Twilight Zone Episodes - Ranked, Rated & Reviewed (TOS)
The list is obviously still incomplete. Hoping to rate/rank all 156 episodes eventually. The episodes are listed in the order of quality. The list ends with the 30-40 episodes that are still unranked/unrated.
WARNING: This list is full of spoilers. Not just my comments have them, but the synopsis of most episodes contain spoilers to some degree.
My Outer Limits list:
https://www.imdb.com/list/ls088432880/
WARNING: This list is full of spoilers. Not just my comments have them, but the synopsis of most episodes contain spoilers to some degree.
My Outer Limits list:
https://www.imdb.com/list/ls088432880/
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- DirectorDouglas HeyesStarsRod TaylorJim HuttonCharles AidmanThree astronauts return to Earth after seemingly having made an encounter that dooms them and their craft to erasure from existence itself.RATING: best
CONCEPT: reality
GENRE: sci-fi, mystery
PLOT TWIST: great
ENDING: downer
PREMISE: great
WRITER: Serling
STORY: Matheson
My favourite episode because it works on all levels. Some people are unhappy that it lacks an explanation, but this is precisely the sort of premise that shouldn't have an explanation, doesn't even require hints.
Very well played by Aidman and Taylor (less so by the bed-ridden astronaut who is somewhat miscast), highly effective. - DirectorBoris SagalStarsHarold J. StoneFredd WayneNoah KeenFederal aviation investigator Grant Sheckly must deal with a mystery when a plane lands at an airport without pilots, passengers or luggage.RATING: best
CONCEPT: insanity
GENRE: mystery
PLOT TWIST: great (several, all excellent)
ENDING: downer
PREMISE: great
WRITER: Serling
Hard to believe that Serling wrote this. Surely he must have stolen the premise from somewhere? (As he had, several times. Lawsuits included.) No moralizing, no dull speeches, every line serves the highly original plot which is full of interesting twists.
In any case, plagiarism or not, the best episode attributed to Serling. So the man did have some talent, after all.
Why this episode is so underrated among IMDb users? I'd venture a guess that most people just didn't get it, despite the fact that the plot isn't difficult to follow. (Which isn't saying much: most people struggle with the simplest of concepts.) Or they simply couldn't wrap their tiny heads around the bizarre story that explores reality in a very clever and fun way. People general don't like clever, and have fun mostly with nonsense. - DirectorAlvin GanzerStarsInger StevensAdam WilliamsLew GalloA young woman driving cross-country becomes frantic when she keeps passing the same man on the side of the road. No matter how fast she drives, the man is always up ahead, hitching her for a ride.RATING: best
CONCEPT: reaper
GENRE: mystery, thriller, drama
PLOT TWIST: great
ENDING: downer
PREMISE: great
WRITER: Serling
STORY: Fletcher
Perhaps the only episode with the main character acting as narrator, and it adds a whole level of mood and meaning to the already great story. Inger Stevens looks great, that helps too. Poor thing committed suicide several years later, which adds a certain element of morbid irony to all of this.
The "I'm a ghost" shtick had been done already several episodes earlier in "Judgment Night", but the overused premise (now, not so much back then) gets a completely different treatment which is why it works. In a way, premise-wise at least, this is a cross between "Judgment Night" and "One for the Angels".
It is a great shame that so many writers feel the need to "educate" their audiences, even within a pure-entertainment genre such as horror which primarily exists in order to ESCAPE from all the daily malarkey - which includes social issues and other baloney. If I wanted an education I'd get one. No, wait... I have one already... So why would I need Serling of all people to teach me how to think, how to vote, and how to be an "upstanding citizen". I need his political opinions in my TZ episodes like I need a great white shark in my pool.
Thank God this episode is one of the exceptions.
These righteous "moralists" were always deeply suspect to me anyway. What lies behind this strong urge to preach, anyway? Ego-tripping? Misplaced fanatical idealism? What? Why can't fantasy/horror writers simply be content with the genre itself? Is the genre itself not enough? Do they even LIKE this genre? Must political propaganda and manic-street-preaching be that annoying ingredient in most movies and TV shows? Just what kind of a narcissistic personality is needed to appoint themselves the "voice of reason"?
One can include some basic morality in a story, that's perfectly fine, but what one should never do is use the horror genre to disseminate one's own political views, because frankly, I'm not going to vote how Hollywood tells me to, ever. Never did, never will. They sure keep trying, but at least in my case I can safely say that the barrage of brainwashing I'd been subjected to in over 30 years of being a cinephile have had zero effect. I know that this is NOT the case with most movie-goers and casual TV fans, that most have had their politics finely tuned by devious writers and lying propagandists. Such pushovers... - DirectorTed PostStarsHoward DuffDavid WhiteFrank MaxwellA businessman sitting in his office inexplicably finds that he is on a production set and in a world where he is a movie star. Uninterested in the newfound fame, he fights to get back to his home and family.RATING: best
CONCEPT: identity
GENRE: mystery
PLOT TWIST: great
ENDING: upper
PREMISE: great
WRITER: Matheson
Excellent premise, great start, and interesting throughout, well acted. It is these "full-on mystery" episodes that really represent TZ at its best. - DirectorAlan Crosland Jr.StarsSteve ForrestJacqueline ScottFrank AletterAstronaut Robert Gaines returns from space to a world that is not exactly the one he left from.RATING: best
CONCEPT: parallel worlds
GENRE: sci-fi, mystery
PLOT TWIST: great
ENDING: upper
PREMISE: great
WRITER: Serling
A top-notch episode in every way. Great acting, dialog (atypically good for Serling who abandons all his bad habits such as moralizing and speech-making), sense of mystery, the only tiny flaw being that the title serves as a spoiler. - DirectorDouglas HeyesStarsRod SerlingAnne FrancisElizabeth AllenA woman is treated badly by some odd salespeople on an otherwise empty department store floor.RATING: best
CONCEPT: dolls, secret society, reality
GENRE: mystery, horror
PLOT TWIST: excellent
ENDING: excellent
PREMISE: excellent
WRITER: Serling
I was so surprised to read that Serling wrote this that I had to check on Wikipedia whether someone else had a hand in it as well. Because Serling very rarely wrote such effective, natural dialogue. Also, he never misses out on a chance to hand out long speeches to his characters, or to make them bitter (about something or other), not to mention his habit to moralize and preach.
There is literally none of that here: no moralizing, no damn political subtext, no boring lofty speeches, and no bitterness whatsoever. Admittedly, his writing was much better in early TZ, generally speaking.
I am almost tempted to believe that he "borrowed" this idea from old 40s/50s pulp fiction (as he was known to do) but that wouldn't explain at all the top-notch dialogue and the rest.
This episode profits from several things other than the dialog and the brilliant premise. The mood created by the director is flawless, and the use of silence is highly effective and clever. Over-use of music can ruin many great scenes in horror/mystery films/stories.
And of course, Anne Francis, looking beautiful as ever. That helps enormously too: casting as impeccable as this.
The story plays with the idea of reality, my favourite TZ shtick. There is mystery here aplenty, and many ideas that fascinate, some of which are obvious, some which are not very obvious. - DirectorJohn BrahmStarsRod SerlingNehemiah PersoffDeirdre OwensIt's 1942, and a man finds himself on a ship in the Atlantic, not knowing who he is, nor how he got there. He does know the ship will soon be attacked by a German U-boat.RATING: best
CONCEPT: groundhog day
GENRE: war, mystery
PLOT TWIST: very good
ENDING: upper
PREMISE: great
WRITER: Serling
The episode benefits from a great mood, created by the good photography and the ship/ocean setting.
The first of many "oh, so I'm a ghost" episodes, a cliche to be further milked for top dollars decades later by the vastly overrated, barely talented M Night Charlatan, in his "Sixth Sense" bore-fest. - DirectorJames SheldonStarsDick YorkJune DaytonDan TobinGaining telepathic abilities when his coin lands on its edge, bank clerk Hector B. Poole learns about the difference between other people's plans and fantasies.RATING: best
CONCEPT: mind-reading
GENRE: comedy, romance
PLOT TWIST: good
ENDING: upper
PREMISE: great
WRITER: GC Johnson
Skillfully written and played episode with a great cast, very little buffoonery, quite subtle for its time, funny at moments and always interesting, full of little twists and turns.
There is a very good dumb blondes gag which probably wouldn't be possibly in our over-sensitive SJW era. - DirectorJack SmightStarsRod SerlingJack WardenJohn DehnerA convict, living alone on an asteroid, receives from the police a realistic woman-robot.RATING: best
CONCEPT: robots
GENRE: sci-fi, drama
PLOT TWIST: very good
ENDING: downer/upper
PREMISE: great
WRITER: Serling
"Some think your punishment is cruel". Forget cruel, talk about expensive! 4 trips a year to a remote asteroid just to bring him supplies. Keeping this kind of prisoner on a remote celestial object would be more expensive than building 100 pyramids. Under normal circumstances. But this is the TZ, so it's OK.
Jack Warden (no pun intended, his real name) complains "go away, I don't need a machine", despite the fact that he's thrilled about having a car built from parts. He seems unnecessarily bitter. In reality, any man given even a blow-up doll after 4 years of no female contact would make them ecstatic. But this is Serling's logic, he can't do without high-and-mighty principles, as if there is any dignity in sexual instinct. She is way too real-looking to have him react negatively to her.
But aside from these more-or-less minor points, this is a good episode in a terrific setting and with an interesting premise. Should have been a 50-minute episode though. But I guess that's why they have narration here, to speed up the cluttered story. 50 minutes would have allowed the romance to develop slowly, and to build a stronger relationship between Warden and the robot, rather than leave them only several minutes joint screen time. It would have been a near-perfect episode that way. But, as it is, it's still one of the best in the series. - 1959–196425mTV-PG8.1 (3.2K)TV EpisodeDirectorBuzz KulikStarsCliff RobertsonJohn CrawfordEvans EvansA settler from a wagon train in 1847 sets off to find something to help his ill son and stumbles into 1961 New Mexico.RATING: best
CONCEPT: time travel
GENRE: western
PLOT TWIST: very good
ENDING: upper
PREMISE: very good
WRITER: Serling
A very fun premise, very well acted, and within a great setting.
The same desert location was used to shoot "The Rip Van Winkle" episode, but with far worse results. Hence both episodes were shoot back to back. One with a good script and good actors, the other with a laughable script and mediocre actors. But such is the nature of the show: the quality of episodes varies from excellent to rubbish. - DirectorJohn BrahmStarsDennis WeaverHarry TownesWright KingAdam Grant is trapped in a recurring nightmare, in which he is sentenced to death by execution. He tries to convince the people around him that they are imaginary and that they will cease to exist if the execution is carried out.RATING: best
CONCEPT: groundhog day, reality
GENRE: mystery, drama
PLOT TWIST: very good
ENDING: downer
PREMISE: excellent
WRITER: Beaumont (stolen idea)
SP has one of the best premises in the show, and represents all that's great about TZ. Any piece of fiction that investigates the topic of reality in an intelligent way gets my thumbs up. There are quite a few great movies that toyed with this or similar ideas, and perhaps a half-dozen or so TZ episodes are based on such wild concepts and themes. All such episodes happen to be among the best.
However, it is a premise already explored in "Dead of Night", a movie made years earlier.
It is fascinating that a story which centers around an electric-chair execution ISN'T political, not even slightly. Execution was picked simply because it is the ideal plot-device to keep this Groundhog Day plot going in circles, in a precise and exact way, which serves the story.
The acting is very good, the dialog never wasteful, and the script is tight. The 1987 TZ version is also pretty good, though I can't vouch for it being as apolitical as the original because it's been a very long time since I'd last checked it out. If they remade this now, it would be quite literally an anti-death-penalty propaganda piece hence completely worthless. I don't know HOW they would manage to inject so much politics into a story that leaves no room for such nonsense, but they would have definitely done it. Nowadays, EVERYTHING is infused with political subtext, because we must prepare/condition the sheep for neo-Marxism, mustn't we... And God knows, they are such receptive subjects.
This episode is further indication how top-notch consistent the series could have been if only Serling hadn't insisted on writing so many episodes himself. Gene Roddenberry isn't the only proof that the creator of a great show isn't necessarily the ideal person to remain at its helm. - 1959–196425mTV-PG8.5 (3.9K)TV EpisodeDirectorLamont JohnsonStarsSusan HarrisonWilliam WindomMurray MathesonAn Army major awakens in a small room with no idea of who he is or how he got there. He finds four other people in the same room, and they all begin to question how they each arrived there, and more importantly, how to escape.RATING: best
CONCEPT: dolls, identity, reality
GENRE: mystery
PLOT TWIST: great
ENDING: downer
PREMISE: excellent
WRITER: Serling
STORY: Petal
Like "Shadow Play", "A World of Difference", "Judgment Night", "In His Image", "And When the Sky", "Arrival", "Person Or Persons" and especially "After Hours", this is another story that deals with loss of identity and/or search for reality. My favourite type of episode.
The great irony about so-called "mind-expanding drugs" is that they are nearly always used by morons without minds. If you are intelligent, all you need to do in order to "expand the mind" is to play around with concepts such as the one offered here. A highly imaginative premise that opens a plethora of possible worlds, and a variety of questions without answers. My kind of questions. Because it's usually the unanswerable questions that are the most fascinating and the most fun.
The one thing that makes no sense though is that the "5 characters" feel nothing, yet they do feel pain. Or is it really illogical? After all, they are capable of feeling mental anguish, which begs the question: can there be mental anguish without its physical counterpart? Are the two mutually exclusive or do they rely on each other to form a complete whole?
And this is precisely why these kinds of TZ episodes "expand the mind", because they make you pose questions you might have never done otherwise. (This doesn't apply to halfwits, naturally, who will find nothing here of interest, because there are no kabooms, no guns being aimed at anyone, and no fashionable anti-racist message. A halfwit would "accuse" this episode of being too cerebral - right after someone explains to them what that word means.)
The fabric of reality is completely unknown to us, regardless of all of mankind's technological achievements and scientific breakthroughs. You can figure out the size and age of the universe, but does that tell you WHAT it actually is, where it is, and why it is? No. Nor would some of these answers perhaps even mean much in the context of the infinitely grander multiverse which we almost definitely inhabit. Note I said "almost" because nothing is a certainty, not even a self-evident "truth" such as the existence of the multiverse.
The only things that are certain in this world are that Serling usually didn't come up with the best ideas, and that halfwits will always prefer the dumbed-down or more preachy episodes to these more "cerebral" ones. Because "oh my brain hurts" is the most oft-heard complaint on Earth - or it would be if only halfwits would voice their complaints aloud. The brain doesn't feel pain, unlike these five lost-and-confused toys, yet the pain that a smart script such as this inflicts on halfwits is enormous.
A halfwit thinks he knows everything, so why would he ever ask so many questions? A premise such as this one is extremely annoying for these people because it wants to question everything, and halfwits NEVER question anything - much less their own halfwittedness.
I had to laugh when I read that one person thought the episode's central theme was "about everyone's need to be loved" - just because Serling in his outro narration makes a brief mention of it. If you think this story is about the need to be loved (or any kind of love-related theme) then you'll probably find that same message in "120 Days of Sodom" as well as in "Cube" i.e. Pretty much anywhere.
Some people actually complained that the story is "too slow". The irony is that it's not the plot that moves slowly by that thing that often hurts them... - DirectorRichard DonnerStarsWally CoxRalph TaegerSue RandallA computer technician begins to take advice for his love life from Agnes, the computer he works with.RATING: best
CONCEPT: computers
GENRE: comedy
PLOT TWIST: very good
ENDING:
PREMISE: very good
WRITER: Shoenfeld
Funny episode with an ideally cast lead actor who plays a geek very well, without hamming it up as many actors would have done. Great direction, clever, original and no flaws. - DirectorRichard L. BareStarsWilliam ShatnerPatricia BreslinGuy WilkersonA pair of newlyweds stopping in a small town are trapped by their own superstition when playing a fortune-telling machine in a local diner.RATING: best
CONCEPT: fortune-telling
GENRE: drama
PLOT TWIST: good
ENDING: upper
PREMISE: very good
WRITER: Matheson
This episode shows just how good Shatner can be when he doesn't overact. Very well written, realistic dialog, but it's the acting that holds everything in place. Shatner's fall into madness is on target, and while there is no major plot-twist - as is nearly always the case - at least none that directly relates to the main characters, there is an intelligent point to be made, devoid of over-the-top preaching. But then again, Serling didn't write it.
In fact, TZ would have been a much better series overall had Serling not been so egotistic, wanting to script most episodes. Had the writing work-load been fairly distributed among more writers, the series would have had far less duds, and more classic episodes. - DirectorRobert FloreyStarsRichard ConteJohn LarchSuzanne LloydA fatigued man fights to stay awake as he explains to a psychiatrist that if he falls asleep it will trigger a nightmare, which will cause his heart to fail.RATING: very good
CONCEPT: insanity
GENRE: horror
PLOT TWIST: great
ENDING: downer
PREMISE: great
WRITER: Beaumont
A typical high-quality season 1 episode with a clever ending that makes you wonder what had really transpired. The conclusion opens several different possibilities, which is partially why this story is so good - and why not all TZ fans seem to be thrilled about it. ("Noooo! My brain hurts!")
The fact that the protagonist dreamed almost everything we'd witnessed can mean several things. One interpretation is that he did have these episodic nightmares involving a woman he feared wanted to kill him but never got round to telling the shrink about them, which would be of course ironic since he dreamt that he did tell him. Another version is that he came into the office with the intent of complaining about some other problem, perhaps very similar, but incorporated the shrink's secretary into his paranoid world, which lead to his demise.
The fact that we don't know the truth is intriguing, not a disadvantage.
The direction is advanced for its period, quite experimental, and the mystery woman is played well. - DirectorBuzz KulikStarsDean JaggerCarmen MathewsRobert EmhardtAn old radio is taking bitter bachelor Ed Lindsay back to a happier time before what he considers worthless tripe on television when he starts picking up radio programs from the 1930's and 1940's.RATING: best
CONCEPT: time travel
GENRE: drama
PLOT TWIST: great
ENDING: upper
PREMISE: great
WRITER: Beaumont
A low-key episode that disappoints both the simple-minded "social message" crowd and the cheap-thrills love-me-some-overacting demographic. No politics here and certainly no action here, none whatsoever.
This is one of several Season 2 episodes shot entirely on video as opposed to film. While this approach may have hurt most of these video episodes, it seems to suit the peculiar mood and slow pace of this particular story. It feels like one of those older British TV plays except that it's shorter and with American accents. Like theater, but in a good sense, not in the overacting, annoying sense.
The choice of music i.e. "Getting Sentimental Over You" was as key to this episode as its romantic premise and the very good cast. In fact, this is where I first heard this song. Where else would I hear it? On MTV? In a Tarantino movie? - DirectorJohn BrahmStarsRichard LongFrank SilveraShirley BallardPaying homage to It's a Wonderful Life (1946), David Gurney wakes up to another ordinary day. Except today, nobody knows who he is including his own wife Wilma.RATING: best
CONCEPT: identity, reality, it-was-all-a-dream
GENRE: mystery
PLOT TWIST: good
ENDING: upper/downer
PREMISE: great
WRITER: Beaumont
Similar twist to "Where Is Everybody", and similar premise as "A World of Difference". Acting and dialog are realistic, and though the twist that his wife is different is obvious from her hidden face it's still a clever twist. A cop-out twist to some extent perhaps but it works.
There is no explanation given in the conclusion, but then again why should there be one? The entire episode is intriguing, and that in itself is enough. And anyway, a character being stuck in the Twilight Zone makes perfect sense, within the show's overall concept. - DirectorDouglas HeyesStarsJohn CarradineH.M. WynantRobin HughesSeeking refuge from a storm, a traveler comes upon a bizarre abbey of monks, who have imprisoned a man who begs for his help. When he confronts the head monk, he is told that the man is the Devil, and he must decide whom to believe.RATING: best
CONCEPT: devil
GENRE: mystery
PLOT TWIST: great
ENDING: downer
PREMISE: great
WRITER: Beaumont - DirectorJacques TourneurStarsGladys CooperNora MarloweMartine BartlettTelephone calls begin to haunt a disabled elderly woman.RATING: very good
CONCEPT: from beyond
GENRE: mystery
PLOT TWIST: great
ENDING: downer
PREMISE: good
WRITER: Matheson
The final plot twist isn't that great, but the main twist makes up for it, plus an interesting mystery that isn't drawn out in a boring way.
The morals are a bit iffy, typical for season 5: the woman gets punished for something that happened 50 years earlier, a case of the punishment way outweighing the "crime". - DirectorPerry LaffertyStarsMike KellinSimon OaklandDavid SheinerAs a U.S. Navy destroyer cruises near Guadalcanal in the South Pacific, its sonar detects muted but constant hammering on metal undersea. The eerie sounds emanate from a submarine on the ocean floor, apparently there since World War II. The ship's chief boatswain's mate becomes very nervous, having served aboard that sub - and he was its sole survivor.RATING: very good
CONCEPT: ghosts
GENRE: mystery
PLOT TWIST: good
ENDING: downer
PREMISE: very good
WRITER: Serling
Well acted and with some unusually solid dialog from Serling who resists the urge to ham it up or give everyone lengthy preachy speeches. The set-up is excellent, i.e. the first half, then the twist comes perhaps a tad early, making the subsequent events somewhat predictable.
Logic-wise, there is the small issue of HQ telling the captain that no sub was ever downed there. - DirectorRichard DonnerStarsWilliam ShatnerChristine WhiteEd KemmerA man, newly recovered from a nervous breakdown, becomes convinced that a monster only he sees is damaging the plane he's flying in.RATING: very good
CONCEPT: gremlins
GENRE: thriller
PLOT TWIST: average
ENDING: downer/upper
PREMISE: great
WRITER: Matheson
The most highly rated episode on IMDb, later re-done in the 80s to better effect. The flaw is Shatner hanging from the window - being held by... what? Opening a door in mid-air would have far worse effects on the passengers than just one person miraculously hanging half-way out of the window.
One of the most original episodes, also strangely combining suspense with elements of comedy. Or did they NOT play it for laughs with the Gremlin? - DirectorChristian NybyStarsLarry BlydenArch JohnsonRobert CornthwaiteThe star of a Western TV series suddenly finds himself transported back in time to the real Wild West, and face-to-face with the real Jesse James.RATING: best
CONCEPT: ghosts
GENRE: comedy, western
PLOT TWIST: good
ENDING:
PREMISE: great
WRITER: Serling
IDEA: Fox
Possibly the best comedic episode, quite funny and clever. Premise kind of a reverse of "A World of Difference".
One of the worst-rated episodes on IMDb, and I struggle to come up with a theory as to why this is. - DirectorDouglas HeyesStarsJohn McIntirePatricia BarryGeorge GrizzardA young man obsessed with winning over an uninterested beauty gets more than he bargained for when he buys a love potion to gain her affection.RATING: very good
CONCEPT: magic potion
GENRE: comedy
PLOT TWIST: good
ENDING: downer/upper
PREMISE: good
WRITER: Presnell
STORY: Collier
The main character is annoying, but otherwise a clever script. Some very funny moments, and an intelligent take on the subject of love, though some people might miss the points. - DirectorJohn BrahmStarsRod SerlingVera MilesMartin MilnerWhile waiting in a bus station, Millicent Barnes has the strange feeling that her doppelganger is trying to take over her life.RATING: very good
CONCEPT: parallel worlds
GENRE: mystery, sci-fi
PLOT TWIST: good
ENDING: downer
PREMISE: great
WRITER: Serling
Should have been more action-packed, given the excellent subject matter. The plot-twist is ruined by a dumb grinning double running stupidly. They didn't have special effects back then, true, but that means they shouldn't have even attempted the scene, or shot it in a more conventional way that does look credible. But there's no excuse for having that actor grin like a moron. - DirectorPerry LaffertyStarsDavid OpatoshuEd NelsonNatalie TrundyA reporter stumbles into a peaceful town where miracles seem to occur due to technology and the townsfolk won't let him leave.RATING: very good
CONCEPT: secret society
GENRE: mystery
PLOT TWIST: very good
ENDING: upper
PREMISE: very good
WRITER: Beaumont
Nice setting, interesting plot, although with rare Ed Wood-like cheese such as "it would destroy the universe" and a bizarre opinion on e=mc2, but overall well acted and decent. Unlikable journalist character. Serling stupidly asks "why do people stay in these small towns", which is typical East/West coast big-city elitism rearing its ugly head. Hollywood people had always felt superior to "Middle America", as if living in a city guarantees intelligence, taste and moral superiority.
A bit like a Star Trek episode. - DirectorRichard L. BareStarsJoan BlondellWilliam DemarestSterling HollowayPhilanderer Joe Britt sees his indiscretions shown on his own TV set after it was worked on by a unique repairman.RATING: very good
CONCEPT: machines
GENRE: drama
PLOT TWIST: solid
ENDING: downer
PREMISE: great
WRITER: Goldsmith
Very original premise with high fun potential. (Could have been turned into a movie, or at least should have been done as a 50-minute episode in the 4th season, with perhaps an altered, more complex set-up).
Mostly well played by the two leads, but with dubious morals which seem to be sending the message that if a harmless old curmudgeon criticizes a repairman and has affairs with women he deserves to have both his own life as well as that of his wife destroyed by a satanical TV repairman - who very clearly enjoys killing people and ruining lives.
In that sense the episode is as if written by Stephen King, who literally has zero morals and whose stories/novels are mired by malevolence (not to mention idiotic/simplistic characterization and very dumb plot-devices, but that's a whole other subject).
Or is the moral perhaps that if you complain to a repairman you deserve to die? The old cab driver only made a few angry remarks about repairmen - who generally ARE a bunch of thieves anyway. Or does the writer Goldsmith find these people an endangered species?
The MOTIVE for the repairman's "vengeance" is laughable, almost non-existent. Imagine if each of us killed every person who criticized us briefly. We'd have a billion dead every year.
The repairman killing a very wealthy jerk (who complains about paying to repairmen) would have made more sense, both morally and motive-wise. For example, this shtick was already used similarly in the 2nd season episode "A Thing About Machines", whereby a wealthy snob bitches to a TV repairman, completely without reason. However, in WITB the complaint is minor, and issued by a hard-working cabbie - who is understandably upset about having to dish out money for the TV. Being a cabbie he is street-smart hence knows what (most) repairmen are up to.
In fact, in season 5 morality tends to be on the questionable side more than in previous seasons, and there are far more downer endings in this season. The most malevolent season, as well as the weakest script-wise (along with the 4th).
This episode seems to be rather underrated though, because people focus on the negatives, ignoring the obvious highlights. - DirectorRon WinstonStarsBarry NelsonNancy MaloneDenise LynnA hung-over couple awaken to find themselves not only in a strange house, but in a deserted town, where nothing is as it should be.RATING: very good
CONCEPT: aliens, reality, where-are-we
GENRE: mystery
PLOT TWIST: great
ENDING: downer
PREMISE: great
WRITER: Hamner
A premise very much to my liking, but not written too well. The dialog doesn't work half the time. Between the typical TZ-onian snark i.e. lame 50s humour and the couple's not always convincing reactions to the extremely bizarre situation, the execution of this promising plot leaves somewhat to be desired.
The set-up is great. A couple finds themselves in a completely unknown, deserted town. They soon discover that they are surrounded by props yet they don't panic nearly as much as they should. The woman fails to recognize that a squirrel sitting on a tree is fake: she actually needs to touch it to figure this out! Not to mention that she'd already come across several other fake objects, which makes this scene doubly or triply stupid, perhaps the dumbest scene overall.
The wife's reluctance to enter the church because she might disturb the congregation is asinine. Considering how desperate they were (or should have been) to meet ANY other humans in this deserted weird place, they should have been RUSHING through that door. Besides, early on we are told that the couple are somewhat snooty, using the word "hicks" several times. Given this fact and their panic, there should have been zero hesitation to open the door.
"Perhaps it's not Centersville, maybe it's a different Centersville!"
That's what the man says after their train makes a circle and returns to the same station. Come on... I understand desperation, but this is ridiculous. He had plenty of opportunity by then to realize that nothing is real. Not as dumb as the squirrel scene but still quite lame.
This kind of nonsense is not made any better by the male lead who is dull and unnatural. By stark contrast, the female lead is beautiful, and she enriches the episode with her perfect freckled face, including several awesome close-ups of it. Definitely one of the three hottest actresses featured in the entire series, the other two being Anne Francis (two episodes), and perhaps Inger Stevens (also two episodes). I may have omitted a few others, of course. Certainly the "Black Leather" blonde is up there too.
I can't emphasize enough how vital it is to cast a beautiful woman in the lead, whether it be a movie or a TV show, comedy or horror, action or sci-fi. (Note I didn't mention drama, because that's usually where the chances are small anyway of finding a very pretty actress. It's almost as if film-makers had decided decades ago that "serious" movies can't have beautiful women because that wouldn't be "realistic" enough. The kitchen-sink school of stupidity.) It is human nature to want to see beautiful faces of the opposite sex, so whichever director/producer refuses to cater to this basic need understands nothing about entertainment hence can go eff themselves.
The story has literally zero moralizing, it is pure TZ sci-fi. Why do you think that is? Because Serling didn't write it, obviously.
I get the sense that Serling was a bit of a literary snob, a Nobel Prize wannabe who'd much rather have written award-winning "human condition" sagas than pulp fiction. Chip on the shoulder there. Hence why there is much more preaching and political commentary in episodes written by him than by other writers. This is where "Outer Limits" beats TZ by a long shot. - DirectorPerry LaffertyStarsGeorge GrizzardGail KobeKatherine SquireA young man grapples with an urge to kill and confusion about his origins.RATING: very good
CONCEPT: robots, identity
GENRE: mystery, thriller
PLOT TWIST: good
ENDING: upper
PREMISE: very good
WRITER: Beaumont
I can't say I am fan of this actor (also in "The Chaser"), because he looks like a cross between a Kirk Douglas son and Michael J Fox. Nevertheless, he plays this well, especially the human version.
The story is thrown into deep mystery, to the extent where I was certain it wouldn't add up logically, but it does. - DirectorWilliam F. ClaxtonStarsJoe MarossClaude AkinsMichael FordOn a desolate planet, two astronauts discover an entire society populated by incredibly small beings. One of the astronauts decides to rule the society as a god.RATING: very good
CONCEPT: tyranny, alien planet
GENRE: space sci-fi
PLOT TWIST: very good
ENDING: very good
PREMISE: great
WRITER: Serling
This used to be one of my favourite episodes, as I'm a sucker for space pulp. I still like it, of course, but am a little annoyed by the typical Serling dialog - the usual "bitter squabbling" he just couldn't seem to shake off from his writing, a style that aged very poorly because it sounds so old-fashioned, naive and unnatural. Especially in the early minutes the astronuts talk in a language that is too serlingian for me.
Nevertheless, the ideas explored here are nifty. Megalomania, sadism, the inferiority complex... and of course tiny and giant aliens. The twist is a sort of sci-fi equivalent of the big fish small fish principle.
Of course it's a pity that the special effects are practically non-existent but this is made up for by the premise which almost single-handedly carries this episode. - DirectorWilliam F. ClaxtonStarsKenneth HaighAlexander ScourbySimon ScottA World War I British fighter pilot lands at an American air base in 1959 France.RATING: very good
CONCEPT: time travel
GENRE:
PLOT TWIST: good
ENDING: upper/downer
PREMISE: very good
WRITER: Matheson
The premise of time travel had been used over and over again in TZ, but I doubt many people complained because the premise provides for a number of possibilities and plots.
The story is very well acted and scripted which are the key reasons the episode works well, aside from the fact that the story is good. - DirectorPaul StewartStarsSarah MarshallRobert SampsonCharles AidmanAwakened in the middle of the night by the cries of his daughter, a father enters the girl's room to find that she has vanished - even though he can still hear her crying out for help.RATING: very good
CONCEPT: parallel worlds
GENRE: mystery, sci-fi
PLOT TWIST: good
ENDING: upper
PREMISE: very good
WRITER: Matheson
The guy they call for help just happens to be a physicist, which is a bit too convenient.
It's unclear why they kept looking under the bed, opening the cupboards only much later.
The girl's mumbling is unclear half the time.
The direction and special effects are solid, but it's the strength of the unique premise that push this episode forward.
Sure, years later we might say that it reminds a bit of all those Poltergeist movies, but they did all come later. - DirectorDavid GreeneStarsBarry MorseJoan HackettDon DurantSadistic and hated theater critic Fitzgerald Fortune buys a player piano that has the power to reveal the souls of all who hear it.RATING: very good
CONCEPT: machines
GENRE: drama
PLOT TWIST: very good
ENDING: upper
PREMISE: very good
WRITER: Hamner
It's unclear why every trophy wife in these kinds of stories is a nice person (just check out that moronic "classic" called "The Apartment") - when in real life such women marry for money hence aren't equipped with the best of morals, though in the writer's defense it is mentioned that she supposedly married for his intelligence.
The dialog is so much better than in a typical Serling episode. Because generally speaking Hamner wrote much better speaking parts than Serling.
There is no explanation how the critic knows which tune belongs to whom, nor how his wife knows which tune to pick when she sabotages him.
Also unclear is WHEN the guests realize that the piano is magical, and it's strange that none of them express awe due to this realization nor that any of them say out loud that it's magical. The plot moves too quickly, in that sense. - DirectorRobert StevensStarsEarl HollimanJames GregoryPaul LangtonMike Ferris finds himself alone in the small Oakwood town and without recollection about his name, where he is or who he is. Mike wanders through the town trying to find a living soul.RATING: very good
CONCEPT: experiment (it-was-all-a-dream), last-man-on-Earth
GENRE: sci-fi, mystery
PLOT TWIST: great
ENDING: upper
PREMISE: great
WRITER: Serling
The pilot episode is strong on mood and with a great set-up, but a little too drawn out.
Serling probably wanted to play it safe, so he used the tried-and-true last-man-on-Earth shtick as well as the it-was-all-a-dream twist.
Besides, the sequences of the deserted small town are very effective and nicely introduce audiences to the series. (OK, they don't prepare them for the incessant moralizing and political posturing, which is lacking here completely, but that rubbish mostly comes later anyway, not so much in Season 1, the best TZ era.)
WIE cleverly throws off the viewer from the truth by letting the pilot repeat several times how "this must be a dream", thereby making the viewers assume that it isn't.
At first the pilot is cheery and takes things lightly, but he gets increasingly agitated by the weirdness of the situation. I am not quite sure whether the notion of his "amnesia" was handled properly. Then again, this is all occurring within a dream so any minor inconsistencies or flaws can be excused on that alone. I do believe though that panic should have set in a little earlier, perhaps.
The concept of protagonists trying to solve a riddle in an abandoned location was revisited several times later, for example in one of the few good Season 5 episodes, "Stopover In a Quiet Town". - DirectorRobert ParrishStarsRod SerlingJames DalyHoward SmithTired of his miserable job and wife, a businessman starts dreaming on the train each night, about an old, idyllic town called Willoughby. Soon he has to know whether the town is real and fancies the thought of seeking refuge there.RATING: very good
CONCEPT: shangri-la
GENRE: drama
PLOT TWIST: great
ENDING: downer
PREMISE: very good
WRITER: Serling
This episode unashamedly taps into the secret desires of a lot of people, the fantasy that involves escape from a morose existence (stressful job / crap spouse) into an Utopian world. It does so in a good way.
Mostly... The notion that a commuter gets a whiff of Shangri-la every time he spends time on his train is nifty touch, and works very well.
However, his private life is somewhat caricatured and over-dramatized. His boss isn't just pushy, he literally shouts "push push push" in every other sentence, which would have been bad enough in a random 50s comedy, but comes off plain stupid in what is supposed to be a mystery drama.
The wife and the boss had to be sufficiently demonized in order to make us root for Willoughby, and that's fine, but this was done in an unsubtle way unworthy of the show's best episodes, which is why this one falls a little short of being among the 30 best. The male lead does a convincing job however.
Still, I do have to wonder WHAT exactly he would do in Willoughby. What job? Or is Shangri-la a welfare state?
Which brings me to the somewhat iffy time setting of this small-town American version of Utopia. It's 1888. No medicine, no television, barely any tennis either. Not to mention a distinct lack of metal! (The music, I mean.) What's a guy to do? Sure, it looks nice and relaxing, but I can't walk around all day sniffing flowers and saying hello to kids.
It is very easy(?) to fall into the trap of idealizing the distant past, but anything before the 1950s would be out of the question for me. Or perhaps romanticizing the distant past is a fool's hobby? Offer me 1888 and watch me refuse it.
"Shangri-la?... Yeah, I'll take one. But don't give me the bloody barbaric 19th century or any other era where there are no dentists and no high-quality pharmacies. Screw that!"
The plot-twist is very clever and comes out of left-field despite not being intrinsically uber-original. The great thing about it is that it leaves room for interpretation.
A sentimental episode, a bit slow, but one of the best of that sort. I suppose Gilliam might have been inspired by it to write and direct "Brazil". Or perhaps not. More likely "Brazil" was inspired by "freedom-fighting plus bombs" (i.e. Terrorism) and Marxism, two "isms" that Terry has a weakness for.
The premise has some similarities with "Walking Distance", plus also to a lesser extent with "Of Late I Think of Cliffordville". - 1959–196451mTV-148.1 (2.1K)TV EpisodeDirectorBuzz KulikStarsJames WhitmoreTim O'ConnorJames BroderickThe first human space colony is about to be rescued from the forsaken planet they've been on for three decades. But their leader's having a hard time accepting that change will happen when they get back to Earth.RATING: very good
CONCEPT: deserted
GENRE: sci-fi, drama
PLOT TWIST: good
ENDING: downer/upper
PREMISE: good
WRITER: Serling
You can tell Serling wrote the episode because it is speech-full, heavy-handed, and has some fundamental misconceptions about human nature.
For example, when the ship lands there are no signs of joy, people just stand around like zombies. Then, as the human crew step out, there is still no reaction. Only after the ship captain tells them they're to be shipped back to Earth do they suddenly explode into rejoicing, as if on cue, like robots.
Then there's the absurd 32 years the colony survived, despite being in a deserted landscape. Where did they get the food and water from? No explanation given. The rocks must be edible, and the urine and sweat must be 100% recyclable. It just makes no sense.
Or, if it takes a ship 6 months to get there, why did they wait 32 years to save the colonists? And why would they even send a ship to a shitty binary-star planet that's like the Gobi desert?
The colony leader's ego is actually more befitting to a sci-fi comedy. If he isn't the boss or at the center of attention for 5 seconds, he gets depressed. I mean, the premise of a leader gone insane is interesting, but a bit caricatured. Perhaps Serling projected a bit of himself into the character? Serling couldn't let other writers do the scripts, just as this leader cannot share authority with others. Serling should have been an expert on egos.
The essential premise here is how a man could be ideally suited for a certain situation (keeping the colonists motivated to survive) but completely the wrong person for another (functioning and leading in a post-survival world). The colony leader's insanity was a major boon for survival, but that same fanaticism turned out to be a detriment after the colonists are rescued. That's what makes the episode unique, plus its setting.
The ship captain looks like Carl Sagan. His speech before take-off - to convince "the children" to board ship - is a typical moment of Sertlingian madness. It is corny and needless. As if a colony consisting of suicide-weary miserable humans needs any convincing to leave for Earth. Especially since their mad leader is not the oldest and not the only colonist who's been there. - DirectorTed PostStarsPeter Mark RichmanHazel CourtRod SerlingCharlotte Scott and state trooper Robert Franklin seem to be stalked by giants.RATING: very good
CONCEPT: aliens
GENRE: sci-fi, mystery
PLOT TWIST: great
ENDING: upper
PREMISE: very good
WRITER: Serling
In-between horrifying events the two characters always find time to philosophize and moralize to each other in a sort of bitter and cynical way, an annoying Serling staple. Nevertheless, it's wonderful pulp fiction cheese and it's a pity there isn't more of it in the show. Could have been an "Outer Limits" episode and that's a compliment. - 1959–196425mTV-PG8.7 (4.3K)TV EpisodeDirectorMontgomery PittmanStarsJohn HoytJean WillesJack ElamFollowing a frantic phone call about a crashed spaceship, two policemen try to determine who among the bus passengers at a snowed-in roadside diner is from another world.RATING: good
CONCEPT: aliens
GENRE: sci-fi, mystery
PLOT TWIST: very good
ENDING: downer
PREMISE: good
WRITER: Serling
A fun mystery.
The cops simply assume off-hand that the alien CAN assume a human identity, which means they read a lot of pulp fiction.
One of the highest rated episodes on IMDb. Dunno why. - DirectorAlvin GanzerStarsSteve CochranErnest TruexRead MorganA small time crook plans to exploit an old street peddler who has the uncanny knack of selling people exactly what they will shortly need.RATING: very good
CONCEPT: fortune-telling
GENRE: crime
PLOT TWIST: good
ENDING: upper
PREMISE: good
WRITER: Serling
IDEA: Padgett
A bit cheesy, but overall interesting and original. Serling wisely changed the original story from a scientist with a machine to a mysterious old man whose origins and motives are unclear - as they should be. - DirectorLamont JohnsonStarsGladys CooperWilfrid Hyde-WhiteCecil KellawayA young American couple, the Ransomes, who are trying to salvage their troubled marriage, insist on booking passage on an old trans-Atlantic cruise liner. But other passengers try to persuade them to disembark immediately.RATING: good
CONCEPT: secret society
GENRE: drama, mystery, romance
PLOT TWIST: OK
ENDING: upper/downer
PREMISE: very good
WRITER: Beaumont
Like "Judgment Night" a nice moody visually stylish ship episode. Pity there is no major plot twist.
A flaw is that there is no explanation how the wife disappeared, aside from it being a clumsy plot-device to get the couple happy again. - DirectorAlan Crosland Jr.StarsJames CoburnJohn AndersonJosie LloydIn a post-apocalyptic settlement in 1974, the inhabitants' survival is dependent on the advice of an unseen man living in a nearby cave. This dependence is tested when a band of soldiers descends on their town.RATING: good
CONCEPT: post-apocalyptic
GENRE: drama
PLOT TWIST: OK
ENDING: downer
PREMISE: good
WRITER: Serling
STORY: Slesar
Bizarre logic regarding the computer.
Then there is also the bizarre moral message of the people's refusal to deify the computer - resulting in being severely punished. In actual fact, technology had brought them nuclear war so their distaste for technology is at least understandable, if not very practical, and certainly not a reason to have them be genocided.
Nice setting. - DirectorWalter GraumanStarsRobert DuvallPert KeltonBarbara BarrieMousey misfit Charley Parkes finds the world unfolding before him in a museum doll house to be more real than his boring job and overbearing mother.RATING: good
CONCEPT: dolls
GENRE: drama, romance
PLOT TWIST: very good
ENDING: upper
PREMISE: very good
WRITER: Beaumont
An original premise is very well played by Duvall, but the story is a bit long, filled with several unnecessary or drawn out scenes. The premise is cleverly handled, such as the doll never acknowledging Duvall until the twist. - DirectorJohn BrahmStarsHarry TownesPhillip PineRoss MartinA man who can change his face to look like other people uses his ability to improve his life, regardless of his effect on others.RATING: good
CONCEPT: changeling
GENRE: crime, drama
PLOT TWIST: good
ENDING: upper
PREMISE: good
WRITER: Serling
STORY: GC Johnson
A major logic flaw is that the changeling somehow knew everything there is to know about the murdered gangster in order to extort money from his enemies. This isn't explained, certainly not explainable through his "face-changing".
Speaking of which, that's another logic flaw: he doesn't just change the face but the body and voice too.
The intro narration yet again shows Serling at his most ludicrous bitter, resentful self, as he dishes out insults at the main character. Kind of weird for a narrator - who is meant to be impartial i.e. uninvolved in the story - to make so many sarcastic remarks. - DirectorRichard C. SarafianStarsTelly SavalasMary LaRocheTracy StratfordA frustrated father does battle with his stepdaughter's talking doll, whose vocabulary includes such phrases as "I hate you" and "I'm going to kill you".RATING: good
CONCEPT: dolls
GENRE: drama
PLOT TWIST: OK
ENDING: downer
PREMISE: good
WRITER: Beaumont
STORY: Sohl
It's a good thing Serling didn't write this episode, otherwise the doll would have been liable to make preachy speeches, such as: "I'm Talky Tina and I believe that you are a self-centered lout who doesn't appreciate the responsibilities that go along with raising a child, and you ought to be ashamed of yourself for your behaviour".
Serling struggles to say a lot with as few words as possible - a mark of good writing. - DirectorDouglas HeyesStarsCecil KellawayJeff MorrowDon DubbinsThree astronauts touch down on an asteroid, where they discover a world of people that appear to be frozen in time. Confused, they theorize as to why everyone is motionless, until a man springs to life and explains.RATING: good
CONCEPT: lost in space, robots
GENRE: space sci-fi, mystery
PLOT TWIST: weak
ENDING: downer
PREMISE: great
WRITER: Beaumont
Starts off very well, with a lost-in-space crew finding itself on a planet with non-moving "statue prop" humans.
This planet is only 65 million miles away from Earth which would place it squarely in our Solar System, in fact even closer than Mars! This kind of sloppy writing never fails to baffle me. Surely if you write sci-fi for a living you need to at least know the BASICS about space, for example that such distances are laughably small. How about placing an alien planet 10 light-years away next time, ey? Not too far, yet distant enough not to make it our neighbour. An unknown planet, yet our closest neighbour!
But that's a minor point, as is the fact that the year is 2185 - exactly 200 years after the Great Nuclear War or whatever they call it here. Now, why do so many of these cheesy futuristic yarns have to have such NEAT "anniversary settings"? Why couldn't it be set 187 years after that war?
Yup, 1985, the year of the great nuclear war. Reagan started it! He's a Republican so let's blame him for everything. Reps are scapegoats for everything these days - despite having almost no cultural i.e. real power for at least a decade...
The problem with this semi-fascinating episode (the 1st half being fascinating, the 2nd half not so much) is that the caretaker - an alien robot - spends a lot of time explaining this weird set-up, yet omitting the most important explanation: WHY exactly aliens created a cemetery for dead humans. Who are these aliens, where are they from, and what's their connection to humans? When did they make first contact with humans, who hired them, and why was there no record of this on Earth? I know it's the Twilight Zone, but come on...
In the end, the astronauts get played like a bunch of naive astrudummies, actually drinking the poison the robot gave them. Because, hey: why not trust the only speaking/moving human on a planet full of statuettes? - DirectorJohn RichStarsRichard ErdmanHerbie FayeLeon BelascoA man is given a stopwatch that halts time.RATING: good
CONCEPT: time control
GENRE: comedy
PLOT TWIST: OK
ENDING: downer
PREMISE: great
WRITER: Serling
It takes a very long 9 minutes of utterly boring, corny, old-school chitter-chatter BS 50s farce until the fantasy aspect of the plot finally starts. It's one of those episodes that is better remembered than it actually is - simply due to the fact that its premise is so good, one of the best in fact.
Serling botched the episode with his lame gags and stupid dialog, but the story - or at least its vast possibilities - is too good to be completely ruined by Serling's writing and broad acting by the cast. Imagine the kind of incompetence exhibited by Serling, when he wastes an entire third of screen time on introductory nonsense in a 25-minute episode - that should have been a feature-length movie. Serling actually believed that this dull character was as important as the premise itself. Should have been made in the 4th season as a 50-minute episode.
I find it a little annoying that the twerp tries to get his measly job back - as if that would be a priority to anyone but a complete and utter moron, right after finding a gadget that makes a person quite literally master of the world. It takes him way too long to realize how much power he'd obtained.
Also, there is no connection between the main character and the magic. Usually in TZ a character gets involved in a supernatural situation that is suitable to them specifically. For example, a misanthrope should have broken the stopwatch, then realized how he misses people: that would be typical TZ irony hence a point to be made. But WHY a "loudmouth" gets this power over time, isn't explained. There is no moral to be had, except "don't steal", and this man was never a thief in the first place. - DirectorRobert StevensStarsRod SerlingGig YoungFrank OvertonA man, fed up with where he's at in life, finds himself not only in his old hometown, but back to the time when he was a boy.RATING: good
CONCEPT: time travel
GENRE: drama
PLOT TWIST: none
ENDING:
PREMISE: good
WRITER: Serling
The only episode that has additional narration midway through. It's quite unnecessary.
One of the typically nostalgic episodes, it ends with no real twist, and a bizarre limp on one leg. So the main character was punished with a life-long limp for travelling down memory line through time? A strange side-effect, makes one wonder if it was worth the trip. - DirectorRobert FloreyStarsRod SerlingEverett SloaneVivi JanissA middle-aged man catches gambling fever from a slot machine that he believes is calling his name.RATING: good
CONCEPT: machines
GENRE: drama
PLOT TWIST: OK
ENDING: downer
PREMISE: good
WRITER: Serling
The first of several episodes in which people fall out of windows with incredible ease. (A very dumb plot-device, unless you're filming a comedy, and have plenty of banana peels lying around.)
The main character is so intense from the get-go, he might as well have been certified insane before starting to gamble. However, a moody and original episode. - DirectorRichard L. BareStarsLloyd BochnerSusan CummingsRichard KielAn alien race comes to Earth, promising peace and sharing technology. A linguist and his team set out to translate the aliens' language, using a book whose title they deduce is "To Serve Man."RATING: good
CONCEPT: aliens
GENRE: sci-fi
PLOT TWIST: good
ENDING: downer
PREMISE: good
WRITER: Serling
STORY: Knight
As close as TZ ever got to "Outer Limits", because it's plain pulp fiction and sci-fi-based.
As close as TZ ever got to "Outer Limits", because it's plain pulp fiction and very sci-fi.
On closer scrutiny the story is full of logic holes, like Swiss cheese, but it's best to watch this like the pulp cheese that it is. For example, the decoder guy being told that the book belongs to the aliens AFTER he'd already started decoding it - and then him showing no reaction as if he'd known all along where the book was from. Or the confusing motives the aliens could possibly have for intentionally leaving the book: because they're intergalactic pranksters?
Well, Serling is to blame for that one. In Knight's original story the humans stole the book from the aliens - which makes a lot more sense.
Or how about the mobster-like way the USSR delegate stares at the alien; too cartoonish. Then there is the absurd speed with which they decode a THREE-WORD book title. But the silliest plot device is using a lie detector test on an alien - despite the fact that these results aren't recognized as evidence in most courts, on humans - let alone aliens. - DirectorAnton LeaderStarsKevin McCarthyEdgar StehliEstelle WinwoodA father forbids a history professor from marrying his daughter when he discovers that the captivating lecturer is actually an immortal who has lived for thousands of years.RATING: good
CONCEPT: rejuvenation
GENRE: drama
PLOT TWIST: OK
ENDING: downer
PREMISE: very good
WRITER: Beaumont
Some stilted dialog and acting early on, plus here and there, but overall interesting. - DirectorDon MedfordStarsJack KlugmanRoss MartinFred BeirAn interplanetary expedition from Earth finds an exact duplicate of their ship and themselves crashed on the planet they were surveying. Should they stay or risk taking off and crashing?RATING: good
CONCEPT: ghosts
GENRE: sci-fi
PLOT TWIST: solid
ENDING: downer
PREMISE: good (though unoriginal)
WRITER: Matheson
The black-haired astronaut makes idiotic faces on occasion, a bit annoying because an overactor.
The premise is similar to "Passage for Trumpet", "The Hunt" and even more similar to "Judgment Night".
Klugman's decision to go right back to the planet makes no sense. Nor is there any real connecting scene between them realizing what happened and the scene when the whole cycle starts all over again. Nevertheless, interesting. This "Sixth Sense" premise has been done several times in the show, with varying results. - DirectorJohn BrahmStarsEdward AndrewsHelen WestcottKevin HagenAfter being involved with a hit-and-run accident that resulted in the death of a child, Oliver Pope is haunted by his car.RATING: good
CONCEPT: machines
GENRE: drama
PLOT TWIST: good
ENDING: upper
PREMISE: good
WRITER: Hamner
The blonde actress is not good but is cute. The dialog is better than usual. The movie/book "Christine" is a rip-off of this. Stephen King the derivator.
Nice setting. - DirectorDouglas HeyesStarsAgnes MooreheadDouglas HeyesRod SerlingWhen a woman investigates a clamor in the attic of her rural house, she discovers a small UFO with little aliens emerging from it. Or so it seems.RATING: good
CONCEPT: aliens
GENRE: sci-fi, thriller
PLOT TWIST: very good
ENDING: downer
PREMISE: very good
WRITER: Matheson
A unique episode in several ways, with an effective mood, but several things take away from its potential.
First off, Moorehead. She looks the part, but doesn't play it appropriately. It's as if she was going for laughs, especially early on. She was told she's playing an alien woman - but that the audience isn't to know yet, so she decides to play her in a sort of eccentric way that comes off as too goofy.
The fact that she mustn't talk hence not reveal her alien nature should have been circumvented in one way or another, rather than have Moorehead make silly screams and sounds. Which is just plain weird, and not in a good way.
Secondly, the astronauts get involved in some physically impossible feats, such as standing next to a doorknob or jumping onto Moorehead out of nowhere.
Thirdly, the cat-and-mouse between her and the little toys is a bit drawn out. - DirectorAlvin GanzerStarsRod SerlingJanice RuleShepperd StrudwickA schoolteacher keeps seeing a strange little girl in her apartment building.RATING: good
CONCEPT:
GENRE: mystery, crime
PLOT TWIST: OK
ENDING: upper
PREMISE: good
WRITER: Serling
The killer's motives for stalking her all the way to a different city are far-fetched. After 19 years, the murderer would have had to feel safe enough not to bother with what she knows. It's also far-fetched that the woman doesn't recognize herself as a little girl. If she had had such wholesale amnesia she wouldn't finish college, much less have a job as a teacher of all things. - DirectorDavid Orrick McDearmonStarsAlbert SalmiRussell JohnsonThan WyennWhen a 20th-century scientist tests out his time machine he accidentally retrieves a murderer from 1880, saving him from the hangman's noose. Unaware of the man's history, the scientist attempts to acclimatize him to his new surroundings.RATING: good
CONCEPT: time travel
GENRE: western, crime
PLOT TWIST: good
ENDING: upper
PREMISE: good
WRITER: Serling
STORY: GC Johnson
A little silly regarding the logic and plot-devices, for example the scientist's very dumb decision to tell the killer both what he thinks of him and his intentions - which very predictably gets him attacked, or the strange coincidence of a burglar appearing just at the right time to attack the killer. Still, fast-paced and with a good premise. - DirectorAbner BibermanStarsCliff RobertsonFrank SuttonGeorge MurdockVentriloquist Jerry Etherson is convinced that his dummy, Willie, is alive and evil. He locks Willie in a trunk and makes plans for a new act with a new dummy. Too bad he didn't clear those plans with Willie first.RATING: good
CONCEPT: dolls
GENRE: horror, mystery, drama
PLOT TWIST: good
ENDING: downer
PREMISE: solid
WRITER: Polk / Serling
I'm pretty sure this sort of thing had been done before, but nevermind... This is the horror genre, in which originality is neither common nor that essential.
The scene in which Cliff tries to "hit on" a girl - in order not to be alone - seems out of character for someone who was more of an introvert up to that point. This sudden frantic behaviour doesn't quite wash, and it appears to merely be a somewhat lazy plot-device to ensure that nobody is around when he has his duel with the dummy.
Because another person's presence would have given us the answer as to whether Cliff was insane or genuinely terrorized by a wooden demon.
Much is made of the plot-twist, how great it is, but I am not too impressed. Narrator Serling calls it "the old switcheroo" but I'm not sure if I can quite buy it. It's one thing for the doll to become alive "because you gave me life by giving me things to say" but it's a completely other ball-game when it comes to this doll having the power to turn itself into a human - and Cliff into a doll. Where the hell did that come from? It's not a dumb twist, nor is it illogical, but it doesn't quite add up. I would do it differently.
I mean I'd do it differently as the writer, not as the dummy... As the dummy I'd have massacred everyone. (No, not really.) - DirectorHarold D. SchusterStarsArthur HunnicuttJeanette NolanRobert FoulkUpon returning from a coon hunt, Hyder Simpson discovers that no one can see or hear him because he has passed on.RATING: good
CONCEPT: ghosts
GENRE: melodrama
PLOT TWIST: very good
ENDING: upper
PREMISE: good
WRITER: Hamner
Clearly, this episode or several others of its type in TZ must have inspired M Night Charlatan to make the overrated "Sixth Sense".
Premise already done in "Passage for Trumpet", less similarly in "Judgment Night" and "Death Ship". The main character isn't corny, sounds genuine enough. The intro is boring though. - 1959–196425mTV-PG6.8 (5K)TV EpisodeDirectorMitchell LeisenStarsRod SerlingIda LupinoMartin BalsamBarbara Jean Trenton is a faded film star who lives in the past by constantly re-watching her old movies instead of moving on with her life, so her associates try to lure her out of her self-imposed isolation.
RATING: good
CONCEPT: rejuvenation
GENRE: drama
PLOT TWIST: good
ENDING: downer/upper
PREMISE: good
WRITER: Serling
One of a number of TZ episodes dealing with aging. Ida Lupino looks great, not old at all, which undermines the premise somewhat, but what the hell: she's nice to look at.
The early scene in which her maid experiences terror upon seeing Ida next to the projection of her from an old movie makes no sense. The maid should be used to this sort of thing by that point, and besides: what she'd seen wasn't the least bit terrifying. - DirectorJames SheldonStarsJack CarsonLoring SmithGeorge ChandlerA used car salesman buys a car that dooms him to tell only the truth.RATING: good
CONCEPT:
GENRE: comedy
PLOT TWIST: weak
ENDING:
PREMISE: good
WRITER: Serling
There is a flaw in the logic, because the seller actually lied about the reason why he needed the buyer to sign the forms.
TWT has some funny moments, some slightly broad ones, not always funny or amusing, but overall quite fun.
The twist though is very far-fetched as even the narrator Serling half-admits in the outro. Why a USSR president would go buy a cheap car during his brief stay in the States, and how the seller manages to reach him, those things don't really fly.
One of the shot-on-video episodes that isn't too marred by the visual downgrading. - 1959–196425mTV-PG7.0 (1.8K)TV EpisodeDirectorBernard GirardStarsPatrick O'NealRuta LeeWalter BrookeAn aging married man convinces his brother to inject him with a youth serum.RATING: solid
CONCEPT: rejuvenation
GENRE: drama
PLOT TWIST: solid
ENDING: upper/downer
PREMISE: good
WRITER: Serling
IDEA: Holtz
The ending is quite dubious. The woman's husband is an infant, and the poor bastard will be cared for by a woman who is a totally egotistical and self-centered. She gets her punishment alright, but so does her husband. I.e. a problematic ending.
Even more problematic is the implication that this woman will have been sexually involved with what is now a young baby. Brings all sorts of seedy implications into the picture, which is maybe why this episode didn't go into syndication.
Speaking of which, "Fugitive" should have not gone into syndication either, for similar reasons, despite being a children's story on the surface. - DirectorBoris SagalStarsFranchot ToneLiam SullivanCyril DelevantiAnnoyed by a club member's constant chatter, a man bets him he cannot remain silent for a year, living in a glass enclosure in the club basement.RATING: solid
CONCEPT: non-fantasy
GENRE: drama
PLOT TWIST: good
ENDING: downer
PREMISE: OK
WRITER: Serling
One of only several episodes that have no fantasy element. It is nonetheless suitable for the series.
"You cannot remain silent for a whole year. It's not in your nature". A very dumb line. After all, WHOSE nature is it to not speak a word for a year? Are there such people - aside from the mute? I.e. "since you can't not talk for a year, you must be a talkative brash asshole". Serling logic.
"To remain silent (for a year) would destroy you" he continues. Newsflash, Rod: being silent for that long would destroy just about anyone, even the most anti-social silent types.
A year is way too long. The episode would have more credibility with a three-month or 100-day bet. Nobody would accept a year-long abstinence in talking - nor being locked up for nothing, let alone cutting out their own vocal cords.
Frankly, I'm amazed the guy accepted the bet - without any money given up-front. That's the closest this episode gets to sheer fantasy.
The old man offering only $1000 after 4 months is quite dumb too. A $100,000 offer would have made a lot more sense. - DirectorRichard L. BareStarsRod SerlingDick YorkWilliam ReynoldsA U.S. Army lieutenant serving in the Philippines during WWII develops a harrowing ability to see in the faces of the men of his platoon, the men who will be the next ones to die.RATING: solid
CONCEPT: fortune-telling
GENRE: war, drama
PLOT TWIST: weak
ENDING: downer
PREMISE: good
WRITER: Serling
An interesting episode that disappoints with a predictable and pointless end-twist. The fantasy element has no real purpose except to make life even more difficult for a few soldiers. The story needed a clever resolution but instead we got a suicide-happy lead getting killed off voluntarily. - 1959–196425mTV-PG8.3 (2.7K)TV EpisodeDirectorRobert EnricoStarsRoger JacquetAnne CornalyAnker-Spang LarsenDuring the American Civil War in 1862, a condemned Confederate prisoner, Peyton Farquhar, is due to be hanged by Union troops.RATING: solid
CONCEPT: non-fantasy (it-was-all-a-dream)
GENRE: war
PLOT TWIST: average
ENDING: downer
PREMISE: OK
WRITER/DIRECTOR: Enrico
STORY: Bierce
The twist is unoriginal, perhaps even a cop-out of sorts, but also an acceptable cliche - at least within this concept.
Quite arty (because a French production), hence why viewers tend to overrate the episode. Ah well, it's about EXISTENTIALISM, isn't it? It's arty hence it must be superior. Right?
Well, not really.
Would work a LOT better in colour. The setting looks horribly muddy in black and white.
"But don't you get it?! That was the whole point - to make it muddy, because that symbolizes-"
Oh, shut up... - DirectorMitchell LeisenStarsRod SerlingDavid WayneThomas GomezA hypochondriac man sells his soul to the devil, exchanging it for several thousand years of immortality.RATING: solid
CONCEPT: devil
GENRE: comedy
PLOT TWIST: dumb
ENDING:
PREMISE: OK
WRITER: Serling
There is the very illogical decision to want to get arrested just to experience the electric chair. This is stupid because even if he did get the chair (which he predictably doesn't) he would still rot away in jail with a life sentence, by default. - DirectorBuzz KulikStarsBrian AhernePippa ScottSydney PollackA nostalgic actor revisits his late wife and friends at their old haunt, only to find that he is now out of place there.RATING: solid
CONCEPT: time travel
GENRE: drama
PLOT TWIST: solid
ENDING:
PREMISE: good
WRITER: Newman
I will simply go out on a limb and presume that the story was based on David Niven.
1. The lead resembles Niven in many ways: mustache, being English, mannerisms, way of talking, age-wise, everything.
2. Niven at that time (and overall for many decades) was married to a woman whom he hated.
3. Niven too had a first wife who died young tragically, Niven's true love just like in this episode.
I've read both of Niven's autobiographies, and even if he never even hints at the horrors of his second marriage (how could he? at the time he wrote the books he was still married to her), later Roger Moore (in his own autobiography) and others would confirm that Niven was in a shambolic marriage with a horrible witch, and for many years. There is even a play recently performed that plays with a possible murder attempt of his second wife, connected with the real-life event of her being "accidentally" shot at a fox-hunting party, just years before this episode was written.
So yes, I assume that insiders all knew that Niven hated his second wife, longing for his previous one, and this story might very well be based on that.
The episode itself is sentimental, typical TZ getting nostalgic. Some scenes are very good, some aren't. - DirectorBuzz KulikStarsDean StockwellAlbert SalmiRayford BarnesHot-shot new Lieutenant Katell tries to make his mark on the last day of World War II in the Pacific and gets a unique perspective on his actions.RATING: solid
CONCEPT: switcheroo
GENRE: war
PLOT TWIST: solid
ENDING: upper
PREMISE: OK
WRITER: Rolfe / Serling
It's hilarious how the "japanized" American commander is an identical twin of Tom Hanks.
Part of the reason this episode works is because it isn't stupidly and fanatically anti-war, but advocates pragmatism - even more than mercy.
Additionally, the Japanese side isn't portrayed favourably. This may seem obvious, but in light of left-wingers writing most scripts in Hollywood, even this blatant fact cannot be taken for granted.
The conclusion isn't as obvious. We expect the arrogant new commanding officer to change his mind about the attack, but he is prevented by news of the atomic bomb. So while it is clear that the commander has had a major change in attitude, he doesn't get the chance to show it. Perhaps it's better that way, because such an ending would have been corny.
The dialog is OK. It isn't too preachy, not many heavy-handed speeches. - DirectorLamont JohnsonStarsGladys CooperRobert RedfordR.G. ArmstrongAn old woman has fought with death a thousand times and has always won. But now she finds herself afraid to let a wounded policeman in her door for fear he is Mr. Death. Is he?RATING: solid
CONCEPT: reaper
GENRE: drama
PLOT TWIST: solid
ENDING:
PREMISE: good
WRITER: Johnson
Robert Redford playing the Reaper tricks an old paranoid woman into leaving with her. It is an intelligent if somewhat idealized take on the subject. Well acted.
The story relies on our not knowing whether to trust Redford or not. He plays it decently enough so as to keep us guessing. - DirectorLamont JohnsonStarsAndy DevineMilton SelzerHoward McNearA rural gas station attendant given to telling tall tales about himself is kidnapped by aliens who believe him to be one of Earth's leading intellects.RATING: solid
CONCEPT: aliens
GENRE: sci-fi, comedy
PLOT TWISTS: very good
ENDING: upper
PREMISE: very good
WRITER: Serling
STORY: Fox
The introductory scene in the shop is tedious. Frisby is the most boring liar ever. Some people are funny liars (I've known one, a Palestinian: he was very entertaining once he got going with the tall tales), but some just aren't.
Things get much better after that. The plot-twists are silly, but it's meant to be a silly episode. Besides, the twists are very good: surprising and original.
Some interesting notions here, for example the aliens not being familiar with the concept of lying, or even deception in general. That's pretty far-fetched, for a number of reasons, but most specifically because they collect specimen from various planets and keep them against their will in a kind of zoo. Surely, they must have had situations when their alien prisoners had tried to cheat their way towards freedom?
Still, this shtick with "naive aliens" was used purely as a plot-device to give this story feet. It wasn't used this time to make a point about how superior alien civilizations must be benign and morally pure (which is an asinine idea). Besides, if they are in the business of abduction then by definition they can't be particularly naive... - DirectorJohn BrahmStarsLarry BlydenSebastian CabotJohn CloseWhen bad guy Henry Francis Valentine dies in a shootout with police, he wakes up in the next world where his every wish is granted forever, and ever.RATING: solid
CONCEPT: devil
GENRE: comedy
PLOT TWIST: predictable
ENDING:
PREMISE: OK
WRITER: Beaumont
I like these cheesy Devil-toys-with-victim shticks (except when they are called "Of Late I Think of Cliffordville"). The problem is that the lead is a fairly bland and unfunny actor who is the completely wrong choice to play the animated crook in this comedic story. Him doing a corny impression of Cagney and Bogart isn't helping either. It's uber-cheesy.
The other key flaw is the totally predictable twist. Who couldn't guess that he wasn't in Heaven. I mean, aside from very small children and Sean Penn.
Hence the "surprise twist" is a foregone conclusion, and doesn't even make too much sense. If "hellish boredom" looks like this - where do I sign up! This isn't Hell by any stretch of the (monotheistic) imagination. I can buy the idea that the crook gets bored of riches and winning at gambling every time, but getting bored with women this quickly verges on the absurd. - DirectorBuzz KulikStarsShelley BermanJack GrinnageChet StrattonUsing the power of mind over matter, Archibald Beechcroft remakes the world to his own specifications.RATING: solid
CONCEPT:
GENRE: comedy
PLOT TWIST: OK
ENDING:
PREMISE: good
WRITER: Serling
Broad comedy, annoying goofy dialog, even more annoying is Mr Beachcrumb's name getting mentioned 100 times (so typical for children's books and old comedies - as if name repetition is somehow funny), but the premise isn't bad at all, and after the awful intro the story gets better. - DirectorRichard L. BareStarsSusan GordonJ. Pat O'MalleyNancy KulpJenny and the other kids don't realize that the kindly yet magical old duffer they play with in the park is really an intergalactic fugitive hiding out till two serious men come looking for him, asking questions that test their friendship.RATING: solid
CONCEPT: aliens
GENRE: childrens
PLOT TWIST: good
ENDING:
PREMISE: good
WRITER: Beaumont
Original premise and with OK dialog and acting but the kiddie nature of the story makes it less effective. The notion that the old man goes back to his planet - where he gets sexually involved with the little girl (presumably after she's come of age) brings all sorts of seedy connotations to the story.
And I'm sure Polanski and Hoffman may have had a copy of this episode somewhere in their projection room. Perhaps Terry Gilliam too, Woody Allen for sure, and many others. - DirectorBuzz KulikStarsRobert CummingsGene LyonsPaul LambertA pilot of a downed WW II bomber comes to in the African desert and desperately tries to find out what happened to the rest of his crew.RATING: solid
CONCEPT: deserted
GENRE: war
PLOT TWIST: good
ENDING:
PREMISE: good
WRITER: Serling
When you have just one character, you'd better make sure you hire an actor capable of pulling it off, one that is interesting. Instead, they picked a faceless, mediocre actor. The episode goes nowhere plot-wise for too long, a basic idea too stretched out. Very nice setting, decent twist, but overall TZ has had much better episodes. - DirectorMontgomery PittmanStarsElizabeth MontgomeryCharles BronsonRod SerlingTwo survivors of an apocalyptic battle, a man and a woman from opposing sides, approach each other suspiciously.RATING: average
CONCEPT: post-apocalypse
GENRE:
PLOT TWIST: OK (predictable)
ENDING: upper
PREMISE: OK
WRITER: Pittman
Rarely was a TZ episode this "star-studded", but in a good way. Pity they gave these two one of the more forgettable scripts.
There's a really dumb scene half-way through when they both pick up a rifle. Another dumb scene has Montgomery seeing a propaganda picture then rushing - like a mindless chicken - to shoot Bronson. The writer was trying way too hard to inject symbolism and Cold War era cliches into this. The story is so loaded with "symbolism" that the writer forgot to give the story a plot. It's thin and somewhat predictable.
Check out Elizabeth's americanized Russian accent. And check out that pretty face. - DirectorJack SmightStarsBarbara NicholsJonathan HarrisFredd WayneWhile in the hospital recovering from overwork, Liz Powell keeps dreaming about going down to the hospital morgue.RATING: average
CONCEPT: nightmare
GENRE: mystery
PLOT TWIST: very good
ENDING:
PREMISE: good
WRITER: Serling (stolen idea)
IDEA: Cerf
Corny and boring dialogue, a good premise ruined by drawn out plot and not being recorded on film. Has a high rating on IMDb probably because people only remember the good plot-twist.
And the blonde is cute, that too.
This twist, as indeed the entire premise, was stolen by Serling from the movie "Dead of Night", almost verbatim. He changed very little. No wonder there were many lawsuits filed against him for plagiarizing from others. - DirectorElliot SilversteinStarsBurgess MeredithFritz WeaverJosip ElicIn a future totalitarian society, a librarian is declared obsolete and sentenced to death.RATING: average
CONCEPT: non-fantasy
GENRE: court drama, dystopian
PLOT TWIST: OK
ENDING: upper
PREMISE: OK
WRITER: Serling
If the episode had been made today, this is the "slight" alteration it would get:
The State: "There is a god!"
The Accused: "No, there isn't! I have a right not to believe!"
I'm kind of surprised the overall rating is so high, considering that the episode commits the heinous blasphemy of portraying a tyranny as atheistic. (I'm an atheist, but most of my fellow atheists are pompous religion-hating left-wingers i.e. quasi-atheists who chose the Socialist religion.)
Needless to say, in an updated version the librarian would hold a copy of "Das Kapital", not the Bible, and Stalin's name would be deleted from the script. His name would be replaced with Trump's.
Burgess: "You never seem to learn from history." A very naive statement, because it assumes that tyrannies are run by deluded well-meaning men who want to accomplish something. That's very rarely the case. Instead, they are run by psychopaths who don't give three hoots about anything but their own many indulgences. They are fully aware of what they are doing, it's just that they don't care. (Yes, snow-bunnies, evil is a real thing, it does exist, and it often exists for no other reason than to indulge itself.)
"You can choose the method of your execution: pills, gas or electrocution." I'd venture a guess that nearly everyone in this tyrannical future chooses pills. What a strange array of choices. No-brainer.
The trick used by the librarian makes zero sense. The moment the execution goes astray, the cameras would stop rolling, hence the audience wouldn't see any of this. Not to mention that the police would come crushing the door down to save the Minister of Executions (or whatever he's called).
A failed episode that aimed to be lofty but succumbed to its own nonsense and preachiness. - DirectorJohn BrahmStarsBurgess MeredithVaughn TaylorJacqueline deWitA henpecked book lover finds himself blissfully alone with his books after a nuclear war.RATING: average
CONCEPT: post-apocalypse
GENRE: comedy
PLOT TWIST: weak
ENDING: downer
PREMISE: OK
WRITER: Serling
STORY: Venable
The episode consists of two very distinct parts: the first dumb farce, the second a post-apocalyptic world.
Why the hell this unfunny corny nonsense is one of the most popular episodes, and perhaps the highest rated on IMDb, isn't clear to me. The humour is utterly primitive, very 50s - broad dumb comedy for cavepeople.
Secondly, this character Bemis is so caricatured that he has no connection with any real person we know - hence not funny. What I mean is, there are no avid "readers" who seek out texts on bottles when books and magazines aren't nearby. It's a dumb premise for a character trait hence uninteresting. We are never given a proper rationale behind his wife hating his reading habit, going to pathological lengths to prevent him from reading, hence that's not funny either. Add to that the stupid, farcical way his wife is depicted, and frankly we have a rather bad set-up that goes on for boring 10 minutes.
Once WW3 starts, things get a lot better. And yet, Serling has to half-ruin the mood by interjecting a needless mid-way narration - which assumes that the viewer is a moron who needs to be hand-lead through the story like a dumb child. The story is additionally ruined with a fairly predictable twist. - DirectorMitchell LeisenStarsRoddy McDowallSusan OliverPaul ComiFearing the worst, the lone survivor of a crash-landing on Mars finds the native inhabitants, to his relief, very hospitable indeed, but there's a catch.RATING: average
CONCEPT: aliens, space exploration
GENRE: sci-fi
PLOT TWIST: fun
ENDING: downer
PREMISE: OK
WRITER: Fairman / Serling
Starts off with two astronauts talking about... No, wait.
I'll start again...
Starts off with two astro-dummies talking about their upcoming mission. One of them is stricken with fear, the other is convinced that "God made us all equal everywhere". One is so frightened that he claims he shouldn't even be going, whereas the other had bought into the Equality Scam - a full 30 years before it had morphed into full-fledged Cultural Marxism. It is naive/dumb enough to believe in "total equality" everywhere on Earth, let alone to expand this ridiculous Disneyland theory to encompass the entire universe. Yeah, because God (or even sillier - nature) wants to have "all-out equality" - which is why there is literally zero equality in any era and any region of the world. Christians and socialists are no different from each other, in that sense at least: the former claim God created equality, the latter claim that nature creates equality. Yet, why would either God or especially non-sentient nature "want" either equality or non-equality? Why would they give a damn - if they could ever give a damn.
So yeah, two morons were selected for this (presumably expensive) pioneering mission, for whatever reasons and using whichever dubious selection criteria. Logically, things end poorly for them.
After all, any future NASA that's this D. U. M. B. doesn't deserve to succeed. Pretty simple: you pick morons for a mission - and that means your mission as well as your organization must be moronic.
Even funnier than the idiotic conversation between the astronuts is Serling's intro narration, in which he barely restrains his utter contempt for mankind. (I have to laugh again, as I write this. Such a running joke in TZ.) I love it when left-wingers - who should in theory be optimistic about human nature - end up bitter, resentful, sarcastic, mankind-hating trolls. That never fails to fascinate. As a right-winger, I have every right to denigrate humans and mock them, but if you're one of Marx's little "angels" then WHY are you so cynical about the human race? After all, the extremely naive end-goal called Utopia presupposes that man is limitless in his potential, in his goodness and is unstoppable in terms of achievement and progress. Yeah, that's called HARDCORE OPTIMISM. Capitalism on the other hand is about recognizing the obvious fact that man is deeply fallible and fragile hence easily corruptible: a vice-ridden deviant whose propensity to do evil needs to be held in check through a pragmatic (not idealistic) system that doesn't treat adults as innocent children.
But I digress... That's just the tip of the pyramid. (I can't help it, I am just FASCINATED by how many deeply cynical human-hating left-wingers there are. They amuse me. These people loathe mankind on the one hand (without even realizing it), yet they also believe that mankind can achieve perfection through boundless progress. Schizo much? It's very little wonder hence that left-wing ideology is so mired in self-contradiction and paradox, because these people barely understand themselves, let alone the nature of man and his completely irrelevant place in the universe.)
Anyway...
The Mars rocket lands with a thud, killing one half of the crew. The "people are all alike everywhere" half. The frightened "I don't feel like exploring anything!" half of the crew is still alive - BUT... he refuses to open the hatch to explore the planet! Yup... Future NASA hired RELUCTANT COWARDS for their expensive missions to alien planets. This guy wouldn't have passed the test to become a policeman in a 100-population village, let alone an astronaut test - or a series of tests.
I am assuming that this pseudo-NASA does tests, plural, i.e. That there isn't just ONE test that consists of one question: "Would you like to be an astronaut?" If you answer yes, you get to become one, to fly to Mars! Isn't that easy and practical? Talk about stupid, our own NASA doing all these dozens of expensive, extended tests. Why waste time and money when you can simply find the right people by merely ASKING them if they want to fly to Mars!
When our plucky hero finally leaves the wreckage, he meets the Martians... or Romans...? Because, CLEARLY, every advanced alien humanoid race dresses in togas, dresses as Ancient Romans, because those Ancient Romans, they were so advanced, weren't they? With their barbarism and arenas and genocide... Those white sheets they wore are practically synonymous with progress!
Roddy stupidly starts drawing the planets in the sand, trying to explain that he is from Earth, in a scene that's straight out of a bargain-basement 50s comic-book. (Except that those comics usually cost a fortune, but that's beside the point...)
To cut a short and dumb story even shorter (in this overlong review), Roddy gets suckered into believing these Martians are a benign (because Toga-wearing) race so they trap him into a flat, which turns out to be merely a cage in a zoo.
Yeah, something tells me that this twist was "borrowed" from a 50s comic-book... In fact, odds are high that it was.
So what was the "moral" of the story, its purpose? (Not that I ever need any, but Serling usually insisted on having one.) There is none. The story tries hard to be some kind of clever parable about people being evil everywhere (ha-ha-irony for kids), when in fact it is so mired in contradictory signals that it ends being nothing but a silly little sci-fi romp with a goofy but admittedly fun surprise twist. - DirectorJohn RichStarsFred ClarkJean CarsonAdam WilliamsWhen three unintelligent crooks get ahold of a camera that takes pictures of the future, they set out to make a quick fortune with their new toy.RATING: average
CONCEPT: fortune-telling
GENRE: crime, comedy
PLOT TWIST: dumb (multiple twists)
ENDING:
PREMISE: good
WRITER: Serling
The characters are uber-corny. For example, the blonde is made out to be so extremely dumb that she fails to notice that the photo has her with a fur coat she'd never seen before.
The crooks are so careless they let a hotel attendant enter the room full of cash, which is utterly absurd. It would make more sense for them to turn on each other - but only if they were not related or were strangers to each other, hence the ending comes off as way too cartoonish with several dumb plot-twists.
The blonde's decision to take a 10th pic is absurd, so is the hotel worker robbing a woman whose husband and brother just fell out of a window.
Awful dumb dialog, cardboard characters, but some elements of fun too. Overall very dumb. In "Escape Clause", "The Fever", "The Mirror", and "What's in the Box" one person falls through a window, which is dumb enough, but here it's four, which says a lot. Count 'em, four. One of the stupidest endings in the show. - DirectorLamont JohnsonStarsJoseph WisemanKatherine SquireTrevor BardetteMillionaire Paul Radin tries to convince three people who wronged him in the past to apologize to him by offering them shelter from a staged and phony nuclear war scenario.RATING: average
CONCEPT: apocalypse
GENRE: drama
PLOT TWIST: very good
ENDING: upper
PREMISE: solid
WRITER: Serling
The basic idea of setting up a con for your enemies in an underground bunker is original enough. However, it's handled illogically by Serling. The motive is a bit silly: the millionaire holds a grudge against a high school teacher for admonishing him? Give me a break. Furthermore, these three people are apparently wise, yet they aren't wise to the fact that they're being conned, which should have very plainly obvious to them from the get-go. The army guy does briefly question the situation, but that's as far as their combined suspicions go.
Still, the klutziness in the logic, and the typical Serlingian pathos and moralizing are somewhat redeemed with an interesting twist. - DirectorAnton LeaderStarsLois NettletonBetty GardeTom ReeseWhen Earth deviates from its normal orbit, getting closer to the sun, two women try to cope with increasingly oppressive heat in a nearly abandoned city.RATING: average
CONCEPT: post-apocalyptic, it-was-all-a-dream
GENRE: drama
PLOT TWIST: good
ENDING:
PREMISE: great
WRITER: Serling
Very drawn out, almost zero plot. Great premise wasted by Serling, as usual. Clever ending though, despite corny exposition by woman's friend. - DirectorJack SmightStarsInger StevensJohn HoytIrene TedrowThe daughter of an inventor objects to their "perfect" home where they are waited on by mechanical servants.RATING: average
CONCEPT: robots
GENRE: drama
PLOT TWIST: solid
ENDING: upper and downer
PREMISE: good
WRITER: Serling
Filmed on video not film, which doesn't help, but also far too talky and typically preachy from Serling. People making bitter speeches: a Serling staple.
This theme was explored later in "Blade Runner" 100 times better. Inger is pretty though. The main twist is somewhat predictable i.e. that she's a robot. - DirectorJames SheldonStarsJohn LarchCloris LeachmanDon KeeferOn an isolated family farm, a young boy with vast mental powers, but lacking emotional development, holds his terrified family in thrall to his every juvenile wish.RATING: average
CONCEPT: evil kids
GENRE:
PLOT TWIST: weak
ENDING: downer
PREMISE: solid (original)
WRITER: Serling
STORY: Bixby
Original premise, and quite well made considering that the evil kids shtick is one of the worst in horror. There is a very funny scene when the satanic brat makes the adults watch dinosaurs fight on TV.
The story has no twist though, that the episode's major flaw. - DirectorBuzz KulikStarsJack KlugmanJonathan WintersDee SharonA frustrated pool champion has beaten everyone. Everyone except one man - the legendary Fats Brown. Brown is dead and the champ can only curse his name. But guess who just walked in.RATING: average
CONCEPT: ghosts
GENRE: drama
PLOT TWIST: average
ENDING: upper/downer
PREMISE: average
WRITER: GC Johnson
Well acted and with mostly solid dialog, but there is dubious logic at play.
First off, if Fatso is sent from Heaven, then how can he possibly wager a bet that might end up killing an innocent human? If Fatso intended to lose all along, then this must be his first game of pool played out of Heaven, because we have to assume that Heaven doesn't murder pool players - hence Fatso didn't have to "sit around" a pool table fighting off challengers and getting bored, as he implied. This is a contradiction.
Another thing that makes little sense is Fatso dropping his stick on purpose to distract Klugman - just moments before losing on purpose. In fact, we're not even sure whether Fatso lost on purpose or not. Hence the entire story stands on shaky ground.
Nevermind the fact that parts of the episode is just two guys playing pool, which is hardly in the spirit of TZ. - DirectorJohn BrahmStarsAnn BlythLee PhilipsCelia LovskyA reporter interviews a Hollywood movie queen who has a secret to her eternal beauty.RATING: average
CONCEPT: rejuvenation
GENRE: drama, romance
PLOT TWIST: weak
ENDING: downer
PREMISE: average
WRITER: Sohl & Beaumont
The one very realistic thing about QOTN is doubtlessly the fact that a famous Hollywood actress is ready to hop into bed with a guy she just met a minute earlier. This is not only realistic, this pretty much defines a great number of Hollywood "divas", especially from that era.
Lana Turner, Joan Crawford, Grace Kelly, Marilyn Monroe, Mary Astor, Mae West, Ava Gardner, Hedy Lamarr... Couch casting was more prevalent back then, and so the types of women that made breakthroughs were of that caliber. Logic.
Less realistic is the journalist's non-reaction to being told by the actresses's mother that the actress is her mother not her daughter. This actor's reaction is as if he's listening to a completely different line. Either he's a horrible actor, or there was some confusion or nonsense over editing and altered dialog in post-production.
Equally absurd is the large difference in accents between the actresses playing mother and daughter. There is literally no explanation for this. A reversal of accents may have made more sense, with the Queen having an exotic accent and the daughter an American one. Or how about the same accent to keep things neat and logical?
This episode has no key flaws - other than its total predictability which takes away much of the fun. We know from the start that she's Methuselah, and that the journalist is in danger. And guess what? She kills him.
Nice clever irony of the Nile Queen playing herself in a movie, several millennia later. - DirectorAllen ReisnerStarsRod SerlingDan DuryeaMartin LandauThe town drunk in the old-west faces his past when Fate lends a hand.RATING: average
CONCEPT: magic potion
GENRE: western
PLOT TWIST: OK
ENDING: upper
PREMISE: solid
WRITER: Serling
Landau looks silly as a cowboy, but he tries his best.
The twist is strange. Denton gets shot just perfectly so he can never draw a gun again. So... what about the other hand? It's not exactly tennis. Also, the immediate speed with which a Wild West doctor diagnoses his new-found impairness is rather unconvincing. - DirectorJustus AddissStarsJohn AndersonPaul ComiSandy KenyonPassing through the sound barrier, a commercial airliner inadvertently travels back in time.RATING: average
CONCEPT: time travel
GENRE: mystery
PLOT TWIST: solid
ENDING:
PREMISE: solid
WRITER: Serling
The episode also includes a silly Ed Wood-like Valhalla comment, plus the cheesy dinosaurs.
Too much screen time with pilots and no windows. The pilot dialogue may have been realistic, but it's also quite drab. Airplane-based thrillers and sci-fi need to be better than this.
This premise was later stolen by Stephen King for his incredibly dumb (though somewhat fun) "Langoliers" nonsense. Just how much thievery is enough thievery for this man? - DirectorRobert ParrishStarsRod SerlingEd WynnMurray HamiltonA pitchman is visited by Mr. Death and is forced to get his priorities in order.RATING: average
CONCEPT: reaper
GENRE: drama, comedy
PLOT TWIST: solid
ENDING: upper
PREMISE: OK
WRITER: Serling
Check out Reaper when his name gets mentioned by the narrator in the opening sequence. That's some silly directing right there.
Equally silly is how matter-of-factly Toy-seller reacts to a complete stranger in his apartment. Surely, he should have died of shock right there. Which would have been ironic, considering that the Reaper didn't come to kill him but merely take him away. Which kinda amounts to the same thing, really...
If Toy-seller is such a nice guy, why does he give toys to just two of the kids but not the other four as well? They don't even protest! Such well-mannered kids, so unlike the children today...
(Just kidding... Obviously, he must have already given the other four kids toys earlier.)
Speaking of kids, the Reaper decides to kill a little girl, as revenge/replacement for Toy-seller and his trickery. Is this the same Reaper who claimed that "people on the verge of a major scientific discover" may be exempt from being taken? So the Reaper actually cares about humanity's scientific progress - but would willy-nilly have an innocent little girl brutally killed... Doesn't quite wash. Sure, you could rationalize it, spin it to make sense, but these kinds of "fable-like" stories have a clear-cut division between god and evil, not much grey in-between. Besides, the Reaper could have easily picked some random gangster instead of the girl. It's not a major point, just a small detail worth mentioning.
I have a much bigger issue with the conclusion, more specifically the part when Toy-seller tries his "pitch". It is absurd, boring, just too talky. Then the really silly bit when the Reaper decides to buy everything. 50s humour. It's a very lame twist. The Reaper getting this easily tricked by a babbling old geezer is overstretching plausibility.
Sure, the success of the "big pitch" ties in neatly with saving the girl AND resolving the situation in a clean manner, but it is very contrived and forced, relying on one key flaw: the assumption that the Reaper is a gullible fool. - DirectorElliot SilversteinStarsJoseph SchildkrautNoah KeenAlma PlattAn elderly couple shop for younger replacement bodies, then resort to desperate measures to cover the cost.RATING: average
CONCEPT: rejuvenation
GENRE: drama
PLOT TWIST: weak
ENDING: downer (sold as upper)
PREMISE: very good
WRITER: Serling
Good premise but pathos is strong with this one. Predictably the gambling ends badly. The gambling scene is completely unnecessary, unless the point was to show a gangster with a sweet spot - which has nothing to do with either the theme or plot. And we already knew the old man was desperate so there was no need for additional pathos, no need to additionally hammer that point home, to use almost as padding for the episode.
The young actor in the twist is pretty weak. Typical sentimental Serling story where he tries to sell us a downer ending as a happy ending. That's the shittiest "happy ending" in the history of TV. - DirectorJohn BrahmStarsBurgess MeredithJames WesterfieldEddie RyderA timid vacuum-cleaner salesman is given the strength of 300 men by some experimenting aliens.RATING: average
CONCEPT: aliens
GENRE: comedy
PLOT TWIST: OK
ENDING: downer/upper
PREMISE: OK
WRITER: Serling
Not the most clever premise, but with plenty of visual potential that goes unused. Seems a bit rushed; should have been done as a 50-minute episode, and with a bigger budget.
Broad comedy, 50s style. No wonder then that the aliens' motive for the experiment makes no sense. As little sense as it makes that the crowd denounces Dingle as a phony despite seeing him perform amazing feats. (Really stupid.) But that's Serling for ya, his appreciation of group behaviour is very poor for a writer.
The aliens look rather stupid. I know it's a comedy, but come on. - 1959–196425mTV-PG6.9 (1.8K)TV EpisodeDirectorRoger KayStarsEd WynnCarolyn KearneyJames T. CallahanAn old man believes that his life will end the moment his grandfather clock stops ticking.RATING: weak
CONCEPT: machines
GENRE: cheerfully played drama
PLOT TWIST: weak
ENDING: upper
PREMISE: OK
WRITER: deRoy
STORY: GC Johnson
Although fanatical about the clock, gramps decides to give it away, out of the blue, no explanation given.
Once the clock is moved next door, the blonde says that "we've been so happy for the last two weeks" meaning that the couple's happiness was impeded by an old man's devotion to his clock. Say what? That makes zero sense.
A cop car just happens to pass by as gramps is breaking the window. It's these kinds of plot-devices that ruin good shows.
The original story was much better, but ruined by rewrites. - DirectorElliot SilversteinStarsDiana HylandMarsha HuntPhilip OberAn engaged heiress is terrorized by a middle-aged woman on a horse pleading with her not to go through with her impending marriage.RATING: weak
CONCEPT: time travel
GENRE: mystery, drama
PLOT TWIST: weak
ENDING: downer
PREMISE: OK
WRITER: Matheson
The story tells us right off the bat that it's her and that she's warning her younger self about whom to marry. Hence most viewers can guess what the twist will be. Plenty of overacting, including those ridiculous screams of the future woman, who looks as if she wants to kill her young self, rather than give her tips. But, there you go, they wanted her to be scary, so they resorted to this dumb plot-device. - 1959–196425mTV-PG8.1 (2.7K)TV EpisodeDirectorAbner BibermanStarsCollin Wilcox PaxtonRichard LongPamela AustinIn a future society, everyone must undergo an operation at age 19 to become beautiful and conform to society. One young woman desperately wants to hold onto her own identity.RATING: average
CONCEPT: future world, plastic surgery
GENRE: sci-fi, dystopian
PLOT TWIST: weak
ENDING: weak
PREMISE: average
WRITER: Beaumont
I have no idea where the actor playing Dr Rex got his annoying "small finger acting method" from. It's the stupidest "eccentricity" I've noticed in a performance in a very long time. Did he think that sticking out his small finger would make him appear more "futuristic"? Guys who point at things (for example maps) with their little finger are bad enough as it is, but an actor waving around with his little finger as if it were some kind of status symbol to have that finger, is a whole new level of dumb, and it triggers me.
Unfortunately, this actor dominates the episode: he plays all the male characters. In this future, his face is the most popular (and apparently only) model, so everyone looks like him. Why the hell would all men choose to look like this guy, I haven't got a clue... Perhaps everyone had lost their minds, but surely they wouldn't be against variety? Ditto the women.
Still, a clever way on saving money on a more diverse cast, huh?
But therein lies the problem. This world isn't quite believable. Sure, lunacy can take numerous forms, and most of it would appear crazy and absurd to us (and lunacy naturally should), but I feel that a dystopian world obsessed with just two models (a male and a female one) makes no sense. For one thing, women hate being caught wearing the exact same dress as other women, let alone the same face. Not to mention that such a technologically advanced world would offer 100s of different models to choose from.
But this isn't the real issue. What creates problems is the premise being very thin, and being repeated over and over. The entire episode is the reluctant girl arguing with elders over why she should have the transformation. The shtick gets old quick: it's as if the writers were trying to hammer home this message about (lack of) individuality and identity, to make sure we get it, as if we were morons who needed to have this simple idea explained to us 56 times. Well, I can only speak for myself, perhaps other TZ fans do need that kind of dumb-down approach...
The irony isn't lost on me though. I mean, the irony of Hollywood moralizing about the superficiality of a world obsessed with physical appearance and plastic surgery. - DirectorDon MedfordStarsLuther AdlerVivi JanissJoseph RuskinA luckless couple stumbles upon fortune when a genie materializes from a bottle in their antique shop. The genie grants them four wishes but warns them, prophetically, to be careful what you wish for.RATING: weak
CONCEPT: wishmaster
GENRE: drama
PLOT TWIST: crap
ENDING: downer (sold as upper)
PREMISE: weak
WRITER: Serling
Every single "you got three wishes" (or four) story is the same: the bloody wishes never work out. Everything always backfires, which sends exactly what "brilliantly useful" moral message? That it's wrong to wish for things? That getting something for free is a blasphemy? That you have to earn everything? How damn puritanical... Especially ironic/hypocritical when Socialist writers are responsible. Isn't Socialism about getting a free lunch? Isn't Utopia about fantasizing for impossible things? Well then, what's so wrong with getting a few wishes now and again - wishes that don't turn against you like a boomerang - every single time!
It's a corny, very annoying cliche older than the "hey, it was all a dream" shtick or "what, I'm a ghost?" shtick or the perennial pulp fiction "hey, stupid, it's Earth" twist. Let's finally have a genie/wish story in which the "wisher" gets his wishes. Is that too much to ask for?
Hence why this utterly predictable episode doesn't work.
The IRS appears within hours: very dumb. They give away 60,000 dollars out of a million yet the IRS takes the rest? Utter idiocy. Is this America or Sweden?
And of course, as per usual, the characters are back to square one... BUT - as Serling believes - they'd earned a "valuable lesson" about modesty.
Preachy nonsense. I'd like to know how modest Serling was. That's a laugh... - DirectorDon MedfordStarsRod SerlingJack KlugmanJohn AndersonA suicidally despondent trumpet player finds himself in a bizarre world where he seems to be invisible to everyone, except for one helpful other musician.RATING: weak
CONCEPT: ghosts
GENRE: drama
PLOT TWIST: weak
ENDING:
PREMISE: very good
WRITER: Serling
The basic "huh? I'm a ghost?" premise had already been done in episode 10, and then again in episodes 84 and 108, all three times with better results. "Sixth Sense" premise.
So is Klugman good on trumpet or not? The script can't make up its mind. The twist that others are ghosts makes little sense. - DirectorTed PostStarsRichard BasehartAntoinette BowerHarold GouldColonel Adam Cook, stranded on a distant planet with no hope for rescue, meets a woman who is the sole survivor from another planet.RATING: weak
CONCEPT: post-apocalyptic, deserted
GENRE: sci-fi
PLOT TWIST: dumb ("hey, it's Earth")
ENDING:
PREMISE: weak
WRITER: Serling
Astronut: "Earth, please help, I'm stuck on a crappy planet!"
Base: "You think you have it hard? We're about to have a nuclear war... 5 billion dead and all that... A fine time you found to crash-land!"
Astronut: "I got broken bones, no supplies, and stuck on a remote planet - yet you want me to feel lucky? Well f*** you!"
Yup, the premise may be dramatic, but it's also rather silly. The silliness increases 5-fold whenever a character gives a typical pathetic Serling speech full of holier-than-thou moralizing - of which this episode has plenty. The astronaut even gives a speech when he stumbles upon the alien woman. He seems strangely displeased, as if finding a hairy caveman instead would have been better. The speech-making reaches its pinnacle of comedic lunacy when the astronaut gives a speech about man's savage nature right after he gets bitch-slapped by the cute female "alien".
An episode that suggests that Earth was a crash-land site for failed civilizations that nuked themselves out of existence. Pretty hilarious, actually.
The episode feels like a cheesy episode of Star Trek, but not because the good-looking female lead had the lead role in "Catspaw", an ST episode.
The difference between Kirk and this moralizer is that Kirk smiles when he sees a purrty alien girl, whereas this gloomy chump gives embittered speeches.
The lead actor talks like a corny 50s pulp fiction narrator. - DirectorJustus AddissStarsSimon OaklandOscar Beregi Jr.Lew GalloAfter successfully stealing a gold shipment, a group of criminals and their scientist accomplice put themselves in suspended animation in a remote desert cave. When they awaken decades later, complications ensue when their truck is destroyed.RATING: weak
CONCEPT: time travel
GENRE: crime, sci-fi
PLOT TWIST: weak
ENDING:
PREMISE: good
WRITER: Serling
What a great backdrop for a story. What an interesting premise.
What a dumb script... by Serling.
Rod just couldn't resist giving preachy speeches to his characters, even if this time the speeches aren't nearly as frequent or long as usual. Not even the fact that these people are criminals prevented Rod from handing out speeches to them. It's a safe bet that Rod had never met real-life crooks...
"Why is it that greedy people have the least imagination?" asks the scientist pompously. Serling must have conducted a survey to connect greed and imagination in some way... or is he simply talking out of his ass again? What does greed or lack of it have to do with imagination? These kinds of statements sound good at first (at least to uncritical ears) but on closer scrutiny they're just nonsensical uber-moralistic statements based on random conclusions and no data. It's typical populist-speak hence why so many philosophers, journalists and politicians get away with so many similar "quotes".
Dumber yet, the plot includes a predictable "hey, these crooks turn on each other" shtick, which manifests itself in a scene that is dumber than dirt: one crook kills another with a car, then throws the car off a cliff - even though they're stick in a desert in an unknown world. And for whatever reason, that car still works impeccably after sitting around for 100 years.
Then there's all that nonsense with gold-for-water barter, where I had to wonder, "why doesn't the crook simply kill him and save himself more water"? And how could the scientist possibly lose his water bottle - in a desert? The car being destroyed and the water being lost - very bad and far-fetched plot-devices, the kind used by inept or lazy writers in cheesy pulp fiction.
More predictability follows in the goofy twist when we find out that gold no longer has value. Gold is made when stars explode - yet somehow man figures out a way to make it, because of the old sci-fi cliche that says that any kind of scientific breakthrough is possible. But that's the very least of the many logic flaws here.
Another thing that makes no sense is that they walk for hours, yet no car passes by. Considering humanity's population explosion, shouldn't there be MORE vehicles rather than less in 2061?
The episode has a good first half but completely disintegrates under the weight of its own stupidity afterwards. A good opportunity ruined by Serling, yet again. - DirectorDon SiegelStarsCedric HardwickeConstance FordIan WolfeCaregiver Barbara Polk receives a surprise after her uncle's death.RATING: weak
CONCEPT: robots
GENRE: sci-fi, drama
PLOT TWIST: very good
ENDING: downer
PREMISE: OK
WRITER: Serling
Typical embittered serlingian script full of badly written sarcasm and dull speeches. Serling must have wanted to be a "serious" playwright. Just as well he wasn't, because he would have sucked at it. His style is predictable, samey, repetitious, but most importantly of all - his grasp of human behaviour was mediocre. He was one of those mankind-loathing "humanists". Yeah, I know, it's a blatant contradiction, but that kind of schizo attitude is typical of most idealists. (Pragmatism has been out of fashion for decades, idealism gets all the hype, so I don't expect many here to agree with me.)
The stipulations in the will are ludicrous. I'm surprised it didn't say that she has to walk on her arms as well as do 1000 headstands every hour. I don't know much about these laws, but surely there must be a limit in a will to the demands a person can make on the living.
And anyway, she could have easily sabotaged the robot. She had ample opportunity. - DirectorAlan Crosland Jr.StarsMaggie McNamaraMary MundayDavid MacklinMovie star Bunny Blake receives a ring from her hometown which is giving her warnings to come home while she flies cross country.RATING: weak
CONCEPT: fortune-telling
GENRE: drama
PLOT TWIST: good
ENDING: downer
PREMISE: good
WRITER: Hamner
Repetitive, but with a solid premise, quite drawn out, dumb cheery reaction by the lead after every time the ring displays something, the ending being the only good thing. - DirectorRichard L. BareStarsFritz WeaverEdward AndrewsJoe MarossTwo families of Government employees plan to steal a spaceship and travel to another planet just prior to a nuclear war. They must also deal with a stooge who wants to stop them.RATING: weak
CONCEPT: oh it's Earth
GENRE: sci-fi, drama
PLOT TWIST: weak
ENDING:
PREMISE: weak
WRITER: Serling
STORY: Matheson
"The world is about to blow itself up". Yup, it's one of those... But at least they don't mention Solarbonite.
It's preachy, it's self-important, so obviously it's annoying as well. It's as if Serling wrote it.
Well, he did. But this time he based it on someone else's corny premise. Matheson not trying too hard this time.
The plot twist reduces the already thin story to cliche pulp fiction, the kind of which had been around for decades before TZ. Old comic-books are full of these kinds of stories, a fact many TZ fans are unaware of. The "oh, it's Earth" cliche was actually used in the following episode too: rather dumb scheduling.
There's the ridiculous prying war-like character used as plot-device to add suspense - at the expense of logic. The only thing going for this episode is the direction which throws in some mood and tilted angles. - DirectorIda LupinoStarsRobert KeithMilton SelzerVirginia GreggWealthy Jason Foster is dying and he invites his greedy heirs to a Mardi Gras party where they must wear the masks he specially had made for them or else be cut off from their inheritance.RATING: weak
CONCEPT:
GENRE: drama
PLOT TWIST: solid
ENDING:
PREMISE: weak
WRITER: Serling
Vastly overrated by IMDb's users who probably feel compelled to reward anything that... er... No... I have no bloody clue why this is a fan favourite, at least on this site.
I suppose that grotesque masks are a trick that always works.
The first ten minutes are boring, with the old man ripping at his inheritors with typical sarcastic bile, typical Serling style yappery. The moralizing is annoying, trite, predictable, cliche, and the twist is foreseeable for anyone who regularly watches TZ. - DirectorDouglas HeyesStarsMaxine StuartWilliam D. GordonJennifer HowardA young woman lying in a hospital bed, her head wrapped in bandages, awaits the outcome of a surgical procedure performed by the State in a last-ditch attempt to make her look "normal."RATING: weak
CONCEPT: aliens
GENRE: drama
PLOT TWIST: weak
ENDING:
PREMISE: weak
WRITER: Serling
STORY: Heyes
Anyone who reads pulp fiction, old comic-books and sci-fi regularly must suspect fairly quickly that none of the staff look human. Otherwise why hide everyone's faces for the whole 20 minutes? This shtick probably only works with "Bill Cosby Show" fans. And if you are a fan of "Friends", that certainly helps too.
The reason why this is one of the highest-rated episodes is simple: most people who watched it haven't seen or read much fantasy stuff, hence they were too "dumb" (too naive) to figure out that everyone looks non-human. It's almost comical how DELIBERATELY the camera avoids the staff's faces in certain scenes. The episode walks a very dangerous tightrope between serious drama and self-parody.
The episode is a "one-gag premise" so-to-speak inasmuch that we have to wait 20 minutes for the punchline. Padding is how this problem is "solved": a bunch of unconvincing, dull dialogues involving pep-talk to the patient, and repetitious nonsense among the staff about how ugly she is. This literally makes it impossible not to suspect something, to suspect an ironic twist being at play.
To make things dumber, the patient's voice is annoying. It's sort of pathetic-sounding. The doctor's voice sounds dumb too, reminiscent of those typical 50s narrations in cheesy crime dramas and B-movie horror flicks.
Nor do I understand why they added a 1984 tyranny angle to this story. Wasn't necessary.
Indeed, beauty is in the eye of the beholder - especially blind beholders. What preachy crap this is.