July 14, 2023- number 124, 125, 126

Spoilers

“A Kind of Stopwatch”

Another episode of The Twilight Zone that features time and ways to manipulate it is the fourth episode of season five.

“Submitted for your approval or at least your analysis: one Patrick Thomas McNulty, who, at age forty-one, is the biggest bore on Earth. He holds a ten-year record for the most meaningless words spewed out during a coffee break. And it’s very likely that, as of this moment, he would have gone through life in precisely this manner, a dull, argumentative bigmouth who sets back the art of conversation a thousand years. I say he very likely would have except for something that will soon happen to him, something that will considerably alter his existence—and ours. Now you think about that now, because this is The Twilight Zone.”

This is another protagonist that is not easy to root for because he is completely irritating and annoying. There have been several of those over the first four seasons + and it always hurts the episode when the main character is not very likable. Even when they are learning a lesson, there has to be some component that the audience wants to see him receive a redemption. McNulty does not seem that type.

I do like the twist at the end that causes McNulty to have everyone on earth frozen in time, leaving him alone and isolated even though everyone is right there. Though the ending works, everything that led up to the twist did not work nearly as well.

“The Last Night of a Jockey”

This episode of The Twilight Zone was a one-man-show with the one and only Mickey Rooney. Rooney’s performance was one of the highlights of the show, but there is not too much else afterwards.

“The name is Grady, five feet short in stockings and boots, a slightly distorted offshoot of a good breed of humans who race horses. He happens to be one of the rotten apples, bruised and yellowed by dealing in dirt, a short man with a short memory who’s forgotten that he’s worked for the sport of kings and helped turn it into a cesspool, used and misused by the two-legged animals who’ve hung around sporting events since the days of the Coliseum. So this is Grady, on his last night as a jockey. Behind him are Hialeah, Hollywood Park and Saratoga. Rounding the far turn and coming up fast on the rail—is the Twilight Zone.”

Mickey Rooney is the only character that we meet in this episode and he carries everything through his dialogue and the physical imagery when the sets keep getting smaller to show that Rooney had become bigger… something that the voice in his head apparently has the ability to make happen.

We have seen reflections in mirrors before during this series, including in “The Mirror” and in “Nervous Man in a four Dollar Room.” Grady’s alter ego spewed negatives and insults back at him, making the jockey scream in anger and frustration. Then there is an ironic ending that messes up Grady’s life all the worse.

This one was not a favorite, though Mickey Rooney was a strong actor for the role.

“Living Doll”

Now this is more like it.

Telly Savalas starred in one of the classic episodes of The Twilight Zone as Talky Tina, the talking doll, brings forth glorious vengeance upon bad parents.

The horror trope of the evil living doll has been covered a ton of times from The twilight Zone episode “The Dummy” from season three to the Chucky franchise of movies and TV or MEGAN from a movie earlier this year. When done well, the creepy doll can be very effective, and this episode is one of the best of the series.

“Talky Tina, a doll that does everything, a lifelike creation of plastic and springs and painted smile. To Erich Streator, she is the most unwelcome addition to his household—but without her, he’d never enter the Twilight Zone.”

Telly Savalas played Erich Streator, the step-father to a little girl named Christina, whose mother Annabelle (interesting, another well known killer doll. I wonder if the movie Annabelle took her name from this character?) had purchased Talky Tina for her.

This was a triggering topic since apparently there is some kind of problem where Erich and Annabelle were unable to conceive their own child. Though nothing specific was mentioned for this, there was enough hints dropped to understand the issue.

Savalas does an amazing job as the nutcase husband who does some truly cruel things and says some really inappropriate words to both Annabelle and to Christina. When he specifically yells at Christina that he was not her father, I gasped. I understood why Talky Tina took an immediate dislike to Erich. I was also happy to see Talky Tina get the last word on this situation after Erich had done so much to try and destroy the doll. I did not see Talky Tina as an evil force as I see Chucky or MEGAN or other forms of killer dolls. I see Talky Tina as a protector. Sure, that is how MEGAN started off too, so maybe Talky Tina would have gone crazy eventually as well.

There is, of course, an argument that could be made that Talky Tina was all Erich’s own mind and guilt over his inability to have children with Annabelle that led to this delusion of a talking doll. Sure, Talky Tina does imply a threat to Annabelle after she has killed Erich by having him trip and fall down the stairs, but that was done as a cool tag for the episode. I think the whole mental illness issue is in play for the backdrop of this episode.

Telly Savalas was excellent in this episode. I think he would have to be in consideration for best performance of the series for this role.