Like everyone else in California, I’ve found myself
stuck at home as part of the COVID-19 quarantine measures. Due to the need to stave off a horrific
combination of boredom and overwhelming anxiety over the current state of the
world, I decided to watch The Twilight
Zone. After all, perhaps
surprisingly, I’ve actually never seen the entire series before. And why not now, when we’re all living in a
crappy episode anyways?
Since I’m watching the series, I thought I’d give a writeup of episodes I
watch, as a sort of not-quite-liveblogging thing. I might not go in order, or write for every
episode. I actually hope that I won’t get through writing about every
episode, since that would mean quarantine has lasted THAT long.
For both convenience and thematic reasons, I started
with Season 1, Episode 1. Convenience,
since it’s the very first episode, and thematic because it’s about the effects of isolation. You know, that thing we’re all going through
right now. I’ve actually seen this
episode before; it was the very first episode I watched when I borrowed the DVD
set from the library back in 2002, when Tower of Terror spurred me to look up
the original series. So I knew the plot
and the twist, but hadn’t seen it since then, and wanted to refresh my memory.
Official summary, according to Hulu: “A man finds
himself in a town devoid of people and with no memory of who he is.”
Original airdate: October 2, 1959 (Hey, the permit
number for the Hollywood Tower’s elevator!)
The episode begins with the haunting season 1 theme
tune. While less iconic than the later
“do dee do dooo” theme song I mostly associate with the series, I can’t help
but love the original theme. It’s so
dreamlike, it really matches the original opening narration describing the
Twilight Zone thusly:
“There is a fifth dimension, beyond that which is
known to man. It is a dimension as vast
as space and timeless as infinity. It is
the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition,
and it lies between the pit of man’s fears and the summit of his
knowledge. This is the dimension of
imagination. It is an area we call the
Twilight Zone.”
Much like the music that accompanies it, this
narration is less iconic than later opening narrations (such as the one that
provided my blog title), but incredibly beautiful and poetic.
Also, I can’t help but have a soft spot for this
music, since it served as the basis for DCA Tower’s exit corridor music.
Speaking of theme parks, given how accidentally
connected the Twilight Zone became to general parks lore via SEA, I can’t help
but chuckle at “dimension of imagination.”
Welcome to the Twilight Zone, Figment! (He is imprisoned in Mission
Breakout, for what it’s worth.)
The opening narration specific to this episode gave
me chills:
“The place is here, the time is now, and the journey
into the shadows that we’re about to watch could be our journey.”
Well, Rod Serling-in-1959, given that this is a
story about isolation and in 2020 everyone’s being required to be isolated,
unfortunately this IS our journey. Yay.
On another note, I’m fairly positive that “the time
is now” was either spliced in to Tower’s pre-show narration, or the direction
for the voice actor recording the narration was to match the exact cadence of
the way the phrase was said here. It
sounds identical, either way, to the point that I did a double take upon
hearing it in this episode.
In general, this is a great exercise in minimalist suspense and horror. The majority of it is just one guy running
around a mysteriously empty town, freaking out more and more in the
process. It does a lot with very little;
a lot of the horror is accomplished by simple things like lights turning on and
off, or some clothes fluttering on a mannequin in the background. Camera angles and the soundtrack also cover a
lot of ground in establishing the tense atmosphere. Everything feels fresh and engaging, to the
point where it’s surprising when obvious reminders of the episode’s age show
up. It all feels current until $2.88 is
brought up as a significant amount of money, or the protagonist expects to talk
to a human phone operator instead of a robotic one. One obviously flimsy door the protagonists
rushes through near the end is also unintentionally humorous.
Story wise, the majority of this episode reminds me
of I Am Legend, but without the
zombie vampires and with a very different ending reveal. Interestingly, the original book I Am Legend was published by Richard
Matheson in 1954. While Matheson would
become one of the most famous writers for The
Twilight Zone, he didn’t write this episode; it’s credited to Rod Serling. The emphasis on dreams, dreaming, and waking
up also called Inception to mind.
Another thing that looks familiar—for good reason—is
the town our unfortunate protagonist is trapped in! Universal Studios Hollywood fans will
recognize that as the Courthouse Square, used in many movies and shows throughout
the years, but most famously associated with Back to the Future. This is
one of the few episodes not filmed on the MGM studios lot. The “Battle Hymn” on the movie theater
marquee is the title of a Universal Studios movie.
Of course, the ending reveal is that the protagonist
is not in fact stuck in an abandoned town, but instead has begun hallucinating
after over 2 weeks in isolation as part of a military experiment to see if man
can make it to the moon (yet another sudden reminder of the episode’s age!). The official overseeing the test asserts
that, despite all the entertainment they can provide, any person will start to
crack if they’re denied contact with others for too long. Still, our protagonist remains determined to
actually complete that moon trip.
The closing narration is thus:
“Up there in the vastness of space, in the void that
is sky, up there is an enemy known as isolation. It sits there in the stars waiting, waiting
with the patience of eons, forever waiting… in the Twilight Zone.”
Ah, so isolation is the enemy. Great…that’s just great to hear right now. Uh,
welcome to the Twilight Zone everybody!
Yeah, this episode hit closer to home than I
expected, even though I remembered the subject matter and plot. Honestly, part of my concern with the current
world situation is what the state of the survivors will be when the pandemic
eventually abates. What kind of world
will it be if all of us have gone stir crazy in the meantime?
Here’s hoping video chat and cell phones can fulfill
that “human interaction” thing.
One last fun fact for the road: This episode had an
Easter Egg in the DCA Tower that I believe went undiscovered until after DCA
Tower was dismantled! On the bulletin
board in the boiler room was an advertisement for casting a play titled “Where
is Everybody?”. I discovered this when I
viewed the board at the Van Eaton Gallery.
I’ve actually never seen anyone else mention this Easter Egg, so I take
pride that I might have been the first to discover it!
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