Plot: A lieutenant in the Philippines discovers that he has a horrifying ability: by looking at his fellow servicemen, he can determine who will die soon. When his number appears to be up, he goes quietly to his fate.
It was a great premise, but it just didn't play out the way I wanted. To have a supernatural power that doesn't benefit you at all but is rather a burden is a clever twist on a classic conceit, but the episode spends too much time focusing on the trauma caused by the onset of the power and never really gets into its significance. Given Serling's military service and track record, I expected a couple of long-winded monologues about the futility of war, but perhaps it is because WWII was so fresh on Serling's mind that he didn't attempt to lessen its significance with his typical "shades of grey" worldview. On second thought (literally my second thought, as I'm writing this in a nearly stream-of-consciousness manner), perhaps the episode's strength lies in the fact that the protagonist does very little to attempt to save his fellow soldiers; after all, the individual is rendered powerless before the hive mind that is a military unit. Hm, I think I've talked myself into liking this episode more.
A few other points of interest: the airdate on the back of the (first run) DVD is incorrect. This is not the first error I've seen on this shoddy packaging. Twilight Zoners who obsess over minute details to the degree of a Star Trek fan will remember the stairway set as the same one from episode 4, The Sixteen-Millimeter Shrine. Fans of classic TV in general will notice Dick York, Darren from Bewitched as Captain Riker, but the novelty will wear off quickly as his performance is flat-out bad. His rousing speech to the troops has all the conviction of "kids, we have to take grandma to the hair dresser now."
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