The Twilight Zone (1985) [Season 1, Episode 1]
Shatterday
Shown 27/Sep/85
Bruce Willis ( 5th Element ) is drinking in a bar. Back when this was made he was a jobbing actor, making most of his money as a bartender, so there is a certain irony. He tries to make a phone call, accidentally dials home, and ends up speaking to himself! They wage war on each other, conducted over the phone - one in a comfy apartment, the other in a cold wet phone booth.
Willis carries the entire story, and he does a great job of it. The Producers must have seen his potential, because this is the first episode of a show they invested a lot of money in. The director was Wes Craven and the script is based on a short story by Harlan Ellison , so they certainly pulled out all the stops.
The Twilight Zone (1985) [Season 1, Episode 2]
A Little Peace and Quiet
Shown 27/Sep/85
An American suburban housewife is stressed out by her family. However, she discovers she has a superpower. Every time she tells them to shut up, she somehow freezes all of space and time.
Her power does not just work on her husband and children. When some friendly people drop by to tell her about the dangers of nuclear war, she uses her superpower to humiliate them. Yes, instead of using her power to prevent global armageddon she mocks the people who actually care about the world.
Eventually, Russia nukes the USA. However, the woman can use her power to stop the bombs from landing. The down side is that she is the only one who does not freeze, so she will spend the rest of her life alone.
The Twilight Zone (1985) [Season 1, Episode 3]
Wordplay
Shown 04/Oct/85
This was directed by Wes Craven and written by Rockne S. O'Bannon .
A middle-aged telesales worker is stressed by having to learn the names of new products he has to sell. However, things get worse for him when he realises that everyday English-language words have changed their meaning. Dinosaur means lunch, lunch means pink and so on. His wife ( Annie Potts ) is shocked and frustrated by his apparent inability to make coherent sense. Worse, their son is taken seriously ill.
The Twilight Zone (1985) [Season 1, Episode 4]
Dreams for Sale
Shown 04/Oct/85
Meg Foster is on a picnic with her husband and children. However, reality starts to freeze-frame like a glitch in The Matrix !
There is no moral to the story, only a question. Is it better to have a long life in depressing servitude, or to live briefly in a beautiful dream?
The Twilight Zone (1985) [Season 1, Episode 5]
Chameleon
Shown 04/Oct/85
A NASA space shuttle, portrayed through the use of actual NASA mission footage, collects a sample from orbit. Back on Earth, scientists led by Terence Quinn ( Lost ) investigate the alien life form.
The alien is incredibly powerful. First, it disentigrates one of the scientists who touches it. Then it appears as a duplicate of the scientist. Finally it becomes the man's wife ( Lin Shaye ), created entirely from the dead man's memories.
The Twilight Zone (1985) [Season 1, Episode 6]
Healer
Shown 11/Oct/85
An impoverished burglar (Eric Bogosian - Under Siege 2 ) steals a magical rock. It gives him healing powers. However, he does not realise that there are strings attached.
The Twilight Zone (1985) [Season 1, Episode 7]
Children's Zoo
Shown 11/Oct/85
A young girl is troubled by her parents' constant arguing. However, she gets them to take her to a new zoo that she has a free ticket for. When they arrive at the zoo, the parents are sent to a waiting area while the youngster gets sent in alone. It turns out not to be a petting zoo, more of a choose-one-to-keep sanctuary.
This was co-written by Gerritt Graham ( ), directed by Robert Downey , and features a cameo by Wes Craven as one of the parents inside the zoo.
The Twilight Zone (1985) [Season 1, Episode 8]
Kentucky Rye
Shown 11/Oct/85
The Twilight Zone (1985) [Season 1, Episode 9]
Little Boy Lost
Shown 18/Oct/85
A female photo-journalist ( Season Hubley ) is torn between her career and her personal life. Her boyfriend, a middle-aged man, wants to settle down and have children. However, she has other plans.
While out on a photo assignment, she meets a young boy. She takes him to the zoo. Luckily it is not the same one as The Twilight Zone (1985) [Season 1, Episode 7] Children's Zoo.
Will she live in order to work, or simply work in order to live? The boyfriend is portrayed as villainous, or at the very least unsupportive, but at the end of the day the dilemma is of the woman's own making. She must merely evaluate her own values and goals in life.
The Twilight Zone (1985) [Season 1, Episode 10]
Wish Bank
Shown 18/Oct/85
Dee Wallace Stone attends a garage sale with her gal-pal Julie Carmen . They discover a magical oil-lamp with the caveat certain restrictions may apply! Rather than meet an Arabian Genie, she materialises in a bank with Nigel Havers lookalike who offers her three wishes. However, the wishes come with a lot of red tape.
The Twilight Zone (1985) [Season 1, Episode 11]
Nightcrawlers
Shown 18/Oct/85
This was directed by William Friedkin , based on a short story by Robert R McCammon.
It is a dark and stormy night. A police officer stops off at a roadside diner for coffee and donuts. He is soon joined by a crazed loner, who creeps everyone out with a cliched tale of carnage in the Vietnam conflict.
In the second half of the story, the stranger's nightmares come true. He and everyone else in the diner must relive a murderous gunfight.
The Twilight Zone (1985) [Season 1, Episode 12]
If She Dies
Shown 25/Oct/85
A widowered man drives his pre-teen daughter to school. Unfortunately the car crashes, and the girl ends up in hospital.
On the way home from hospital the man sees a ghostly little girl. This inspires him to buy some antiques from a nun who is raising money for charity.
The Twilight Zone (1985) [Season 1, Episode 13]
Ye Gods
Shown 25/Oct/85
A 1980s Cupid tries to get a yuppie to fall in love. Unfortunately it is not as easy as it seems.
The Yuppie decides to accept Cupid's gift. But first he must return the favour, and help Cupid get back with his lost love, Megaera ( Carolyn Seymour ).
The Twilight Zone (1985) [Season 1, Episode 14]
Examination Day
Shown 01/Nov/85
In a utopian future, a young boy celebrates his twelfth birthday. However, his parents are nervous because the law states he must sit a special mandatory IQ test. It turns out that the society is not dissimilar to that of Harrison Bergeron .
The Twilight Zone (1985) [Season 1, Episode 15]
A Message from Charity
Shown 01/Nov/85
A Massachussets college boy in the 1980s (Robert Duncan McNeill - Star Trek: Voyager ) falls ill. He develops a psychic bond with Charity, a girl of the same age who lived in the same town ... three hundred years earlier. They talk a lot, telepathically, like pen-pals. Unfortunately this incurrs the suspicion of her father (James Cromwell - Star Trek: First Contact ).
This is a double-length story. In the second episode, shown from Charity's perspective, she is arrested by the Salem witch-hunter. She goes on the run, with Tom Parris giving her real-time advice from the future. Finally, at her suggestion, he looks up a history book.
Michael Fox is listed in the credits as a character named Tom Carter. This is not the familiar actor from Back To The Future , who inserted a J to pad his name out.
The Twilight Zone (1985) [Season 1, Episode 16]
Teacher's Aide
Shown 08/Nov/85
Adrienne Barbeau is teacher at a US High School. The place is run by a 1980s interracial street-gang, and the Principal states the school has more gang fights than graduations. However, they filmed it on location at a nice suburban school reminiscent of Sunnydale High in Buffy the Vampire Slayer , and the tweenager gang members all have matching jackets like in Grease.
The teacher invokes the wrath of the gang leader simply by doing her job. Luckily for her, the school has a magical gargoyle on the roof. Well, the school was only built within the last fifty years and the statue is technically a grotesque and not a gargoyle, but it certainly has some kind of magic powers. It somehow possesses her or something, and gives her the strength to defeat the gang. However, it wants to take over her body, and she starts to metamorphose.
The Twilight Zone (1985) [Season 1, Episode 17]
Paladin of the Lost Hour
Shown 08/Nov/85
This was written by Harlan Ellison , based on a short story of his, and directed by the world-famous Alan Smithee .
An old white man (Danny Kaye - ) is mugged while visiting his wife's grave. The muggers are African-American, a typically racist stereotype, but the bystander who comes to rescue him is also African-American (Glynn Turman - ). The victim and the bystander bond, and eventually the bystander learns why the victim's pocket-watch is so important.
The Twilight Zone (1985) [Season 1, Episode 18]
Act Break
Shown 15/Nov/85
An off-Broadway playwright owes money to Avery Schreiber ( Galaxina ). The man then gets his hands on a magical amulet. Unfortunately the amulet only allows one wish per person.
The amulet decides certain things for itself. For example, when a wish invokes the greatest playwright in the world the amulet makes a judgement call about who that might be. Yes, everyone is a critic - and so is every magical artefact, it seems.
The Twilight Zone (1985) [Season 1, Episode 19]
The Burning Man
Shown 15/Nov/85
Piper Laurie takes her nephew for a drive in the Great Depression era. They pick up a hitch-hiker, a crazy old hobo who claims he is being chased by the sun. Unfortunately he turns out to be just as crazy as he seems.
The Twilight Zone (1985) [Season 1, Episode 20]
Dealer's Choice
Shown 15/Nov/85
M Emmett Walsh (Red Scorpion) and Morgan Freeman ( Bruce Almighty ) enjoy their weekly poker game with Nick (Dan Hedaya - Alien Resurrection ). However, Nick has to come out of the closet and admit he is ... the Devil. This explains his love for the sin of gambling, and the fact that he is so supernaturally good at it.
They end up in a poker match for real stakes - a man's soul. Will the Devil cheat, or is he a good loser?
The Twilight Zone (1985) [Season 1, Episode 21]
Dead Woman's Shoes
Shown 22/Nov/85
A timid woman ( Helen Mirren ) works in a thrift store. One day she tries on an expensive-looking pair of black shoes. Unfortunately they are haunted by the spirit of a bitchy rich lady, so the timid woman gets possessed. Worse, the ghost has unfinished business with her husband.
The Twilight Zone (1985) [Season 1, Episode 22]
Wong's Lost and Found Emporium
Shown 22/Nov/85
A Chinese-American named Wong enters a Lost and Found Emporium in San Francisco. There are no staff members on duty in the shop, but soon he meets other customers. They are seeking metaphysical things like lost time and lost love.
The Twilight Zone (1985) [Season 1, Episode 23]
The Shadow Man
Shown 29/Nov/85
This was Directed by Joe Dante and written by Rockne S. O'Bannon .
A bunch of High School kids play a prank on a nerdy kid. Obviously they have never seen Carrie , so they do not know that this is a bad idea. Well, genre blindness is a major trope in Horror fiction. After all, if nobody transgressed they would not get their come-uppance.
The victim has another shock that night. A monster lives under his bed - The Shadow Man. The good news is, this monster cannot harm him. This does not protect the school bullies, who are off-screen targets for the monster.
The small print in the arrangement is that The Shadow Man cannot harm the one under whose bed he sleeps. Unfortunately the teenage protagonist does not see how this could go wrong for him.
The Twilight Zone (1985) [Season 1, Episode 24]
The Uncle Devil Show
Shown 29/Nov/85
A suburban couple ignore their young son as he watches a TV show that encourages him to perform Black Magic rites. In this heavy-handed slam on parental irresponsibility, it turns out that the Black Magic has real consequences.
Of the three eps in the portmanteau, this is the odd one out, with its comedic tone. It was directed by someone named David Steinberg - he is not a recognisable name the way the others ( John Milius, Joe Dante ) are, but apparently he has directed a lot of comedy stuff for television.
The Twilight Zone (1985) [Season 1, Episode 25]
Opening Day
Shown 29/Nov/85
Jeffrey Jones ( Howard the Duck ), here credited as a young Jeff Jones, is married to a beautiful woman. She is having an affair with his best buddy (Martin Kove - Karate Kid). The Femme Fatale seduces Kove into killing his friend. But Kove must relive the day ... in his victim's role.
This was directed by John Milius and co-written by Gerrit Graham ( Now and Again ). The odd one out from the all-star cast and crew is the female lead ( Elan Oberon ). It turns out she is the Director's wife, and all her acting credits are in his films!
The Twilight Zone (1985) [Season 1, Episode 26]
The Beacon
Shown 06/Dec/85
A doctor (Charles Martin Smith - The Untouchables) gets lost driving home. His car breaks down, so he walks to the nearest village. As always, the villagers are a strange lot. The shopkeeper (Martin Landau - Ed Wood ) is a curmudgeonly sort. A local boy, Teddy, does not know what a doctor is - even though his sister Katie is in her sickbed.
The doctor helps Katie, but then discovers the villagers' secret. The Beacon of the title is the village's lighthouse, which has magic powers. It apparently protects the villagers, but in return it takes human sacrifices. Shades of The Wicker Man ...
The Twilight Zone (1985) [Season 1, Episode 27]
One Life, Furnished in Early Poverty
Shown 06/Dec/85
A thirty-something writer (Peter Riegert - The Mask ) visits his childhood home in Ohio. He discovers himself back in time, circa 1960, where he befriends his younger self and tries to stop himself from making bad life choices.
The Twilight Zone (1985) [Season 1, Episode 28]
Her Pilgrim Soul
Shown 13/Dec/85
Gary Cole ( American Gothic (1995) ) is research assistant on a project to build a perfect hologram. He discovers an apparent glitch in the computer program. It self-generates a foetus.
The head scientist and his wife have a rocky marriage. She wants to have a child, but he prefers to concentrate his attention on the project. Ironically the computer glitch grows into a hologram girl.
The holo-girl grows ten months per hour, or ten years a day. Is she an artificial intelligence, a ghost or a time-traveller? To be continued!
The Twilight Zone (1985) [Season 1, Episode 29]
I of Newton
Shown 13/Dec/85
An African-American scientist cannot finish his equation. He inadvertently summons a demon (Ron Glass) who offers to sell him the answer in exchange for his soul.
This is based on a short story by Joe Haldeman .
The Twilight Zone (1985) [Season 1, Episode 30]
Night of the Meek
Shown 20/Dec/85
A Department store Santa (Richard Mulligan - ) is late back to work after a liquid lunch. His boss (William Atherton - Biodome ) is not happy with him, but has bigger problems to worry about. The item intended as his wife's gift has disappeared.
The Store Santa discovers that his prop sack is a magical bag of holding. He can pull gifts out that are precisely what the recipient wants. He even has a pair of spectacles that have the precise prescription for the wearer!
The store manager assumes that all the gifts have been stolen from the store. He calls the cops, including a young Jeff Kober ( Tank Girl ). They believe that Santa is guilty until proven innocent, and that the burden of proof is on him to prove that he paid for the items. Can the bag magically produce itemised reciepts for everything?
The Twilight Zone (1985) [Season 1, Episode 31]
But Can She Type?
Shown 20/Dec/85
A hard-working secretary ( Pam Dawber ) does all the work in the office, but her boss takes her for granted. Then she discovers that the photocopier opens a magic portal to a parallel universe.
The alternate universe is one where secretaries are highly valued, due to their very specific set of skills. After all, they are to offices what engineers are to spacecraft. Without them, the bureaucracies would be unable to run. One of the benefits of her newfound status is that Jonathan Frakes ( Star Trek: TNG ) attempts to seduce her.
The Twilight Zone (1985) [Season 1, Episode 32]
The Star
Shown 20/Dec/85
This is based on a story by Arthur C. Clarke . A starship captained by Donald Moffatt ( The Thing ) explores the remains of a star system that went supernova over three thousand years before the Common Era.
The ship's Chaplain finds his faith tested when the remains of an alien civilization is discovered. Worse, the peaceful aliens were wiped out by an explosion that was not seen on Earth until just over three thousand years later.
The Twilight Zone (1985) [Season 1, Episode 33]
Still Life
Shown 03/Jan/86
The Twilight Zone (1985) [Season 1, Episode 34]
The Little People of Killany Woods
Shown 03/Jan/86
This was written and directed by J.D Feigelson , obviously a believer in the auteur theory.
The story starts in Kelly's Pub in good old Oireland, bejaysus. O'Shaughnessy the drunk claims to have seen The Little People of Killany Woods. The other drinkers do not take kindly to this, because they are out of work and they evidently blame the Wee Folk.
The town bully threatens to make a report to the Constable. Presumably this is set before 1921, when the Royal Irish Constabulary was replaced with the Garda Siochana.
The Twilight Zone (1985) [Season 1, Episode 35]
The Misfortune Cookie
Shown 03/Jan/86
Restuarant critic Elliott Gould ( Capricorn One ) is an unethical bastard who writes fraudulent critical reviews of establishments he has never dined in. He tries that on a Chinese Restuarant, and discovers that the fortune cookies they give out have fortunes that come true! Unfortunately he discovers that people only get the fortunes they deserve.
The Twilight Zone (1985) [Season 1, Episode 36]
Monsters!
Shown 24/Jan/86
We start with a POV shot though the mask's eye-holes, like in Halloween . The protagonist is a teenage boy who has memorabilia from monster movies like Gremlins .
The boy discovers his new neighbour is Old Man Bendicksen (Ralph Bellamy - Trading Places). The old man is friendly, and knows a lot about monsters. Also, he has a fridge full of blood-bags.
The boy gets a summer cold. His mother ( Kathleen Lloyd ) does her best to look after him. Soon the whole family is down with it. It turns out that this has something to do with the old man, but not in the way you would expect.
The Twilight Zone (1985) [Season 1, Episode 37]
A Small Talent of War
Shown 24/Jan/86
Alien Ambassador Jon Glover ( Smallville ) arrives at the United Nations, and in his electronically modified voice he tells the ambassadors that the human race is about to become extinct. His armada will arrive in 24 hours time. Can they come to an agreement and save the world?
Nobody asks the question, if the aliens are pacifists then why do they have an armada of planet-destroying ships? And the UN diplomats are sceptical that they can make common cause together. How ironic, since the UN was invented by FDR during the Second World War as an alliance between the five allied superpowers, who are still the five permanent members of the UN Security Council.
The Twilight Zone (1985) [Season 1, Episode 38]
A Matter of Minutes
Shown 24/Jan/86
A man (Adam Arkin - ) and his wife ( Karen Austin ) wake up to discover stranger men in blue uniforms re-decorating their house. In fact, the men are re-dressing the entire suburb.
Luckily, a foreman is around to give exposition. This is like The Langoliers , but with the set-up crew instead of the clean-up monsters. However, can they get back into real time again?
The Twilight Zone (1985) [Season 1, Episode 39]
The Elevator
Shown 31/Jan/86
This was written by Ray Bradbury .
A couple of young men break into a disused factory at night. They are in search of the owner, their father, who has not been seen lately. He was conducting secret experiments to create a cheap nutritious food source. One hates to invoke A Modest Proposal, but it sounds like he invented Soylent Green .
The scientist has discovered a secret formula that allows organisms to grow to gigantic sizes. However, he never thought this through.
The Twilight Zone (1985) [Season 1, Episode 40]
To See the Invisible Man
Shown 31/Jan/86
In a dystopian future, the Personality Police convict a man of having a cold-hearted personality. The punishment is a year of invisibility. Not physical invisibility, but rather social invisibility. He is not physically exiled, merely The theory is that a year of such psychological torture will make him more empathetic to others.
Basically, the victim is branded on the forehead. The high-tech brand mark is like a nipple, and it is caustic enough to burn through any hat he tries to cover it with. A flying robot follows him around to make sure Anyone who sees him is under orders to ignore him. Invisible people are forbidden from speaking to each other. They can get access to food, but not medical care. Yes, the superficially empathetic society is quite hypocritical. We must judge a society by the way in which it treats its convicts.
The Twilight Zone (1985) [Season 1, Episode 41]
Tooth and Consequences
Shown 31/Jan/86
A chronically depressed dentist wishes his life was better. Then he meets the Tooth Fairy. Unfortunately he forgets the maxim be careful what you wish for .... Some people are never happy!
The Twilight Zone (1985) [Season 1, Episode 42]
Welcome to Winfield
Shown 07/Feb/86
A young woman ( Elisa Cook ) rescues a hospital patient from the Man In White (Gerrit Graham - Star Trek: Voyager ). She takes him to a tiny out-of-the-way town named Winfield, where everyone dresses like in the wild west era.
Three weeks later, the Man In White blunders into the same town. It does not show up on any map, and the town Mayor (Henry Gibson - The Burbs) tries to help the stranger to move on as quickly as possible.
The Man In White is a grim reaper. By incredible coincidence, his predecessor once visited the town.
The Twilight Zone (1985) [Season 1, Episode 43]
Quarantine
Shown 07/Feb/86
Jim Foreman (Scott Wilson - The Walking Dead ) gets woken up by a doctor ( Tess Harper ). He was put into suspended animation in June 2023, and has been thawed out after three hundred and twenty-four years. Unfortunately society now looks like an Amish village.
The locals do not need technology to heal the sick. Instead they perform psychic surgery. Yes, they have super-powers.
Foreman is a satellite technician. He has been thawed out because a giant asteroid is about to crash. His job is to contact a military satellite and use it to destroy the asteroid before it hits the Earth. They cobble together a computer system, including a CRT monitor with a touch-screen (sensitive to a light pen). However, Foreman never considers that the telepaths might have an ulterior motive.
The Twilight Zone (1985) [Season 1, Episode 44]
Gramma
Shown 14/Feb/86
Darlanne Fleugel goes out shopping, and leaves her young son alone in the house with his grandmother. Momma ordered him to never go near granny's room, no matter how much the old lady asks for a cup of tea. But the boy foolishly gives in.
This was written by Harlan Ellison , based on a short story by Stephen King .
The Twilight Zone (1985) [Season 1, Episode 45]
Personal Demons
Shown 14/Feb/86
Martin Balsam ( Murder in Space ) plays a writer named O'Bannon after the man who wrote this episode, Rockne S. O'Bannon . The protagonist realises that he cannot write anything original. Luckily he sees a demonic dwarf, something that looks like an Ugnaught dressed as a Jawa. At first he is distracted and cannot concentrate. The writer's Agent (Clive Revill - Empire Strikes Back ) cannot offer any useful advice.
The Twilight Zone (1985) [Season 1, Episode 46]
Cold Reading
Shown 14/Feb/86
This is set in the 1940s, in the era of live radio broadcasts. A young actor is that called in to work on a play - Dick Noble: African Adventure. Unfortunately the script has been entirely rewritten, and there has been no rehearsal.
The foly artist, responsible for sound effects, has obtained a voodoo artifact. Unfortunately it turns out to have actual magic powers, and the Director-Producer wishes for all sound effects to be real. Can the actors improvise safely? Will the writers be able to sanitise the script in time?
The Twilight Zone (1985) [Season 1, Episode 47]
The Leprechaun Artist
Shown 21/Feb/86
Three boys go for a ride on their bicycles. Well it was the 1980s - and for many of us, The Goonies was practically a documentary.
The boys catch a leprechaun, who is on holiday from Oireland, bejaysus. He offers them three wishes - one each, that is. Naturally they all go wrong. The boys forget that once they have a power, they cannot control it properly.
The Twilight Zone (1985) [Season 1, Episode 48]
Dead Run
Shown 21/Feb/86
This is based on a short story by Greg Bear .
A truck driver (Steve Railsback - The Visitor ) is down on his luck. He teams up with a friend (Barry Corbin - Northern Exposure) on a secret job. It turns out that they are shipping the damned to Hell.
The damned are revolting. Literally, they are starting a revolt. Management (John De Lancie - Star Trek: TNG ) is a religious fundamentalist, who sets a very low bar for damnation. John LeMay ( Friday's Curse ) and Brent Spiner ( Star Trek: TNG ) both end up on the low road. Will our hero take a moral stand?
The Twilight Zone (1985) [Season 1, Episode 49]
Profile in Silver
Shown 07/Mar/86
Lane Smith ( V: The Series ) is a lecturer at Harvard University in November 1963. It turns out that he is a time-traveller from 2172 AD.
The traveller's job is to observe JFK (Andrew Robinson - Star Trek: DS9 ) but not interfere. After all, LBJ (Jerry Hardin - X-Files ) is supposed to inherit the throne. Naturally, our hero interferes. But how bad will it get, and how will he fix it?
As a side note, JFK was assassinated by an ex-military rifleman and Robinson's most famous role was as just such a character - Scorpio in Dirty Harry.
The Twilight Zone (1985) [Season 1, Episode 50]
Button, Button
Shown 07/Mar/86
Mare Winningham is a very selfish, materialistic woman who makes her poor husband's life a misery. One day a strange man delivers a mysterious box with a button on top. If someone presses the button, two things will happen. Firstly, the presser will receive two hundred thousand dollars. Secondly, a complete stranger somewhere will die. The only question is, how long will it take the greedy woman to press the button?
If this story sounds familiar it was used in a movie that starred Cameron Diaz in the lead role. In all fairness the shorter version is better, unimpaired by a massive an unnecessary backstory or any other padding.
The Twilight Zone (1985) [Season 1, Episode 51]
Need to Know
Shown 21/Mar/86
William Petersen ( Manhunter ) takes a bus to small-town mid-west USA. His job is to help Frances McDormand investigate a series of people going mysteriously insane. McDormand thinks it could be caused by a virus, and tries to track down Patient Zero.
Peterson does the field-work. Discovering that the answer to Life, the Universe and Everything may be the equivalent of the World's funniest joke from Monty Python.
This was written by Sidney Sheldon, better known for writing lots of pot-boiler novels. And I Dream Of Jeanie , but we do not talk about that.
The Twilight Zone (1985) [Season 1, Episode 52]
Red Snow
Shown 21/Mar/86
This was made in 1986, when the Cold War was still raging. KGB goon George Dzunda (The Beast) is made to look like a liberal by rival Andrew Divoff ( Lost ). As a result, Dzunda is sent to investigate a couple of mysterious deaths in a small village north of the Arctic Circle. Once there he discovers the village is filled with people exiled from Russian society. Also, it is so far North that they get six months of darkness and six months of sun - like the Al Pacino film where he investigated a murder in Alaska.
Dzunda meets Victoria Tennant , who was sent to the Gulag fifty years previously and has not aged a day since. And since the village is currently enjoying six months of sunless winter, we automatically think of the more recent effort 30 Days of Night .
The Twilight Zone (1985) [Season 1, Episode 53]
Take My Life... Please!
Shown 28/Mar/86
TV Comedian Billy Diamond (Tim Thomerson - Trancers ) is car-jacked by rival performer Xander Berkley ( The Walking Dead ). The car crashes, and Billy ends up in Purgatory. He must audition before the toughest crowd he has ever had.
The Twilight Zone (1985) [Season 1, Episode 54]
Devil's Alphabet
Shown 28/Mar/86
The Twilight Zone (1985) [Season 1, Episode 55]
The Library
Shown 28/Mar/86
The Twilight Zone (1985) [Season 1, Episode 56]
Shadow Play
Shown 04/Apr/86
Adam Grant (Peter Coyote - E.T. - The Extra Terrestrial ) is convicted of murder and sentenced to death. However, he insists that the proceedings are a dream. Is this a case of solipsism, or is he really in The Matrix ? And if he dies in a dream, does he die in reality? And does everyone else die too?
The Defence Lawyer meets up with the Prosecutor to discuss a plea. They discover certain anomalies in the world. They realise they could just be imaginary characters in someone else's dream.
The Twilight Zone (1985) [Season 1, Episode 57]
Grace Note
Shown 04/Apr/86
This starts in 1966. It concerns a woman who could have been a world-class opera singer. However, she always put her family first.
The Twilight Zone (1985) [Season 1, Episode 58]
A Day in Beaumont
Shown 11/Apr/86
This was written by David Gerrold
A young Astronomy Professor (Victor Garber - Alias ) and his much younger-looking girlfriend are driving in the desert near a small town named Beaumont.
They see a flying saucer land nearby. When they investigate, they see insect-faced bipeds emerge carrying mysterious people-sized pods. Yes, all the cliches are present - paranoia sets in as our heroes discover that the aliens are disguised as humans, and distinguishable only by a congenital mutilation of their fingers.
The Twilight Zone (1985) [Season 1, Episode 59]
The Last Defender of Camelot
Shown 11/Apr/86
This was filmed from a teleplay by George RR Martin based on a story by Roger Zelazny .
A sword-stick-wielding old man is on what is meant to be a street in London, but looks more like a back-lot set based on New York City streets. He encounters three mockney street thugs with punk haircuts, led by Anthony LaPaglia ( ). They have been sent to summon him to meet a young gypsy fortune-teller who is actually Morgana LeFay ( Jenny Agutter . The old man is Lancelot, the last survivor of Camelot. Merlin is awakening, in a cave in Cornwall.
This is an interesting take on the Arthurian legends because it reverses the moral standing of the characters. Morgana justifies her actions in opposing Merlin, pointing out that he was okay with helping Uther to father Arthur out of wedlock, but wanted Guinivere burned at the stake for similar adultery with Lancelot. When Lancelot finds Merlin again, he realises that Merlin's archaic morality has no place in the modern world.
