by Natalie Devitt

It is that time of year again. The days get longer, the weather gets warmer. For me personally, given that I work in education, things get pretty intense in that crazy race to the end of the school year. Also, this time of year, everyone’s favorite television programs usually go on hiatus. In the case of The Twilight Zone, it sounds as if their break from filming is expected to be permanent. Sure, the show is not quite what it used to be, but that still makes it better than your average television; I can only criticize it for setting the bar so high. As one of the few programs that I still make the time to follow regularly, I find myself not quite ready to give up the ritual of watching it. Luckily, we still have another month ahead of us. So, before I get ahead of myself, it is time to review the episodes this past month, to see which entries made the grade.

The Jeopardy Room, by Rod Serling

Martin Landau pays a visit to The Twilight Zone for the first time since Mr. Denton on Doomsday. In The Jeopardy Room, he portrays Major Ivan Kuchenko, a defector fleeing the Soviet Union after years of imprisonment. While hiding out in a hotel room located in a neutral country, he receives a strange phone call: on the other end is Commissar Vassiloff, who has followed Kuchenko, and is watching him through his hotel window from a building next door. Dutch actor John van Dreelen plays Vassiloff.

Following a brief conversation, Vassiloff decides to grace Kuchenko with his presence. During their visit, Vassiloff confesses, “You possess information that we would find embarrassing to have released elsewhere. So, it is not really to our advantage that you leave here.” But Vassiloff does not plan to simply kill Kuchenko. Thinking of himself as “the last of the imaginative executioners,” he turns the whole thing into a twisted game.

Vassiloff convinces Kuchenko to partake of some wine, which has been laced with an unknown substance. Kuchenko almost immediately collapses on the floor. When he regains consciousness, Kuchenko finds a tape recorder with a message informing him that while he slept, a bomb was hidden in his room. Kuchenko is warned that, “It is not visible, but it is attached to a very common object. If you trigger this object, it will be immediately blown up.” If he disables the bomb within a few hours, he is free to leave. If he turns off his lights or tries to escape, Vassiloff will not hesitate to have one of his men shoot and kill Kuchenko. In this race against the clock, will Kuchenko make it out alive?

The Jeopardy Room offers a break from the science fiction or fantasy stories. It is more like a slick thriller than your usual The Twilight Zone fare. Like most entries in the series, all the actors deliver fine performances, though I must admit that I was a little disappointed by Landau’s accent. Most of the episode takes place in one room, but because it is photographed with so much style, you barely notice it. The ending, while not totally unpredictable, is enjoyable if you do not take it too seriously. Overall, The Jeopardy Room earns a pretty solid three stars.

Stopover in a Quiet Town, by Earl Hamner, Jr.

Nancy Malone follows up a terrific role in The Outer Limits’s Fun and Games with Sleepover in a Quiet Town. Her character, Millie, and her character's husband, Bob, wake up one morning after a wild night spent partying in what they believe to be a quiet suburb. Mary Mary's Barry Nelson plays Bob. Neither one of them remembers how they drove there, but slowly they begin to notice that things seem a little off. At breakfast, all they can find is artificial food. When Bob tries to make a phone call, the phone comes right out of the wall.

When Millie and Bob venture outside, they find that they are in a ghost town. The couple discover fake animal and plant life. They listen for birds chirping, but all they hear is the sound of a little girl giggling, wherever they go. One of them assumes that the residents in small towns prefer to “peek from behind curtains.” As Millie and Bob continue to look for additional signs of life through all the artifice, all they notice is the constant sound of the child's laughter. The couple assumes there is an explanation for what they are experiencing, but what could it possibly be?

The episode’s script does not waste time getting started or setting things up. The audience does not see the party. What they see is a married couple waking up to a nightmare the morning after. If this month’s The Jeopardy Room did not quite feel like The Twilight Zone, Sleepover in a Quiet Town could not be more representative of the series, in terms of content and quality. The two leads are quite believable in their roles. Things wrap things up quite nicely at the end, and if someone has an idea of where the story is headed, that does not diminish how much fun the journey is. Sleepover in a Quiet Town does not break any new ground, but it is well-executed, which is why it receives three and a half stars.

The Encounter, by Martin M. Goldsmith

Neville Brand of Birdman of Alcatraz stars as Fenton, a veteran of World War II. While rummaging through his old stuff in his attic, a Japanese gardener named Taro comes to Fenton’s house, at the recommendation of a neighbor. In the role of Taro is George Takei, who has appeared on other programs like, Playhouse 90 and Perry Mason. The two men have a brief discussion about Taro maintaining Fenton‘s yard, which leads to Taro agreeing to help Fenton clear out some junk .

During their time together, Fenton reveals that he served in World War II. He also shows Taro a samurai sword from his war days, which reads, “The sword will avenge me.” But Taro, born in the United States, pretends not to speak Japanese. Fenton, all friendliness above a barely concealed racial contempt, invites Taro to share some beers. When Fenton leaves the room for a moment and returns to find his sword missing, he accuses Arthur of having stolen it. Tensions rise as the two men are stuck together in the attic, recalling their painful memories related to the war.

Most of the episode’s acting is decent, but the performers cannot save it from its writing. I hate complaining about Martin M. Goldsmith‘s script, because he also wrote 1945’s Detour, which is a fantastic movie. Then again, he also wrote the earlier episode What‘s in the Box, which I was not really a fan of. Anyway, the narrative to The Encounter starts off fine, then gets progressively worse as it goes on. The sequence of events often involves things like drinking beer, getting upset, drinking some more beer, then getting upset again. The whole thing made me feel like I was a rollercoaster ride that I could not get off of. The conclusion was also pretty disappointing. At the end of the day, I respect the show for having the courage to do a story like this. I realize that tackling such sensitive subject can be difficult to get right. But with The Encounter being far from a masterpiece, two stars, which mainly go to its actors, is all I can award.

Mr. Garrity and the Graves, by Rod Serling

Character actor John Dehner plays the title character in what is his third appearance on show, Mr. Garrity and the Graves. The scene is 1890 in a place called Happiness, Arizona, into which Garrity rides in a horse-drawn carriage. Shortly after arriving, Garrity visits the local bar, where he meets a bartender, who inquires about his occupation. Garrity tells him, “I bring back the dead.” Of course, it is not long before the news about the mysterious stranger spreads all over town.

When Mr. Garrity returns to the bar, he is asked by the townspeople about his profession, but he says he does not care to share the secrets of his trade. But around this time, a dog is killed by a wagon in the street just in front of the bar. Garrity vows, "I shall resurrect that dog!" Sure enough, he brings the dog back to life. He promises to bring back even more of the dead later that night, but not everyone is pleased with Mr. Garrity’s work.

I enjoyed Mr. Garrity and the Graves for the most part, but I must admit that at times it almost goes overboard with all of the hammy performances. This entry combines several seemingly different things — western, humor and horror — to create something pretty unique. The second half of the episode is better than the first half because what this story really excels at is horror. There are twists and turns at the end that stayed with me long after the episode was over. Three stars.

Passing Marks?

With four more episodes behind us, we are now approaching the final stretch of the show. Taking a closer look at the entries from the penultimate month of the series, one failed to meet expectations, two were good, while one was very good. With only one month still ahead of us, things could go any direction. Guess we will just have to tune in to see whether Twilight Zone graduates with honors.

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