The Twilight Zone (now with a top 25 list!)

[Lord Dalek]

15.

Before he assaulted us with the "locked in one's subconciousness" angle of "Shadow Play", Charles Beaumont made a terrific debut with this surreal thriller. Richard Conte is a man with a weak heart threatened by a repeated nightmare involving a strange amusement park and a slinky femme fatale. The story is framed as a conversation between our protagonist and his psychiatrist, but the final twist shakes up what limited grasp of reality we might have from this character's perspective.

14.

During his time writing the show, Rod Serling was labeled by the McCarthy era press pretty much everything from a Communist to a pinko. This is interesting as his finale for season 2 is as far removed from that sort of criticism as you can get. This episode is a battle of wits set in a future American totalitarian state between a meek librarian (Burgess Meredith again) and the sadistic bully chancellor (Fritz Weaver) assigned to liquidate him. The episode is especially benefited by the sparse, near theatrical direction of newcomer Eliot Silverstein.

13.

As Rod explains in his extended length (it lasts the entirety of the teaser) narration for this episode, a monster has arrived in the town of Peaksville, Ohio, and that monster is Billy Mumy! "It's a Good Life" is a classic of paranoia and nervous desparation as an entire community finds itself held hostage by a good natured yet none too bright (he's not really evil, he just is) child born with magic powers beyond imagination. There's no moral here, nothing is solved, nothing gets better. You just better think happy thoughts.

12.

One of the last great Twilight Zones, "The Masks" is the story of revenge mixed in with a little Cajun justice. The story in short: dying billionaire is joined by his slimy family for Marti Gras. As his final request, the relatives are forced to wear grotesque masks that represent the "opposite" of what they are until midnight. Then "something" happens... This one is perfect for the fans of the creepy and kooky.

11.

Oh boy... Season 4... Yeah this is the infamous hour long season where every episode was double length. For years, the general consensus was the episodes were overlong, overpaded and generally forgettable but I say poppycock! While far from perfect, Season 4 has a lot going for it (even more than the often quite dire and unwatchable Season 3) and its pretty obvious from this superb season premiere. George Grizzard plays a man who finds that all his memories are wrong to the point of being a complete imitation. Then he discovers that HE is a complete imitation. This is easily the best of TZ's shows about androids and robots and the conclusion is especially poignant thanks to the extended length.

[Lord Dalek]

10.

As mentioned in my entry on "The Last Flight", time travel shows are a dime a dozen in the Zone, and this is one of the best of them. Cliff Robertson plays Chris Horne, a wagon train leader who goes in search of water for his dying son only to find on the other side of a hill... a U.S. Expressway circa 1961! This is another episode where the time travel element is done for a reason, there is no way Horne's son can be cured via the medicines of the 1840s but the 1960's... there may just be a chance.

09.

One of the most technically challenging and emotionally gripping episodes ever, "The Invaders" pits a mute nameless woman (Agnes Moorhead) against a pair of tiny spacemen who land on her roof one night. The episode is played in real time with lots of excellent dramatic lighting and control of shadows courtesy of TZ vet Douglas Heyes. And Jerry Goldsmith's score almost out-Bernard Herrman's Bernard Herrman.

08.

The apocalypse isn't something The Twilight Zone tackles frequently. True nuclear war came up a few times (most notably "Time Enough at Last"), but it wasn't until Season 3's "The Midnight Sun" that total annihilation would be given the Twilight Zone spin. This was before the concept of the Ozone Layer and greenhouse emissions so instead we have the planet Earth changing its orbit to suddenly head into the sun. The cast is small, relegated to two frightened women living in a nearly abandoned NYC flat waiting for the inevitable. The final twist is amazingly chilling (pun intended).

07.

The title says it all. Four men and a woman of various profession find themselves trapped in a round structure with no memory of who they are or how they got there (although that becomes questionable by episode's end). Almost a stage play due to its minimalist set design, Serling's script is a thrilling clash of personalities and interests.

06.

The "latter-day Flying Dutchman" of the title is the Earth Spaceship E-89, who follow an interesting glint to the surface of a previously uncharted planet. To the shock of the crew, what lies there is their own ship, crashed, with their dead bodies still inside. What transpires is a mental struggle between the three crew members (frustrated skeptic Jack Klugman, frightened Frederic Behr, and Ross Martin who lies somewhere in the middle) as to whether or not its a trick by aliens or are they in some sort of pergatory. The hour-long format heightens the tension to the point where I seriously doubt this episode could have worked in any year other than Season 4.

[Lord Dalek]

All right lets finish her up.

05.

Perhaps the most unusual episode of The Twilight Zone ever, "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" is actually a short film made in France in 1962. To prevent a budget overrun during the show's final season Producer William Froug (who by some accounts was kind of a moron) purchased the film, filmed new intros and closings with Rod, and aired it three weeks before it would win that year's Oscar for Best Live Action Short (probably the only episode of any tv series to achieve that). The episode itself is a largely dialogue free adaptation of Ambrose Bierce's story of a Confederate spy who imagines a daring escape right as he's being hung by the Union. The editing and cinematography are stunning, and you do kinda feel for the guy (even if he is a traitor to the country). Since it wasn't made by the Twilight Zone crew, this episode was typically omitted from syndication packages until Syfy (like "The Encounter" which aired on that channel for the first time ever three hours later) finally showed it as part of their 2016 New Year's Marathon.

04.

Frequently voted the greatest TZ ever made (I used to think so but lately I've reevaluated that position), "Eye of the Beholder" is a true technical marvel that manages to hold up despite the well-spoiled ending. I really don't have much to say about it. Just watch it. Like... right now.

03.

Perhaps the definitive doomsday episode, "Third From The Sun" deals with a pair of families planning to flee the planet in an experimental spaceship on the eve of a nuclear conflict. While the script really isn't much at times, its the combination of the acting of Fritz Weaver and Joe Marross (both of whom would go on to play very different characters in future episodes) and the AMAZING direction of Richard L. Bare which carries the piece. The majority of the show is filmed at strange dutch angles to heighten the tension of the situation but also to clue us into the final ending. A truly classic episode.

02.

Often regarded as Serling's ultimate response and rebuke to the McCarthy era, "...Maple Street" is a case study on how "good" people can be changed with the flip of a switch. When a passing "meteor" causes power to go out all over town, neighbors quickly start turning on each other to figure out who are the aliens causing it. The title is a double meaning. There are the "monsters" who have caused this to happen, and the REAL ones who live inside all of us waiting to get out. This episode's script is so gripping and powerful that its even published in some high school literature text books. How cool is that?

01.

Its  hard to believe that The Twilight Zone hit its zenith with only its 5th episode aired but there it is. "Walking Distance" is the quintessential "you can't go home again" story in which Gig Young as Martin Sloan finds himself warped from 1959 to the 1931 of his youth through the sheer power of nostalgia. As it has been said by writers like Mark Scott Zicree, this is Rod Serling's most autobiographical work. Like Sloan, he too wanted to return to the upstate New York of his youth when things were simpler and life was easier to manage. The script contains some of his most beautiful writing, including easily the greatest closing narration in the history of the show. And Bernard Hermann's legendary score is like notes from heaven. This is nothing short of a triumph.

[Avaitor]

It's shocking how few of these I've seen. I have your top 4 choices though, and think that they're all outstanding.

Really well-done list.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

The Monsters are Due on Maple Street is my personal favorite episode in the series.

Personally I always felt that An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge was pretty overrated, though. Its an interesting artistic little short film, but it really doesn't properly fit in with the tone and themes of the Twilight Zone, and even among short films with similar themes, I've seen what I consider to be better stuff before. Well, I do think its good for what it is, but its certainly not a favorite of mine.

[Daxdiv]

High School? I remember reading the script to Monsters Due on Maple Street in 8th grade, and I was still in Middle School. Though, I do remember reading the script for one episode about a Nazi visiting a concentration camp and him ended up getting tortured in high school. Maple Street is still a good episode, we even watched both the original and the updated version from the remake series and I thought the original still packed that extra punch.

[Dr. Insomniac]

I'm absolutely ashamed that out of all of those, I've only seen Time Enough At Last, It's A Good Life, Eye of the Beholder, and The Masks. Will definitely try to find the DVDs and watch them when I have the time.

[Avaitor]

"The Monsters Are Due in Maple Street" was in my 7th grade textbook.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Lucky bastards getting TZ scripts in your textbooks. All I got was Calvin & Hobbes and Dilbert for my psychology chapters.

[Dr. Insomniac]

So I've been having my own marathon of the show in the past few days. When you get down to it, I actually respect this show more than other SF fiction after it's time like Star Trek, B5, or even Doctor Who (especially consdering how TZ was vividly pro-equality when DW had an episode that used the N-word and featured Michael Gough in yellowface). Not like, but respect though. Really, I wish we had a show like this airing again, calling out certain parties for being douches while masking it away with aliens. I want social relevance to come back, and not just in the hands of Stewart and Colbert.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Well, I both like and respect the show, myself. If you're just watching it for enjoyment its full of a lot of interesting science-fiction scenarios, with maybe some throwaway episodes here and there. However, if you want to analyze it then it manages to give its messages about various things (mostly stuff relating to social structure and politics of the time) without ever sounding too preachy or up its own ass since it still never forgets to be a good sci-fi show at its core (well, even sci-fi is a huge generalization, but its usually a pretty psychological show at its core).

I also wish we had some good equivalent to this series today. These days whenever something tries to sound smart and give off any form of social commentary it usually just comes off as being pretentious, and also forgets to be an entertaining and interesting show while its at it, IMO.