"You're looking at a species of flimsy little two-legged animals with extremely small heads..."

In order to make up for missing class on Friday, I'm posting another blog! I know all you TZ fans are excited to hear some more of my opinions...haha just kidding.

I'm not sure exactly what episodes were viewed in class, since we don't always follow the syllabus and our schedule was messed up on Thursday. Regardless, I watched four (And When the Sky was Opened, The Long Morrow, People are Alike All Over, and The Lateness of the Hour). With the exception of Lateness, I found that these episodes had a common theme - space travel.

And When the Sky was Opened told of three men back from a trip into space, but slowly disappearing, one by one. The story reminded me of Nightmare at 20,000 Feet, Mirror Image, and Living Doll because the characters all have something to share, but no one will believe them. As a viewer, this is extremely frustrating because you just want to shout, "[S]He's telling the truth!" and cut out the crazy-cycle the main character goes through. I really didn't think Sky had a strong lesson; it was [loosely] based off a short story and seems to most likely be some sort of political commentary by Serling. Perhaps he wants to make sure that when we finally make it into space that our astronauts are remembered for their hard work/dedication/potential sacrifice (first American astronauts sent into space in 1961; this episode came out in 1959)? Overall, not one of my favorites. I really dislike it when the characters seem crazy to everyone but the viewer.

Next, I watched The Long Morrow. This has one of those classic TZ twists. I didn't realize what the twist was until the very end, too. They really got me with this one. I think the lesson should be one of eternal love though (if you're meant to be, you're meant to be - you just click/age is just a number/treasure the time you have). The characters should still end up together, even though Sandra is now forty years younger than Douglas (hey, if Hugh Hefner can date young girls, anyone should be able to, right?). I dislike that they go separate ways in the end. I also dislike their "whirlwind romance." It seems particularly unreal, especially for the fifties (they seem a little too forward with each other during their first encounter, but again, this could just be my misconception of the past). However, I'm critical of that kind of stuff even in movies and TV shows today. "Really? Oh you're in love after just three hours? Riiiiight..." Anyway, this episode was good. It showcased the classic surprise ending.

People are Alike All Over also had this sort of surprise finale. I knew what to expect, because we had talked about it, and I may have seen it before, but it was still entertaining. I think this one also had generally-applicable morals: be careful who you trust (seems to be a common lesson for TZ) and use your judgment. If Conrad had really been using his brain, he wouldn't have so readily accepted the aliens "help." He also would have taken notice of Teenya's unease when showing him around the planet with the group of her fellow aliens. "People are alike everywhere!" is Conrad's final exclamation. This seems to me to maybe be one of Serling's commentaries. The episode made me think of world travel and what it is like to visit other cultures. Sometimes foreign countries can seem more like other planets, and the people there more like aliens. If the final statement and episode title is "people are alike all over," then that reminds me that people are people and although our surroundings and beliefs and ways of life may be different, we are still essentially the same. We shouldn't judge others or think of ourselves as "better" than people of different races or cultures. Especially as Christians, this is a good reminder that we are all made in God's image, meant to bring glory to him and to love him and our fellow man. This being said, people really are alike all over. They really are.

The final episode I'm going to discuss is The Lateness of the Hour. For the third time today, I experienced a classic plot-twist. I actually didn't see it coming either, not until the very end when Jana starts to talk about not remembering her childhood. Overall, I think the episode was clever and made in true TZ form. It was interesting to learn that this episode, along with five others, was filmed at CBS Television City as a money-saving measure. However, the finished product lacked the visual-depth of other TZ episodes, so this method of production was stopped because the savings weren't worth sacrificing the quality of episodes. I'm glad they decided this because Lateness did seem to be more like a play than a typical episode. The set simply wasn't expansive enough, in my opinion. I'm guessing that the lesson to this story has to do with the emotional well-being of families and the quality of one's life. It's important to cultivate deep, meaningful relationships (especially with family) and to do useful things with our lives, since each of us has a pre-determined number of years here on earth. Jana was upset that her life and her parents' lives seemed to lack depth and seemed to revolve around the pursuit of comfort. She felt that was meaningless. She wanted to go out and experience life and also to grow closer to both of them. As Christians, we know that pursuit of comfort is a very shallow purpose, considering how many people are martyred for their faith every day and how many people live in desolate conditions around the world. We are called to live for a higher purpose than taking care of ourselves. Lateness served as a good reminder of that.

Note: It's interesting that Jana says she can't feel pain and can't feel love...yet she can break into tears, crying about how she isn't really a human. Wouldn't those tears be an expression of emotion? Just an imperfection of the TZ I spose.