The Incredible Hulk (TV Series) Deep Shock (1980) User Reviews

Visions of the Hulk

[ODDBear · 7/10 · 14 October 2009]

Season 4 of "The Incredible Hulk" is very uneven and "Deep Shock" is one of the more solid ones.

The Hulk appears only five minutes into the episode as David winds up fighting an electrical chord and suffers some deep shock. As he wakes up in a hospital a constant ringing bothers him and his dreams seem to be prophetic visions of the Hulk wrecking havoc in a major power plant. A weakened David gets looked after by an ailing worker in the power plant who's also fighting the management in the hopes of saving his fellow workers jobs.

A solid episode in the series. OK writing for the most part and the Hulk action is fairly good. It's decently acted and David's precog condition is quite a novelty. The formula is somewhat bent here but it's fairly predictable but overall quite enjoyable for a fan.

The Power

[AaronCapenBanner · 7/10 · 21 November 2014]

David Banner(Bill Bixby) takes a job at a power plant that is having union problems with management. After an accident resulting in a severe electrical shock when he saved the life of a co-worker named Edgar Tucker(played by Tom Clancy), David awakens in a hospital with a ringing in his ears and the power to see the near future, which involves that same co-worker taking drastic action against management by holding the plant hostage. David resolves to stop this situation before it has the chance to develop, assuming of course he can... Decent episode develops its premise in an interesting manner, even if it's not anywhere near the league of 'The Psychic'.

No stakes, no human interest, just a vision that doesn't come true

[flarefan-81906 · 3/10 · 30 November 2017]

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...