What are currently your 3 fave episodes of The Twilight Zone and why ?
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Re: What are currently your 3 fave episodes of The Twilight Zone and w
"Time Enough at Last"
Providing you can list something as your favorite when it affects you so deeply you can't watch it anymore... as a book-reading, four-eyed geek I know I'm the target audience, but still it hits me like a hammer. At least they left his inevitable suicide to our imaginations.
"The Howling Man"
A load of fun and a pretty good explanation for the middle of the 20th century, even for a militant agnostic like me.
...and not sure after that, maybe "Eye of the Beholder", "Passage for Trumpet", or "The Obsolete Man"...
"Time Enough at Last"
Providing you can list something as your favorite when it affects you so deeply you can't watch it anymore... as a book-reading, four-eyed geek I know I'm the target audience, but still it hits me like a hammer. At least they left his inevitable suicide to our imaginations.
"The Howling Man"
A load of fun and a pretty good explanation for the middle of the 20th century, even for a militant agnostic like me.
...and not sure after that, maybe "Eye of the Beholder", "Passage for Trumpet", or "The Obsolete Man"...
Re: What are currently your 3 fave episodes of The Twilight Zone and w
To Serve Man
Respectfully submitted for your perusal: a Kanamit. Height: a little over nine feet. Weight: in the neighborhood of three hundred and fifty pounds. Origin: unknown. Motives? Therein hangs the tale, for in just a moment we're going to ask you to shake hands, figuratively, with a Christopher Columbus from another galaxy and another time. This is the Twilight Zone.
First time I saw it was with a bunch of friends. We were drinking and having a good time. I'd bought around a couple of videos. First we watched To Serve Man, then we watched the movie They Live! which also kept us in that paranoid-about-the-aliens mood. Anyway, after that finished we flicked back to the TV where Flying High (known to those in the US as Aeroplane) was on. We were watching it casually when all of a sudden that guy runs on set holding the "To Serve Man" book and screaming "IT'S A COOKBOOK!!". We were flabbergasted. Just a really weird bit of synchronicity.
Nightmare at 20,000 feet.
Portrait of a frightened man: Mr. Robert Wilson, thirty-seven, husband, father, and salesman on sick leave. Mr. Wilson has just been discharged from a sanitarium where he spent the last six months recovering from a nervous breakdown, the onset of which took place on an evening not dissimilar to this one, on an airliner very much like the one in which Mr. Wilson is about to be flown home - the difference being that, on that evening half a year ago, Mr. Wilson's flight was terminated by the onslaught of his mental breakdown. Tonight, he's traveling all the way to his appointed destination, which, contrary to Mr. Wilson's plan, happens to be in the darkest corner of the Twilight Zone.
The Shat was really great in this. The goblin looks shithouse, but who cares, it's a great bit of classic television that had me on the edge of my seat the first time I saw it.
After these 2, the others in my list are always changing. Currently it's..
King Nine Will Not Return
Enigma buried in the sand, a question mark with broken wings that lies in silent grace as a marker in a desert shrine. Odd how the real consorts with the shadows, how the present fuses with the past. How does it happen? The question is on file in the silent desert. And the answer? The answer is waiting for us in the Twilight Zone.
Just a great errie Mary Celeste type piece, with a twist at the end. Really atmospheric.
To Serve Man
Respectfully submitted for your perusal: a Kanamit. Height: a little over nine feet. Weight: in the neighborhood of three hundred and fifty pounds. Origin: unknown. Motives? Therein hangs the tale, for in just a moment we're going to ask you to shake hands, figuratively, with a Christopher Columbus from another galaxy and another time. This is the Twilight Zone.
First time I saw it was with a bunch of friends. We were drinking and having a good time. I'd bought around a couple of videos. First we watched To Serve Man, then we watched the movie They Live! which also kept us in that paranoid-about-the-aliens mood. Anyway, after that finished we flicked back to the TV where Flying High (known to those in the US as Aeroplane) was on. We were watching it casually when all of a sudden that guy runs on set holding the "To Serve Man" book and screaming "IT'S A COOKBOOK!!". We were flabbergasted. Just a really weird bit of synchronicity.
Nightmare at 20,000 feet.
Portrait of a frightened man: Mr. Robert Wilson, thirty-seven, husband, father, and salesman on sick leave. Mr. Wilson has just been discharged from a sanitarium where he spent the last six months recovering from a nervous breakdown, the onset of which took place on an evening not dissimilar to this one, on an airliner very much like the one in which Mr. Wilson is about to be flown home - the difference being that, on that evening half a year ago, Mr. Wilson's flight was terminated by the onslaught of his mental breakdown. Tonight, he's traveling all the way to his appointed destination, which, contrary to Mr. Wilson's plan, happens to be in the darkest corner of the Twilight Zone.
The Shat was really great in this. The goblin looks shithouse, but who cares, it's a great bit of classic television that had me on the edge of my seat the first time I saw it.
After these 2, the others in my list are always changing. Currently it's..
King Nine Will Not Return
Enigma buried in the sand, a question mark with broken wings that lies in silent grace as a marker in a desert shrine. Odd how the real consorts with the shadows, how the present fuses with the past. How does it happen? The question is on file in the silent desert. And the answer? The answer is waiting for us in the Twilight Zone.
Just a great errie Mary Celeste type piece, with a twist at the end. Really atmospheric.
Re: What are currently your 3 fave episodes of The Twilight Zone and w
Wow... only three? That's a hard choice. Santa Claus and Captain Pike made excellent picks, you can't go wrong with those.
Classic TZ:
The Last Flight... interesting juxtaposition of the WW 1 biplane and a 1959 USAF base. This ep holds up well, interesting to note that more time has passed between now and '59 than the fellow crossed in his biplane... the lead fellow finds the meaning of courage and sacrifices himself to save a squadron mate, who would go on to save many others in WW 2.
And Then The Sky Was Opened... Three guys fly into space and drop off radar for a day. When they return one man vanishes and only the two who were with him remember him. When I say 'vanished' I mean 'vanished without a trace he ever existed'.
This ep has as its base the uncertainty of whether the third man on the flight was real or a hallucination. It turns out the man was real, as the second man vanishes he acts like this is some sort of revelation; as if this were the greatest thing that ever happened to him. Eerie. Sort of like TNG Remember Me, only they don't come back.
In Praise of Pip... timeless tale of a man who's willing to give up his life to save his son, who had been wounded in this far off land few had ever heard of... Vietnam. Jack Klugman and Bill Mumy were outstanding.
People die a lot in Twilight Zone... I suppose it adds to the seriousness of the situation.
Oh, I could go on and pick a fourth, a fifth, a sixth, a seventh... you get the idea. Not that I would cheat and say... Paladin of the Lost Hour... or anything...
Wow... only three? That's a hard choice. Santa Claus and Captain Pike made excellent picks, you can't go wrong with those.
Classic TZ:
The Last Flight... interesting juxtaposition of the WW 1 biplane and a 1959 USAF base. This ep holds up well, interesting to note that more time has passed between now and '59 than the fellow crossed in his biplane... the lead fellow finds the meaning of courage and sacrifices himself to save a squadron mate, who would go on to save many others in WW 2.
And Then The Sky Was Opened... Three guys fly into space and drop off radar for a day. When they return one man vanishes and only the two who were with him remember him. When I say 'vanished' I mean 'vanished without a trace he ever existed'.
This ep has as its base the uncertainty of whether the third man on the flight was real or a hallucination. It turns out the man was real, as the second man vanishes he acts like this is some sort of revelation; as if this were the greatest thing that ever happened to him. Eerie. Sort of like TNG Remember Me, only they don't come back.
In Praise of Pip... timeless tale of a man who's willing to give up his life to save his son, who had been wounded in this far off land few had ever heard of... Vietnam. Jack Klugman and Bill Mumy were outstanding.
People die a lot in Twilight Zone... I suppose it adds to the seriousness of the situation.
Oh, I could go on and pick a fourth, a fifth, a sixth, a seventh... you get the idea. Not that I would cheat and say... Paladin of the Lost Hour... or anything...
Re: What are currently your 3 fave episodes of The Twilight Zone and w
Really hard to say. There are many, many more episodes I need to see (or see again) before I could make a choice.
That said, of the six videotaped episodes, Night of the Meek is probably the best. It's too bad it wasn't shot on 35mm film. Art Carney delivers a great performance in it (and it's Christmas-themed, too!).
Really hard to say. There are many, many more episodes I need to see (or see again) before I could make a choice.
That said, of the six videotaped episodes, Night of the Meek is probably the best. It's too bad it wasn't shot on 35mm film. Art Carney delivers a great performance in it (and it's Christmas-themed, too!).
Re: What are currently your 3 fave episodes of The Twilight Zone and w
This list changes regularly, and as I'm currently (slowly) going through the complete original series on DVD, it's subject to change.
At the moment, they are:
"The Lonely"
The very first TZ filmed (after the pilot episode), this is the one with Jack Warden as a criminal sentenced to life on an asteroid, who is given a beautiful robot played by future Sara Kingdom actress Jean Marsh to keep him company. This has a very stage-play like feel, and the performances of Warden and Marsh are heartbreaking.
"Mr Dingle the Strong"
When the two-headed alien came floating across the room, I fell in love with this intentionally silly episode (one of the few Twilight Zones that were designed to be comedies from start to finish). Burgess Meredith basically plays the same character he did in Time Enough at Last, but with superpowers. We also get some Don Rickles as a bonus.
"The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street"
In my opinion this episode could be remade today without changing a single line of dialogue and it would be as timely and relevant as it was back in 1959. Back then it was aliens being used as analogies for communists. Today, depending on your mood, the analogy could be terrorists. Or it could be Democrats. Someone's gotta make a movie out of this episode. It'll piss a lot of people off, but maybe they'll start thinking again. This episode should be mandatory viewing in every English literature program.
Honorable mentions: Two, An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, One for the Angels, And When the Sky Was Opened, The Last Flight (later effectively remade as the Torchwood episode Out of Time), Mirror Image, The After Hours.
Alex
This list changes regularly, and as I'm currently (slowly) going through the complete original series on DVD, it's subject to change.
At the moment, they are:
"The Lonely"
The very first TZ filmed (after the pilot episode), this is the one with Jack Warden as a criminal sentenced to life on an asteroid, who is given a beautiful robot played by future Sara Kingdom actress Jean Marsh to keep him company. This has a very stage-play like feel, and the performances of Warden and Marsh are heartbreaking.
"Mr Dingle the Strong"
When the two-headed alien came floating across the room, I fell in love with this intentionally silly episode (one of the few Twilight Zones that were designed to be comedies from start to finish). Burgess Meredith basically plays the same character he did in Time Enough at Last, but with superpowers. We also get some Don Rickles as a bonus.
"The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street"
In my opinion this episode could be remade today without changing a single line of dialogue and it would be as timely and relevant as it was back in 1959. Back then it was aliens being used as analogies for communists. Today, depending on your mood, the analogy could be terrorists. Or it could be Democrats. Someone's gotta make a movie out of this episode. It'll piss a lot of people off, but maybe they'll start thinking again. This episode should be mandatory viewing in every English literature program.
Honorable mentions: Two, An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, One for the Angels, And When the Sky Was Opened, The Last Flight (later effectively remade as the Torchwood episode Out of Time), Mirror Image, The After Hours.
Alex
Re: What are currently your 3 fave episodes of The Twilight Zone and w
The Lonely ... Convict marooned on a asteroid receives a fembot, alway stuck in my head, even as a child the economics of this seemed wrong.
The Howling Man ... The ending gave me a profound religious jolt.
Demon with a Glass Hand ... My number one all time favorite, love Robert Culp in anything. Nice to see T'Pring get work.
The Lonely ... Convict marooned on a asteroid receives a fembot, alway stuck in my head, even as a child the economics of this seemed wrong.
The Howling Man ... The ending gave me a profound religious jolt.
Demon with a Glass Hand ... My number one all time favorite, love Robert Culp in anything. Nice to see T'Pring get work.
Re: What are currently your 3 fave episodes of The Twilight Zone and w
'To Serve Man,' 'Nightmare at 20,000 Feet,' and 'Eye of the Beholder' were the first three that popped into my head as obvious choices, but since those have already been picked I'll add one more...
"I Shot An Arrow Into The Air" -
Written by Rod Serling, this episode is derived from the uncertainty and mystery surrounding the early days of space travel. Here, the ultimate irony takes place as an American space ship launches destined for worlds unknown and crashes in barren territory mistaken for another planet. The result is turmoil among men as all seems lost and skirmishes claim all but one astronaut, who discovers too late they have crashed only miles from their take-off site...on Earth.
The Longfellow poem 'The Arrow and the Song' that gave the episode its name would hint at the twist ending with its first line: "I shot an arrow into the air, it fell to earth I knew not where." The twist would be tweaked and reused in Serling's early script for 'Planet of the Apes' and obviously survived to make it into the finished films shocking ending.
If you can find it somewhere, you might want to check out the 2002 'Twilight Zone' revival version of this episode, where they did actually substitute a faked terrorist plot for the alien/commie analogy.
Whereas the original episode centered around an alien invasion, the remake is more about the fear of terrorism in America and how it drives people apart. When the power surge happens in the remake, it is not caused by aliens but by the government, specifically the army, experimenting on how small towns react to the fear of terrorism. In the end, the neighborhood takes out its anger and frustration on a family who never left their house after the power surge occurred, thinking that they caused it since they still have power.
The message of this story really is timeless. I especially liked the closing narration of the original:
"The tools of conquest do not necessarily come with bombs and explosions and fallout. There are weapons that are simply thoughts, attitudes, prejudices, to be found only in the minds of men. For the record, prejudices can kill, and suspicion can destroy, and the frightened, thoughtless search for a scapegoat has a fallout all of its own: for the children, and the children yet unborn. And the pity of it is that these things cannot be confined to the Twilight Zone."
'To Serve Man,' 'Nightmare at 20,000 Feet,' and 'Eye of the Beholder' were the first three that popped into my head as obvious choices, but since those have already been picked I'll add one more...
"I Shot An Arrow Into The Air" -
Written by Rod Serling, this episode is derived from the uncertainty and mystery surrounding the early days of space travel. Here, the ultimate irony takes place as an American space ship launches destined for worlds unknown and crashes in barren territory mistaken for another planet. The result is turmoil among men as all seems lost and skirmishes claim all but one astronaut, who discovers too late they have crashed only miles from their take-off site...on Earth.
The Longfellow poem 'The Arrow and the Song' that gave the episode its name would hint at the twist ending with its first line: "I shot an arrow into the air, it fell to earth I knew not where." The twist would be tweaked and reused in Serling's early script for 'Planet of the Apes' and obviously survived to make it into the finished films shocking ending.
If you can find it somewhere, you might want to check out the 2002 'Twilight Zone' revival version of this episode, where they did actually substitute a faked terrorist plot for the alien/commie analogy.
Whereas the original episode centered around an alien invasion, the remake is more about the fear of terrorism in America and how it drives people apart. When the power surge happens in the remake, it is not caused by aliens but by the government, specifically the army, experimenting on how small towns react to the fear of terrorism. In the end, the neighborhood takes out its anger and frustration on a family who never left their house after the power surge occurred, thinking that they caused it since they still have power.
The message of this story really is timeless. I especially liked the closing narration of the original:
"The tools of conquest do not necessarily come with bombs and explosions and fallout. There are weapons that are simply thoughts, attitudes, prejudices, to be found only in the minds of men. For the record, prejudices can kill, and suspicion can destroy, and the frightened, thoughtless search for a scapegoat has a fallout all of its own: for the children, and the children yet unborn. And the pity of it is that these things cannot be confined to the Twilight Zone."
MeanJoePhaser
Admiral
Re: What are currently your 3 fave episodes of The Twilight Zone and w
Number 12 Looks Just Like You
There's a utopian future. No old looking or ugly people. Fuck whatever the real message was. Bring on the perky bimbo society!
To Serve Man
V summed up. No need to watch V.
The Rip Van Winkle Caper
Smart criminals do stupid shit.
Number 12 Looks Just Like You
There's a utopian future. No old looking or ugly people. Fuck whatever the real message was. Bring on the perky bimbo society!
To Serve Man
V summed up. No need to watch V.
The Rip Van Winkle Caper
Smart criminals do stupid shit.
Re: What are currently your 3 fave episodes of The Twilight Zone and w
The 2002 series made so little impact on me I completely forgot about it. I remember hearing they'd remade a few episodes, which at the time meant to me they'd already run out of ideas. I still feel that way, but I will make an exception for Maple Street. If the next TZ incarnation wants to do a remake of it as well, I'm all for it.
Alex
The 2002 series made so little impact on me I completely forgot about it. I remember hearing they'd remade a few episodes, which at the time meant to me they'd already run out of ideas. I still feel that way, but I will make an exception for Maple Street. If the next TZ incarnation wants to do a remake of it as well, I'm all for it.
Alex
Re: What are currently your 3 fave episodes of The Twilight Zone and w
Demon was The Outer Limits, not Twilight Zone. But holy fuck! I never realized that Consuello was the same actress as T'Pring. Seems obvious now.
Demon was The Outer Limits, not Twilight Zone. But holy fuck! I never realized that Consuello was the same actress as T'Pring. Seems obvious now.
Re: What are currently your 3 fave episodes of The Twilight Zone and w
There are so many; I have to pick just three?
*What You Need
Why?
Arlene Sax...
....And I like the fact that there is an underdog who takes on a big bully.
*The New Exhibit
Why?
It's creepy, it's funny...
*Nick of Time
Why?
Shatner in a non-Trek role; his acting is pretty good too!
There are so many; I have to pick just three?
*What You Need
Why?
Arlene Sax...
....And I like the fact that there is an underdog who takes on a big bully.
*The New Exhibit
Why?
It's creepy, it's funny...
*Nick of Time
Why?
Shatner in a non-Trek role; his acting is pretty good too!
Re: What are currently your 3 fave episodes of The Twilight Zone and w
Terror at whatever feet with William Shatner. For obvious reasons.
The one where the dude breaks his glasses and can't read all of the books after the end of the world
And... I'm not sure on the third.
Terror at whatever feet with William Shatner. For obvious reasons.
The one where the dude breaks his glasses and can't read all of the books after the end of the world
And... I'm not sure on the third.
Re: What are currently your 3 fave episodes of The Twilight Zone and w
Most of my favorite episodes are from the 80's version, since that was what I grew up watching:
- "Profile in Silver": A descendant of JFK travels back in time and saves the president's life, then learns that the new timeline will lead to disaster. So he goes back again, takes JFK's place - and is shot, while sending the real president to the future. Absolutely heartbreaking to watch. Top notch acting all around, especially Andrew Robinson (as JFK) and the late Lane Smith (as the time traveler).
- "Dead Run": A truck driver takes a job delivering dead souls to Hell, then finds that some of them don't deserve to be there. Some great performances by Trek actors John DeLancie and Brent Spiner (although Brent's not very recognizable except for his voice).
- "The Star": An adaptation of the Arthur C. Clarke story about an expedition to a world destroyed by a supernova. The twist is that the supernova was visible on Earth long ago...as the Star of Bethlehem.
Most of my favorite episodes are from the 80's version, since that was what I grew up watching:
- "Profile in Silver": A descendant of JFK travels back in time and saves the president's life, then learns that the new timeline will lead to disaster. So he goes back again, takes JFK's place - and is shot, while sending the real president to the future. Absolutely heartbreaking to watch. Top notch acting all around, especially Andrew Robinson (as JFK) and the late Lane Smith (as the time traveler).
- "Dead Run": A truck driver takes a job delivering dead souls to Hell, then finds that some of them don't deserve to be there. Some great performances by Trek actors John DeLancie and Brent Spiner (although Brent's not very recognizable except for his voice).
- "The Star": An adaptation of the Arthur C. Clarke story about an expedition to a world destroyed by a supernova. The twist is that the supernova was visible on Earth long ago...as the Star of Bethlehem.
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