"The 7th is Made Up of Phantoms"

 

Ron Foster, Randy Boone, and Warren Oates
discover that the 7th Cavalry is made up of phantoms

“The 7^th is Made Up of Phantoms”
Season Five, Episode 130
Original Air Date: December 6, 1963
 
Cast:
Sgt. William Connors: Ron Foster
Pvt. Michael McCluskey: Randy Boone
Cpl. Richard Langsford: Warren Oates
Captain Dennet: Robert Bray
Lieutenant Woodward: Greg Morris
Scout: Wayne Mallory
Radio Operator: Jeffrey Morris
Sergeant: Lew Brown
Corporal: Jacque Shelton
 
Crew:
Writer: Rod Serling
Director: Alan Crosland, Jr.
Producer: Bert Granet
Director of Photography: George T. Clemens, a.s.c.
Production Manager: Ralph W. Nelson
Art Direction: George W. Davis and Walter Holscher
Film Editor: Richard Heermance, a.c.e.
Set Decoration: Henry Grace and Robert R. Benton
Assistant Director: Charles Bonniwell, Jr.
Casting: Patricia Rose
Music: Stock
Sound: Franklin Milton and Philip N. Mitchell
Mr. Serling’s Wardrobe: Eagle Clothes
Filmed at MGM Studios

 

And Now, Mr. Serling:

“Next on Twilight Zone, Three National Guardsmen on a maneuver traveling across the same ground formerly occupied by General Custer, in an outfit called the 7^th Cavalry. Time in its infinite complexity, meshes, and what evolves is a stunningly different story about soldiers and Indians suspended in limbo, between then and now. On Twilight Zone next, ‘The 7^th is Made Up of Phantoms.’”

Rod Serling’s Opening Narration: 

“June 25^th, 1964 or, if you prefer, June 25^th, 1876. The cast of characters in order of their appearance: A patrol of General Custer’s Cavalry and a patrol of National Guardsmen on a maneuver. Past and present are about to collide head on, as they are wont to do in a very special bivouac area known as, the Twilight Zone.”

Summary:

June, 1876. Three scouts under orders from Major General George Armstrong Custer of the 7^th Cavalry Regiment of the United States Army stumble upon a stray Sioux encampment with a fire still smoldering in front. As they are speculating its owner’s whereabouts, one of the men is struck with an arrow. The other two fire into the distance.

June, 1964. Three National Guardsmen named Connors, McCluskey, and Langsford are performing a field training maneuver in an armored tank when they hear gunshots and decide to investigate. They discover an empty tepee and an antique-style Army canteen on the ground with 7^th Cavalry written across it. McCluskey and Connors recognize that they are near where The Battle of Little Bighorn took place on June 25^th, 1876. The canteen, however, looks brand new. Puzzled, they decide to return to the command post. Before they leave, they hear a Sioux war cry in the distance. 

Once back at the command post they are greeted by an irate captain wondering why they have been gone so long. Sgt. Connors tells the captain about the rifle fire and about what they found. The captain seems unimpressed. He gives Connors their orders for the following day. Connors recognizes the coordinates as the same route taken by troops led by Major Marcus Reno leading up to the battle. He tells the captain that he thinks the tepee they found was the same one Reno’s scouts found the day before the battle. The captain questions the sergeant’s sobriety and tells him he is to follow the route as ordered.

The next day the men are following their instructed route when they spot a smoke signal behind a distant hill. Connors and McCluskey claim Major Reno’s men spotted a smoke signal on the morning of the battle and fired on a small Sioux scout party, killing one of its riders. Langsford thinks his two companions are losing their sanity until they hear the cry of Sioux riders in the distance. McCluskey fires blindly into the hills. Afterwards, they spot a lone galloping horse without a rider. They continue to follow the route, hoping for answers.

Some time later, the captain radios to find out where they are. Connors tells him they are about to cross over Rosebud Creek, where Major Reno’s men finally met the Sioux. The captain tells them to report back to the command post immediately. The line goes dead. The captain sends men out to find them.

Once over the creek, they find no Sioux warriors, only a vacant field. Langsford claims that everything they have seen so far is an illusion. Connors remembers that an advanced scout party finds a small village before the battle begins. Langsford grows frustrated and leaves, claiming that he will walk back to the command post by himself. He quickly stumbles upon an empty Sioux encampment and calls to the others. McCluskey volunteers to investigate it. He returns minutes later with an arrow in his back and collapses to the ground.

Back at the command post, Lieutenant Woodward tells the captain that his men found the tank but not the three men. He gives the captain a handwritten note left at the tank that says they have gone to find the 7^th Cavalry.

Connors and Langsford carry a wounded McCluskey on their shoulders. At long last, they finally reach the Battle of Little Bighorn. With guns ready, the three men charge into battle. 

During their search for the men, Lieutenant Woodward and Captain Dennet stop at the 7^th Cavalry Memorial. On the engraved stone listing the men killed in action on that day in June in 1876 they notice the names William Connors, Michael McCluskey, and Richard Langsford. The Captain says they sure could have used the tank.

Rod Serling’s Closing Narration:

“Sergeant William Connors, Trooper Michael McCluskey, and Trooper Richard Langsford, who, on a hot afternoon in June, made a charge over a hill and never returned. Look for this one under ‘P’ for Phantom, in a historical ledger located in a reading room known as, the Twilight Zone.”

Commentary:

As is abundantly evident in his work, Serling, a former Army paratrooper, was fascinated with United States military history. His Twilight Zone scripts cover numerous military conflicts including the American Civil War, the Vietnam War, World War I, and, in particular, World War II, where he served with the 11^th Airborne Division. Throughout his entire body of work Serling pays careful attention to details about military and political conflicts, often basing scripts on real events, sometimes ones that had only recently taken place. This is usually a positive attribute, one that gives his scripts a social urgency and a historical frame of reference that is relatable to the audience. However, Serling does occasionally weigh stories down by trying to reference too many details of a real-life event and this is unfortunately the case with “The 7^th is Made Up of Phantoms.” As many fans and critics have pointed out, this is the biggest reason this episode is not as effective as it could be. While the premise of this episode is interesting, it relies heavily on referencing events leading up to the Battle of Little Bighorn, events that are so trivial that they would undoubtedly be lost on a modern audience. By the end of the episode, it begins to feel more like a Rod Serling history lesson than an episode of The Twilight Zone. Still, there is a certain mysticism in this episode that is entertaining which makes it worthy of a viewing or two.

This episode was broadcast at a time when the view of westward expansion in America during the nineteenth century was changing. The cinematic portrayal of the American west up to this point had traditionally placed the United States military and law enforcement in the role of heroes upholding moral justice which, by default, painted Native Americans as the aggressors. The Battle of Little Bighorn and the legacy of George Armstrong Custer, crafted in large part by his widow, Elizabeth Bacon, played an important role in creating the myth of the American West that was seen in films for much of the twentieth century, particularly the first half of it. Films like The Searchers (1956), Flaming Star (1960), A Man Called Horse (1970), Little Big Man (1970), and the films of Sergio Leone, while certainly still guilty at times of portraying indigenous people in a negative light, did help to demystify the legacy of the western hero in American culture. This is true for General Custer and his actions in June of 1876 as well. Errol Flynn’s portrayal of George Custer in Raoul Walsh’s They Died with Their Boots On (1941) is a far cry from Richard Mulligan’s parodic take on the General in Little Big Man thirty years later.

A first glance at the plot of this episode might suggest that Serling is also commenting on the changing attitude towards indigenous people in American culture. An argument could be made that the three national guardsmen are doomed to pay for the sins of the military’s past. However, Serling, never a stranger to pointed social commentary, does not seem to imply such an argument in this episode. There is no mention of anything suggestive of a negative or positive stance on the 7^th Cavalry of 1876 in any of his monologues or anywhere in the script apart from the scene in which the three men inexplicably charge into battle (with fully automatic rifles from the 1960s no less). He mostly seems to just be setting the episode up as an eerie time travel mystery.

As mentioned, this episode suffers a bit from the historical fact-dropping that continues throughout Serling’s script. While it is not a requirement to know anything at all about the Battle of Little Bighorn to enjoy the episode—the simple premise that they are reenacting the events that lead up to the battle is easy enough—the historical information does become tedious and distracting rather quickly. 

There are other, minor things about this episode that also cause it to feel a bit unsteady. As I mentioned earlier, the fact that these men travel from 1964 to 1876 with mid-twentieth century firearms to a famous and well documented battle with no historical repercussions is too big of a blunder to ignore simply for the suspension of disbelief. The fact that they are dressed in modern military uniforms and do not actually belong to the 7^th Cavalry but still end up on the memorial stone at the end of the episode is also sort of weird. One final complaint. Two of the characters jump to the conclusion of time travel much too quickly. Connors believes it almost immediately after finding the 7th Cavalry canteen which doesn’t make sense. Having said all that, this episode does have an atmospheric quality that is interesting. The hills do feel genuinely mysterious and a feeling that a threat looms somewhere just beyond the three soldiers persists throughout the episode. 

This is the third of four episodes Alan Crosland, Jr. directed for the show, having already helmed the season four episode “The Parallel” and the season five episode “The Old Man in the Cave.” He also directed the Earl Hamner-penned episode “Ring-a-Ding Girl.” Crossland, Jr. started as an editor, working on a handful of high-profile films including Marty (1955) and The Sweet Smell of Success (1957). As a director, he worked almost exclusively in television, directing many episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Outer Limits, The Six Million Dollar Man, The Bionic Woman, Wonder Woman and numerous other series.

His direction in this episode is good if not particularly memorable. Although to be fair, most of the episode is just three actors in a tank driving through an empty hillside which does not lend itself to inventive cinematography. The abrupt time shift and camera zoom at the beginning of the episode is an effective device, one that briefly disorients the audience. Crosland does his best to leave the time travel aspect in this episode ambiguous, as per Serling’s script, but with the very limited number of props and set pieces and the fact that it is shot entirely outside on sprawling grassy hills, a location that likely had not changed much in the eighty years that passed, it feels less like a deliberate storytelling device and mostly just confusing. It’s a device that simply works better on paper than it does on the screen.

The cast in this episode are all recognizable faces to fans of classic television. Ron Foster was a prolific presence in the early days of television, appearing most often in westerns and police dramas. He also appeared in a string of low-budget, genre films throughout the 1950s and 60s. Randy Boone is an actor and folk singer who is best known for his role as singing ranch hand Randy Benton on The Virginian, but he also made appearances on many western series. Robert Bray is best remembered as forest ranger Corey Stuart in Lassie. He also portrayed Mike Hammer in My Gun is Quick (1957), the third film to feature Mickey Spillane’s rough and tumble private detective. Greg Morris achieved fame as Barney Collier on Mission: Impossible for the show’s entire seven season run. He also appeared in the 1966 NBC film, The Doomsday Flight, which was written by Rod Serling.

Probably the most familiar face in this episode is that of Warren Oates who had already appeared on the show in a small part in the season one episode “The Purple Testament.” Oates’ rough demeanor and strong southern accent caused him to frequently be cast as loud, wise cracking southerners or cowboys. He made several films with director Sam Pechinpah including his masterpiece, The Wild Bunch (1969). He first made a name for himself in the 1960 independent film, Private Property, directed by Leslie Stevens. Other film roles include Ride the High Country (1962), Shenandoah (1965), In the Heat of the Night (1967), Two-Lane Blacktop (1972), Badlands (1973), and Stripes (1981). He made appearances on numerous television shows, mostly westerns, but also episodes of Thriller and The Outer Limits. As the skeptic in this episode, his viewpoint is the one closest to that of the audience. 

While it contains an interestingly weird atmosphere with good performances from the entire cast, “The 7^th is Made Up of Phantoms” suffers greatly from the numerous historical references that draw out certain scenes and, ultimately, the episode tries too hard to emphasize its time travel motif. It’s worth a watch to appreciate the acting and the mysterious atmosphere but it does not lend itself well to multiple viewings.

Grade: D 

Next time in the Vortex: A look at “A Short Drink from a Certain Fountain.” See you then!

Acknowledgements: 
--The Twilight Zone: Unlocking the Door to a Television Classic by Martin Grams, Jr. (OTR, 2008)
--American Experience, “Custer’s Last Stand” written and directed by Stephen Ives (PBS, 2012)
--The Internet Movie Database (imdb.com)
 
Notes:
__Alan Crossland, Jr. also directed the season four episode “The Parallel” and the season five episodes “The Old Man in the Cave” and “Ring-a-Ding Girl.”
__Warren Oates also appeared in the season one episode “The Purple Testament.”
__”The 7^th is Made Up of Phantoms” was adapted into a Twilight Zone Radio Drama by Dennis Etchison which starred Richard Grieco (2004).

Brian

"Probe 7, Over and Out"

An offering from Eve (Antoinette Bower) to Adam (Richard Basehart)

“Probe 7, Over and Out”
Season Five, Episode 129
Original Air Date: November 29, 1963
 
Cast:
Colonel Adam Cook: Richard Basehart
Eve Norda: Antoinette Bower
General Larrabee: Harold Gould
Lieutenant Blane: Barton Heyman
 
Crew:
Writer: Rod Serling
Director: Ted Post
Producer: William Froug
Director of Photography: Robert W. Pittack
Production Manager: Ralph W. Nelson
Art Direction: George W. Davis and Malcolm Brown
Film Editor: Thomas W. Scott
Set Decoration: Henry Grace and Robert R. Benton
Assistant Director: Charles Bonniwell, Jr.
Casting: Patricia Rose
Music: stock
Sound: Franklin Milton and Joe Edmondson
Mr. Serling’s Wardrobe: Eagle Clothes
Filmed at MGM Studios

And Now, Mr. Serling:
“Next on Twilight Zone, an eminent performer of stage and screen, Mr. Richard Basehart, in an oddball excursion that we call ‘Probe 7, Over and Out.’ On occasion we’ll come up with a wild and wooly denouement, but this particular opus has an unpredictable ending that we doubt if even the most seasoned TZ fans will be able to pick up before it happens on your screen. Next on Twilight Zone, ‘Probe 7, Over and Out.’”

Rod Serling’s Opening Narration: 

“One Colonel Cook, a traveler in space. He’s landed on a remote planet several million miles from his point of departure. He can make an inventory of his plight by just one 360-degree movement of head and eyes. Colonel Cook has been set adrift in an ocean of space in a metal lifeboat that has been scorched and destroyed and will never fly again. He survived the crash but his ordeal is yet to begin. Now he must give battle to loneliness. Now Colonel Cook must meet the unknown. It’s a small planet set deep in space. But for Colonel Cook, it’s The Twilight Zone.”

Summary: 

            Colonel Cook, a lone astronaut, has veered off course and crash-landed on a distant, unknown planet. His right arm is injured and his spaceship is badly damaged. Cook makes contact with home base using the dwindling power of his ship. Lieutenant Blane answers the call on the video screen and Cook informs him of his situation and tells Blane that he does not believe his ship can be repaired. General Larrabee appears and instructs Cook to remain on the channel in order to resume communication at a later time. Cook signs off to conserve the ship’s power.

            Cook exits the ship with a flashlight to explore his surroundings. He calls out to anyone who can hear him. No one answers his call. Cook returns to the ship and does not see a flurry of movement in the nearby vegetation.

            Cook contacts home base again. He requests a rescue ship be sent to help him. General Larrabee informs Cook that there are no more ships to send. Cook is on his own. Cook informs General Larrabee that the planet upon which he has crashed seems to have an atmosphere and gravitational pull comparable to their home planet. Larrabee tells Cook that war is imminent on their home world. Cook has a better chance of surviving where he is than if he were back home.

            Later, home base reestablishes contact. General Larrabee grimly informs Cook that war has broken out on their home planet and the destruction is enormous on both sides. Cook informs Larrabee that there is plenty of vegetation around him, some of it perhaps edible, although there are no signs of other lifeforms nor of daylight. Larrabee tells Cook that home base will be moving and that Larrabee will try, if possible, to make contact at a later time.

            Outside the ship, Cook finds drawings in the soil made by an intelligent hand. Excited, Cook climbs to the top of a nearby hill and calls out into the night. Suddenly, from out of the darkness, a large rock flies through the air and strikes Cook in the head. He falls to the ground, unconscious.

            A final report from home base appears on the video screen, unheard and unseen by the unconscious Cook. General Larrabee reports that the complete destruction of their home world is imminent. He sends Cook a message of hope for a more peaceful world free from fear and hatred.

            Later, Cook awakens to daylight and a headache. He makes his way back to the ship and collapses into a chair. The cabin door behind him slams closed. Cook arms himself and attempts to communicate with whomever or whatever is behind the door. He hopes the tone of his words will come through even if the language does not.

            Cook leaves the ship and waits nearby for the person inside to come out. Cook is distracted by a noise, however, and does not see the person leave the ship. Cook pursues the person through the trees and is astonished to find a woman on the ground. She is afraid and has, like himself, clearly been through a trying ordeal.  

            She is mistrustful of him, and they cannot communicate effectively, so Cook draws in the soil, attempting to explain how he arrived on the planet. Cook is half-convinced the woman is an illusion until she too draws in the soil. Cook interprets her drawing to mean that she is the last of her kind, having escaped a planetary crisis.

            In a rudimentary fashion, they manage to exchange names. Cook learns that the woman’s name is Norda. She seems willing to follow Cook back to his ship with a promise of food until Cook picks up a stick. This frightens the woman and she scratches Cook and runs away.

            Cook contemplates the notion that humans are by nature violent and fearful before wishing the woman luck and returning to his ship. Cook attempts to contact home base and receives the recording of the grim yet hopeful final message from General Larrabee. He knows now that he no longer has a home to return to. This unknown planet is his home now and for the rest of his life.

            Cook packs his belongings and leaves the ship, intent on finding a better place to make a home, a place near sources of water and food. The woman is waiting for him outside the ship. Cook attempts to communicate with her by picking up a handful of soil and asking what it is called in her language. The woman takes some of the soil in her fingers and speaks the word “earth.” Cook decides that Earth is a suitable name for this new planet.

            Cook then tells the woman his full name: Adam Cook. Likewise, she tells Cook her full name is Eve Norda. Together they walk off in search of a new home and a new life together. Eve stops to pick an apple from a tree and offer it to Adam.

 

Rod Serling’s Closing Narration:
“Do you know these people? Names familiar, are they? They lived a long time ago. Perhaps they’re part fable. Perhaps they’re part fantasy. And perhaps the place they’re walking to now is not really called Eden. We offer it only as a presumption. This has been The Twilight Zone.” 

Commentary: 

            From a favorable perspective, “Probe 7, Over and Out” allowed Rod Serling to combine two themes recurrent in his scripts for the series. These themes (a character alone against an unknown environment and the effects of nuclear annihilation) date to the early part of the first season, with the pilot episode “Where Is Everybody?” and “Time Enough at Last,” Serling’s adaptation of a story by Lynn Venable. These themes continued to regularly appear in such episodes as “Third from the Sun,” Serling’s adaptation of Richard Matheson’s story, which has a twist ending similar to “Probe 7, Over and Out,” “King Nine Will Not Return,” “The Shelter,” and several others, including writer/director Montgomery Pittman’s “Two,” the third season opener with which “Probe 7, Over and Out” shares more than a passing resemblance. The theme of nuclear annihilation, an ever-present shadow over the lives of Americans at the time, continued to be revisited well into the fifth season, with “Probe 7, Over and Out” following closely behind the similarly themed “The Old Man in the Cave.”

            Unlike “Time Enough at Last” or “Two,” however, these themes were not as seamlessly blended in “Probe 7, Over and Out,” as evidenced by the overused twist ending and the significant portion of dialogue consisting of engaging yet artificial monologues ruminating on man’s tendency for self-destruction. Not to be unfair to the excellent performance of Antoinette Bower, who has very little dialogue in the episode, but it is a credit to Richard Basehart and Harold Gould, as well as director Ted Post, that these frequent asides largely enhance rather than diminish the dramatic effect of the episode. “Probe 7, Over and Out” is, after all, Robinson Crusoe in space, a story type dating to the earliest days of pulp science fiction. Perhaps the most complimentary thing one can say about Serling’s script is that he found means by which to produce engaging dialogue and character interaction without resorting to methods previously used on the series such as voice-over narration or an alter-ego.

            From a less favorable perspective, “Probe 7, Over and Out” is ultimately an unsuccessful, Frankenstein’s monster of an episode, combining several previous parts to create a whole which clearly shows the seams of its construction. As reported by Bob Stahl in the April 4, 1964 issue of TV Guide, The Twilight Zone (Cayuga Productions) purchased the impressive crashed spaceship that features in the episode from rival series The Outer Limits (Daystar Productions). The crashed shuttlecraft was built by a crew led by Jack Poplin, art director on The Outer Limits. The crashed ship was featured in the first season Outer Limits episode “Specimen: Unknown,” which aired on February 24, 1964. After production on "Specimen: Unknown" was completed, Daystar sold the crashed ship to Cayuga in order to regain some of the costs of production. The ship was repainted and used as the centerpiece of “Probe 7, Over and Out.”

The crashed ship from The Outer Limits episode "Specimen: Unknown"

The crashed ship from "Probe 7, Over and Out"

Of course, the Adam and Eve twist ending has generated the greatest comment from those who have written about the episode. In fact, it is very much all anyone has had to say about the episode, and always in a negative context. Marc Scott Zicree, writing in The Twilight Zone Companion, views the ending to the episode this way: “One of the oldest science-fiction chestnuts known to man: Colonel Cook is Adam, the woman he discovers is Eve and the planet – let’s just call that Earth. What could have been a marvelous adventure instead becomes something that, had it been written as a short story, would have been rejected by every science-fiction magazine at the time, because it had been done to death many years earlier.”

            The themes presented in the episode were perhaps too well-worn to produce a “marvelous adventure,” even with a different ending. But had the Adam and Eve theme been “done to death” many years earlier? E.F. Bleiler, in The Guide to Supernatural Fiction, which examines works to 1960, lists more than a dozen works on the theme, including Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The New Adam and Eve” (1843), George MacDonald’s Lilith (1895), Rudyard Kipling’s “The Enemies of Each Other” (1924), and C.S. Lewis’ Perelandra (1943). Is this done to death? Well, if we widen the field to include science fiction stories then the number of examples of the Adam and Eve theme expands considerably. The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, in its entry on the subject, lists numerous examples, which writer Brian W. Aldiss labeled “shaggy God stories,” simple science fiction frameworks for biblical myths. The entry defines the most common of this story type as “the one in which survivors of a space disaster land on a virgin world and reveal (in the final line) that their names are Adam and Eve.”

By the time Rod Serling wrote “Probe 7, Over and Out,” Adam and Eve was truly one of the most overused themes in science fiction and fantasy. Serling revisited the theme in one of his more celebrated post-Twilight Zone works, Planet of the Apes (1968), a film that reflects a number of Twilight Zone episodes, including "People Are Alike All Over" and "I Shot an Arrow into the Air." In the film, the “Eve” character, Nova, played by Linda Harrison, strikes a resemblance in appearance, name, and behavior to Norda in “Probe 7, Over and Out.” 

            Was Serling aware of the overworked nature of the Adam and Eve theme? Judging from his preview narration for the episode it would appear that he was not, believing the ending would surprise “even the most seasoned TZ fans.” Serling must have known that a significant portion of the show’s viewers were also avid readers of science fiction and would have recognized the twist ending as one of the most overused in the genre.  

Nicholas Parisi wrote of the episode in his biography, Rod Serling: His Life, Work, and Imagination: “When Rod Serling wrote ‘Probe 7, Over and Out,’ its twist ending was already one of science fiction’s most overdone ideas. Serling, who had read plenty of science fiction, likely knew as much. He also likely knew that what is old on the printed page is sometimes new on television. Or, with his creative well running dry, he simply decided that using such an overworked idea was worth whatever risk it entailed.”

            Parisi’s view is probably closest to the mark. Serling was creatively exhausted and had, by his own admission, lost the ability to distinguish bad writing from good. One can expect, under such conditions, that Serling also lost some of the ability to distinguish a good idea from a bad one. The series also became, somewhat to its detriment, defined by the twist ending, a viewer expectation that persists to this day. 

As far as another underlying theme of the episode, that a character is traveling to Earth rather than away from it, Parisi points out that when Richard Matheson’s “Third from the Sun” was published more than a decade before the airing of “Probe 7, Over and Out,” the theme was less common than it became in subsequent years. Another interesting aspect of Parisi’s take on the episode is that Serling “had read plenty of science fiction.” It was for this reason that when a well-known science fiction theme was presented on the series, Serling was often accused of borrowing or outright stealing old ideas from more established science fiction writers who, coincidentally, were not writing for television (or cashing the accompanying checks). Science fiction on television in 1963 was still well behind science fiction on the page, and it is unreasonable to expect a television series, even one as skillfully written as The Twilight Zone, to break new thematic ground each and every week. As critic Les Daniels put it when discussing The Twilight Zone in his genre study, Living in Fear (1975): "The themes were sometimes a trifle familiar to those already conversant with the literature in the field, but Serling's undeniable skill in dramatic construction provided considerable compensation."

            “Probe 7, Over and Out” was filmed under the show’s final producer, William Froug (1922-2013), an affable, talented producer who was, despite a good working relationship with Rod Serling, at odds with what worked well on the series. Froug was also a successful scriptwriter, authoring several books on the subject, and took an active role in story content on the series. Part of this, unfortunately, included jettisoning several scripts from the show’s best writers previously purchased by departing producer Bert Granet, as well as bringing in a new stable of writers whose contributions to the series, with one exception, were uniformly poor. Yet, in this way, Froug was the producer that Serling needed at the time. Creatively exhausted, Serling became less concerned with protecting the integrity of his scripts. Froug and director Ted Post both related to author Marc Scott Zicree that Serling handed over the script for “Probe 7, Over and Out” with permission to make whatever changes they felt were necessary to create the best possible episode from the material.

            Froug further related to Zicree that Serling’s initial script ran to over forty-five pages, with one page of script roughly equivalent to one minute of screen time, putting the episode more than twenty minutes over the allotted time. When this was pointed out to the writer, Serling simply told Froug to make whatever changes were needed. Froug cut ten pages of dialogue from Serling’s script with little change to the course of the narrative. Froug told Zicree: “There were these speeches that went on and on for pages. So I remember taking ten pages out of the script, and it didn’t affect it in the least.” Even so, the episode came in overlong when filmed and further cuts were made by Ted Post in post-production.

            One wonders how an episode like "Probe 7, Over and Out" could be made out to twice the length. Serling’s scripts by this time primarily became exercises in dialogue, likely owing to the fact that Serling increasingly dictated his scripts rather than composed them on the typewriter. One can imagine Serling walking around his home or sitting poolside and speaking into the machine, “performing” each character on the stage of his mind. The result, however, in “Uncle Simon,” “Probe 7, Over and Out,” and several additional episodes of the fifth season, was a style of drama structured upon enjoyable but stagy dialogue densely executed and often artificial in exchange. Serling crafted such engaging characters and dialogue, however, that a viewer can both enjoy these excessive exercises while also recognizing the shortcomings inherent in such an approach. 

            Richard Basehart (1914-1984), here portraying Colonel Cook, is remembered for his portrayal of Admiral Harriman Nelson in Irwin Allen’s Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (1964-1968). Basehart’s long career in film and television included an appearance in Federico Fellini’s La Strada (1954), as well as several crime and mystery films which endeared him to generations of film noir fans. These films included Basehart’s breakout role in He Walked by Night (1948), co-written by Crane Wilbur, who later directed Basehart in Outside the Wall (1950), and The House on Telegraph Hill (1951), directed by Robert Wise. Basehart also memorably portrayed the man on the ledge of a hotel building in Fourteen Hours (1951). Other Basehart roles include that of Ishmael in director John Huston’s adaptation of Herman Melville’s Moby Dick (1956), co-scripted by Ray Bradbury, and a memorable appearance under heavy makeup as the Sayer of the Law in director Don Taylor’s adaptation of H.G. Wells’ The Island of Dr. Moreau (1977). This latter film also featured Nick Cravat as M’Ling, companion to Dr. Moreau, as portrayed by Cravat’s lifelong friend Burt Lancaster. Cravat memorably portrayed the gremlin on the wing of the plane that terrorizes William Shatner in the fifth season Twilight Zone episode, “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet.”

Like Rod Serling, Richard Basehart narrated documentary films covering such subjects as the Kennedy assassination, the Vietnam war, and the salvaging of sunken Spanish galleons, the latter of which, Treasure Galleons (1973), directed by Basehart, also credits Rod Serling as a performer, although I have been unable to view and verify this. Basehart provided the opening narration for the television series Knight Rider, and appeared in the pilot episode as Wilton Knight. Basehart appeared in two episodes of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, “The Black Curtain,” based on the novel by Cornell Woolrich, from the first season, and “Starring the Defense,” written by Henry Slesar, from the second season. In 1983, Basehart appeared on the sixth season of Tales of the Unexpected, in an adaptation of C.S. Forester’s memorable suspense story, “The Turn of the Tide.” 

            Antoinette Bower (b. 1932), portraying Eve Norda, was born in Germany to a German father and an English mother. She was educated in schools in England, Vienna, and Monte Carlo. Bower moved to Canada in 1953 and began acting on the Canadian stage while also working as a disc jockey in Ontario. She began appearing on Canadian television later in the decade, including an appearance in an adaptation of Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart.” Bower landed a role on American television in 1961 while visiting friends, leading to further roles on the American small screen. Bower appeared in two episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, “A Woman’s Help,” scripted by Henry Slesar, from the sixth season, and “The Silk Petticoat,” from the seventh season. Bower also appeared twice on the second season of Boris Karloff’s Thriller, in “The Return of Andrew Bentley,” scripted by Richard Matheson from the story by August Derleth and Mark Schorer, and in Robert Bloch’s “Waxworks.” Bower is perhaps best known for her appearance in the second season episode of Star Trek, “Cat’s Paw,” also scripted by Robert Bloch. Bower also performed in films, including a handful of low-budget thrillers such as Die Sister, Die (1978), Prom Night (1980), and Blood Song (1982). Bower returned to Canada to appear in the television series Neon Rider (1990-1995) before retiring from acting. 

            Harold Gould (1923-2010), portraying General Larrabee, is likely a familiar face due to his long and prolific career as a character actor. Though remembered for his work in comedies and lighter fare, or as father figures, Gould’s career occasionally ventured into stranger territory. Gould got his start on the screen in an uncredited role in Edgar G. Ulmer’s The Man from Planet X (1951). It was not until the 1960s, however, after earning a PhD in theater and a stint teaching at Cornell University, that Gould devoted himself fulltime to acting. He appeared in the second season episode of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, “How to Get Rid of Your Wife,” while also appearing uncredited in Hitchcock’s Marnie (1964). Gould later appeared in two episodes of The Ray Bradbury Theater, “To the Chicago Abyss,” from the third season, which earned him an Emmy nomination, and “Colonel Stonesteel and the Desperate Empties,” from the fifth season, based on Bradbury’s 1981 story “Colonel Stonesteel’s Genuine Home-Made Truly Egyptian Mummy.” Gould also appeared in “Paradise,” a second season episode of The Outer Limits revival series. 

            Barton Heyman (1937-1996) appears briefly as Lieutenant Blane in the episode. The prolific Heyman also appeared in such horror and suspense films as Let’s Scare Jessica to Death (1971), The Exorcist (1973), Cruising (1980), and Raising Cain (1992).

            “Probe 7, Over and Out” is a well-acted, well-directed episode that is ultimately unsuccessful due to its content being overly familiar without offering any new or significant variations on the material. Although most viewers would likely rate this episode lower than the grade I have given it, I found the episode to be a breezy and engaging drama, lifted beyond its artificial ending by quality acting, directing, and production. It is simply marred by an overused twist ending and does not stand up to comparison with the best of the series. I can recommend the episode to viewers willing to look beyond the twist ending to find enjoyment in Rod Serling’s robust dialogue and two excellent performances from Richard Basehart and Antoinette Bower. 

Grade: C 

Next Time in the Vortex: A review of Rod Serling’s “The 7^th Is Made Up of Phantoms.” Thanks for reading! 

Acknowledgments:

--The Twilight Zone Companion (3^rd ed.) by Marc Scott Zicree (Silman-James, 2018)
--The Twilight Zone: Unlocking the Door to a Television Classic by Martin Grams, Jr. (OTR, 2008)
­--Rod Serling: His Life, Work, and Imagination by Nicholas Parisi (University Press of Mississippi, 2018)
--A Critical History of Television’s The Twilight Zone by Don Presnell and Marty McGee (McFarland, 1998)
--Audio commentary by Marc Scott Zicree and Ted Post for “Probe 7, Over and Out” (The Twilight Zone: The 5^th Dimension Box Set, 2014)
--Inside The Twilight Zone by Marc Scott Zicree (CBS DVD/Image Entertainment, 1999)
--The Guide to Supernatural Fiction by E.F. Bleiler (Kent State University Press, 1983)
--The Outer Limits Companion by David J. Schow (GNP/Crescendo, 1998)

---Living in Fear: A History of Horror in the Mass Media by Les Daniels (Charles Scribner's Sons, 1975)
--The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (4^th ed.) (sf-encyclopedia.com)
--The Internet Speculative Fiction Database (isfdb.org)
--The Internet Movie Database (imdb.com) 

Notes: 

--Rod Serling’s teleplay for “Probe 7, Over and Out” was collected in volume 9 of As Timeless as Infinity: The Complete Twilight Scripts of Rod Serling, edited by Tony Albarella (Gauntlet Press, 2012).
--Ted Post directed three additional episodes of the series, “A World of Difference,” from the first season, and “Mr. Garrity and the Graves” and “The Fear,” from the fifth season. Post also directed Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970), a sequel to Planet of the Apes (1968), a film co-scripted by Rod Serling.
--“Probe 7, Over and Out” was adapted as a Twilight Zone Radio Drama starring Louis Gossett, Jr.
--For years, the home video release of the episode included a summary which spoiled part of the episode’s twist ending: “The lone survivors of two annihilated planets become stranded on the same remote world. Together they must begin new lives on this new planet. A planet called Earth.”
--Like many episodes of the series, “Probe 7, Over and Out” features costumes from the film Forbidden Planet (1956), seen in those worn by General Larrabee and Lieutenant Blane.
--“Probe 7, Over and Out” was originally scheduled to follow “Night Call,” which was scheduled to air the previous week on November 22, 1963. “Night Call” was pulled from the air on the day it was scheduled due to media coverage of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Thus, “Probe 7, Over and Out” followed “Uncle Simon” in broadcast order while “Night Call” was rescheduled and appeared later in the fifth season on February 7, 1964. 

-JP

"Uncle Simon"

 

Robby the Robot in "Uncle Simon"

“Uncle Simon”
Season Five, Episode 128
Original Air Date: November 15, 1963
 
Cast:
Uncle Simon: Sir Cedric Hardwicke
Barbara Polk: Constance Ford
Schwimmer: Ian Wolfe
Robot: Dion Hansen (voiced by Vic Perrin)
 
Crew:
Writer: Rod Serling
Director: Don Siegel
Producer: Bert Granet
Director of Photography: Robert Pittack, a.s.c.
Production Manager: Ralph W. Nelson
Art Direction: George W. Davis and Walter Holscher
Film Editor: Thomas W. Scott
Set Decoration: Henry Grace and Robert R. Benton
Assistant Director: Charles Bonniwell, Jr.
Casting: Patricia Rose
Music: Stock
Sound: Franklin Milton and Philip N. Mitchell
Mr. Serling’s Wardrobe: Eagle Clothes
Filmed at MGM Studios

And Now, Mr. Serling:

“Next on The Twilight Zone, the distinguished Sir Cedric Hardwicke lends us his considerable talent along with the very accomplished Constance Ford. They appear in what can most aptly be described as one of the shockers on our schedule. The play is called ‘Uncle Simon,’ and this, we submit, is a relative you’ve never met before. It’s a story with a final curtain I doubt anyone can predict. Next on Twilight Zone, ‘Uncle Simon.’”

Rod Serling’s Opening Narration:

“Dramatis Personae: Mr. Simon Polk, a gentleman who has lived out his life in a gleeful rage. And the young lady who’s just beat the hasty retreat is Mr. Polk’s niece, Barbara. She has lived her life as if each ensuing moment she had a dentist appointment. There is yet a third member of the company soon to be seen. He now resides in the laboratory and he is the kind of character found only in the Twilight Zone.”

Summary:

Barbara Polk has lived with her elderly uncle, Simon, a cruel and viscerally unpleasant person, for the past twenty-five years. His only living relative, Barbara will inherit Simon’s fortune when he dies. Barbara acts as Simon’s caretaker and essentially his maid, cooking his meals, preparing him hot chocolate, cleaning his enormous house, and is rewarded with pointed insults. She is kept alive by the hope that eventually he will die.

When he is not berating his niece, Simon spends his free time tinkering in his basement laboratory in which Barbara is not allowed. One day she finds it unlocked and sneaks in to quell her curiosity. Simon catches her and an altercation ensues. After a verbal back and forth on the stairs Simon raises his cane in anger and Barbara snatches it out of his hands, causing her uncle to lose his balance and tumble down the stairs. Simon uses his final moments to ask for help but Barbara declines and instead watches him die.

After Simon’s death, Barbara is visited by his attorney, Mr. Schwimmer, to settle the estate. Schwimmer informs her that she will inherit her uncle’s entire fortune on the condition that she continue to reside in the house. She is also tasked with being the guardian to her uncle’s final creation. Barbara and Schwimmer venture to Simon’s laboratory where they find a robot hidden in a closet. The robot informs them that it will learn and develop its own personality as it progresses. Schwimmer informs Barbara that he will pay her weekly visits to insure that the robot is properly cared for.

Days later, Barbara, looking considerably happier, is getting ready to go out for the night when the robot asks her to fix a cup of hot chocolate, Simon’s favorite. Barbara is terrified.

Later, she tries to enter the laboratory but the robot stops her at the bottom of the basement stairway, claiming that the room belongs to him and that she is not allowed inside. While berating her with insults the robot’s voice morphs into the voice of her late uncle. In a moment reminiscent of the death of her uncle, Barbara pushes the robot down the stairs, breaking its leg.

A few weeks later, Schwimmer stops by the house. Barbara is back in the same frumpy clothes she wore to tend to her uncle with the same despondent look on her face. After Schwimmer leaves, the robot, aided now by a cane, hurls a variety of nasty insults at her and then demands that she fix him some hot chocolate, all in a voice identical to that of her late uncle.

“I’ll fix it for you now,” she replies.

“’You'll fix it for me now,’ what?” asks the angry robot.

“I’ll fix it for you now…Uncle.”

Rod Serling’s Closing Narration:

“Dramatis Personae: a metal man who’ll go by the name of Simon, whose life as well as his body has been stamped out for him. And the woman who tends to him, the lady Barbara, who’s discovered belatedly that all bad things don’t come to an end, and that once the bed is made, it’s quite necessary that you sleep in it. Tonight’s uncomfortable little exercise of avarice and automatons, from the Twilight Zone.”

Commentary:

“Uncle Simon” is something of an unusual episode. A black comedy with an absurd plot, two dimensional characters, and over-the-top dialogue, all of which surprisingly work in its favor. Despite its hard science fiction element, the overall tone of the episode suggests that it could have been more at home on Alfred Hitchcock Presents. The plot of the episode is predictable and it doesn’t really lend itself to many repeat viewings, but Serling seems aware of the script’s flaws and leans into them, creating an episode that almost feels like a satire of the show. Serling was, by his own admission, tired by this point in the show’s run after having scripted the majority of the episodes during the show’s first four seasons. So it is no surprise that this late in the series some of his scripts contain familiar elements. With this episode, he seems to be conscious of the fact that the audience has grown accustomed to many of the themes and tropes associated with the show because the entire episode feels vaguely self-aware, which is probably its biggest selling point.

It should be noted that a filmed scene from this episode did not make the final cut. In the scene, Barbara, after witnessing her uncle die, laughs with relief and, presumably, joy. The scene then cuts to Barbara in the study being interrogated by a police officer. With tears in her eyes, she tells him that she heard a crash from downstairs and when she went to investigate, her uncle was already dead. The officer believes her story and offers his condolences. On his way out he tells her that his father was a student of Simon’s at the university where he once taught. After he leaves she begins to smash all of her uncle’s possessions. The officer was played by John Mcliam who appeared in several other episodes, almost always as a police officer. In his adaptation of this episode as a Twilight Zone Radio Drama, writer Dennis Etchison included the cut scene and even expanded on it a bit, with Barbara openly flirting with the officer and asking him to dinner afterwards.

This scene is interesting because including it would have changed the story a great deal. In the final cut of the episode, the audience sees Barbara as a victim of her uncle even though she lets him die, which may or may not be because she wants his money. Given the abuse the audience has seen inflicted upon her up until this point, it is understandable that she holds a great deal of anger and fear towards him, even if she is not a particularly sympathetic character, and may just want him to die so she can finally be at peace. The cut scene would have painted Barbara in a much nastier light and would have suggested that her only goal was her inheritance, which would have made her fate even more predictable. The final cut of the episode relies on a certain ambiguity of her character and attempts to make her fate seem tragic, whether or not that is accomplished is debatable.

Serling’s dialogue is the main reason to watch this episode. It feels as if he is trying to say something with this story, possibly about why people stay in unhappy relationships, but realizes that he isn’t sticking the landing the way he wants to and so instead fills the episode, particularly the first act, with a nonstop barrage of mean language. Simon’s dialogue is so ridiculously over the top that he sounds more like an insult comedian than a feeble old man who builds robots in his basement, something that Serling points out in Barbara’s dialogue.

During the middle of the twentieth century, robots and artificial intelligence became a frequently used theme in science fiction and The Twilight Zone was no exception. So far in the fifth season there had already been two episodes that featured sentient machinery, albeit ambiguously, and there would be several more before the end of the season. The preoccupation with computers, of both their benefits and the perceived threats they posed to humanity, soared during the 1950s and 60s as computers became able to store more information than ever before. This resulted in numerous interpretations of computers and robots in the science fiction of that era. During its time on the air, The Twilight Zone featured robots and androids made for a variety of different functions: human companionship (“The Lonely” “I Sing the Body Electric”), human replacement (“Steel” and the forthcoming season five episode “The Brain Center at Whipple’s”), exploitation (“The Mighty Casey”) and mistaken identity (“The Lateness of the Hour” “In His Image”). “Uncle Simon” is the only episode that features a robot made by and in the likeness of a human to be functional only after they themselves have died. It suggests that robots can prolong a person’s importance on Earth and offer a chance at immortality. The absurd fact that Simon builds a one-of-a-kind mechanical wonder simply to continue torturing his niece after he is gone is part of the charm of the story.

Robby and Earl Holliman
in MGM's Forbidden Planet (1956)

To a modern audience the most recognizable star of this episode is Robby the Robot, although here he is significantly altered from his more well-known original costume. Like many props featured in The Twilight Zone and other science fiction productions filmed at MGM, Robby the Robot first appeared in the 1956 film, Forbidden Planet, directed by Fred M. Wilcox. The film stars Walter Pidgeon, Leslie Nielson, and Anne Francis but the breakout star was Robby. The costume went on to be featured in numerous film and television productions earning it the nickname “the hardest working robot in Hollywood.” Robby was initially depicted on the poster for Forbidden Planet as a robotic monster carrying a dead Anne Francis, but no such scene in the film actually exists and Robby was, and mostly remained in subsequent screen appearances, a gentle, caring companion with a warm, dry wit. This episode is one of the few exceptions which is probably why the headpiece of the costume is altered so as not to tarnish the friendly image of Robby the Robot, who was very popular with children, and also because, by this point in Robby’s fame, it would have been a distraction from the story. The headpiece used in “Uncle Simon” is a much more simplified design than the original costume. A cylindrical head was used in place of the original head with movable eyes and a motionless mouth, placed under the familiar clear plexiglass dome. This makes the robot’s face look more like a human’s. The voice-activated lights that make up the mouth and the protruding tubes that function as Robby’s ears are gone.

Serling and Robby in
a promotional photo

Robby was the brainchild of a handful of different people working at MGM at the time, namely production designer Buddy Gillespie, art director Arthur Lonergan, screenwriter Irving Block, and mechanical designer Robert Kinoshita, who drew the final sketches of the costume that would be seen on the screen. At $125,000, It was the most expensive prop made for the film and proved to be an innovative design. Because Robby was constructed with three interlocking sections (lower, torso, head) that were placed on the performer inside starting from the bottom up, with the actor, usually one of shorter stature, strapped into an internal harness, it allowed the costume to be filmed from every angle without giving away the façade.

Poster for Invasion of the
Body Snatchers (1956)

This is the first of two episodes directed by the great Don Siegel, who also directed another fifth season episode, “The Self-Improvement of Salvadore Ross.” Siegel and Serling worked together years earlier when Siegel directed two of Serling’s earliest television scripts for episodes of the NBC series The Doctor in 1952. When his Twilight Zone episodes were first broadcast, Siegel was already a celebrated director of genre films and television, although the most successful part of his career still lay ahead of him. Siegel’s career began at Warner Bros. in the 1930s as a second unit director and editor who worked alongside directors like Raoul Walsh, Michael Curtiz, and Howard Hawks. As an editor, Siegel specialized in cutting together montages for films including the opening montage for Casablanca (1942). In 1945, he directed two short films, a retelling of the nativity story, Star in the Night, and a post-war documentary, Hitler Lives, both of which won Academy Awards enabling him to direct feature films. Although he directed mostly low budget B movies for the next two decades, he built a reputation for himself as a director who could accomplish a lot with relatively little. His list of credits during this time includes The Verdict (1946), The Big Steal (1949), Riot in Cell Block 11 (1954), and the Elvis Presley western Flaming Star (1960). In 1956, he directed the first adaptation of Jack Finney’s novel The Body Snatchers. Invasion of the Body Snatchers, starring Kevin McCarthy, went on to become a science fiction landmark for its political metaphors and lasting social commentary.

Siegel had always been adept at portraying violence and gritty realism in his work and his interest in these types of stories only increased as he became older. Many of his later films, starting probably with his 1964 remake of Ernest Hemingway’s The Killers (1946), with Lee Marvin, focused on masculine loners living in a corrupt and morally deficient society. Given this, it seems appropriate that Siegel directed John Wayne’s last film, The Shootist, in 1976. Siegel mentored numerous proteges during his career, among them Sam Peckinpah and Clint Eastwood, both of which would go on to direct similar types of films. With Eastwood, Siegel would enjoy the most prominent era of his long career. Siegel made five films with Eastwood as his leading man, among them Escape from Alcatraz (1979) and the cultural milestone, Dirty Harry (1971). Eastwood credits Siegel for launching his career as a director and dedicated his masterpiece, Unforgiven (1992), to Siegel and his other directorial mentor, Sergio Leone.

Siegel’s direction in this episode is relatively simple. The story is driven almost entirely by Serling’s dialogue and the performances of its cast. There are several scenes, however, which are purposely shot to resemble other scenes in the episode as a foreshadowing of the episode’s denouement. The scenes in the study and the scenes on the basement stairs, before and after Simon’s death, are shot and blocked similarly to emphasize the robot’s replacement of Simon in Barbara’s life.

Constance Ford started her career as a teenage model in the early 1940s and eventually worked her way onto the Broadway stage appearing in the original production of Death of a Salesman in 1949. She appeared in a handful on notable films during her career including Delmer Daves' A Summer Place in 1959, John Frankenheimer's All Fall Down in 1962, and the Robert Bloch scripted The Cabinet of Caligari in 1962, but the bulk of her career was spent in television. A regular fixture in episodic television durinng the 1950s and 60s, she appeared in many of the popular live dramas of the period including an episode of Kraft Theatre in 1953 called "The Blues for Joey Menotti" and the Playhouse 90 episode "The Comedian" in 1957, both written by Serling, the latter of which won him an Emmy. Genre fans may recognize her from episodes of Lights Out, Suspense, Inner Sanctum, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Thriller, and 'Way Out. She is probably best remembered for her role as Ada Hobson in the NBC daytime soap opera, Another World, which she played from 1967 to 1992, shortly before her death.

While all three characters in “Uncle Simon” exist simply to service the plot, Ford makes the most out of this limitation and gives a bitter yet restrained portrayal of the damaged and defeated Barbara Polk. The only time she allows the character to display genuinely rousing emotion is immediately after Simon’s death when she vandalizes his possessions while entranced in the ecstasy of her new freedom, doing so with the awkwardness of someone who has twenty-five years’ worth of repressed hatred and anger.

Sir Cedric Hardwicke was a theatrically trained English actor who enjoyed a career that lasted nearly half a century. He was a prolific stage actor, often appearing in plays by Shakespeare and George Bernard Shaw. His stage work eventually earned him a Tony Award and knighthood. He began appearing in films around the same time that talkies took over cinema, appearing at first in both European and American films and later moving to the U.S. permanently. He appeared in a variety of films but was often cast in literary adaptations and genre pictures. His notable film roles include the 1939 version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, John Brahm’s The Lodger (1944), Alfred Hitchcock’s Suspicion (1941) and Rope (1948), The War of the Worlds (1953), and The Ten Commandments (1956). He worked with Don Siegel before this in the film Baby Face Nelson in 1957. He spent the last decade of his career appearing in numerous television series including The Outer Limits and Alfred Hitchcock Presents. His sole appearance on The Twilight Zone would be one of his final roles as he passed away less than a year after it was originally broadcast. He is only on screen for the first half of the episode but he steals the show, although to be fair he is given pretty much all of the fun dialogue. Considering that his character is absurdly two dimensional, with his only motive throughout the entire episode being the inexplicable need to torture his niece, his performance is surprisingly memorable.

Ian Wolfe’s career as a stage and screen actor lasted nearly seven decades. Even at a young age, he was often cast as bookish old men as he looked much older than he was. This was Wolfe’s only appearance on the series. A highly prolific actor, he usually played small supporting roles and his credits include appearances on One Step Beyond, Star Trek, Rod Serling’s Night Gallery (season two’s “Deliveries in the Rear”), Amazing Stories, and numerous westerns. On the big screen he had roles in Hitchcock’s Foreign Correspondent (1940) and Saboteur (1942), They Live by Night (1948), Rebel Without a Cause (1955), Witness for the Prosecution (1957), The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm (1962), Diary of a Madman (1963), THX 1138 (1971), and Dick Tracy (1990). He appeared in Don Siegel’s first film, The Verdict, in 1946 and his last film, Jinxed, in 1982.

Today, Vic Perrin, who voices the robot before it evolves into the voice of Cedric Hardwicke, is almost certainly best remembered as the control voice heard in the opening segment of The Outer Limits. He appeared earlier on The Twilight Zone in season one’s “People Are Alike All Over” and would appear once more in season five’s “Ring-a-Ding Girl.” He also made several appearances on Star Trek and Mission: Impossible, and his voice work is featured prominently on numerous animated series throughout the 1960s, 70s and 80s.

“Uncle Simon” often gets a bad rap from fans and critics and, truth be told, it probably won’t ever be anyone’s favorite episode. The plot is stilted and revolves almost exclusively around the twist ending, which is immediately predicable, there are several scenes that are simply not interesting, and of the three characters, none elicit any sort of concern from the audience at any point in the episode. Its saving attribute, however, is its self-awareness and its willingness to laugh at itself right along with the audience. For those who have never seen “Uncle Simon,” it is worth a viewing or two simply to hear Serling have tremendous fun with dialogue and see the show essentially poke fun at itself.

  

Grade: C

Grateful acknowledgement is made to the following:

The Twilight Zone: Unlocking the Door to a Television Classic by Martin Grams, Jr. (OTR, 2008)

"Uncle Simon” episode commentary by Martin Grams, Jr., The Twilight Zone: The Complete Series Blu-ray (Image Entertainment, 2016)

“Uncle Simon” Twilight Zone Radio Dramas, adapted by Dennis Etchison, directed by Carl Amari (Falcon Picture Group)

The Internet Movie Database

Wikipedia

 

Notes:

--Rod Serling's script for "Uncle Simon" was collected The Complete Twilight Zone Scripts of Rod Serling, Vol. 5, edited by Tony Albarella (2008, Gauntlet Press)

--Don Siegel also directed the season five episode “The Self-Improvement of Salvadore Ross.”

--Ian Wolfe also appeared in the season two segment of Rod Serling’s Night Gallery, “Deliveries in the Rear.”

--Vic Perrin appeared in the season one episode “People Are Alike All Over” and the season five episode “Ring-a-Ding Girl.”

--Robby the Robot can also be seen in the season five episode “The Brain Center at Whipple’s” where he is again played by Dion Hansen, and a miniature figurine of Robby can be seen briefly in the season one episode "One for the Angels."

“Uncle Simon” was adapted into a Twilight Zone Radio Drama by Dennis Etchison, starring Beverly Garland and Peter Mark Richman.

 

Brian