Tag: Charles Beaumont

Twilight Zone – Elegy

★★★★  February 19, 1960 Season 1 Episode 20

If you want to see where we are…HERE is a list of the episodes.

This episode gets to me when I see it. You feel the confusion of the astronauts as they land on a planet that everything is frozen in time…literally frozen in time. Everybody on this strange planet is just standing or sitting  still. A beauty pageant is going on, men fishing and they are all still.

After exploring everywhere an older man finally talked to them…Jeremy Wickwire (I love that name). He explains what is going on and where they are… and then does something just terrible.

It’s an good episode and the Twilight Zone will explore this plot a little more in the future. We are certainly on a great streak of shows…only broken by The Fever.

The flashing dials in the spaceship seen right after landing are the same ones used in Forbidden Planet

Charles Beaumont wrote this years earlier under the guidance and influence of Beaumont’s literary mentor, Ray Bradbury…THAT is some mentor.

This show was written by Charles Beaumont

Rod Serling’s Opening Narration: 

The time is the day after tomorrow. The place: a far corner of the universe. A cast of characters: three men lost amongst the stars. Three men sharing the common urgency of all men lost. They’re looking for home. And in a moment, they’ll find home; not a home that is a place to be seen, but a strange unexplainable experience to be felt.

Summary

In a far corner of the universe, a spaceship with three astronauts lands on a planet with gravity and air conditions virtually identical to that on Earth. Their surroundings appear as Earth did 200 years ago but the planet has two suns so they’re fairly certain they didn’t somehow end up back home. People however seem to be frozen in time. They eventually stumble upon Jeremy Wickwire, who is the caretaker for the locale. His explanation of what he is and where they are defies belief but in the end, he does grant them their wish.

This one is a good episode. I will admit the first time I watched it…I hadn’t worked out the twist.

Rod Serling’s Closing Narration:

Kirby, Webber, and Meyers, three men lost. They shared a common wish—a simple one, really. They wanted to be aboard their ship headed for home. And fate—a laughing fate—a practical jokester with a smile stretched across the stars, saw to it that they got their wish with just one reservation: the wish came true, but only in the Twilight Zone.

CAST

Cecil Kellaway … Jeremy Wickwire
Jeff Morrow … Kurt Meyers
Don Dubbins … Peter Kirby
Kevin Hagen … Captain James Webber
Walter Bacon … Beauty Contest Guest (uncredited)
Frank Baker … Hotel Guest (uncredited)
George Boyce … Minor Role (uncredited)
Barbara Chrysler Barbara Chrysler … Beauty Contestant (uncredited)
Alphonso DuBois … Minor Role (uncredited)
Joseph Glick … Rally Spectator (uncredited)
Chester Hayes … Ice Cream Man (uncredited)
Jimmie Horan … Minor Role (uncredited)
June McCall … Beauty Contestant (uncredited)
William Meader … Minor Role (uncredited)
Spec O’Donnell … Poker Player (uncredited)
Charles Perry … Spectator at Rally (uncredited)
Joe Ploski … Beauty Contest Guest (uncredited)
Paul Power … Farmer (uncredited)
Rod Serling … Narrator (voice) (uncredited)
Stephen Soldi … Minor Role (uncredited)
Jack Stoney … Finch (uncredited)
Martin Strader … Minor Role (uncredited)
Walton Walker … Minor Role (uncredited)
Sally Yarnell … Waitress (uncredited)

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Twilight Zone – Perchance to Dream

★★★ November 27, 1959 Season 1 Episode 9  (Episode 8 is Time Enough At Last which I covered in my top 10)

If you want to see where we are…HERE is a list of the episodes.

This one gets really creepy. Filmed in black and white works in the favor of this episode. It’s never been a favorite of mine but does have some scary scenes. I like the way they do the eerie dream scenes. A carnival at night with a cloudy atmosphere that is downright creepy. Suzanne Lloyd is stunning as Maya in Edward’s nightmares and as the secretary Miss Thomas.

The end has a nice twist but it’s not a classic episode but a good one.

This was the first Twilight Zone episode aired that was written by Charles Beaumont and also the first that was not written by Rod Serling. This episode was based upon a short story of the same name by Beaumont that was first published in the November 1958 issue of Playboy magazine.

This show was written by  Charles Beaumont

Rod Serling’s Opening Narration: 

Twelve o’clock noon. An ordinary scene, an ordinary city. Lunchtime for thousands of ordinary people. To most of them, this hour will be a rest, a pleasant break in a day’s routine. To most, but not all. To Edward Hall, time is an enemy, and the hour to come is a matter of life and death.

Summary

Edward Hall seeks the help of a psychiatrist, Dr. Rathman. He tells the doctor he hasn’t slept for days, and has been taking pills to stay awake, because he has a fear that if he does go sleep, he’ll die. He’s been having a series of dreams where each on’s part of a long story – like chapters in a book. The main character in his dream other than himself is a beautiful young woman, named Maya. He’s now reached the point of the story where he believes Maya will kill him and so he’s terrified to fall asleep.

Rod Serling’s Closing Narration:

They say a dream takes only a second or so, and yet in that second a man can live a lifetime. He can suffer and die, and who’s to say which is the greater reality: the one we know or the one in dreams, between heaven, the sky, the earth – in the Twilight Zone.

CAST

Richard Conte … Edward Hall
John Larch … Dr. Eliot Rathmann
Suzanne Lloyd … Maya / Miss Thomas

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