Entering the Fifth Dimension: A Twilight Zone Podcast

Is dealing with the devil ever a good idea? Would you even recognize the devil if you met him face to face? Would there be peace on earth if you could somehow capture Satan himself and confine him to a prison cell? October is the month of ghosts, goblins, witches, and devils, so it seems like the perfect time to look back at two episodes of The Twilight Zone that feature the devil as a main piece...

Mirrors give us glimpses into a parallel world and allow us to see the hearts of men.  Well, at least they do in The Twilight Zone.  This month we look at "Mirror Image" and wonder if the ticket agent and washroom attendant are all part of the plan to make Millicent believe she's crazy.  We also review "The Mirror" and share our theories on whether or not the mirror actually had special powers, or...

I'll go out on a limb here and state unequivocally that James Best is in the best two scary Twilight Zone episodes of the entire show. Darrell may or may not agree with me, but we discuss the noire feel of "The Grave" and the playful, yet thought-provoking take on "The Last Rites of Jeff Myrtlebank" too. Both episodes were written and directed by the great Montgomery Pittman. Both episodes feature...

When you look at the beginning and the ending efforts of arguably the best genre tv show in history, you need to expect there might be low's and high's to discuss. Furthermore, you'd expect the first episode to have more lows than the last, simply because it is still finding its footing. But that isn't the way we saw it. Episode one's story misdirection, although not suggestive of entering the Zon...

We have a double dose of Twist Endings Part Two for you this time as we look at "I Shot an Arrow into the Air" and "The Invaders." Two episodes, somewhat vastly different except we see they both involve space travel, misunderstandings, and violent deaths. Actually, both stories capitalize on the hubris of mankind to reach out into the stars with a blind eye to the consequences of interacting with...

Joined by one of our listeners, Rick, this month we look at one of the most highly regarded Twilight Zone episodes of all time: "Eye of the Beholder."   Darrell has a lot of books and DVD's about the show. Robert reads everything he can find on the Net that is related to the show. Rick, my friends has Rick—which means an encyclopedic mind that can rattle off a list of episodes that didn't original...

These 3 pairs of boots were made for walking the walk and the distance to a weird stroll down your hometown's memory lane. Feedback caller extraordinaire, Bradley, sits in on his favorite classic episode. Robert Mr. Magoo'd his observations again as he missed details, and Darrell and Bradley easily noticed every small intricately placed mirror angle and shading. Bradley dazzled us with theories ab...

We really picked two amazing Jack Klugman Twilight Zone episodes in which each had its own version of IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE. One episode was darker than the other, but Klugman's phenomenal acting was a bright, dichotomous dark star. In "A Passage For Trumpet" we explore the dark side of creativity and have a meta discussion of what is real when you perform inebriated versus when you perform sober....

Yes, we finally got to a couple classic  episodes we aren't crazy about. That's ok, IMDB ratings seemed to like them more than us, but for us wasn't clear to why the TZ that is so famous for pointing out socio-historical injustice missed the mark in the time travel episode back to the battle of Little BigHorn. Only one line in the entire script that was positive about Native Americans. Nothing abo...

Are perceptions that toys (specifically human-looking dolls) are scary and sometimes evil a right of passage for childish thoughts? Are all of us born with those perceptions ingrained in our DNA? Do we perceive a toy to be threatening purely by the way it just sits on a shelf and looks at us with a blank, inanimate stare? Or, are toys merely a lifeless mirror we animate with our imaginative though...

In two classic, albeit thematically loosely connected episodes by a Salvation Army collector's Christmas bell, we see a story of one man's salvation is found because he yearns so painfully for his existence to impact those meek people who desperately need help, and we see another story of a group of "people" who question their very odd, trapped existence and we see there is no hope for them anywhe...

Martians, three-eyed short order cooks from Venus, and a little sci-fi nerd named Tommy wreak havoc in this month's classic look back edition of the podcast. These episodes contain  the one thing all great stories must contain to make them great—universal themes. These two episodes highlight the lowlight of the human condition that is the tendency to forgo reason in favor of attacking what we thin...

Here we are. Two tales of one actor as two different bookworms. Darrell and Robert take on the great, classic Burgess Meredith episodes and answer once and for all if Robert is or isn't related to Lynn Venable, the original story writer of TIME ENOUGH AT LAST. That episode, adapted for the show by Rod Serling, is easily identified as one of the most recognizable stories not just for THE TWILIGHT Z...

Before we loved them as Spock, Scotty, and Sulu, Leonard Nimoy, James Doohan, and George Takei all found their way into The Twilight Zone.  Leonard Nimoy appeared in the season 3 episode, "A Quality of Mercy," James Doohan appeared in the season 4 episode, "Valley of the Shadow," and George Takei appeared in the season 5 episode, "The Encounter."  While Nimoy and Doohan played smaller roles in the...

"You Might Also Like" brings us to the end of the second season. 20 episodes total for two seasons for this modern version of the Twilight Twilight Zone to establish itself. So, we guess the question is then, "did it, in fact, establish itself?"  The best answer we can give is we really hope there is a third season.  Let's take the 10th episode of season two. For Robert, this episode unintentional...

"Try, Try" comes in for us as one of the most thought provoking of Twilight Zone season 2. Do we really know anyone? Do we really trust anyone? Who is to say the people who are really good at something are good at it because they've been given the opportunity to give it another try, and another try , and so on until they perfect it. The Twilight Zone examines the concept of this in its second seas...

" A Small Town" got big ratings from Robert, sort of big ratings from Darrell, but nothing but small ratings from our viewer feedback section, Talky Tina. What was it about a pleasant, mostly one dimensional story about doing good in the world from a supernatural scale model of a small town in a church attic that didn't land well with everyone? Maybe that's just it, not a deep enough story for dee...

Here we are, 70% finished with season 2 of the new Twilight Zone series. I haven't done the math, but I think it is fair to say we like season 2 at least more than 70% of our collective capacity to like the episodes so far. That being said, some people like this episode far more than we do. And you know what, that's ok. It's ok because in this podcast episode we examine what it means to lose loved...

Check out "8" with us. We have half as many people with audio discussing the episode, and that is probably fitting because among the four of us the score average is nearly half as low. And speaking of halves...this episode felt like half of it was awesome science fiction Twilight Zone and the other half felt overly wordy and overly fictional to our four minds. Then again, Whipples tells us that Oc...

Here we are: half way through season 2 and after last week's story felt out of tune for many of us, this week's story has the right amount of magic, or, well, let's call it metaphysical enchantment which pleased your hosts immensely. Our ratings make us sound like Germans saying no, but the phonetic translation is much more affirming. Robert and Darrell aren't the only ones who have a lot to say....

Fire Lady sing us a sweet song where we can't stop clapping in the end. Or, as in this episode,  keep the praise going as long as possible for fame-lusting has-beens. Darrell and Robert pick apart this episode much like talent show judges pick apart great and/or poor performances alike. And there were some great scenes in this episode, but there were also scenes maybe worthy of the sound of one ha...

Darrell and Robert get under each other's skin and wrap their collective minds around "The Who of You." Both of us agree the first two episodes of the second season came right out of the gate impressively strong, and the third episode does not disappoint.  There is nothing but praise for lead actor, Ethan Embry, and his supporting cast is outstanding as well. There is a pretty big rating gap, howe...

Are we dreaming, or did we just experience the best episode of Jordan Peele's Twilight Zone to date?  Starring Morena Baccarin, "Downtime" had us cozied up to our screens and enjoying an episode that felt in many ways like an episode of Serling's classic series.  Is it possible for a computer avatar to have an existential crisis?  Should such a character be given free will and the right to live ev...

Jordan Peele's Twilight Zone returns for season 2 with a psychic connection head game thriller.  The moral of this episode isn't easily black or white and you would have to be a wiz to know exactly what the Twilight Zone team expected us to think when they lead us to an ending and have us experience a state of shock.  This one had a few plot points that had us scratching our heads, but kept both o...

"Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" is arguably the most iconic episode in the entire history of The Twilight Zone.  It's been redone and parodied generation after generation since it first aired in 1963.  For some, including Darrell, it's a fantastic episode for sure, but not the best episode starring William Shatner.  That honor is bestowed upon "Nick of Time." Whether "Nightmare" or "Nick" is your favor...