[October 26, 1963] [Return to Form] (Twilight Zone, Season 5, Episodes 1-4)


by Natalie Devitt

In case you have been living under a rock or moved on to newer programs, like The Outer Limits, The Twilight Zone returned to television for a fifth season. The series has also returned to a half-hour format and is once again airing on Friday nights. Back in May, I wrote that I hoped the program would be renewed for at least another season, because I just could not bear the thought of a once great series ending its run with an episode like The Bard. Well, it seems as if the television gods must have been listening because my wish has come true. If you have not been tuning in consistently for the past month, here is what you may have missed:

In Praise of Pip, by Rod Serling

In In Praise of Pip stars The Twilight Zone regular Jack Klugman. Klugman plays Max, a bookie who learns that his son, Pip, a soldier in Vietnam, has been wounded and may pass away soon. Shortly after hearing the news, Max is involved in a business deal gone terribly wrong, which results in Max being wounded himself. Max decides not to seek medical attention. Instead, thinking only of Pip and regretting that he did not spend as much time with his son as he would have liked, Max wanders down a street at night. He stops in front of an amusement park and is overcome by memories of his son. Just then, Max spots a boy who looks eerily similar to a young Pip.

There is no shortage of episodes of The Twilight Zone where a character is able to relive and/or change past events. One thing that In Praise of Pip has going for it is that is better written than a number of recent episodes with a similar plot, like The Incredible World of Horace Ford, which you may recall from last season. Jack Klugman delivers a strong performance as Max, as does another The Twilight Zone regular, Billy Mumy. Mumy may be a young boy, but anyone who has watched The Twilight Zone will probably remember him from stories like It’s a Good Life and Long Distance Call. In Praise of Pip includes strong cinematography and an a conclusion that is enjoyable, but the finale is perhaps a little too reminiscent of the film Lady from Shanghai. Overall, the episode earns a solid three stars.

Steel, by Richard Matheson

Steel takes place in the not too distant future. More specifically, the year 1974. Boxing has been deemed too dangerous of a sport for human participation, so the sport is now played using androids. Lee Marvin plays Steel Kelly, coach to one of said robots. Sadly, the android Kelly coaches is outdated and in desperate need of repair. In an effort to earn the money necessary to repair his robot, Kelly hatches a plan to beat the latest model of boxing robots.

In Steel, Marvin is Kelly, a coach with nothing to lose. I am used to seeing Marvin playing a tough guy, but I am not used to him seeing him play a character who is this desperate underneath the tough exterior. Gone is the actor who I know for playing a man who poured hot coffee on Gloria Grahame in The Big Heat. Marvin is replaced with a character who has plenty of experience inside the boxing ring, but with laws changing and advances in technology, has really been left behind in the dust.

While Marvin may have disappeared into his role as Kelly, the special effects makeup used this time around did not always disappear onto the faces of the actors as much as I would have liked. Nevertheless, this week’s episode was a pretty good entry in this anthology, which is why I give it three stars.

Nightmare at 20,000 Feet, by Richard Matheson

William Shatner, an actor you have probably seen on other fine programs such as One Step Beyond, Thriller and Alfred Hitchcock Presents (not to mention The Twilight Zone!), plays Robert Wilson, a man who is recovering from a nervous breakdown. Wilson seems to be making improvements in his mental health, until he and his wife board plane. During the flight, Wilson catches a glimpse of a strange creature on one of the wings of the plane. It is referred to as a gremlin, and it may be trying to cause a plane crash. The only problem is that Wilson seems to be the only person aboard the plane who can see it.

Nightmare at 20,000 Feet does an excellent job of creating an atmosphere of claustrophobia and the feeling of powerlessness that Wilson clearly feels during the flight. The tension builds each and every time, he peeks out his window. My only complaint is that the gremlin kind of looks like a man in a sheep costume, but costumes aside, this is by far the strongest story I have seen on The Twilight Zone this season. This one earns four stars from me.

A Kind of a Stopwatch, by Rod Serling

Richard Erdman plays the role of Patrick McNulty, a man who after being fired from his job decides to drown his sorrows in some booze at his local watering hole. While there, he meets a drunk, who gives him a stopwatch. But the stopwatch that Erdman receives is not an ordinary stopwatch: it has the power to stop time. Erdman, not surprisingly, decides to use the watch for his own personal gain.

A Kind of a Stopwatch is another example of how The Twilight Zone fails pretty miserably when it comes to comedy because nothing about is particularly funny. It does not help that the episode has pretty predictable story. A story that even as short as it is, still seems to drag. A Kind of a Stopwatch is easily the weakest entry in this program all month. For those reasons, I give it two stars.

I was not sure what to expect from The Twilight Zone this time around. Luckily, the series made the most of its return to television after its break between seasons. I just hope The Twilight Zone can keep the momentum going through the season.



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6 thoughts on “[October 26, 1963] [Return to Form] (Twilight Zone, Season 5, Episodes 1-4)”

  1. The half-hour format works better for the program than an hour.  (It's interesting that "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" is now "The Alfred Hitchcock Hour," and chose to go the other way.  Since that series depends a lot of twist endings, I think that's a mistake.  On the other hand, it allows the series to adapt some full-length suspense novels.

    Anyway, thanks for some excellent reviews.  I am in agreement.  Three out of four isn't bad at all!

      1. Yes, that was "A Home Away from Home."  Written by Robert Bloch from his own story, so it was nicely creepy.

  2. Nice to see the show returning to form. I'm sure the shorter format helps. We even get a decent script from Mr. Serling (a weak one, too, but for a while it seemed all of his scripts were weak). Richard Matheson can generally be counted on for good work, so it's nice to see two scripts from him.

    "Pip" gives us Jack Klugman being sad again and another good turn for Billy Mumy.  Perhaps a bit sentimental, but well done.

    I found "Steel" a little predictable, though well acted.

    "Nightmare" was quite good. Shatner seems to have a tendency to overact, but it served him well in this case.

    "Stopwatch" felt like the sort of script Serling was putting out in the third season, when he was clearly burning out from overwork. I wonder if this was a leftover script they couldn't use last season because of the format change. On the other hand, the concept seems to be clearly taken from John D. MacDonald's "The Girl, the Gold Watch & Everything" which came out last year.

    In any case, a good start. Let's hope the show can maintain this level of quality.

  3. re "On the other hand, the concept seems to be clearly taken from John D. MacDonald’s “The Girl, the Gold Watch & Everything” which came out last year." 

    Yes, probably that's the immediate "inspiration," but devices (or drugs, or magic spells, etc.) that stop time for the user only have been around before; one such is in the rather obscure collection 1955 Signet pb collection THE SPACE FRONTIERS, by the equally obscure Roger Lee Vernon — it's even titled "The Stop Watch."

    Of course, none of the stories using that idea seem to explain how the protagonist can move about (against the pressure of presumably immobile air molecules, for starters) or breath and such if the entire outside world is in a firm stasis.  (Could he even see?) But I suppose 'twere too consider too curiously, to consider thus.

  4. I'm liking Matheson's work more than Serling's these days. Perhaps being in charge and appearing on camera is a detriment to his writing? A man's only got so much brainpower and energy, after all. The half-hours are sharper, though.

    Mr. Shatner's "heightened" acting style worked here. I foresee him having quite the long career in the proper roles, though. He's certainly easy on the eyes.

    Like you, I wish the gremlin had been scarier. I hadn't necessarily thought of "sheep costume", though — maybe "long haired sock monkey"? I'd have preferred something more reptilian or insect-like. But I bet I'll be looking on the wing if I'm ever flying at night after this!

    Today's trick or treaters are adorable, of course. The grade school around the corner has a parade of them after lunch, and I may or may not time my marketing to that. Lots of princesses (mostly Disney, some ballplayers, comic book heroes, and kids who don't have but a couple of eyeholes cut in a sheet. Maybe they'll grow up to make Twilight Zone costumes!

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