ALL SCI-FI

[Bogmeister]

____________
episode #073 - It's a Good Life

Air Date: 11/3/61 Director: James Sheldon written by Rod Serling, based on story by Jerome Bixby

PLOT: The town of Peaksville, Ohio has been taken over by a monster, one who has either moved the town to another dimension or removed the rest of the world... and he sends people & animals he doesn't like "into the cornfield" (oh, and, he doesn't like a lot). Cloris Leachman and John Larch play the parents in hell.

________

In other episodes, the godlike manipulation of reality was kept mysterious. We didn't know who or what was causing these cosmic imbalances and restructuring of reality on such a scale; even in Shadow Play, there is some mystery on who or what may be causing the repeating dream.

But in this one, the godlike manipulator is given a face — and we kind of wish we didn't see it. Maybe, it would be better if we were kept in the dark; perhaps there would be less horror if the face of ultimate evil were kept hidden.

_________

There are still questions, but some of these can be easily addressed. Anthony (Billy Mumy) is evidently some kind of a mutant, born with the ability to alter reality in any way he sees fit. Because he is a very young god, he has yet to learn the concepts of benevolence or mercy. Therefore, his personal universe is ruled by chaos and cruelty — this is a dark god, indeed. Reality here can shift at his whim and normal humans are completely helpless, all caught in the undertow of uncertainty.

This is also a study in survival techniques; it shows how humans can adapt to situations — to new realities — even very abnormal ones. They have developed their own code of speech here, revolving around keeping the dark god complacent — whenever possible.

This is not living, of course, just a form of existence. This is despair — one can reason that there is no point in this continued existence, especially as the rest of the world has ceased to exist, but the humans cling on, perhaps holding out for that faint hope that someday . . . reality will shift in their favor.

I can sort of picture a being like Anthony also causing the unsettling incidents of other episodes. Couldn't someone (something) like Anthony, perhaps a slightly older version, be playing games with Arthur/Gerry in A World of Difference and David Gurney in Person or Persons Unknown? Couldn't Anthony be exercising his more sadistic tendencies in And When the Sky Was Opened, sending 3 astronauts into the cornfield? And maybe Anthony is inflicting the same dream over & over on someone.

Trivia From the Zone: This one had a slightly different style beginning with Rod Serling introducing the episode. It was also redone a couple of times before the result was settled on.

~ This was remade, less effectively, as one of the segments in Twilight Zone the Movie (1983), and there was also a sequel to this one, It's Still a Good Life, in the 3rd Twilight Zone series airing in 2003. Mumy and Leachman reprised their roles. There was also a parody done for a Simpsons episode in 1991. Also, one can look on the characters in the film The Power (1967) as the adult versions of Anthony.

BoG's Score: 9 out of 10


BoG
Galaxy Overlord Galactus

[Bogmeister]

____________
episode #089 - To Serve Man

Air Date: 3/2/62 written by Rod Serling, based on story by Damon Knight Directed by Richard L. Bare

PLOT: An alien ship arrives in Washington DC. The Kanamits are 9-foot tall aliens who say they will help mankind do away with problems such as war & poverty. They leave a book in the government chambers, and an encryption expert (Lloyd Bochner) is assigned the task of deciphering it.



It's still memorable — when the lady yells that line at Bochner's character near the end and that slashing-like music cuts in, it's still a jolt, after all these years. "C'mon, get off that ship's stairs, man!" I always think at that moment as he tries to jump off — he never makes it, of course.

I think what makes this one work as well as it does — in part — is the depiction of Lloyd Bochner's character (Chambers) as the prototypical sophisticated modern male — he's invulnerable to a large extent, the top of the heap, the ultimate in mankind's evolution up to this point. Bochner seems to have been instructed to act extra confident and extra smart.

To realize that he has been turned into just a portion of someone's meal at the end is very chilling.



This was meant as a dark comedy — even over-the-top at the end when that Kanamit pats Chambers, asking him to stay plump — but I never found it to be very funny. It just makes me a bit queasy.

I also like Chambers' assistant, played by a nice-looking, good actress — Susan Cummings — which I unfortunately have not seen very much otherwise.

I think it does go a bit too far into comedy with the Soviet rep (Theo Marcuse), who is portrayed as a clown. And then there's Richard Kiel, in an early role. He doesn't actually speak here. The Kanamits send thoughts as communication. Can you picture him sitting down at his dinner table and beginning . . . . Yucch!

Just one question I'm not sure has ever been delved into much; why did the Kanamits leave that book to perhaps be later deciphered? Was it an oversight? Their sense of humor? This I have never really figured out.


___________ Top 10 Shocking TZ Twist Endings


__________


BoG's Score: 8 out of 10


BoG
Galaxy Overlord Galactus

[Bud Brewster]

________________________________

By a strange and wonderful coincidence, this episode aired on a Friday evening, March 2nd 1962, and it used the scenes from The Day the Earth Stood Still to show the Kanamit ship cruising over Washington, DC.



The following evening, on March 3rd, guess what NBC's Saturday Night at the Movies aired for the first time on television.

The Day the Earth Stood Still
_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Bogmeister]

____________
Episode #118 - On Thursday We Leave For Home

Air Date: 5/2/63 written by Rod Serling Directed by Buzz Kulik

____________________

Rod Serling's narration: This is William Benteen, who officiates on a disintegrating outpost in space. The people are a remnant society who left the Earth looking for a millennium — a place without war, without jeopardy, without fear — and what they found was a lonely, barren place whose only industry was survival. And this is what they've done for three decades: survive, until the memory of the Earth they came from has become an indistinct and shadowed recollection of another time and another place . . .

_______

James Whitmore as Benteen is what makes this a superior episode and my favorite of the 4th season. Whitmore is mesmerizing — irst as the in-charge captain and shepherd of his despairing flock, then the nervous insecure man losing control and, finally, as the delusional madman, lost for those precious few moments.

He makes this one truly unforgettable. The rest of the cast is also above par, notably James Broderick as one of the castaways and Tim O'Connor as the captain of the spaceship which finally arrives to rescue the group.

________________

________________

The backstory is that this group set out from Earth in 1991 to colonize a planet in the outer reaches of settled space. As depicted, life on this desert planet can be very bleak. Suicides are not that uncommon among the group.

Benteen has become, over the past 30 years, the glue that holds most of the stranded travelers together. He's developed a code of speech and a special routine for them all, almost forcing them all to survive day-to-day. Most importantly, he retains a bit of hope for them all — that tiny bit of hope that a rescue ship will arrive.

_______________

_________________

And, the ship does arrive!

Others familiar with the episode have made comparisons to Forbidden Planet (1956). The arrived ship and crew are very similar to those in that famous sf film, almost as if it's the same space fleet and the same sf universe.

The planet itself is similar to Altair-IV in FP. However, the planet in this episode does have the two suns, which contribute to the intense, perpetual heat. So, if not the same planet, it still seems like it's the same future, perhaps a decade or two before the events of FP.

All this is interesting, but it's the personal story of Benteen that dominates the episode. The conclusion is shattering, as in many of the best TZ episodes, and delineates the essential self-destruction that seems inherent in our species, despite all the honorable traits of perseverance and innovation.

The story is — by turns — despairing, poetic, grim, fascinating and lyrical. This is the ultimate one-hour Twilight Zone episode.

BoG's Score: 9 out of 10


BoG
Galaxy Overlord Galactus

[Bud Brewster]

________________________________

Please forgive me for wander off the topic of this thread, but Andrew Bogdan's review above represents a Twiight Zone kind of mystery that I just have to share with you guys.

As I've mentioned in other posts, Andew Bogdan created the Galactic Base of Science Fiction in 2010, after he'd been serving as my co-site admin here on All Sci-Fi for about two years (and doing a great job).

And yet he never told a soul on All Sci-Fi about his own valiant efforts to make the GBSF succeed, slaving tirelessly for five years (2010 - 2015) to add threads to. He made 3,265 posts . . . but in all that time he acquired only fifteen members, and they only made a total of seven posts!

Andrew knew perfectly well that I would have promoted his own board enthusiastically, and I'd have contributed hundreds of posts — just as he did here on All Sci-Fi.

But the review above has an additional element connected with the mystery of Andrew's "secret board". He used four of my own screen shots from the thread I posted on the old ASF (2007 - 2014). The four that were made by me are the two pairs of images that are arrange vertically in his post.

Oddly enough, Andrew even made a subtle reference to the thread I wrote on the old board (similar to my post on the first page of this thread), which states that this TZ episode has elements in common with FP, such as the appearance of planet's set, along with the FP background paintings, and the C-57-D as the rescue ship.

[Bogmeister]

____________
episode #123 - Nightmare at 20,000 Feet

Air Date: 10/11/63 written by Richard Matheson Directed by Richard Donner



After all this time, the gremlin suit looks pathetically bad to me. Even back then, they could have come up with something better. The creature looks like a guy dressed in a whacky bear/sheep outfit, with a Halloween mask added on.

Overall though, the episode is intense — Shatner is on the edge in this one, always on the verge of hysteria or outright insanity.

One line of dialog I always found mystifying — t one point, Shatner tells one of the crew that there's a man on the wing. Now, it looks silly maybe but certainly not like a man. I suppose even in his near-hysterics, Shatner felt that saying something other than "a man" would sound foolish.

TZ Trivia: One of the 3 original episodes which were remade for the Twillight Zone Movie in 1983. In the remake, John Lithgow played the main character.

____________


BoG
Galaxy Overlord Galactus

[Bud Brewster]

________________________________

This one appeals to me despite the fact that it's not real science fiction, and the concept is so unrealistic. By that I mean the idea of a big furry gremlin wandering around in the sky and sabotaging airplanes.

But of course, the real premise here is, "What if a man of questionable mental stability tried to warn people about something that seemed impossible . . . but actually posed a serious threat?"

And the man who was born to play the poor guy in this story is definitely William Shatner, who does just as fine a job with this challenging role as he did in that other TZ episode with an equally thin premise, Nick of Time. I like that episode too, in spite of the silly idea that a sane and reasonable man would become obsessed with the answers on little cards he was getting from a "fortune telling" machine on the table in a dinner.

But again, the real premise in that one was about how superstition can cloud the judgement of otherwise intelligent people.

In Nightmare, not only does Shatner completely convince us that he's a man struggling to recover from a mental breakdown, he wins our admiration by valiantly dealing with the impossible task of warning the people on the plane about the Thing on the Wing!

I wouldn't have liked this episode as much (or perhaps, not at all) if the final scene hadn't shown the damage on the upper front part of an engine, and Shatner (somehow) seeing this from his stretcher on the ground behind the wing as they take him away, causing him to smile when his wife says, "It's all right now, darling."

He raises up and smiles as he looks over at the plane and says, "I know. And I'm the only one who does know . . . for now."
_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Bogmeister]

____________
episode #129 - Probe 7, Over and Out

Air Date: 11/29/63 written by Rod Serling Directed by Ted Post

__

Another episode focusing on an astronaut (Richard Basehart) and the tense situation he finds himself in.

In this case, it's just after he has crash landed on another planet. His ship is not repairable and he has a broken arm. In the story, though, his problems are not so severe when compared to what is happening at home. He has managed to stay in contact with his home world and the news is dire. Nuclear war has broken out — it looks like he will outlive his fellow humans, despite his situation.

Then, there's someone lurking near his crash site. Soon, a thrown rock knocks him out. The lurker turns out to be a female (Antoinette Bower), also looking worse for wear.

__

Serling threw in the usual TZ twist at the end, but it's one of the weakest climactic twists in the series — sort of what a high school student and sci-fi fan might write, based on a few stories he'd read. Basehart gives an earnest but dull performance, either talking to himself or trying to communicate with the female. The locale — supposedly an alien planet — is a rather typical forest.

It's a fairly boring episode, overall.

Twilight Trivia: Actor Basehart would begin his regular role as Admiral Nelson on Voyage to the Bottom to the Sea a year later.

Star Trek TOS actor alert: Bower would appear as an alien in human form in the episode Catspaw.

BoG's Score: 5.5 out of 10


BoG
Galaxy Overlord Galactus

[Bud Brewster]

________________________________

After reading BoG's review I had to refresh my memory concerning where the hot space babe came from in this episode. I didn't remember if she was a native of the planet the story takes place on, or she was a stranded astronaut like Richard Basehart.

And there isn't complete agreement on that issue, to put it mildly. Here's an excerpt from the Wikipedia article's plot summary.
________________________________

Not knowing each other's languages, they communicate through sketches in the sand and pantomime. He learns that she is also stranded; her planet left its orbit and she is its sole survivor.

He introduces himself as "Adam Cook" and Norda gives her full name as "Eve Norda". Adam and Eve begin a new life on this planet she calls "Earth."
________________________________

In order to make his hokey "Adam and Eve" surprise ending work out, Serling structured the plot in a wacky way! Basehardt is initially presented as if he's from Earth, but then Eve calls the planet they're on "Earth" to make us think, "Wow, so this is what the Bible describes! Gee, who knew, eh?"

But wait, Eve says her planet left its orbit and she's the only survivor! How does THAT makes sense? Is the planet the two people are on the one that left its orbit and (somehow) killed everyone but her?

I supposed the Wikipedia summary could be at least partially responsible for the confusion, but judging by TZ's poor record when it comes to the strength of the science in it's science fiction stories, I'm learning towards the idea that it was just bad writing, and the series show runners just didn't care.

So, I went looking elsewhere for clarification. The IMDB plot synopsis ends with this statement.
________________________________

Cook readies himself to make a home on his new world when he discovers another inhabitant, a human-like female from another world. As they learn to communicate, he learns her name is Eve Norda and together set off to begin a new life.
________________________________

The author of that particular take on the story has Adam being from one planet, Eve from another, and this alien world is Earth! So, mankind is the result of an interspecies
relationship between two "human-like" aliens that were capable of having children. Except that neither them were really humans themselves; their children became the first "humans" — a new species produced by cross-breeding!

If you doubt the notion that Adam is not from Earth consider these two items from IMDB's Trivia section. Note that they both state that Adam Cook was not from Earth.
________________________________

~ Cook's home world is 4.3 light years from Earth, which would put it in the Alpha Centauri system.

~ While one might conclude that Cook traveled the 4.3 light years from Earth to Alpha Centauri, it is clear that the opposite took place. Clues include the lack of insignia on Cook's uniform and spacecraft, the lack of specifics about his home planet, and of course the information related in the final scene.
________________________________

Therefore, Adam is an Alpha Centaurian, Eve is a who-knows-what from who-knows-where, and the Christian religion is based on two aliens who ended up stranded on Earth, after which they went forth and multiplied like the dickens!

Finally, I admire the bright IMDB user who noticed this next fact about the episode.
________________________________

~ Much if not all of Norda's language is simply backwards-English. For example, "em" for "me" and "ouy" for "you".
________________________________

I think it's funny that Eve's name just happens to be a palindrome; it's "Eve" either way you write it!
_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Krel]

[Pow]

Twilight Zone Trivia } "To Serve Man, "March 02,1962.

In Damon Knight's short story upon which this episode was based, the alien Kanamit race look something like pigs and something like humans.

DK enjoyed this adaptation of his work for the TZ. Something rarely heard from authors whenever a film or TV show adapts their works.

Richard Kiel, 7'2", (September 13,1939 ~ September 10,2014) was cast as the alien. Richard is best remembered as villain/hero Jaws in the James Bond films "The Spy Who Loved Me," and "Moonraker."

Richard had been cast as the Hulk for "The Incredible Hulk" TV series starring Bill Bixby. Kiel was let go when it was realized that while he certainly had the height for the Marvel comic book character,he lacked the muscular physique required.

Ted Cassidy, 6'9", (July 31,1932~January 16,1979) did the opening narration for "The Incredible Hulk"show.

Ted and Richard were often confused for one another due to their towering height. A fact that reportedly did not amuse Cassidy since he considered himself an actor and Richard not so much.

"On Thursday We Leave For Home,"May 02,1963.

Many fans and critics consider this to be Rod Serling's finest episode of the hour long ones.

Director Buzz Kulik was going to shoot a scene up high overlooking the colonists settlement. While checking this out the crew were shocked to discover there were not roofs on any of the sheds. That's because lights are needed to be placed there in order to film scenes inside the buildings.

Overnight the production crew hurried to place canvas over the roofs.

Note from me } Uh,wouldn't an experienced director & crew know that it is standard operating procedure to not have roofs in place over sets due to being able to properly light a set? I believe it remains S.O.P.to this day.

"Nightmare At 20,000 Feet, "October 11,1963.

The creature that appears on the wing is Nick Cravat,boyhood friend of Burt Lancaster.

Nick and Burt had an acrobatic act together in the circus as young men.

You could see what fantastic athletes they were when they appeared as partners in the films "The Crimson Pirate, "and "The Flame And The Arrow."

In both movies Nick played a mute due to his Brooklyn accent being too thick.

[Bud Brewster]

[Bud Brewster]

________________________________

I started wondering just how many really good science fiction stories had been presented in The Twilight Zone's five seasons, and here's what I came up with.

I was pleasantly surprised by the fact that there were many more of them than I had predicted!

I made up the list below by going through the IMDB pages which include all the episodes in order, season by season. I only included the ones that are solid sci-fi stories, not just the ones that have a few sci-fi trappings, like a guest appearance by Robby, for example.

I may have left out a few that other folks would have included. There were some I omitted because I thought the stories were weak, despite being arguable science fiction, such as the ones that were just meant to be humorous.

Feel free to make suggestions. Please include your reasons for thinking they should be added to the list.
________________________________

The Lonely



Sci-Fi Elements: Space travel, robots.

Sci-Fi Premise: A man wrongly convicted of murder is sentence to serve 50 years in isolation on an asteroid. He's given a lifelike robot to keep him company by the sympathetic captain of the supply ship which visits the asteroid four times a year. The convict resents the fake human woman at first, but he eventually falls in love with her.

But when the man is given a pardon and the supply ship comes to take him back to Earth . . . the overloaded ship can't include his beloved robot woman.

Strongest Aspect: The story skillfully portrays the convict's tortured loneliness, as well as the deep love he develops for the robot woman.

Third from the Sun



Sci-Fi Elements: Scenes of the C-57-D on the ground and in space, and an interior set which uses props from Forbidden Planet.

Sci-Fi Premise: On a planet remarkably like Earth, a family of human-like aliens decide they must escape from their planet before a nuclear war breaks out. They steal the prototype of an advanced starship and head for a nearby planet . . . which turns out to be Earth!

Strongest Aspect: The way the story was written and directed, the audience gets caught up in the drama of this Earth-like world's impending threat of a nuclear holocaust. There's much more to this episode than just the surprise ending.

Elegy



Sci-Fi Elements: A shot from Rocky Jones, Space Ranger showing the Orbit Jet in space. Three astronauts in the Destination: Moon spacesuits. A rocket ship exterior (the men at the ship;s) and the ship's interior (which uses props from Forbidden Planet).

The cast includes Jeff Morrow as the captain of the rocket ship. He and the crewmen propose various science fiction theories about the nature of "time" itself while attempting to solve the mystery of the "frozen" rural community.

Sci-Fi Premise: The crew of an interplanetary rocket make an emergency landing on an uncharted asteroid which has Earth-like conditions. They discover what appears to be a small rural American town filled with citizens who are as immobile as statues, all posed in social situations that portray happy moments (beauty contests, concerts in the town square, etc).

But the asteroid turns out to be a cemetery in which the bodies of the deceased are allowed to spend eternity in tableaux depicting the situations they consider "heaven".

Strongest Aspect: It's interesting that the cemetery was so old it had been forgotten! And it was fun seeing Jeff Morrow in a Destination: Moon suit.

The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street



Sci-Fi Elements: Aliens wearing Forbidden Planet uniforms. The mock-up saucer which resembles the C-57-D's stairway. A closing shot of the C-57-D in space . . . but turned upside down.

Sci-Fi Premise: Aliens use advanced technology to manipulate common machines (cars, radios, telephones, house lights, etc.) to cause a group of folks in a typical neighborhood to become increasingly paranoid. The aliens are planning to use this strategy to disrupt our civilization and turn us against ourselves.

Strongest Aspect: This beautifully written and skillfully directed episode completely convinces us that a small group of people can be stripped of their humanity and turned against each other if enough fear is imposed to make them doubt and distrust each other.

This is one of the most effective TZ episode of the series.

People Are Alike All Over



Sci-Fi Elements: A mission to Mars, a wrecked spacecraft (both the interior and exterior), a set of the Martian surface which includes the Forbidden Planet background paintings.

Sci-Fi Premise: Super-intelligent Martians pretend to be friendly and benevolent when a scientist from Earth crash-lands on the Red Planet. But in the climax he discovers he's a zoo animal on display for the Martian inhabitants.

Strongest Aspect: Mr. McDowell does a fine job of portraying an average man who fears the unknown but finds the courage to be part of a mission to Mars, thus demonstrating mankind's nobility. This is crucial to the story, because it shows us just how arrogant and unsympathetic the Martians are by comparison.

Eye of the Beholder

__________

Sci-Fi Elements: An alien planet with human-like inhabitants who have hideous faces and a brutal dictatorship which demands conformity.

Sci-Fi Premise: A young woman with a face that's considered horribly deformed is subjected to a medical procedure to correct it, but the procedure fails. She's sent to a community where other people like her live in isolation.

Strongest Aspect: The makeup for the strange aliens is still very effective, and the director manages to hide the surprise ending very well. The writing and acting are excellent.

The Invaders



Sci-Fi Elements: The C-57-D 88" model is used to good advantage. The tiny aliens are still creepy, even though they're just chubby little models manipulated by hand.

Sci-Fi Premise: A lonely old woman in a desert cabin is pitted against a group of (what appears to be) tiny, savage aliens armed with weapons that cause extreme pain and skin blisters.

Strongest Aspect: The battle between Agnes Moorehead (giving a powerful performance) and the aliens is mesmerizing. The surprise ending is one of the most startling in the entire series.

The Rip Van Winkle Caper



Sci-Fi Elements: Suspended animation. A futuristic automobile (created by modifying Robby's jeep). The elderly man from the future is wearing one Morbius' costumes.

Sci-Fi Premise: Four criminals steal a trainload of gold and put themselves into suspended animation to wait until they can reenter society and spend their fortunes without being suspected as the thieves from a century earlier.

Strongest Aspect: The criminals behave exactly the way such men might be expected; they turn on each other and cause their own demise.

Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up?



Sci-Fi Elements: The opening scene shows two policemen investigating the possible crash site of a spaceship. The surprise ending reveals a three-armed Martian and a three-eyed Venusian.

Sci-Fi Premise: A Martian spy, scouting the area for an invasion fleet, hides among a group of bus passengers at a small dinner after his ship lands in a mountain lake. When the bus goes off a bridge and sinks in the river, the Martian returns to the dinner, only to discover that the owner is in fact Venusian whose fleet is on the way to invade Earth.

Strongest Aspect: The audience is kept guessing as to who the Martian is, with no real clues to go on. And even if someone suspected John Hoyt as the Martian, nobody had a clue that the dinner owner was a Venusian!

It's a Good Life



Sci-Fi Elements: A little boy who possesses god-like powers is apparently a mutant.

Sci-Fi Premise: An outwardly normal child is terrorizing his family and their surrounding neighbors after isolating them from the rest of the world.

Strongest Aspect: The drama caused by the combination of the child's immature unconcern with the suffering of others, along with his omnipotent nature, creates a hell on Earth for poor people who must keep the little monster happy or suffer terrible consequences.

The Midnight Sun



Sci-Fi Elements: The concept that the Earth could stray from it's orbit and end all life on Earth.

Sci-Fi Premise: Two women struggle to survive in an American city while the Earth gets increasingly hotter because it has broken from it's orbit and grows closer each day to the sun.

Strongest Aspect: The surprise ending is very imaginative; the main character has been hallucinating her attempts to surviving a world growing hotter — when in fact the world is rapidly freezing as it wanders further away from the sun.

To Serve Man



Sci-Fi Elements: The opening scene is footage of Klaatu's ship flying over Washington. A scene near the end is a shot from Earth vs the Flying Saucers. The spaceship the humans are being loaded onto in the climax is the mock-up inspired by the C-57-D, which was used in several episodes. The tall alien played by Richard Kiel is one of the best alien's ever.

Sci-Fi Premise: An alien ship lands in New York, and an alien representative addresses the UN, offering mankind technological wonders that will solve all mankind's problem. But these aliens are in fact only interested in harvesting humans as food animals.

Strongest Aspect: The fine cast and the excellent script gives us no clue that the surprise ending is going to shock us.

The Little People



Sci-Fi Elements: A malfunctioning rocket on an asteroid with Earth-like condition. Two astronauts hoping repair it. The astronauts discovery of microscopic aliens who have a thriving but civilization.

Sci-Fi Premise: Two space explorers are stranded on a habitable asteroid. One crewman works to repair the ship while the other is content to terrorize the tiny inhabitants of a civilization-in-miniature, forcing them to worship him as a god. He elects to stay when his crew mate repairs the ship and leaves, preferring to play god to the minuscule beings.

But when two giant spacemen arrive, they show little concern for the tiny egotist they accidentally kill.

Strongest Aspect: The striking difference between the "good" space explorer and his "evil" crewman drive the drama in this one.

The Trade-Ins



Sci-Fi Elements: Artificial human bodies into which people can have their minds (or brains, not sure which) placed, to extend their lives.

Sci-Fi Premise: And elderly couple want to be young again, but the price of two new bodies is more than they can afford, so the man gets the new body and plans to work until he earns the money for his wife's new body.

Strongest Aspect: The moral decision the couple make at the end to remain together as old people is very touching.

On Thursday We Leave for Home



Sci-Fi Elements: An alien planet created by a set which resembles Altair 4, complete with several of the cyclorama paintings used in Forbidden Planet, Several scenes using the C-57-D model as the rescue ship. The crewmen wear slightly altered versions of the FP crew uniforms.

Sci-Fi Premise: A colony ship crash lands on a inhospitable planet and struggles for decades to survive, endlessly hoping to be rescued.

Strongest Aspect: This hour-long episode is a gripping drama, with fascinating characters and skillfully portrayed interactions. The climax is very powerful.

Probe 7, Over and Out



Sci-Fi Elements: A crashed spaceship on a planet around Alpha Centauri. An injured astronaut.

Sci-Fi Premise: A lone astronaut struggles to survive after his ship crashes and he receives word from his home world that a nuclear war will probably wipe out the entire population.

Strongest Aspect: Richard Basehardt and Antoinette Bower do a fine job of depicting the problems of two people who don't speak the same language, (although they manage to succeed much quicker than real people possibly could).

The Long Morrow



Sci-Fi Elements: A deep-space voyage with an astronaut in suspended animation.

Sci-Fi Premise: Astronaut Robert Lansing falls in love with Mariette Hartley just before leaving on a mission that will take forty years, even though he'll only age a few months.

Strongest Aspect: This is a love story, but it doesn't provide a happy ending, so it's a bit like Romeo and Juliette.
_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Gord Green]

A perfect choice of the best of the "Zones"!

It's hard to describe just how important these shows were to our "post war , baby boom" era minds. I recall that every day after a Zone transmission it was the chief topic of conversation on the walk to school and the debate on what was presented was more meaningful to us than anything our teachers could present to our Space-age, Super developed minds!

THE TWILIGHT ZONE was more critical to the development of the postwar psyche than anyone could know!
_________________
There comes a time, thief, when gold loses its lustre, and the gems cease to sparkle, and the throne room becomes a prison; and all that is left is a father's love for his child.

[Bud Brewster]

________________________________

Gord, I couldn't have asked for a more perfect reply to my post. Your description of how the better episodes affected us was beautiful. You made all the work (fun) I put into creating the post well worth it.

Thank you, my friend!
_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)