Air date: March 3, 1961
In a simple neighborhood bar, Callahan and a rival bettor are arguing over a baseball bet as bartender Anthony O'Toole watches. Callahan tells the bettor that he owes him five dollars because the team he bet on lost last night's game, while the bettor says that he won't pay on the grounds of a bad call. Sitting nearby is Luther Dingle (Burgess Meredith), a vacuum cleaner salesman and consummate wimp. The frustrated bettor contends to Luther about his opinion regarding the outcome of the game, before punching Luther when he disagrees. The bettor and Callahan are soon caught up in their argument, with Luther stuck in the middle.
Suddenly, a two-headed alien from Mars, unseen to the humans, enters the bar. Visiting Earth for scientific study, the Martian's heads converse with each other and decide to conduct an experiment on the wimpy Luther, zapping him with a laser to give him superhuman strength. At first, Luther is pretty baffled by his sudden increase in strength, and sets about experimenting with it. He first throws a kid's football across the street and through someone's door, lifts up a bench while a woman sits on it, lifts a large bronze statue with one hand, tears boulders apart with his bare hands, and rips phone books in half like they're wet tissue paper.
When a newspaper photographer catches wind of his stunts, Luther quickly becomes a local sensation, dubbed a modern-day Hercules by the press. He receives sponsorship offers from carnivals, TV spokesmen, and boxing managers, and is all too happy to demonstrate his strength for the local news. With Mr. O'Toole's blessing, he tears up the bar a little, smashing a table, ripping out a stool, and paying back the bettor for the all the abuse he's given him. The Martian returns to the bar during the event, both heads dissapointed that Luther is using their gift for petty exhibition. Just as Luther prepares to lift up the entire building, the alien puts an end to its experiment by removing his strength.
Suddenly finding himself weak again, Luther tries and fails to repeat his previous feats, but ends up humiliating himself. Just as everyone starts mocking him, O'Toole orders them to clear out. Just as the Martian is preparing to depart, a pair of shorter aliens from Venus arrive at the bar as well. They tell the Martian that they're conducting their own experiment involving super intelligence. The Martian points them in the direction of Luther, who the Venusians zap with another laser to turn him into a genius. When Callahan and the bettor ask him what he thinks the outcome of the latest baseball game might be, Luther rapidly, and correctly, calculates that the batter will hit a home run. Luther's prediction comes true as he exits the bar, apparently plotting to demonstrate his newfound intellect to the world.
Mr. Tropes, the Strong:
- An Aesop: You may have tremendous potential to change the world, so don't waste it on revenge or showing off.
- Artistic License – Physics: Luther lifts a statue up by its ankle, and it doesn't fall apart.
- Bizarre Alien Biology: The Martian scientist has two heads, while the Venusians have antennae.
- Bizarre Alien Locomotion: The Venusians appear to move by shuffling sideways like crabs.
- The Bully: The bettor continually beats up Luther when he disagrees with him.
- Can't Argue with Elves: The Martian observes the jerkish behavior of the men in the bar, referring to them as "Typical Earthmen".
- Cosmic Plaything: Rod Serling refers to Luther as one, as he makes the perfect test subject for extraterrestrial science experiments.
- Denser and Wackier: This is one of the more deliberately comedic episodes of the series, as a perennial wimp is given super-strength by an intentionally campy-looking two-headed Martian, causing all sorts of comic destruction in his wake.
- Does Not Know His Own Strength: Luther feels rather odd after the Martian begins its experiment, first lifting up his vacuum with one hand and them accidentally ripping the door to the bar off its hinges.
- Fantastic Anthropologist: Both the Martian and the Venusians conduct experiments on Dingle to see how he'll react when he gains Super-Strength and then Super-Intelligence.
- Fantastic Measurement System: The Martian increases Dingle's atomic weight by "11 Secograms," which serves to make him roughly 300 times stronger than the average man, without changing his physique.
- For Science!: The reason why the Martian gives Luther super strength, and why the Venusians later give him super intelligence, seems to be just to observe what he does with it.
- Here We Go Again!: The Martian's heads share their displeasure when Dingle abuses their blessing for petty gain, so they take his super strength away. However, a pair of Venusians arrive looking for a subject for their own experiment, and proceed to give Dingle super intelligence.
- Invisible to Normals: Neither the two-headed Martian nor the two Venusians can be seen by humans. Despite this, they can see each other.
- Jerkass: The bettor, who constantly bullies and pushes Luther around. Whenever he asks the guy for his opinion, he punches him when he disagrees. After he receives his boost in strength, Dingle is glad to return the favor on live television.
- Large Ham: The bettor, as played by the famously loud-mouthed Don Rickles.
- Multiple Head Case: The Martian scientist has two heads, each with their own personality. They seem to get along well, though they both think pretty lowly of humans.
- Muscles Are Meaningless: Dingle is given Super-Strength by the Martian, but he still looks as scrawny as ever. It's justified, since the Martian increased his atomic weight.
- No Name Given: Don Rickles' bettor is not given a name.
- One-Gender Race: Of the three planets it has on its itinerary after Earth, one of the Martian's heads notes that one of them seems particularly interesting, since it contains only females. Both heads then look at each other, smiling.
- Ring-Ring-CRUNCH!: After he becomes super strong, Dingle smashes his alarm clock when he wakes up in the morning.
- Super-Intelligence: Once the Martian ends its experiment, the Venusians bestow Luther with 500 times more intelligence than the average human.
- Super-Strength: The power that the aliens give Luther. It is eventually taken away, only to be replaced with super intelligence.
- Touched by Vorlons: The two-headed Martian gives Luther the strength of 300 men. He quickly becomes a celebrity and is hailed as a modern day Hercules or Samson. The Martian, however, is disappointed that Dingle is using his strength to show off and settle scores, prompting it to remove said strength. Two Venusian scientists then arrive and, on the recommendation of the Martian, bestow Super-Intelligence on Dingle as part of their own experiment.
- Traveling Salesman: Luther is a dismally unsuccessful door-to-door vacuum cleaner salesman. He admits to a woman in the park that he only made 89 cents the week before, and that was from selling an attachment to a drunk who thought it was a Dowsing Device for alcohol.
- Why Did You Make Me Hit You?: The bettor harasses Dingle for his opinion, before punching him when Dingle doesn't give him the answer he wants.
- With Great Power Comes Great Perks: How Dingle views his "super strength." He's made to pay dearly for it.
