Episode 16
The Hitch-Hiker is undoubtedly one of the most popular TZ stories, and for all the good reasons.
While I'm not always a big fan of thought-bubbles, in this case it works to manipulate a closer relationship with the protagonist.
He just stands there and doesn't do anything.
On the one hand it's an almost comically counterproductive argument to describe her predicament, on the other hand it highlights the eerie mundanity of the situation.
A strong point of the story is to not go overboard and present the hitch-hiker as a character with creepy or menacing features, because it's not really about him.
When she actually does offer someone a ride it looks as if she could be in a far more realistically dangerous situation, and we don't know what would have happened if she hadn't acted so strangely.
There's a nice and slightly raunchy twist when she throws herself at the sailor in order to keep him inside the car because she's afraid to be alone.
The conclusion borrows a little bit from
And When The Sky Was Opened, but it is Nan Adams' story that would become the prototype for this kind of twist endings.
CARNIVAL OF SOULS could be considered a remake (albeit with its own mesmerizing touch of horror) and also a great example of successfully reworking the premise of a TV episode into a feature-length film.
Just imagine how many great films we'd have if they wouldn't focus on remaking the big IP ones that often don't need a remake to begin with.
The story in episode 17
The Fever unfolds rather predictably but it becomes a totally different thing in the last third act. I'm afraid that sounds more interesting than it looks on screen because I found it impossible to connect the different kind of fevers. It could have helped if the wife had died instead of the husband - but not much.
Episode 18
The Last Flight is a typical example of time-travel and preserving history (or maybe it just
feels typical after watching lots of Doctor Who) but it's also a pleasant character story with an heroic twist. Starring Kenneth "Man At The Top" Haigh.
Episode 19
The Purple Testament is so bare-bones and twist-less that I'm surprised it was made at all. The emotional manipulation of young men dying in a war doesn't work at all, in fact I found it rather cheap.
Episode 20
Elegy is another troublesome one. Because this sci-fi show looks so very dated (but usually in a very good way) it's just no convincing at all that the astronauts are from the year 2185, neither is the explanation that the world ended in 1985 and that the alternative Cemetery was created in the 1970s while most of it looks like 1950s present time.
Nevertheless, the dead people looking like mannequins looks appropriately spooky.
The conclusion that "as long as there are men there can be no peace" comes across as an afterthought and overall I struggled to pay attention to the Caretaker's ramblings.
A story with potential but it looks as if the writer had given up midway. The acting is also not the best I've seen so far, which undermines the little dramatic aspect it could have had.
Episode 21
Mirror Image has the same ice-blonde single "Janet Leigh" woman set-up as
Hitch-Hiker and for a moment I thought she was played by Susan Sullivan.
The story works very well in its minimalistic setting, and as with Nan Adams it's very easy to buy into Millicent Barnes' frustration and terror.
Initially she doesn't suspect anything supernatural - and why should she, she doesn't know she's a fictional character in a TZ episode - but eventually it seems the only option.
There's a convenient flaw in the story when she has the opportunity to confront her doppelganger who's sitting inside the bus, but it's meant to set up her episode "companion" for his own doppelganger conclusion, and not completely without a touch of comeuppance.
The Parallel World made me think of DALLAS' "opportunity" to continue the series with two different post-dream scenarios i.e. DALLAS & DALLAS II, and have the characters watch themselves in completely different situations.
Episode 22
The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street deals with paranoia and hysteria. It's a little goofy in the way they accept the boy's comic book explanation so easily but at the same time it's unsettling to see how quickly it changes into a witch hunt.
Pure speculation on my part, but I wonder how much it relates to the fear of/hatred for Commies hiding in plain sight.
Either way, it's very entertaining to see how it escalates into a situation of pure chaos and death (à la THE CHASE 1966), and it's definitely another candidate for a blockbuster remake.
It's sort of the reverse situation of Stephen King's THE TOMMYKNOCKERS.
And that's the end of DISC 3.
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