June 8, 2023- number 25 & 26

Spoilers

“People Are Alike All Over”

Roddy McDowell is on the way to Mars and what he finds is unexpected.

“You’re looking at a specie [sic] of flimsy little two-legged animal with extremely small heads, whose name is Man. Warren Marcusson, age thirty-five. Samuel A. Conrad, age thirty-one. They’re taking a highway into space, Man unshackling himself and sending his tiny, groping fingers up into the unknown. Their destination is Mars, and in just a moment we’ll land there with them“

Honestly, I have been a fan of every episode of The Twilight Zone so far. Even the ones that were near the bottom of the list had parts that I really enjoyed. That streak is over now. “People Are Alike All Over” is easily my least favorite episode of The Daily Zone so far.

It was just so random. The Martians that appeared before Roddy McDowell were so ridiculous that it was impossible to believe that they were actually Martians. There was nothing that made this feel interesting at all.

That is not to say that Roddy McDowell is a problem. I have always found his work to be great and he does what he can here. It just feels like a slight episode without a lot of worthwhile ideas.

Humans in cages on display will be used better in future moments. From my limited research, it seems as if this episode has its supporters and that it has been an inspiration to many. I am happy for them. I am not one of them.

“Execution”

The second episode in a row that I did not like very much.

I found this premise intriguing. I did not expect to start with an attempted hanging and the set up was solid. When outlaw and killer Joe Caswell disappeared from the noose, I was certainly enthralled.

However, with his arrival in the future, I lost most of that early excitement.

I’m not sure if the sudden appearance of the Professor from Gilligan’s Island (with nary a coconut to be seen) affected my thoughts on what was happening.

Caswell ran around the future with a gun, attacked a juke box and shot up a TV.

Then, at the end, the story stopped being about Caswell and became the story of another guy, a thief named Paul Johnson. Johnson ends up killing Caswell in a fight and somehow gets himself stuck in the time machine and is sent back to take Caswell’s place in the noose.

While I do like the ending, I do not like how the character of Paul Johnson just appears from nowhere and becomes the center of the story in the final few minutes. I did not find it satisfying.

“This is November 1880, the aftermath of a necktie party. The victim’s name—Paul Johnson, a minor-league criminal and the taker of another human life. No comment on his death save this: justice can span years. Retribution is not subject to a calendar. Tonight’s case in point in The Twilight Zone.“