THE HUMAN FACTOR Directed by Abner Biberman Written by David Duncan On a military base in the frozen vastness of Greenland, an army psychiatrist devises a machine that enables him to tune in directly to his patients thoughts. He uses it on Major Brothers, a highly dangerous paranoid who had been brought to him after persisting that the base had been invaded by a snowman-like creature. But an accident occurs that affects the machine and produces an incredible phenomenon: The men's minds become switched. The psychiatrist now possess the brain of his patient, and is intent on blowing up the base with an atomic charge in order to destroy the snowman. Major Brothers now contains the psychiatrist's brain, but is placed in an isolation room in the hospital, unable to make anyone believe what has happened or to prevent the psychiatrist from carrying out his mission. Only Ingrid, the psychiatrist's assistant, is able to recognize the truth. For all his physical likeness, the psychiatrist is not the man she had fallen in love with. That man is in the body of Brothers, whom she can perceive with her heart. She helps Brothers escape from the hospital in time to thwart the psychiatrist from setting off the atomic charge. In a fierce struggle, Brothers is critically shot, but manages to force the psychiatrist under the machine. His desperate hope is that by applying the current again, he can re-exchange their minds. He succeeds, only seconds before he dies. Ironically, as the psychiatrist points out, he had killed himself. NOTES: Popular Brooklyn-born actor Harry Guardino would go on to play Clint Eastwood's superior, Lt. Al Bressler, in Dirty Harry and The Enforcer. Sally Kellerman, who also appeared in The Outer Limits episode "The Bellero Shield," would play Major "Hot Lips" Houlihan in the Robert Altman film classic M*A*S*H. Ivan Dixon, who also appeared in the second-season Outer Limits episode "The Inheritors (Parts I & II)," would become best-known as Sgt. Kinchloe on the Robert Crane sitcom Hogan's Heroes, and go on to become a major TV-series director. James Sikking, in a small role as an orderly, would play Lt. Howard Hunter on the groundbreaking 1980s police series Hill Street Blues. Among his countless other roles is that of Captain Styles of the starship Excelsior in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock. (Original Airdate: November 11, 1963) STARRING Harry Guardino (Maj. Roger Brothers), Gary Merrill (Dr. James Hamilton), Joe De Ssantis (Col. William Campbell), Sally Kellerman (Ingrid Larkin), Ivan Dixon (Maj. Harold Giles), Shirley O'Hara (Dr. Soldini), James B. Sikking (Orderly), John Newton (Peterson), Art Alisi (Sergeant), Jane Langley (Nurse Brainard), William O. Douglas Jr. (Pvt. Gordon/Ice Ghost), Matty Jordan (Sentry), Vic Perrin (Intercom voice) << Previous Episode | Next Episode >> MGM Worldwide Television Group