David's been hired for a very short-term job: Working at a power plant due to become fully automated in less than a month. Just business as usual for David, but naturally the other employees are disgruntled. After taking a jolt of electricity, David stars seeing visions of the future - visions in which the Hulk kills one of his co-workers, Edgar.
Fantasy elements tend to feel out-of-place in this series, and David's precognitive powers are all the more jarring because the writer tries to argue that precognition is not a fantasy element. He even has a nurse cite the pathetic argument that getting a phone call from someone you were just thinking about means you saw the future (because without psychic powers, phone calls and people you're thinking about would never coincide, right?).
More important, David's visions are merely a cheap way to add drama to a story that has none. Obviously the Hulk isn't going to kill Edgar; he never has any reason to. Without David's visions, the idea that he might kill Edgar would never even occur to the viewer. The episode of course follows his visions perfectly, up until he doesn't kill Edgar. David's efforts to avert the future are utterly unimaginative, and have no impact on anything. In short, this ep is no "The Psychic", or even "The Boy Who Saw Tomorrow" (from the animated series).
The situation with the workers losing their jobs has some decent drama, though even there this ep fumbles the ball in the end, by making the same mistake as "Vendetta Road": It sends the message that destroying property and endangering innocent lives in the name of revenge is justified. Without the transparent contrivance of David's visions, this would be a routine, passable ep. As it is...
Fantasy elements tend to feel out-of-place in this series, and David's precognitive powers are all the more jarring because the writer tries to argue that precognition is not a fantasy element. He even has a nurse cite the pathetic argument that getting a phone call from someone you were just thinking about means you saw the future (because without psychic powers, phone calls and people you're thinking about would never coincide, right?).
More important, David's visions are merely a cheap way to add drama to a story that has none. Obviously the Hulk isn't going to kill Edgar; he never has any reason to. Without David's visions, the idea that he might kill Edgar would never even occur to the viewer. The episode of course follows his visions perfectly, up until he doesn't kill Edgar. David's efforts to avert the future are utterly unimaginative, and have no impact on anything. In short, this ep is no "The Psychic", or even "The Boy Who Saw Tomorrow" (from the animated series).
The situation with the workers losing their jobs has some decent drama, though even there this ep fumbles the ball in the end, by making the same mistake as "Vendetta Road": It sends the message that destroying property and endangering innocent lives in the name of revenge is justified. Without the transparent contrivance of David's visions, this would be a routine, passable ep. As it is...