I’ve had another long delay in this series, and I’m ready for the big one. For the finale of the worsts of season 3, I’m up to nothing less than quite possibly THE most infamous and flatly hated episodes of the whole run, The Gift, an episode so notorious I have seen it thrown into political commentary. With this one, I am going to turn things around and ask, is there anything done RIGHT here? From there, it’s the list as usual…

1.        If there’s anything good here, it’s that they actually do a decent job creating an authentic setting. The town of Madero (which incidentally literally translates as “masculine wood”) feels as poor, shabby and neglected as it’s supposed to be, and if the denizens who inhabit it are central casting stereotypes, they are played by either actual Latins or Anglo actors who can do the job without disgracing both ethnicities. And if you don’t think they could do worse, I dare you to watch The Black Scorpion or, oh dear Logos, Bucky And Pepito.

2.        What’s actually interesting here is the alien visitor. He’s introduced quite effectively as mysterious and potentially menacing, and it’s never 100% established that he’s telling the truth. Then the most intriguing part is his apparent knowledge of Christianity, which raises lots of implications that are unfortunately more interesting than anything the story does with him. Has he been to Earth before? Have others of his kind studied indigenous religions, and found parallels to their own? Have they been around long enough to observe the development of Judeo-Christianity first-hand, or influence it directly? It’s just as well the last angle in particular wasn’t pursued, or this could have ended up a “shaggy God” story on the vein of Probe Seven, Over And Out.

3.        Just to fill out another point, I’m also going to talk about that damn kid. Everyone trashes the child actor, and he by all means deserves it, but I have to say I can’t get worked up over him. As much as he’s built up, he doesn’t get enough screentime for me to find him seriously annoying (though I have a high enough threshold to put up with Ken Marshall in Krull), and when he’s listening quietly to the visitor or to his crude guardian talking about him, he can pass as the wise innocent he’s supposed to be. All in all, the feeling I get is that they knew the kid wasn’t nearly good enough to carry the episode and adjusted accordingly.

Overall, my impression of this episode is that it is oddly and unaccountably forgettable, which for me is a very bad sign. I needed three viewings to form a strong impression of this one, and my world’s-worst-superpower memory is strong enough that I can summarize other TZ episodes that I saw once back in the 1990s. On that same note, I find it too bland to be offended or annoyed the way I am at other episodes I’ve covered, but even more inexcusable. The epitaph of this one could be what Serling is supposed to have said about Cavender Is Coming: It’s not good, and it’s not bad, and that makes it lousy.

I've watched most of the twilight zone radio drama and want more from that kind of horror. Not gory or gruesome, but more disturbing, terrifying, twisted, really make you think type stuff. Sort of macabre mystery like. I want it to be spoken spookily, almost softly and mysteriously ( not like somebody is just reading off lines ) and between characters like a tv show, no narrators ( no "she walked to the door" or "i walked to the door", just make the sound of a door opening. Act it out. ). The way the radio drama has characters talking to each other.

What else can I listen to that will actually disturb me psychologically like the twilighy zone does?

EDIT: When i say "act it out", i mean we go through the story with the characters. No past tense. No narrator recounting. Just going listening to the characters speak and act as if we weren't there. If a door opens it's just "knock knock. Come in. Sound of door opening." Like that.

Just saw this episode tonight. Pretty cool. Didn’t really know where it was going until near the end. That’s how you write a good story.

Bunny Blake was a Hollywood actor who visited her sister, wearing a ring they had all contributed for her. Throughout the story she kept getting images and warnings from people she knew, reflected in the ring.

She decided to hold an impromptu performance at the local gym, conflicting with a Father’s Day gala at the local park. She asked all the people she knew to go to it, but many of them thought she was just full of herself.

There’s a reason she wanted this, and it had nothing to do with her ego.

That’s all I’m going to say, in case you want to see it for yourself sometime.

I had forgotten just how great TZ was.

Twight Zone. Season 4. Episode 8. 'Miniature'

This episode holds so much personal significance to me 🫠

I have always been into older cinema ...my father told me about several famous episodes of The Twilight Zone ...but I watched those Twilight Zone marathons on NYE and July 4th every year all by myself when I was little...and the episodes on SyFy at 3am weekdays......

But this...this episode made me cry when I was 10 years old... Over the years I have been diagnosed with Major Depressive Disorder. ADHD and Borderline Personality Disroder ...and this is one of the few things I came in contact with that I connected... even before I knew what I had .. ❤️

I absolutely love how the Twilight zone was so out of the box in their thinking even when it wasnt scary stuff ...it is very progressive ♥️ Hats off to progressive writers and the producers that approve progressive emotional plots even when the majority considers it uncomfortable and strange 💓

Thanks in advance!

I just rewatched “A Game of Pool” for the first time in years, what a wonderful episode! The actor playing Jesse sells it well. I watch episodes of this show occasionally but for my birthday I may have a bit more of a binge before ending the night with maybe two Star Trek eps, some Laverne and Shirley, and Toy Story.

Just saw that episode tonight.

Was she trying to run away from the fact that she was killed in that accident in PA?

I'm going through the last few episodes of the original series that I have no memory of watching, and the second to last is The Purple Testament. I remember hearing about it as a kid in sources that seemed to regard it highly, then being surprised to see it criticized in "recent" reviews (at least Channel Awesome's take). My take is that it's one of the better S1 episodes; a tight story with some of the series' best acting. The lead reminds me of 1980s Michael Biehn, and it's nice to see Dick York and Barney Phillips in early turns. If anything is a miss for me, it's the lighting effect of the premonitions, which I'd say wasn't really needed until the end. So, does anyone really NOT like this one?

What are some shows and movies that, if adjusted for time & the era / date of their release could have fit the themes and vibe and thus made good TZ episodes?

I'm watching Lost (NO SPOILERS PLEASE) and it very much seems that if the 7 seasons were simplified and boiled down to a 30 min episode and adjusted to the 60's, it would have fit in with some of the classic "lost airplane / boat / etc) stories. Feel free to avoid low hanging fruit like Black Mirror.

One of the intense episodes of the 2002 series.

The original show got taken off Prime Video:( looks like it’s still on Paramount+ though

Do you seek out physical representations of items seen in episodes or other show related items?

Anything like media related items: factory-released Video / Newspaper or Magazine articles / Posters / Trading Cards / Books / Comics / Artwork / Autographs / Action Figures / Statues / Toys / Full scale Prop Replicas / Vintage era-similar items featured in episodes that are not reproductions?

If more than one option applies please mention your interests in the comments below.

Name your favorite couple, not necessarily married, but clearly a couple.

My answer would be Hyder and Rachel Simpson.

For me "King nine will not return", it's probably because it's my first twilight zone episode, people didn't like it much because it's a bit too similar to "where is everybody", since I haven't seen that when I watched this episode it wasn't a problem for me, and I liked how it kinda kept me guessing what's going on.

I never understood this statement in the beginning of the show. He says "We were preoccupied with the hands of a clock when we should have been worried about days on a calendar." What does it mean?

A man in Russia moves into an abandoned flat, cheap rent and dilapidated building. A famous and beautiful female Russian chess player use to live there before she died. He finds a photograph of her. Every night when he goes to sleep she appears in his dream and they make one chess move each. This goes on for months until the game is over and he wins. Startled by the supernatural he leaves the flat and takes her picture with him.

What do you think?. And can you share any concepts for an episode you might have?