July 2, 2023-numbers 104, 105

Spoilers

“Thirty-Fathom Grave”

The mixture of a submarine movie and a ghost story is what we get in “Thirty-Fathom Grave,” the second episode in the fourth season of The Twilight Zone.

This was a solid episode with an intriguing plot dealing with a sunken submarine discovered by a ship because there sounded as if there were a metallic tapping echoing through the water.

Meanwhile, one of the crew members, Chief Bell, begins to have a nervous breakdown despite a long and successful career in the Navy.

There did seem to be too much episode for the story being told here. There were a bunch of scenes that were repeated (not sure how many times we needed to see the diver going down to the stranded submarine or how many scenes of moving the ship) that could have been edited out to make the episode tighter. Unlike the first episode of the season, this did feel like it was hurt by the expansion from 30 minutes to an hour.

Still, the overall episode was very good, with a great performance from Mike Kellin, playing Chief Bell, and displaying his combination of survivor’s guilt and PTSD.

One of the members of the crew was played by Bill Bixby, another future star that I recognized in Twilight Zone episodes.

“Valley of the Shadow”

The Twilight Zone’s third episode of season four was called “Valley of the Shadows” and it made me think a lot about a comic series from the last few years called “Stillwater,” by Chip Zdarsky.

Stillwater was the story of a small town whose residents could not die and did not age. It was a secret that the leaders of Stillwater kept hidden from the outside world and they prevented people from leaving their town. This is very much similar to Valley of the Shadows, where there was technology that allowed these people to have basically anything that they wanted, but who had to stay isolated in fear of what the outside world may do with that tech.

When the reporter Phillip Redfield is lost and drives into Peaceful Valley by accident, he realizes that things are weird. Actually, it was because of his dog, who wound up chasing a cat and a little girl made the dog disappear with a handheld machine.

When Redfield demands answers from the council, they decide that he needed to be held captive to protect the town’s secrets.

There was an argument in the episode about whether these secrets should be shared with the world. How there were people dying from hunger every day of the year and how this could help people. The council believed that this machine that could do about anything would be used for bad things by the outside world. It was an interesting debate and one that I am not sure of which side I would come down upon.

“You’ve seen them. Little towns, tucked away far from the main roads. You’ve seen them, but have you thought about them? Have you wondered what the people do in such places, why they stay? Philip Redfield thinks about them now and he wonders, but only very late at night, when he’s between wakefulness and sleep in the Twilight Zone.”

Stillwater was an excellent series from Image Comics. You could give it a try.

July 1, 2023-number 103

Spoilers

“In His Image”

Season four kicked off with a big change in format for The Twilight Zone. This season, there are only 18 episodes, but these were an hour in length. It will be a curious season to dive into since the half and hour format had been so successful. I do think there were a few episodes from season 1-3 that could have benefitted from being a tad longer so we’ll have to see if the writers take advantage of the extra time to develop characters and the story in a greater detail. If the first episode is an example, then this season will have some solid stroytelling.

The episode started with a scene that was a fascinating intro, but does not really work with the remainder of the episode. When Alan tossed that lady into the oncoming train, there was not much of a trigger. I assume that it was just meant to show how dangerous Alan was.

Alan went to his fiancé, Jessica, and they were preparing to go to Alan’s childhood hometown to meet his aunt. There is no references to the murder in the opening scene. Alan and Jessica seem very content. However, when he arrived in the town, things were different and his aunt’s house was owned by someone else.

Alan was having all kinds of troubles and made Jessica leave him alone when he started to hear the same sounds that he heard when he had killed the woman in the subway. After she leaves, Alan gets hit by a car and he discovered that he had a mechanical arm.

Alan is able to trace himself back to Walter Ryder, the man who created Alan in his own image, in an attempt to create the perfect man. Walter showed Alan his laboratory and the previous attempts at creating “Alan.” With the violence being a design flaw, Alan flipped out and attacked Walter, who fought back.

We see Walter showing up at Jessica’s door, pretending to be Alan, as Alan the robot was laying destroyed in the lab.

“In a way, it can be said that Walter Ryder succeeded in his life’s ambition, even though the man he created was, after all, himself. There may be easier ways to self-improvement, but sometimes it happens that the shortest distance between two points is a crooked line – through the Twilight Zone.”

The ending was kind of creepy as Walter seemingly is replacing Alan in his relationship with Jessica, which kind of takes her choice out of the matter.

I did enjoy the longer episode as it was able to give more background for Alan. I am not sure about a couple of details from the graveyard, specifically, but the story is a twist on the Frankenstein story and it worked fairly well.

June 30, 2023-numbers 99, 100,101

Spoilers

These bring a close to season three of The Twilight Zone.

“Young Man’s Fancy”

“Young Man’s Fancy” or “what a Mama’s Boy” is the next Twilight Zone episode. While I found this one interesting, I did think the ending was fairly predictable and one has to wonder what the wife was thinking by marrying this loser.

That may be too harsh.

“You’re looking at the house of the late Mrs. Henrietta Walker. This is Mrs. Walker herself, as she appeared twenty-five years ago. And this, except for isolated objects, is the living room of Mrs. Walker’s house, as it appeared in that same year. The other rooms upstairs and down are pretty much the same. The time, however, is not twenty-five years ago but now. The house of the late Mrs. Henrietta Walker is, you see, a house which belongs almost entirely to the past, a house which, like Mrs. Walker’s clock here, has ceased to recognize the passage of time. Only one element is missing now, one remaining item in the estate of the late Mrs. Walker: her son, Alex, thirty-four years of age and, up till twenty minutes ago, the so-called perennial bachelor. With him is his bride, the former Miss Virginia Lane. They’re returning from the city hall in order to get Mr. Walker’s clothes packed, make final arrangements for the sale of the house, lock it up and depart on their honeymoon. Not a complicated set of tasks, it would appear, and yet the newlywed Mrs. Walker is about to discover that the old adage ‘You can’t go home again’ has little meaning in the Twilight Zone”

I do believe this is one of the episodes that I had seen before because, although I was not sure of what was the main plot, I do remember something about that haunted grandfather’s clock.

Mrs. Walker also seemed to give up pretty quickly considering she had started it all with her comments to the mother before any of the haunting began. Something about ‘claws.’ Still, you would think that you would understand about the deep-seeded connection to his mother Alex held before she married him. Discovering this unhealthy aspect of his character before the honeymoon feels like a mistake on her part as much as his.

“I Sing the Body Electric”

Mary Poppins meets A.I. in this sentimental episode of The Twilight Zone that just felt like there was something missing for me.

Larry Tate (er… I mean David White, the actor who played Larry on Bewitched) returned to the Twilight Zone as a busy widowed father with three kids that he has apparently been ignoring. They find an advertisement for an artificial intelligence that could be a nanny.

“They make a fairly convincing pitch here. It doesn’t seem possible, though, to find a woman who must be ten times better than mother in order to seem half as good, except, of course, in the Twilight Zone”

So it is Mary Poppins as a robot. They even go as far as having a kite scene. However, the movie Mary Poppins came out in 1964 while this episode was shown in 1962. Maybe this episode was inspired by the Mary Poppins book by P.L. Travers which was written in the later 30s.

There were some intriguing character moments here, especially with Anne, one of the little kids, but things resolve too quickly and wrap up so saccharine sweet that it did not feel like the Twilight Zone. Admittedly, the scene where the kids run around the Facsimile Ltd. factory picking out body parts for the robot was unbelievably creepy (which I do not think it was meant to be). Plus, robot, that they called Grandma- also creepy- did not have the hair that the boy picked out. What a rip off!

“Cavender is Coming”

You would think that an episode of The Twilight Zone featuring EYG Hall of Famer Carol Burnett would not be after three full seasons my least favorite episode of the series. But you would be wrong.

Another example of how comedy has been one of The Twilight Zone’s Achilles’ Heel, this episode is just features so many unfunny things and a story so bad that it can only be saved (somewhat) by the charm of Carol Burnett.

This is yet another homage to “It’s A Wonderful Life” as Cavender is a guardian angel trying to get his wings by helping out clumsy Carol. The slapstick does not work as the episode never fully commits to it, and when it does, it just does not hit. The Twilight Zone seems to insist on adding silly sound effects to their comedic episodes that just do not aid anything.

There is a nice message of the episode about not needing wealth to be happy, but the execution just is not there. The angels in heaven scenes are like a high school production they are so amateurish.

“A word to the wise now to any and all who might suddenly feel the presence of a cigar-smoking helpmate who takes bankbooks out of thin air. If you’re suddenly aware of any such celestial aids, it means that you’re under the beneficent care of one Harmon Cavender, guardian angel. And this message from the Twilight Zone: Lotsa luck!”

Season four is next. Only 18 episodes, but they expand to an hour long.

June 29, 2023- number 102

Once again, Prime’s playing of the Twilight Zone episodes are not in the same order as the listings for the series. This episode was the 34th of the season on Prime, but, in actuality, should be the 37th of season three. I am listing it as its actual number.

Spoilers

“The Changing of the Guard”

This episode felt a little more personal than some of the other episodes of The Twilight Zone for me.

“Professor Ellis Fowler, a gentle, bookish guide to the young, who is about to discover that life still has certain surprises, and that the campus of the Rock Spring School for Boys lies on a direct path to another institution, commonly referred to as the Twilight Zone.”

Getting on in age, Professor Ellis Fowler sends his latest class to Christmas break with his typical bravado and flair. However, he is unaware of what awaited him. His contract was not being renewed, he would be ‘terminated’ from his position because it was believed that a younger voice needed to be given the position.

Unsure what he would do next, Professor Fowler went home and retrieved a gun, with the implication that he had nothing left in life, that he wasted his time by teaching these kids nothing of value, and that he would kill himself. However, the stalwart teacher was visited by the ghosts of past students who had died and who spoke to him of the ways that he inspired them. Fowler decided against suicide and moved happily into retirement.

“The Changing of the Guard” is kind of a combination of “It’s a Wonderful Life” and “A Christmas Carol” as this was also set during the Christmas holiday.

As a teacher, you some times do not understand how much you affect the lives of the students that you are working with. There are times that you may even feel as if you are doing no good for anyone. Just recently, I had a parent come over and talk to me at a baseball game letting me know how grateful she was for everything that I had done for her children over the years. Hearing that was a wonderfully kind thing and I was very appreciative. It goes to show how much of an impact teachers can have even if they feel unappreciated at times or that they have not been able to accomplish what they had hoped.

June 28, 2023- Number 98

Spoilers

“The Dummy”

Ventriloquist dummies can be creepy. And that is even before they start talking and moving on their own.

“You’re watching a ventriloquist named Jerry Etherson, a voice-thrower par excellence. His alter ego, sitting atop his lap, is a brash stick of kindling with the sobriquet ‘Willy.’ In a moment, Mr. Etherson and his knotty-pine partner will be booked in one of the out-of-the-way bistros, that small, dark, intimate place known as the Twilight Zone.”

I really enjoyed this episode. I liked how there is still some question about whether Willy was real or whether Jerry was simply hearing voices and was out of his mind. Even with the bizarre ending of switching places, I can see how this could be dealing with mental illness on the part of Jerry.

“What’s known in the parlance of the times as the old switcheroo, from boss to blockhead in a few uneasy lessons. And if you’re given to nightclubbing on occasion, check this act. It’s called Willy and Jerry, and they generally are booked into some of the clubs along the ‘Gray Night Way’ known as the Twilight Zone”

Cliff Robertson, Uncle Ben from Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man, was our lead actor here and he does a wonderful job of showcasing the anxiety, the fear and uncertainty of this situation.

Paranoia is a major feel in The Dummy as Jerry is never 100% sure what was happening. The way Willy would move ever so slightly as it sat in the dressing room emphasized this to the audience.

Am awesome episode. One of the best of season three so far.

June 27, 2023- Numbers 93, 94, 95, 96

Spoilers

“The Little People”

Absolute power corrupts absolutely.

So when two men land their spaceship on this planet, they discover a bizarre surprise.

“The time is the space age, the place is a barren landscape of a rock-walled canyon that lies millions of miles from the planet Earth. The cast of characters? You’ve met them: William Fletcher, commander of the spaceship; his copilot, Peter Craig. The other characters who inhabit this place you may never see, but they’re there, as these two gentlemen will soon find out. Because they’re about to partake in a little exploration into that gray, shaded area in space and time that’s known as the Twilight Zone.”

The land where they landed contained natives who were tiny, Lilliputian-type people. And Peter Craig found his gigantic size a major advantage. So much so that he started to consider himself a god to these people, going as far as to crushing these people’s homes with his foot.

When the ship was repaired, Fletcher tried to get Peter to come with him, but he would refuse, pulling a gun and demanding that Fletcher leave him alone. Peter had convinced the little people to build a statue in his honor.

However, the power would be fleeting as another ship landed on the rock and this was a race of people who were much large than Peter. In fact, they grabbed Peter and crushed him in their hands. When they left, the little people pulled down the statue upon the dead body of Peter.

“The case of navigator Peter Craig, a victim of a delusion. In this case, the dream dies a little harder than the man. A small exercise in space psychology that you can try on for size in the Twilight Zone.”

“Four O’Clock”

One of the straight up villains of The Twilight Zone, Oliver Crangle was played by Theodore Bikel with a glorious zeal unlike we have seen to this point.

“That’s Oliver Crangle, a dealer in petulance and poison. He’s rather arbitrarily chosen four o’clock as his personal Götterdämmerung, and we are about to watch the metamorphosis of a twisted fanatic, poisoned by the gangrene of prejudice, to the status of an avenging angel, upright and omniscient, dedicated and fearsome. Whatever your clocks say, it’s four o’clock, and wherever you are it happens to be the Twilight Zone.”

Oliver Crangle is like the Q of our time. Going out of his way to do his battle with those he perceived as ‘evil’ in the world. He did not see himself as evil though, as most great villains do. They see themselves as the hero of their story.

Crangle was certainly a bit crazy. His overall plan to make all people he deemed evil two-feet tall is super-villain plots at the best. I also enjoyed the twist ending with Cringle becoming two-feet tall himself, revealing that he was, in truth, evil.

How did this happen? That is never mentioned. Could there have been more depth to this character? Sure. Still, I found the performance of Theodore Bikel to be over-the-top goodness.

“Hocus-Pocus and Frisby”

Hey, there was Floyd, from Mayberry!

Mr. Frisby is the ultimate liar. That might be too unfair. He is certainly a ‘tall tale’ teller.

“The reluctant gentleman with the sizable mouth is Mr. Frisby. He has all the drive of a broken camshaft and the aggressive vinegar of a corpse. As you’ve no doubt gathered, his big stock in trade is the tall tale. Now, what he doesn’t know is that the visitors out front are a very special breed, destined to change his life beyond anything even his fertile imagination could manufacture. The place is Pitchville Flats, the time is the present. But Mr. Frisby’s on the first leg of a rather fanciful journey into the place we call the Twilight Zone.”

With the theme of ‘boy who cried wolf’, Mr. Frisby, who has a tale to tell about his exploits that are, at best, inaccurate, was abducted by aliens because the aliens were looking for specimens that were the most impressive and knowledgeable of their kinds and they did not understand the idea of lying. So, obviously, with Mr. Frisby’s continued hyperbole and outright fibs, they thought they found the best human going.

Mr. Frisby is able to escape by playing his harmonica, which was a sound that was dangerous to the aliens, and, ironically, when Mr. Frisby was telling the story that was actually true to his friends at his store, they did not beleive him.

This was fine, but a little bit of Mr. Frisby went a long way. It did become somewhat annoying after awhile.

“The Trade-Ins”

“Mr. and Mrs. John Holt, aging people who slowly and with trembling fingers turn the last pages of a book of life and hope against logic and the preordained that some magic printing press will add to this book another limited edition. But these two senior citizens happen to live in a time of the future where nothing is impossible, even the trading of old bodies for new. Mr. and Mrs. John Holt, in their twilight years, who are about to find that there happens to be a zone with the same name.”

This story was a love story featuring the couple of Mr. and Mrs. John Holt, who had been married for fifty years, but whose bodies were feeling the stress of age. Fortunately, there was a technology that allowed them to switch from their old bodies and trade them in for younger versions.

Unfortunately for the Holts, the process cost $10,000 dollars, and they only had half of that. This created the conflict in the episode as Mr. Holt tried to go about finding the extra money, but failing to make it in a high stakes poker game.

In the end, Mr. Holt had the process done, but decided to take up the return policy because he could not see himself living the life of a young man without the love of his life.

Sweet and romantic. It was a decent episode with a message that showed the positive side of humans, which we do not see as often in The Twilight Zone.

June 27, 2023- number 92, 97

Spoilers

The strange numbering comes from Amazon Prime/Paramount +. For some reason, they had the episode “The Gift”, which is listed as episode 32 everywhere else I looked, was in at number 28. I am not sure the reason it is in a different order on Prime even though it had never been in an incorrect order as of yet. So I am listing it as the order is supposed to be, not the one on Prime.

“Person or Persons Unknown”

He is David Gurney… or is he?

“Cameo of a man who has just lost his most valuable possession. He doesn’t know about the loss yet. In fact, he doesn’t even know about the possession. Because, like most people, David Gurney has never really thought about the matter of his identity. But he’s going to be thinking a great deal about it from now on, because that is what he’s lost. And his search for it is going to take him into the darkest corners of the Twilight Zone.”

David woke up after a night of drinking and, without warning, his wife did not recognize him. He thought of this as a joke, but when the people at work did not know him either, things get harder for him.

He desperately tries to find proof of his existence, failing at every turn. The performance by Richard Long was solid, though he did take a while to really grasp what was going on. You would think that he would have come around earlier than what he did.

Then, The Twilight Zone pulled a switch much like they did in “The Midnight Sun”. David wakes up again, understanding that everything he had gone through was a dream. However, his wife Wilma was not the wife he knew, looking completely different.

I feel as if this was another Twilight Zone episode that started strong, with a really good premise, but that did not deliver an equally potent conclusion.

“The Gift”

As I mentioned earlier, this was out of order on Prime, but I did not realize it until it was underway so I decided to leave it as is. I am still referring to it as episode 32, though.

This was not a very good episode. Performances were weak or uninspiring and the story, which was meant to be a parable tied to the story of Jesus Christ, it misses its mark badly.

“The place is Mexico, just across the Texas border, a mountain village held back in time by its remoteness and suddenly intruded upon by the twentieth century. And this is Pedro, nine years old, a lonely, rootless little boy, who will soon make the acquaintance of a traveler from a distant place. We are at present forty miles from the Rio Grande, but any place and all places can be the Twilight Zone.”

Pedro was one of the weakest child actors we have seen in The Twilight Zone. His performance was very wooden and lacking any sort of depth. I do not like calling out child actor’s performances, but when one is such a vital piece of the story, I can’t ignore it.

The gift given by the alien was, of course, something that we all wish we would have had and it shows the way fear and hatred can cause problems in the world today. The message is good, but the delivery of the message felt heavy-handed and lacking the sufficient subtlety to make this sci-fi story worthwhile.