandinavian face. (His parents were Danish.)
This is actually the third-to-last episode of the series. From what I've read the network had put The Outer Limits in a no-win timeslot, which resulted in creator Josef Stefano and much of the crew leaving. But it seems like the last ones to go and turn out the light were still doing some good work.
2 comments:
Yep, I could guess how this was going to go right from hearing about the plan in the first place as well as having noticed 'Colonel Barham' isn't the nicest of men. They've decided the only way for the US to win the space race to Mars is to have the experience of a human in a computer that can make the actual trip to the red planet.
Of course they come up with the 'old brain in a jar' trope that looks about as silly as such things always do but it does work - at first. Then, no longer constrained by a skull, the brain keeps growing and growing. It develops powers beyond those of normal men - it controls the behavior of the scientists around his jar and even sends out charged bolts of energy. The only solution determined by the General in charge was a bullet straight to the jug as the cyborged creature attempted to kill both him and his widow.
It's a shame The Outer Limits ended when it did. They did have some very interesting storylines: One of my favorites was the one with David McCallum where self-improvement gets taken to the Limit when his development is accelerated by so many thousands of years he views the rest of us as vermin. Then he goes beyond.
Before the transfer I seem to remember Colonel Barham saying that his wife doesn't believe in divorce. It's hard to believe that being married to him didn't make a believer out of her. But yes, on the face of it he's the logical choice for what they want to do.
As powerful as the brain is it's also highly vulnerable. That may be one reason why the idea of a disembodied brain as villainous actor seems silly at first. It takes some savvy to make it look like a threat. The episode actually does succeed at that.
You're talking about "The Sixth Finger." I know I've seen it, though it's been a long time. I know it was much more British than the average episode, with the Scottish McCallum playing a Welshman. Seems like another case where having unlimited intelligence and power didn't work out in the way the person though it would.
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