Twilight Zone Collector's Edition: "Where Is Everybody?", "Perchance to Dream," "The Jungle," and "Nick of Time" (1959) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)This videotape in "'The Twilight Zone' Collector's Edition" starts off with the premier episode of Rod Serling's celebrated television anthology series and ends with one of my favorites, which is sort of known as the "other" William Shatner episode. Serling only wrote one of the four episodes, which simply reminds us that one of the reasons this is a classic television series is that it had a bunch of great writers coming up with journeys of imagination each week:
Episode 1, "Where is Everybody?" (first aired October 2, 1959), was the first of those journeys. Serling tells the story of Mike Ferris (Earl Holliman), who finds himself wearing an Air Force jumpsuit in a deserted town. He has no clue who he is, where he is, or how he ended up there. Of course, all will be revealed in the end as we are introduced to the "Zone" twist for this first time. While this episode was obviously good enough to get the series on the air and to introduce it to the viewing audience, it ends up being a lesser effort given what is to come. Still, having the pilot episode of "The Twilight Zone" on tape counts for something.
Episode 9, "Perchance to Dream" (November 27, 1959), was written by Charles Beaumont from his own short story. Edward Hall (Richard Conte) tells his psychiatrist (John Larch) about nightmarish dreams in which Maya (Suzanne Lloyd), a carnival dancer, is trying to scare him to death. Because of a heart condition, if the dreams do not kill Hall, trying to stay awake will. An okay first season episode, Beaumont's exploration of dreams is much better in his later episode, "Shadow Play."
Episode 77, The Jungle" (First aired December 1, 1961) is also written by Beaumont based on another one of his short story. Engineer Alan Richards (John Dehner) has returned from a project in Africa under a voodoo curse. It seems the local witch doctor took exception to the hydroelectric dam he built. Alan's wife slips him a protective charm thinking that could help, but unfortunately he leaves it behind in a bar one night. A nice little tale of suspense which works well with minimal special effects, but by no means a classic.
Episode 43, "Nick of Time" (First aired November 18, 1960) was written by Richard Matheson and stars William Shatner and Patricia Breslin as newly weds Don and Pat Carter. The honeymooners are waiting for their car to be repaired in Ridgeview, Ohio when the superstitious Don becomes obsessed with a table top fortune-telling machine that dispense little cards answering yes or no questions. This is a classic "Twilight Zone" episode, which takes the simple premise of what is basically a Magic 8 Ball from Hell and makes it all perfectly plausible. It also has a wonderful performance from a rather restrained Shatner who is always remembered for doing "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" a couple of seasons later, but this one was first and is better. If you really love this episode be aware that there is a t-shirt for the episode is out there along with instructions on how to build the fortune-telling machine from scratch (no pun intended; really). Is this a great country or what?

Click Here to see more reviews about: Twilight Zone Collector's Edition: "Where Is Everybody", "Perchance to Dream," "The Jungle," and "Nick of Time" (1959)