episode #11 - Burning Bright

Air Date: 4/12/74 written by Del Rejsman Directed by Jerry London

William Shatner is back as the Rocket Man - he's a fellow astronaut of Austin's who appears to get high while in orbit (allowing Shatner to ham it up a bit with some stream-of-consciousness blathering). In actuality, Shatner's astronaut has passed through some strange electrical field up there, boosting his brain - his brain burns brightly, like a light bulb just before it burns out, get it? Despite indications that he's super smart now, Shatner appears to be in a daze during the first half of the episode, until he figures out why he's drawn to an amusement water park - he can communicate with dolphins. Next thing, he becomes obsessed with a loopy idea to send dolphins up into space.
As expected, Austin and the rest of NASA can't take such suggestions seriously. But, things do get serious finally when Shatner uses his brain power to (at first) knock people out and then to kill. I think this episode was attempting to present some clever sci-fi ideas but the result was tedious and silly. Shatner just comes across as spaced out during most of it, also fixated on a kid named Andy from his childhood days. It's all unfocused and repetitive, and watching a guy deteriorate like this can also be depressing. BoG's Score: 4 out of 10

Star Trek TOS actor alert: the Shat, of course, who had been and would be again Capt. Kirk; also, this wasn't the first time Shatner played an astronaut other than Kirk; he was also in an old Outer Limits episode as another astronaut who has problems after returning from space - Cold Hands, Warm Heart