I had trouble in other classes too, as if to confirm Brigg’s superior wisdom. Legendary was an English Literature essay that I painfully composed under individual supervision which after two full hours of hunchbacked labour, tongue squeezed out between teeth, eyes screwed up, three broken nibs and a full inkwell expended mostly on the desktop, resulted in all of sixty‑four words, forty‑one of which were crookedly crossed out, and every one of the surviving twenty‑three in some way misused or misspelled. The headmaster kept it in his safe, partly from shame but partly too because he suspected it might be handy one day to show his grandchildren when they might have cause to doubt the hardship of his life.
“There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as 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 which we call... THE TWILIGHT ZONE.” -Rod Serling
After the interesting opening monologue, each story was introduced by science fiction writer Rod Serling with an appropriately sinister touch to his Mr Averageness. Serling wrote most episodes himself, although he broadened the scope by intermittently using other writers, notably Ray Bradbury and Richard Mathesion. The only reason that the initial series got the go-ahead was because, in a shed down the back of the studio backlot, Serling found the props and sets left over from Forbidden Planet which were re-deployed to great effect.
In a memorable episode, Agnes Moorhead chopped up the original Altaire flying saucer after fending off an invasion of tiny aliens in her lonely cabin.
Another great episode had folks spooked by nuclear war, taking unnecessary shelter for years in their bunker.
And another as friendly neighbours go savage when they get to believe that a hostile alien has taken over the body of one of their number.
One of the greatest episodes had William Shatner as an airline passenger who sees gremlims inferring with the engines of an airliner but can’t convince anyone else of it. The twist ending was terrific.
In another airliner horror story had John Anderson fly his full Boeing through a strange storm, and find that he has to look for somewhere to land in the Jurrasic period.
Then there was Andy Devine as the town windbag who so impresses a visiting group of aliens, masquerading as humans, with his tall stories that they attempt to take him back to their planet for study as a prime Earth specimen. Yes, the first alien abduction yarn.
The crew of a Navy destroyer hear strange tapping noises coming from a submarine that sank 20 years before.
Gladys Cooper and a young Robert Redford in a story about a frightened old woman who has sealed herself off from the world to avoid confronting death, admits a wounded policeman and soon learns that she may have made a big mistake.
The hit-and-run driver harassed by his own car.
An advanced computer that falls in love with its technician, played beautifully by Wally Cox.
And last but far from least, the one about the hack writer (Burt Reynolds) who conjures up William Shakespeare, played wittily by John Williams, to help him write a television script, but network and sponsor representatives suggest a few changes...
