By Jessica Holmes
So, where did we leave off last time we watched Doctor Who together? Let me check my notes. I can’t tell aliens apart, psychic powers are a bit rubbish, and Ian’s come down with a nasty case of Dramatic Cough of Doom Syndrome (or DCDS for short. It’s pronounced like the sound your typewriter makes when it gets jammed).
Continue reading [August 5, 1964] A Bit Of A Flub (Doctor Who: The Sensorites [Part 2])
By Jessica Holmes
Can I admit to something silly? I am a little bit scared of mind-readers. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t actually believe in telepaths. Then again, who knows what sort of freaky experiments certain entities get up to.
I just think the idea of someone reading my mind, or even manipulating it, is one of the most horrifying concepts out there.
And it looks like Doctor Who agrees with me.
Continue reading [July 12th, 1964] Mind Over Matter (Doctor Who: The Sensorites [Part 1])
by Natalie Devitt
Back in January, it was announced that this season would be The Twilight Zone’s last. In the show’s five year run, Rod Serling’s brainchild has produced more than 150 episodes and brought a new level of sophistication to science fiction and fantasy entertainment on television. Even with some decline in the program’s quality, The Twilight Zone still remains incredibly impressive as a whole — as the series comes an end, the show still manages to deliver some strong performances:
The Brain Center at Whipple’s, by Rod Serling
In The Brain Center at Whipple’s, Richard Deacon of The Dick Van Dyke Show plays factory owner Wallace Whipple, who unveils a new device: the X109B14 automatic assembly machine. If it works as expected, it will eliminate the need for nearly all of his employees, most other machines in his factory, and it also will decrease the number of days needed to complete tasks. Whipple plans to transition into an almost entirely automated factory within the next four months, because he prides himself on the belief that “at Whipples, we only take forward steps.”
Mr. Whipple’s plant manager, Mr. Hanley (M Squad alumnus Paul Newlan), expresses concern about displacing workers in a “heartless manipulation of men and metals”, but Whipple remarks, “that is the price to pay for progress.” Whipple discourages his employees from taking things personally, though one man in particular, a long-time foreman named Dickerson (The Enforcer‘s Ted de Corsia), does take things very personally. Deciding to take matters into his hands, he declares that the X109B14 is "not a machine. It’s an enemy, it’s an opponent."
The Brain Center at Whipple’s is more thought-provoking than it is entertaining. Rod Serling's script revisits some of the themes he explored in his screenplay for Patterns, which aired on Kraft Television Theatre. Despite some strong performances by the actors and Whipple‘s character arc, this episode feels too much like a bunch of one-dimensional men having one-sided conversations.
In addition to the flat characterizations and even flatter dialogue, nothing seems to happen visually, that is unless you count yet another cameo made by Robby the Robot in his second appearance just this season. Further, this episode does not really rank among Richard Donner’s best work as a director on the series, but it is not his worst, either. In any case, I may look back on this entry more favorably with the passage of time, but right now I feel that two and a half stars is all I can offer to The Brain Center at Whipple’s .
Come Wander with Me, by Anthony Wilson
Come Wander with Me is the story of Floyd Burney, a singer also known as “The Rock-A-Billy-Kid.” Floyd is played by Gary Crosby of the very talented Crosby family. His character is on a mission, driving through remote regions, searching for unreleased songs. Unlike folklorist Alan Lomax, Floyd wants to purchase the rights of the songs so he can transform them into hits for himself. Floyd visits a music shop tucked away in the hills, offering to pay “top dollar” for an undiscovered folk song under the condition that the song is authentic. There, he meets Petticoat Junction’s Hank Patterson, who is returning to The Twilight Zone for his third time (see Kick the Can and Ring-a-Ding Girl) playing an old shopkeeper who proves not be very helpful, but all of that is forgotten once Floyd hears the sound of a young woman singing a haunting ballad.
As if in a trance, Floyd takes off by foot, carrying a guitar. He follows the sound of woman’s voice, through the fog, up a hill into the trees. Obsessed with owning the song he hears, he fails to notice some pretty ominous signs as he travels through the woods. He finally comes face-to-face with the young lady he heard singing, Mary Rachel, performed by newcomer Bonnie Beecher. Assuming that everything has a price, Floyd tries to buy the song, but she insists “that song is secret.” Floyd continues to pressure Mary Rachel to sell him the song, which he soon realizes has lyrics that can foretell some pretty tragic events in his future.
The episode starts off incredibly well, but ends up being too predictable, even without the main song’s lyrics. Come Wander with Me’s greatest strengths are without a doubt its cinematography and Jeff Alexander’s song written specifically for the episode. I love how as the song unfolds it becomes like a murder ballad. While the screenwriting leaves plenty to be desired, mainly that it lacked suspense and that it never really answered some questions regarding Floyd’s fate being predestined, the entry was not without some merit.
Some of the scenes in the woods are genuinely spooky. Also, with rockabilly now showing some influence on the music coming out of Britain and some of rockabilly’s promising stars, like Buddy Holly and Eddie Cochran, having died tragically, I found the episode flawed but oddly fascinating. Three stars.
The Fear, by Rod Serling
Trooper Robert Franklin, played by Peter Mark Richman (The Outer Limits episode The Borderland) visits a nearby cabin after receiving reports that its owner, Charlotte Scott, had been telling strange stories about noticing bright lights in the night sky. Appearing as Scott is British beauty Hazel Court, an actress who has performed in a number of my favorite horror films (Terence Fisher's The Curse of Frankenstein and Roger Corman’s Poe cycle).
Having suffered a nervous breakdown not too long ago, Scott convinces the officer that her comments were harmless and just an attempt to “inject something new into the dialogue.” But as Franklin is about to return to his squad car, the two of them hear loud sounds overhead and see bright lights. Both of them rush outside, trying to find the cause, even though Franklin assumes it must have been “a meteor or maybe an aircraft off its course. Those would be rational explanations.”
Franklin’s squad car begins operating without a visible driver and eventually tips over, leaving him unable to radio for help. Scott’s phone is not working, either. It is not long before they start hearing unusual noises on the roof of Scott’s cabin. Franklin heads outside to investigate, only to discovers his car has been returned in its original position. Stranger yet, his car is covered in abnormally large finger prints, presumably left when moving the car back. Franklin concludes that “if they are finger prints, we shouldn’t have any trouble finding our invader, because he must stand better than 500 feet high.”
The Fear succeeds in telling a pretty basic story about two seemingly different characters growing closer as they face an unknown adversary. The episode’s leads are not spectacular but believable. The entry does suffer a little when it reveals what we are led to believe is the being, even though some of the special effects employed in the scene are actually pretty good for a television. The final unveiling is a tad sillier than I imagined, but it does not matter much because at the end of the day, The Fear is well worth the watch, even if Sterling’s screenplay simply rehashes earlier episodes of the series. It earns three stars.
The Bewitchin’ Pool, by Earl Hamner
A mother, played by Dee Hartford (The Outer Limits episode The Invisibles ) and father announce to their son and daughter, Jeb and Sport (Mary Badham of To Kill a Mockingbird) that they are filing for divorce in The Bewitchin’ Pool. The Sharewood children are instructed to pick which parent with whom they want to live. Blaming themselves for their parents' marital problems, the kids promise to “be good” in a desperate attempt to keep the family together. But when that fails to work, the children try to escape their sadness by jumping into the family’s swimming pool. Of course this being The Twilight Zone, it is not an ordinary pool. As Rod Serling’s opening monologue points out, “this pool has a secret exit that leads to a never-neverland, a place designed for junior citizens.”
They go underwater and find themselves in a new place that seems heavily influenced by Hansel and Gretel and Huckleberry Finn. There, they meet an elderly lady named Aunt T., who takes them in and gives them the care that they so desperately desire. After the children have been missing for a while, they hear what sounds like their parents calling them, but Auntie T. tells them, “Those voices you hear calling, at first, they seem quite strong. But after a while, they fade. Then one day, you just simply can’t hear them anymore.”
The show’s finale was a bit of a mess. The teleplay is uncharacteristically weak for Earl Hamner, Jr, and that is coming from someone who has always had a soft spot for stories about children who use their imagination to escape reality. I did, however, find it interesting that the kids were given some control to change their lives. I also want to give the show some credit for trying something new with the very noticeable change of tone, and also for having the courage to not shy away from a tough topic like divorce.
The single most disappointing aspect of the entire episode was by far the bad looping used for the character Sport, who is clearly voiced by June Foray (The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show). Then there is the acting, which did not help matters because it featured some unusually bad performances by otherwise capable actors. It feels like a missed opportunity to have done something truly magical. One and a half stars.
Submitted for Your Approval
With the curtain about to fall on The Twilight Zone, I had hoped for one last great episode, but that did not happen. Nevertheless, the last month included two enjoyable episodes, another one with some intriguing ideas — and an entry that is memorable, even if it is for all the wrong reasons. The show was clearly running out of steam towards the end, continuing on a little longer than maybe it should have.
But I somehow doubt that changes how much it will be missed.
[New to the Journey? Read this for a brief introduction!]
By Jessica Holmes
Friends and enemies, welcome back to another installment of Doctor Who. We’re diving into a pure historical serial today from the pen of John Lucarotti, concerning a fascinating Mesoamerican civilisation with quite the reputation: the Aztecs.
Continue reading [June 14th, 1964] A Whole Lot Of Heartache(Doctor Who: The Aztecs)
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.
[New to the Journey? Read this for a brief introduction!]
By Jessica Holmes
We’re halfway through our adventure across the planet Marinus, and we’ve seen some extraordinary sights so far: acid seas, screaming trees and brains with weird eyestalk things. Soon to come is a lot of snow, caves of ice and most extraordinary of all…a courtroom!
Let’s get stuck in, shall we?
by Natalie Devitt
No matter how much scientists, inventors and aliens try to control all the conditions for the experiments they conduct on The Outer Limits, things almost never seem to go as anticipated, and often result in them veering into much stranger territory. The most recent month certainly did not stray from the usual formula of experiments going wrong. Episodes included the following: aliens teleporting a suburban neighborhood and its residents to another planet to determine whether or not to enslave humans, only for the humans to discover this before the study is completed; an accident occurring during a test in a research facility releases an energy that takes over people‘s bodies; an intelligence agent goes undercover as an alien, only for him to adapt to his alien form a little too well; and two women deal with unforeseen complications when they meet an inventor capable of bringing the man they murdered back to life.
A Feasibility Study, by Joseph Stefano
A Feasibility Study is the story of a group of neighbors that wake up one morning to find that things seem a little off. At first, they notice the unusual weather, then some vehicles have difficulty starting and the phones lines seem to be down. One character tells her husband, "It’s not raining, but it’s doing something, and I’ll bet it’s radioactive." As it turns out, things are much more serious that they ever could have been imagined. Their entire neighborhood, including their homes and everything surrounding them, have been teleported while everyone slept to another planet called Luminos.
The people are imprisoned on Luminos for one reason and one reason only; as the opening narration states: "The Luminoids need slaves, and they have chosen the planet off which those slaves will be abducted." The whole thing is part of a feasibility study to see if humans would make suitable slaves for the Luminoids, who grow mentally sharper but less mobile with age. The only problem is that the inhabitants of the neighborhood realize that they have become "human guinea pigs" sooner than the Luminoids expected.
People always compare The Outer Limits and The Twilight Zone, and though they really are two different beasts, this episode is a real treat for fans of The Twilight Zone because most of the actors in it have made appearance on that show. Such actors include David Opatoshu, who starred in Valley of the Shadow, Joyce Van Patton, who was in last season’s Passage of Lady Anne, and then there is Phyllis Love of Four O’Clock.
A Feasibility Study includes incredibly realistic acting and impressive set design. The episode is also extremely atmospheric, with no shortage of fog. The score has a noticeably different and more experimental quality to it than most other entries in the series. Nowhere is it more effective than in a scene where one of the characters is driving through the fog as an alien hand reaches out and touches his car’s windshield. All of the subplots in the script work together very well, and only help to elevate the main plot. Overall, the episode was a easily one of the high points of the season. It deserves four stars.
Production and Decay of Strange Particles, by Leslie Stevens
Production and Decay of Special Particles involves an accident at a research facility, which ends up allowing an energy alien to possess the bodies of the employees at the facility one by one. The situation is explained as being similar to "a hole torn in the universe.” All of this leaves the head of the facility, played by none other than George McCready, who appeared in The Twilight Zone‘s The Long Morrow and in the vastly superiorThe Outer Limits’s episode The Invisibles to team up with his character’s wife in order to stop the creature, which is characterized as "something from another dimension" and capable of presenting itself in "a human form". He must also prevent it from getting beyond the confines of the property.
I have to admit that, as much as I was excited to see the show really dive into the hard sciences, this episode required a little too much outside knowledge for the average viewer to understand it, much less appreciate it. With little to no explanation, combined with the issue that the episode does not have much going on visually, things begin to drag real quick. In addition to these problems, there is some stock footage awkwardly edited into the episode and plenty of over-acting.
When I was not brushing up on my physics vocabulary, I spent much of the episode watching men in suits barely moving, with constant crackling noises in the background. While I am happy to see the show do something different with an episode more heavily-rooted in science, even if it involves yet another energy being, the episode needed something else to maintain an audience‘s attention. After taking all of these things into consideration, two stars is all that I can give to Production and Decay of Special Particles.
The Chameleon, by Robert Towne
Robert Duvall, who made The Twilight Zone‘s Miniature worth watching, plays Louis, a man with nothing to lose. Louis is hired by his former employer, the CIA, to undergo a dramatic transformation in order to play the role of an extraterrestrial. He is instructed to "become one of them.” He is provided with a cover story, which includes directives like, "once you are with them, you will tell them that you landed long ago on Earth, crash landed. You remember nothing of your origin. What little language you know, you got from humans.”
All of this is being done in order to collect information on an alien spaceship that landed and has already killed the last group of men to patrol the area. It is feared that the aliens in charge of the ship may be carrying "nuclear material,” so people are understandably reluctant to attack the aliens. The only problem is that things go a little "too well.” Louis becomes increasingly difficult to control, and once he is in alien form, his sympathies begin to shift.
Duval brings a vulnerability to the role of a washed up agent before he undergoes the transformation. He then becomes a man-made extraterrestrial, not unlike the man-made creature in The Architects of Fear. The aliens in The Chameleon, are of course odd-looking, with beady eyes and wrinkled faces. They also have veins that bulge out of their bald heads. The major twist with Louis changing sides was interesting enough, but at the end of the day, it is really Robert Duvall’s skills as an actor that earns this episode its three stars.
The Forms of Things Unknown, by Joseph Stefano
Psycho’s Vera Miles plays Kassia, one of two young women who poison the drink of a very unpleasant man named Andre, played by Scott Marlowe in his second appearance on The Outer Limits. Kassia’s accomplice is named Leonora. The ladies stuff Andre’s body into the trunk of a car, and drive around looking for the perfect place to dispose of it. Leonora ends up leading them to a big, old house, where they are told that they are welcome to warm themselves by the fire.
While inside, they notice the sound of several ticking clocks. They are told that the noise comes from "a special room upstairs.” Inside the room is where an inventor named Mr. Hobart "tinkers with time.” His experiments with time have become so sophisticated that he can cause the past to "tumble into the present.” Such experiments could bring Andre back to life, with some pretty disastrous results.
The part of the narrative involving Lenora and Kassia murdering Andre reminded me an awful lot of the 1955 French film Diabolique. Similarities aside, the plot in The Forms of Things Unknown, is a little flimsy. But that almost does not even matter, because the episode’s cinematography and set design are nothing short of perfection. The acting, however, was a little short of being consistently good. That said, Vera Miles delivers a fine performance and has a number of amusing lines. David McCallen returns to the show for another memorable performance after the great The Sixth Finger. Even veteran actor Cedric Hardwicke, who recently appeared in The Twilight Zone‘s Uncle Simon, shows up playing host to all the episode’s craziness. Despite some flaws this hour of the series is still definitely worth the watch. The Forms of Things Unknown earns three and a half stars.
All in all, it has been an interesting month on The Outer Limits. Most episodes featured the kinds of stories and the quality I have come to expect of this series, while only one entry was a bit of a letdown. With this being the last set of episodes of the season, I have to say it has been a lot of fun watching this show really hit its stride. I cannot wait to see what new creatures and stories are in store for the series in the fall.
[New to the Journey? Read this for a brief introduction!]
By Jessica Holmes
Hello, everyone, and welcome back to my monthly ramblings on Doctor Who. We’re in for a treat this time: Terry Nation’s back with another serial! This story sends the companions zipping about a planet with screaming forests and acid seas in a twisted scavenger hunt where the prize is a bit more special than a bottle of bubbly or a box of chocolates: the TARDIS.
by Natalie Devitt
Exploring how a person’s conduct can shape the direction their life takes has been a big part of The Twilight Zone, and this past month has been no exception. In some episodes, poetic justice seems to have been achieved by the episode‘s conclusion. Other times, characters are given punishments that do not quite seem to fit the crime. This month’s morality plays include a story about a dying man’s last wish to make sure his greedy relatives get what he thinks they deserve, a town is blanketed in darkness the morning it is scheduled to execute someone who may have been wrongly convicted of a crime, a man that annoys those around him with obnoxious noises is suddenly unable to block out sounds that he finds unpleasant, and a broke ventriloquist who pays the price when he is convinced by his dummy to take up robbery to improve his finances.
The Masks, by Rod Serling
Actress-turned-director Ida Lupino and star of The Twilight Zone’s The Sixteen-Millimeter Shrine returns to the show for The Masks. This time, she is not in front of the camera but in the director’s chair. The Masks is set in New Orleans against the backdrop of Mardi Gras. In the episode, character actor Robert Keith plays Jason Foster, a rich and elderly man, who is told by his doctor that he can measure what is left of his life “in moments.” After receiving his grim prognosis, Jason vows to live at least until midnight in order to take care of some unfinished business, which includes gathering with his family for a very unusual farewell.
During the family gathering, Jason states in a very matter-of-fact tone, “You all came here for one purpose: to watch me go and cry bon voyage, to put coins on my closed eyes, and with your free hands start grabbing things from my shelves.” He tells them in order to inherit his entire fortune, they must wear hideous masks until midnight, which proves to be much harder than expected. The masks he provides them with are from “an old Cajun” and “they have certain properties.” They are told that each mask represents the “antithesis of the wearer.” But what they do not realize is that each person wears a mask that actually reflects their true nature. Also, that Jason has one final surprise planned for them at the midnight unmasking.
With a story like this, I cannot help but wonder about the events that led Jason’s family to where they are when the episode starts. The anger and the resentments building up over the years, and whether Jason may have contributed to the situation. In any case, this episode featured one of Rod Serling’s better scripts this season. In addition to Rod Serling’s stronger script, The Masks featured a mostly good cast and some of the more impressive special effects makeup I have seen on the series in recent memory. Overall, the month got off to an impressive start with this episode, which is why it earns four stars from me.
I Am the Night, Color Me Black, by Rod Serling
The Hustler’s Michael Constantine plays Sheriff Charlie Conch, who arrives at work nervous about the day’s planned execution. Oddly, it is past the time the sun usually rises and the sun still is yet to come up. One of his deputes mentions to him, “It’s 7:30 in the morning and it’s pitch black outside. I’ve never seen it any blacker.” What is strange is that surrounding towns do not seem to be experiencing the same phenomenon.
Paul Fix of television’s The Rifleman plays Colby, a reporter who questions the department’s handling of the case. Colby reminds the men at the sheriff‘s department that, “ The murdered man was not a decent man. He was a cross burning psychopathic bully who attacked the man in there.” The accused is named Jagger, and he was protecting members of a church from a racist when the alleged murder took place. Ivan Dixon, who appeared in the earlier episode The Big Tall Wish, stars as the church’s reverend.
Practically everyone in town shows up for the hanging in “the remote, little mid-western village.” It is getting closer and closer to the execution time and the sun still has not risen. While the rope is being prepared for Jagger’s hanging, the journalist asks one of the deputies, “Did it ever occur to you that there is something odd going on around here? Perhaps we better dispense with business as usual until we find out exactly what is going on.”
I Am the Night, Color Me Black, looks great and features a number of outstanding performances, but it would have benefited from being a little more subtle. For anyone willing to look past how heavy-handed the moralizing in this entry can be, it is a good but not amazing episode. Three stars.
Sounds and Silences, by Rod Serling
John McGiver returns to the The Twilight Zone after appearing in The Bard. In Sounds and Silences, he plays Roswell G. Flemington, a man who takes delight in making noise. As Rod Serling’s opening monologue states, Roswell’s “noise-making is in inverse ratio to his competence and his character.” Roswell runs a model ship company, spending much of his free time blustering around the office like a modern day Queeg, and listening to blaring recordings of fighting battleships, much to the dismay of those around him.
One day, his wife tells him that she just cannot take it anymore. She complains, “What was once an idiosyncrasy of yours is now an obsession. This insistence on blaring noises and running a household like it was a destroyer escort on convoy duty- the combination has now become quite impossible and I can’t live with it.” After a couple decades of marriage, they are finished. But Roswell is happy about his marriage ending, because now he can devote more attention to making noise.
Shortly after, while trying to sleep, he wakes up to the sound of a leaky faucet, unusually loud and unpleasant. Once the faucet stops making noise, another sound begins to bug him. Soon little noises are driving him to the brink of madness. Eventually, he has to seek professional help. Is this punishment for what he has put others through all these years?
The episode has few redeeming qualities. The script leaves a lot to be desired. I think this entry is supposed to be funny, but it I do not remember laughing once. The main character acts like a giant child, which I know is kind of the point, but that begins to wear thin after a while. Most of the characters, which include his wife and his employees, are not much more tolerable than he is. It was hard resisting the urge to change the channel, so one and a half stars is all that I can give to Sounds and Silences.
Caesar and Me, by Adele T. Strassfield
Former child star Jackie Cooper is perfectly cast as Jonathan West, a penniless ventriloquist in Caesar and Me. He and his dummy, Caesar, perform under the name Little Caesar and Jonathan. Jonathan has difficulty securing a stable source of income, but he dreams that one day Little Caesar and Jonathan will be a headlining act. Jonathan has an unhealthy attachment to Caesar and tells the dummy that they are “together forever.” Caesar is mentioned in Rod Serling’s opening monologue as being a “small splinter with large ideas.” Jonathan considers supplementing his income with a side job until his work with Caesar starts to bring in the big bucks. The only problem is that Jonathan has never held down a “real job.”
But Caesar has been paying attention. One day Caesar asks him, “Just a little money for food and rent, is that it? Is that all you want out of life?” Caesar convinces Jonathan that robbery is the solution to his money woes, saying “Open your eyes. Look around you. The streets are paved with gold, and it’s sitting out there, waiting for us.” Caesar feeds Jonathan more lines like, “After tonight’s job, we’ll be on easy street.” Of course, things do not go exactly as planned.
I tried to watch Caesar and Me with an open mind. It is not really bad, just frustrating because it feels too much like a rehash of The Dummy. It brings absolutely nothing new to table. In fact, they even reused the same dummy. The talented Jackie Cooper could not completely save this episode. Then there was the ending, which while mildly entertaining, is hardly fair. Poor Jonathan just cannot seem to catch a break. Caesar and Me receives two and a half stars.
Characters during the past month of The Twilight Zone have encountered some interesting and sometimes unexpected outcomes as a result of their actions. Regarding the quality of the episodes, however, two were enjoyable while the other two offerings were a little disappointing. With only two months left before the end of the season, I hate to admit that I am a little nervous about the forthcoming episodes.
[New to the Journey? Read this for a brief introduction!]
by Natalie Devitt
Recently The Outer Limits has primarily featured storylines about intellectually superior aliens and mutants treating people like something easily controlled or shaped to suit their needs. Episodes have included stories about a man-turned-mutant using his telepathic abilities to keep members of his crew prisoners on another planet, an alien holding a group captive in an old mansion until they can provide him with important information, a man and a woman being thrown into a deadly game for the entertainment of creatures from another planet, and an alien posing as a tutor so he can recruit children as tools for his nefarious plans.
The Mutant, by Allan Balter and Robert Mintz
In The Mutant, Larry Pennell, an actor you may have seen in anything from Thriller to Have Gun – Will Travel, plays Evan Marshall, a man who travels to a planet that seems to be “suitable for colonization by Earth‘s overflowing population.” The planet, Annex One, resembles Earth. He arrives there intending to investigate the death of a scientist stationed at planet.
Marshall is instructed to wear special goggles while outside as protection from the planet’s harsh weather conditions, which can include anything from “constant daylight” to severe storms. A member of the team, played by Warren Oates (he recently appeared on The Twilight Zone’s Number 7 is Made Up of Phantoms), plays Reese Fowler. Fowler assures Marshall, “You begin to feel like they [the goggles] are a part of your person, which is the way that we feel.” Fowler fails to mention to Marshall that he rarely removes his goggles in order to hide his swollen eyes, which started protruding after he was accidentally caught in a storm without his protective eyewear. This incident resulted not only in bulging eyes, but it also gave Fowler telepathy and the ability to kill people with just a touch of the hand.
Fowler is abusing his new powers, keeping everyone on Annex One as “his prisoners” as he frantically searches for a cure to his mutations. Members of the group try to warn Marshall about Fowler. All the while they try to prevent the mutant from reading their minds as they devise a plan to return to Earth. But as Fowler warns them, it is nearly impossible for anyone to quiet their thoughts for long.
Between Fowler’s telepathic powers being almost inescapable and the effects of endless daylight on a person‘s sanity, The Mutant does a pretty good job of establishing a sense of dread. Further, I think the sight of Fowler’s eyes will be forever seared into my mind. One aspect of the episode that certainly did not work very well was the romantic secondary plot, which was not very convincing and did not do much to support the main plot. But overall, I would say The Mutant is strong enough to deserve three stars.
The Guests, by Donald S. Sanford
The Guests, opens on an elderly man being pursued on foot by an alien through the woods. The man collapses as a young man, Wade (Geoffrey Horne, from The Twilight Zone’s The Gift), stops to offer a hand. As the extraterrestrial vanishes, a mansion appears in its place. Wade picks up the old man’s pocket watch, inside of which is a very old picture of a young woman that appears to have been taken in the 19th century. As Wade approaches the house, the front door seems to open itself.
Upon entering the house, he spots the same young woman in the picture, Teresa, looking exactly as she did in the old man’s photo. Wade also meets another fellow, and two other women, one of which is played by none other than the famous Gloria Grahame. They are all wearing clothing from different time periods. Not thinking much about their outdated clothing, Wade goes on to tell them about the old man. Teresa does not miss a beat, responding rather coldly with he must be “gone by now.” She then adds, “He’s been dead for a long time.”
Wade tries to leave the house at once, but he is pulled back in, then up the stairs, where he finally comes face to face with their host: a glowing version of the creature from this season's The Mice. Their captor says he is looking for “the factor that will balance the equation.” After being interrogated by the alien, Wade is told by the others, “You won’t leave here, young man. None of us will ever leave here.” The other guests may be content to remain frozen in time, but Wade is determined to escape.
The whole alien holding people captive in a big strange mansion sounds an awful lot like this season's Don’t Open Till Doomsday, and while The Guests is not quite as strong, it almost succeeds in capturing the same creepy atmosphere. If there is one thing that The Outer Limits does extremely well, it is create mood. While you can predict this story‘s outcome, there is a scene involving a character rapidly aging that has stayed with me since I watched it.
I am kind of disappointed that I did not enjoy Gloria Grahame in this entry as much as I would have liked. I have seen the Oscar winner shine in a wide range of roles. This performance is not bad, just a little uninspired. Given her impressive body of work, I am not sure that matters very much. In any case, this entry receives three stars.
Fun and Games, by Robert Specht and Joseph Stefano
Fun and Games tells the tale of a man and a woman, played by Nick Adams (whom you might know from the TV show, The Rebel) and television actress Nancy Malone. They are teleported to another planet, Andera, where they are informed by a shadowy figure that they have been selected to represent the men and the women of Earth in a “rather terrible kind of game” for the amusement of their kind. The humans, Mike and Laura, will fight against one male and one female representative from another planet, the Calco, in a fight “until the death.“ The creature insists that they will not be forced to participate, but if they choose to not join, their “opponents will win by default.“ Most importantly, if they lose the game, Earth will be destroyed.
The Calco resemble apes, and are so primitive that they use boomerangs as weapons instead of guns. Participants are prohibited from using guns at any time during the game, but when Mike and Laura discover that one of their adversaries murdered its own partner in order to stretch out its own food supply, they realize just what they are up against. Do they really stand a chance against such a ruthless opponent?
The two lead actors really deliver some fine performances in this hour of the series, which almost succeeds in distracting from how goofy and unthreatening the Calco appear. Fun and Games revisits important moments in the story, exploring different decisions characters can make. I imagine watching the same thing over and over is enough to drive some viewers insane. Personally, I really enjoyed it, but I could see how it could feel like padding to fill the entire hour. Luckily, the conclusion has some interesting twists. Fun and Games is in my opinion the best entry of the series this past month, which is why it earns three and a half stars from me.
The Special One, by Oliver Crawford
One stormy night, a family is visited by stranger who goes by the name of Mr. Zeno. He claims to be “from the Educational Enrichment Program,“ and expresses his interest in tutoring their son, Ken. But not long after studying with Mr. Zeno, who is really an extraterrestrial in disguise, Ken begins behaving strangely. When Ken’s dad (played by Hitchcock-thriller Shadow of a Doubt’s MacDonald Carey) wants him to do anything besides homework, Ken tells him, “Sorry, Dad. I’ve got to study. Mr. Zeno will be here in a minute.” Also, Ken’s father, Roy, thinks it is strange that Zeno does not seem to give advance notice when he is coming over to their house, and how he seems to be spending an increasing amount of time with his son.
Roy stumbles on a periodic table that Ken has been working on. The strange thing is that it includes 23 extra elements. This leads to Ken‘s father to tell his buddy about the situation, who states, “I wouldn’t let my boy join the group.” When Dad confronts his son about the extra elements on the his periodic table, Ken simply states that they are not there “yet,” but that the “balance is in the future.” Ken’s mother accuses Roy of being jealous of Mr. Zeno. On top of all of that, the Education Enrichment Program’s office has never heard of Mr. Zeno and claim their tutors do not do house visits. So, what does a creature from outer space need with Ken?
The Special One is not really my favorite episode about aliens plotting to take over the world, but it's not really a bad one, either. The acting is strong, except for a somewhat awkward scene where Mr. Zeno tries to get Ken’s dad to commit suicide, which also reminds me of a similar scene in a previous episode, Corpus Earthling. One thing the episode really has going for it is its special effects, which are surprisingly good, especially for television. Three stars.
It has been another enjoyable month of the series, which seems to have been filled with even more than usual number of narratives about people being easily influenced by extraterrestrial beings. Given that this month included one very good episode and three good episodes, I am confident the remaining month of the season will also entertain.
[New to the Journey? Read this for a brief introduction!]
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