Okay, I could not leave this one untouched. Here we actually have a Shulgin-like psychiatrist pushing his novel Research Chemical on willing patients. And who was the writer on this one? Perhaps a fan of psychedelic and/or psychelytic therapy. Or is this a cautionary tale? There seemed to be a mix of themes. It made me smile and LOL quite a bit. Silly, and yet . . . . bravo.

At least the ending was somewhat happy, with the drugs doing something positive. Crime drama, mild science fiction elements (fictional drugs).

The lowdown: A doctor uses tweaked LSD to treat his patients in order to help them conquer their phobias. The problem is, this is some strong medicine that falls into careless hands, which inevidibly leads to other people using it, which means the fear they experience (when the drug makes them confront their deepest fears) can literally scare them to death.

A young woman receives a panicked phone call from her sister who screams in terror before dying. She discovers her sister was taking a medication prescribed by a strange doctor.

A woman gets a call from her sister, who's hysterical, begging her to come over. The line goes dead. Unfortunately, that is also how the police find her sister. The woman is persuaded to let the authorities conduct an autopsy on her sister, who was in her 20s and in good health. They find she died of heart failure. The woman has to stick close by to help her father take care of her late sister's affairs. She also makes the acquaintance of one of her sister's former co-workers, played by good ole Mason Adams. She has to stay at her late sister's apartment until those arrangements are finished. One night the sis can't sleep, and goes rummaging through her sibling's medicine cabinet to find a sominex. She finds a bottle marked as sleeping pills and takes them. Not long afterward, a huge gorilla is trying to pound its way into her door. The sister cannot figure out what's happened, but learns her sister was seeing a psychiatrist. He won't give her any info, but Adams' character agrees to help her out and sees the doctor. Adams learns that, for some of his therapy, the doctor had developed a derivative of LSD that, instead of causing general hallucinations, caused patients instead to see that in their subconscious which most terrified them. The sister then sees the sleeping pills, and finds out they were prescribed by this doctor... This episode has one of the most amusing E.G. Marshall interludes I've ever heard. THe woman is screaming in abject terror as the gorilla is breaking down her door, then Marshall says: "Well, now that's what I'D call an 'unexpected guest' ". Classic. Reply With Quote

A wayward girl calls her sister in a panic asking her to come see her immediately. Her sister is less than enthusiastic and is wrapped up with her own life and can’t be bothered with her sister’s troubles, until a scream of terror comes over the phone. She leaves only to find her sister is dead from an apparent heart attack, despite only being in her mid 20s. With the help of another tenant she investigates a doctor and the mysterious pills he is experimenting with as the possible source of her sister’s demise.

This episode was just so-so. Average--3 stars.

I guess once you find out about the drug causing "scarifying" hallucinations the phone call at the beginning makes more sense (why there were pauses and why we never heard anything besides the voice on the other end of the phone). Adams' character seemed odd to me that he would pick up and help the sister out so easily, but it did sound like he was a smooth operator, so perhaps not so odd (although he did go to lengths to help her out). Not the best episode, but definitely not the worst, either.

Who's to say? What of it? In the meantime in between time, ain't we got fun?

Who's to say? What of it? In the meantime in between time, ain't we got fun? The chills and suspense make this a sure to thrill all!

Riding whitecap to whitecap. Shhh!!! Quiet Larry, you'll wake the patients. I could hear it, almost feel it, brought me right into the jungle. I have a list of who shall amount to anything and who shall not.

Riding whitecap to whitecap. Shhh!!! Quiet Larry, you'll wake the patients. I could hear it, almost feel it, brought me right into the jungle. I have a list of who shall amount to anything and who shall not.

Has a mental patient entered the building?

A schoolteacher gets a telephone call for help from her sister, rushes to her aid and finds her dead. The look on her sister’s face convinces Amanda that her sister Vera had died from sheer fright. Not believing the police report that her 26-year-old sister died of cardiac arrest, Amanda demands that an autopsy be made. Not until she takes one of Vera’s EN-30 “sleeping” pills, a prescription from a Dr. Swalley, does Amanda begin to realize what really happened to her sister.

It was funny hearing Kim Hunter talking about being afraid of gorillas!!! [She played the chimp Zira in 'Planet of The Apes' and she was always insulting the gorillas!] So that scene made me laugh out loud!! Kim Hunter is always good, even though this script wasn't the best.

An interesting tale, perhaps not so far from the truth? People seem to be willing to pop a pill for just about anything even if the drug is experimental. And who just takes another person's pills? Not the smartest move. Sad that her sister had gone so far down the road and what about the father, issues there! An okay story but commercials and news would have helped on this one.