Next list that I am compiling for the Twilight Zone review is the Top 10 villains. Now, a lot of Twilight Zone episodes did not have what would be defined as a ‘villain’ and had more of an antagonist. Even then, a lot of the episode dealt with the protagonist causing the conflict themselves. I picked out the ten best villains, in my opinion, from the original run of the series from 1959-1964.

#10. Mr. Death (Nothing in the Dark). Honestly, this is a little questionable because Death is not necessarily a villain and the way Robert Redford played him was not truly villainous. Still, I put him on th ebottom of this list.

#9. Corey (I Shot an Arrow into the Air). Played by Dewey Martin, Corey was the one of the three surviving crewmen of a crash on an unknown planet and he started turning on his comrades by hording their water and, in the end, kills the others before he realized that they had crash landed on earth.

#8. The Gremlin (Nightmare at 20,000 Feet). The creature that tormented William Shatner and tried to tear off the wing of the plane, which could have killed everyone on it. This would have been higher if it hadn’t been such a silly looking costume.

#7. Anthony (It’s a Good Life). Best villains are the ones that think themselves the hero of their story. Anthony certainly believed that he was doing the best for the town as he was manipulating and tormenting these people.

#6. Oliver Crangle (Four O’ Clock). Theodore Bickel played this character as wanting to stop all the terrible people in the world. He would shrink the terrible people down to two feet tall. Again, he did not see himself as the villain even though he absolutely was.

#5. Peter Vollmer (He’s Alive). Dennis Hopper does a great job as the sniveling little runt who ascends to the head of the neo-Nazi Party thanks to the help from the ‘ghost?’ of Adolph Hitler.

#4. Mr. Smith (Printer’s Devil). Burgess Meredith gets a chance to play the Devil, who appears to help a struggling newspaper by breaking scoops that just happened, and that he may have cause himself. The Devil has been an antagonist in The Twilight Zone several times and this is the best version.

#3. Eric Streater (Living Doll). Telly Savalas is the step-father to a little girl who brings home a toy doll. he was mad about the doll, which then started talking back and threatening him. There was no doubt in my mind that Eric was an abusive husband and father, or at least, he was on the road to becoming one.

#2. Caesar (Caesar & Me). The talking ventriloquist dummy that got Cliff Robertson to break the law and it eventually drove him crazy. Caesar also started up with its next victim, the rotten little girl Susan.

#1. The Kanamit (To Serve Man). This alien race came to the planet earth under the guise of helping humankind, but, in truth, they were here simple to take them back to their planet, fatten them up and cook them up.