Main Area and Open Discussion > Living Room
Groundhog Day Loops
MilesAhead:
I also loved Dark City. I never did make it to Shell Beach. But I did find an excellent HD version. Another "Loop" in Dark City is you don't quite know what's up the first time you watch it. You have to loop through it to get it. :)
Edit: I would think there must be at least one Twilight Zone episode with a time loop. I can't think of one at the moment. But I can just picture Rod Serling coming up with something where some dude gets nagged by his wife forever or something similar. Like the main character is the only one aware it's going around in circles.
MilesAhead:
(This post has been brought to you by Crabby, who has now canonically documented my 12 minute obsessions that turn into 500 word posts that I only care about for a week!
--- End quote ---
But at the end of the week do you forget you already posted and ask the same question again? ;)
40hz:
I would think there must be at least one Twilight Zone episode with a time loop. I can't think of one at the moment. But I can just picture Rod Serling coming up with something where some dude gets nagged by his wife forever or something similar. Like the main character is the only one aware it's going around in circles.
-MilesAhead (May 14, 2014, 05:43 PM)
--- End quote ---
Good lordy! Paradoxical loops were a mainstay of the Twilight Zone! In the first season alone there were several stories that used some sort of a loop as a central element in their plot:
Judgement Night
Judgment Night
Writer: Rod Serling
Director: John Brahm
Producer: Buck Houghton
Director of Photography: George T. Clemens
Music: stock
Cast:
Lanser: Nehemiah Persoff
Captain Wilbur: Ben Wright
First Officer: Patrick MacNee
"Her name is the S.S. Queen of Glasgow. Her registry: British. Gross tonnage: five thousand. Age: indeterminate. At this moment she's one day out of Liverpool, her destination New York. Duly recorded on this ship's log is the sailing time, course to destination, weather conditions, temperature, longitude and latitude. But what is never recorded in a log is the fear that washes over a deck like fog and ocean spray. Fear like the throbbing strokes of engine pistons, each like a heartbeat, parceling out every hour into breathless minutes of watching, waiting and dreading. For the year is 1942, and this particular ship has lost its convoy. It travels alone like an aged blind thing groping through the unfriendly dark, stalked by unseen periscopes of steel killers. Yes, the Queen of Glasgow is a frightened ship, and she carries with her a premonition of death."
Carl Lanser is a German on board the Glasgow. He has no memory of how he got there, but he has a strange feeling that he knows the passengers. Lanser is certain that they are being stalked by an enemy sub. He also feels something is going to happen at 1:15 a.m. At 1:15 a.m. a U-boat surfaces. Looking through binoculars, Lanser sees that the captain is himself. The U-boat sinks the boat, and machine-guns the survivors. Later a lieutenant on the U-boat suggests that they may all face damnation for their actions. Kapitan Lanser dismisses the idea - not realizing that he is doomed to repeat the sinking of the ship for eternity.
"The S.S. Queen of Glasgow, heading for New York, and the time is 1942. For one man, it is always 1942 - and the man will ride the ghost of that ship every night for eternity. This is what is meant by paying the fiddler. This is the comeuppance awaiting every man when the ledger of his life is opened and examined, the tally made, and then the reward or the penalty paid. And in the case of Carl Lanser, former Kapitan Lieutenant, Navy of the Third Reich, this is the penalty. This is the justice meted out. This is judgment night in the Twilight Zone."
--- End quote ---
And When The Sky Was Opened
And When The Sky Was Opened
Writer: Rod Serling (based on a short story "Disappearing Act" by Richard Matheson)
Director: Douglas Heyes
Producer: Buck Houghton
Director of Photography: George T. Clemens
Music: Leonard Rosenman
Cast:
Col. Clegg Forbes: Rod Taylor
Col. Ed Harrington: Charles Aidman
Maj. William Gart: James Hutton
Amy: Maxine Cooper
"Her name: X-20. Her type: an experimental interceptor. Recent history: a crash landing in the Mojave Desert after a thirty-one hour flight nine hundred miles into space. Incidental data: the ship, with the men who flew her, disappeared from the radar screen for twenty-four hours. [Narration interrupted by character action and dialogue.] But the shrouds that cover mysteries are not always made out of a tarpaulin, as this man will soon find out on the other side of a hospital door."
Three astronauts have returned from this first space flight. Major Gart is hospitalized with a broken leg. The other two, Colonels Harrington and Forbes head for a bar. Harrington gets a strange feeling and calls his parents. They inform him they have no son. Harrington then disappears, with nobody remembering him but Forbes. When Forbes tells Gart what happened, Gart says he doesn't remember Harrington either. Forbes runs out the door screaming, "I don't want this to happen!" When Gart gets to the door, Forbes has disappeared. Then Gart and their ship vanishes, wiping the last evidence of their existence off the face of the Earth.
"Once upon a time, there was a man named Harrington, a man named Forbes, a man named Gart. They used to exist, but don't any longer. Someone - or something - took them somewhere. At least they are no longer a part of the memory of a man. And as to the X-20 supposed to be housed here in this hangar, this too does not exist. And if any of you have any questions concerning an aircraft and three men who flew her, speak softly of them... and only in the Twilight Zone."
--- End quote ---
The Hitch-Hiker
The Hitch-Hiker
Writer: Rod Serling (based on a radio play "The Hitch-Hiker" by Lucille Fletcher)
Director: Alvin Ganzer
Producer: Buck Houghton
Director of Photography: George T. Clemens
Music: stock
Cast:
Nan Adams: Inger Stevens
Hitch-Hiker: Leonard Strong
Sailor: Adam Williams
Gas Pump Boy: Lew Gallo
"Her name is Nan Adams. She's twenty-seven years old. Her occupation: buyer at a New York department store, at present on vacation, driving cross-country to Los Angeles, California, from Manhattan. [Narration interrupted by character action and dialogue.] Minor incident on Highway 11 in Pennsylvania, perhaps to be filed away under accidents you walk away from. But from this moment on, Nan Adams' companion on a trip to California will be terror; her route - fear; her destination - quite unknown."
After a blowout, Nan Adams repeatedly sees the same hitch-hiker. She tries to run over him, only to be told by a sailor to whom she's given a lift that there was no one on the road. She calls home and learns her mother suffered a nervous breakdown after the death of her daughter in a car wreck. Nan returns to her car, where the hitch-hiker - his purpose and identity known - awaits.
"Nan Adams, age twenty-seven. She was driving to California, to Los Angeles. She didn't make it. There was a detour - through the Twilight Zone."[/b][/i]
--- End quote ---
The Last Flight
The Last Flight
Writer: Richard Matheson
Director: William Claxton
Producer: Buck Houghton
Director of Photography: George T. Clemens
Music: stock
Cast:
Flight Lt. Decker: Kenneth Haigh
Major Wilson: Simon Scott
General Harper: Alexander Scourby
"Witness Flight Lieutenant William Terrance Decker, Royal Flying Corps, returning from a patrol somewhere over France. The year is 1917. The problem is that the Lieutenant is hopelessly lost. Lieutenant Decker will soon discover that a man can be lost not only in terms of maps and miles, but also in time - and time in this case can be measured in eternities."
During a World War I mission, Decker deserts his best friend, who is surrounded by enemy planes. He flies through a strange white cloud, and lands at a modern-day American air base in France. Decker discovers that the man he left behind went on to become a hero in World War II, and is due to inspect the base that very day. Decker, realizing he's been given a second chance, overpowers the major, returns to his plane, and takes off. Later, when Decker's friend arrives to inspect the base, he says Decker did return to save him - at the cost of his own life.
"Dialogue from a play, Hamlet to Horatio: 'There are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy.' Dialogue from a play written long before men took to the sky. There are more things in heaven and earth, and in the sky, than perhaps can be dreamt of. And somewhere in between heaven, the sky, the earth, lies the Twilight Zone."
--- End quote ---
Mirror Image
Mirror Image
Writer: Rod Serling
Director: John Brahm
Producer: Buck Houghton
Director of Photography: George T. Clemens
Music: stock
Cast:
Millicent Barnes: Vera Miles
Paul Grinstead: Martin Milner
Ticket Agent: Joe Hamilton
"Millicent Barnes, age twenty-four, young woman waiting for a bus on a rainy November night. Not a very imaginative type is Miss Barnes, not given to undue anxiety or fears, or for that matter even the most temporal flights of fancy. Like most young career women, she has a generic classification as a, quote, girl with a head on her shoulders, end of quote. All of which is mentioned now because in just a moment the head on Miss Barnes's shoulders will be put to a test. Circumstances will assault her sense of reality and a chain of nightmares will put her sanity on a block. Millicent Barnes, who in one minute will wonder if she's going mad."
Millicent Barnes is confused by the actions of various employees at the bus station. The ticket taker tells her that she has repeatedly asked when the bus is going to arrive, and that her suitcase has already been checked. The washroom attendant claims she was there a few seconds earlier. Yet she hasn't done any of these things. While in the washroom, she sees herself sitting on a bench out in the bus station. She runs out, but the room is empty. Paul Grinstead, a businessman, becomes concerned for Millicent. They go to board the bus, but Millicent runs back in after seeing her other self already on the bus. Paul stays to comfort Millicent, who now says she knows what is happenning: a mirror image of herself from another world has entered this world, and must take her place to survive. Paul, certain she's mentally ill, calls the police. After the police take Millicent away, Paul chases a man who he believes has stolen his case. As the man turns around, Paul realizes that the man is a duplicate of himself.
"Obscure metaphysical explanation to cover a phenomenon, reasons dredged out of the shadows to explain away that which cannot be explained. Call it parallel planes or just insanity. Whatever it is, you find it in the Twilight Zone."
--- End quote ---
A Stop At Willoughby
A Stop At Willoughby
Writer: Rod Serling
Director: Robert Parrish
Producer: Buck Houghton
Director of Photography: George T. Clemens
Music: Nathan Scott
Cast:
Gart Williams: James Daly
Jane Williams: Patricia Donahue
Mr. Misrell: Howard Smith
"This is Gart Williams, age thirty-eight, a man protected by a suit of armor all held together by one bolt. Just a moment ago, someone removed the bolt, and Mr. Williams' protection fell away from him and left him a naked target. He's been cannonaded this afternoon by all the enemies of his life. His insecurity has shelled him, his sensitivity has straddled him with humiliation, his deep-rooted disquiet about his own worth has zeroed in on him, landed on target, and blown him apart. Mr. Gart Williams, ad agency exec, who in just a moment will move into the Twilight Zone--in a desperate search for survival."
Gart Williams is a very unhappy man. He has a terrible boss and a shrewish wife. Riding home on the train one day he falls asleep, and dreams it is 1880, and he is entering a small town called Willoughby. The conductor tells him Willoughby is a town where "a man can slow down to a walk and live his life full measure." Williams realizes this is the place for him, but he receives only ridicule from his wife. The pressure of his job being too great, he finally cracks. He calls his wife to tell her he is quitting, but she hangs up on him. On the train home, he suddenly finds himself back in Willoughby. The townsfolk all greet him by name. He's there for good this time. Meanwhile, the train has stopped. A Mr. Williams has jumped from the train yelling something about "Willoughby." The body is loaded in a hearse that bears the name "Willoughby Funeral Home."
"Willoughby? Maybe it's wishful thinking nestled in a hidden part of a man's mind, or maybe it's the last stop in the vast design of things - or perhaps, for a man like Gart Williams, who clmbed on a world that went by too fast, it's a place around the bend where he could jump off. Willoughby? Whatever it is, it comes with sunlight and serenity, and is part of the Twilight Zone."
--- End quote ---
The After Hours
The After Hours
Writer: Rod Serling
Director: Douglas Heyes
Producer: Buck Houghton
Director of Photography: George T. Clemens
Music: stock
Cast:
Marsha White: Anne Francis
Saleswoman: Elizabeth Allen
Armbruster: James Millhollin
"Express elevator to the ninth floor of a department store, carrying Miss Marsha White on a most prosaic, ordinary, run of the mill errand. [Narration interrupted by character action and dialogue.] Miss Marsha White on the ninth floor, specialties department, looking for a gold thimble. The odds are that she'll find it--but there are even better odds that she'll find something else, because this isn't just a department store. This happens to be the Twilight Zone."
Marsha buys a gold thimble from a rude saleslady on the ninth floor. When she goes to complain, she is informed there is no ninth floor. She points out the saleslady, but is shocked to find it is just a store mannequin. She is helped to a store office where she falls asleep. When she wakes up, she finds she is locked in the closed store. She hears voices coming from the mannequins as she wanders through the empty store. She backs into the elevator which takes her to the ninth floor. There the mannequins all come to life one by one, including the saleslady and elevator operator. They explain that she too is a mannequin, and that each of them is allowed a one month journey among humans. She forgot her true identity and didn't return on time. She apologizes, then turns back into a mannequin.
"Marsha White in her normal and natural state: a wooden lady with a painted face who, one month out of the year, takes on the characteristics of someone as normal and as flesh and blood as you and I. But it makes you wonder, doesn't it? Just how normal are we? Just who are the people we nod our hellos to as we pass on the street? A rather good question to ask - particularly in the Twilight Zone."
--- End quote ---
With thanks to The Croc's Domain for the above synopses. You can also find entries like the above for all the original TZ episodes plus a wealth of additional information and links at this 'labor of love' website. A great resource for script, TV series, and Rod Serling fans. Find it here. :Thmbsup: :Thmbsup:
(Note: He has created episode guides for the newer TZ series plus the Night Gallery too! Awesome! 8))
MilesAhead:
Yeah, TZ was one of the best. Even though I've seen them all a number of times I used to get sucked into watching the New Years Marathon on syFy Channel quite often. The half hour TZ episodes and the half hour Hitchcocks were the best. Slam dunks. Too often on the hour shows you could feel the plot stretching tactics.
Hitchcock's putdowns of the commercials were hilarious. Any anthology has to include the original commercials.
TaoPhoenix:
(This post has been brought to you by Crabby, who has now canonically documented my 12 minute obsessions that turn into 500 word posts that I only care about for a week!)
--- End quote ---
But at the end of the week do you forget you already posted and ask the same question again? ;)
-MilesAhead (May 14, 2014, 05:50 PM)
--- End quote ---
Heh epic response!
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version