Monday, February 24, 2020

Reading Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone Magazine, Part 19


In which we take a closer look at each issue. For our capsule history of the magazine, go here.

Volume 2, Number 7 (October, 1982)

Cover art: Rob Sauber (for “Summer of Monsters” by Dale Hammell)

TZ Publications, Inc.

President & Chairman: S. Edward Orenstein
Secretary/Treasurer: Sidney Z. Gellman
Executive Vice-Presidents: Leon Garry, Eric Protter
Executive Publisher: S. Edward Orenstein
Publisher: Leon Garry
Associate Publisher and Consulting Editor: Carol Serling
Editorial Director: Eric Protter
Editor: T.E.D. Klein
Managing Editor: Jane Bayer
Assistant Editor: Robert Sabat
Editorial Assistant: Judy Linden
Contributing Editors: Thomas M. Disch, Ron Goulart
Design Director: Michael Monte
Art Director: Wendy Mansfield
Art Production: Susan Lindeman, Carol Sun, Lori Hollander
Production Director: Stephen J. Fallon
Controller: Thomas Schiff
Assistant to the Publisher: Penny Layne
Public Relations Manager: Jeffrey Nickora
Accounting Mgr.: Chris Grossman
Accounting Ass’t: Annmarie Pistilli
Office Ass’t: Zuleyma Guèvara
Circulation Director: William D. Smith
Circulation Mgr.: Carole A. Harley
Circulation Ass’t: Katherine Lys
Northeastern Circ. Mgr.: Jacqueline Doyle
Eastern Circ. Mgr.: Hank Rosen
West Coast Circ. Mgr.: Gary Judy
Advertising Manager: Rachel Britapaja
Adv. Production Manager: Marina Despotakis
Advertising Representatives: Barney O’Hara & Associates, Inc.

Contents:

--In the Twilight Zone: “Royalty . . .” by T.E.D. Klein
--Other Dimensions: Screen by Ron Goulart
--Other Dimensions: Books by Thomas M. Disch
--Other Dimensions: Spoken Word Records by Ronald Smith
--Other Dimensions: The ‘So Saying, He Vanished’ Quiz by Chet Williamson
--Other Dimensions: Etc.
--“Summer of Monsters” by Dale Hammell
--“Mexican Merry-Go-Round” by Avram Davidson
--“Five Minutes Early” by Robert Sheckley
--“The Silly Stuff” by Al Sarrantonio
--TZ Interview: Nicholas Meyer by Mark Denis Shepard
--Another View: Star Trek: The Great American Love Story by Richard Matturo
--Broken Walls, Shattered Dreams by Duncan McLaren & Simon Marsden
--“In a Green Shade” by Melissa Mia Hall
--“One Small Change” by Gary Brandner
--“Alive and Well in . . .” by Michael S. Smith
--“Pigs are Sensitive” by Jon Wynne-Tyson
--“Saratoga Winter” by Jeff Hecht
--Show-By-Show Guide: TV’s Twilight Zone: Part Nineteen by Marc Scott Zicree
--TZ Classic Teleplay: “In Praise of Pip” by Rod Serling
--Looking Ahead: In November’s TZ . . .

--In the Twilight Zone: “Royalty . . .”

M.P. Shiel
-T.E.D. Klein highlights the British fantasy author M.P. Shiel (1865-1947), author of the evergreen “last man” novel The Purple Cloud (1901), filmed as The World, the Flesh and the Devil (1959) with Inger Stevens, star of Twilight Zone’s “The Hitch-Hiker” and “The Lateness of the Hour,” as well as such anthology favorites as “The House of Sounds” (1911) and “The Place of Pain” (1914). Klein uses the editorial space to examine a unique royal lineage, which extended from Shiel to his first literary executor, the publisher John Gawsworth, to Shiel’s then-current executor Jon Wynne-Tyson, the latter of whom appears in the issue with the story, “Pigs are Sensitive.” Shiel’s eccentric father, Mathew Dowdy Shiell (M.P. Shiel later amended the spelling of his surname) bestowed upon his son a kingship when he ceremoniously crowned Matthew as Felipe I, king of the tiny volcanic island of Redonda. Klein includes a passage from Shiel’s memoirs recounting the incident and examines the ways in which Shiel bestowed “dukedoms” upon his friends, a trend taken up, to an extreme degree, by Gawsworth. Klein also briefly examines the tragic circumstances of Gawsworth’s life. Gawsworth was later profiled by Steve Eng in the Spring, 1987 issue of Night Cry. Jon Wynne-Tyson later wrote an essay on the topic of Shiel’s kingship, “Redonda: The Question of Sovereignty,” for Aklo #3 (Winter, 1991).

-It is unclear what inspired this bit on Shiel. Typically, this sort of editorial prefigured an Essential Writers feature on the author in question, though there is no such treatment of Shiel in the issue. Klein credits two books with providing information for the editorial, The Quest for Redonda and The Works of M.P. Shiel, both privately published by A. Reynolds Morse of JDS Books in Dayton, Ohio. The remainder of the editorial is given over in the usual way, with snippet biographies and thumbnail images of the issue’s contributors.

--Other Dimensions: Screen by Ron Goulart

Hanky Panky
-Goulart looks at four films in his final column before the return of regular films reviewer Gahan Wilson. The first is the Monty Python offering The Secret Policeman’s Other Ball (1981). Goulart finds that many of the recycled sketches which compose the film are tiresome the second time around and that the incorporation of contemporary rock music is an unwelcome bit of over-amplified distraction. “Unless you are a fan of both the Python crew and contemporary rock music,” Goulart writes, “there are going to be lulls in this movie for you.”

-Next, Goulart looks at Hanky Panky (1982), a comedy-thriller starring Gene Wilder and Gilda Radner. The film is notable for being where Wilder and Radner met one another. They married in 1984. Goulart is very critical of the film, particularly with the casting. He describes Wilder’s performance as “in a jittery style that makes Don Knotts look like a pillar of calm, Wilder also gets increasingly petulant and childish as the film unfolds.” He is harsher with Radner, going so far as to criticize the actress’s looks: “I don’t mean to imply that funny-looking, dopey girls aren’t entitled to as much love and affection as pretty, bright ones. But I have to admit I enjoy watching Goldie Hawn in this sort of role much more. There’s something sad in seeing Radner struggling valiantly to look attractive and chic.” Goulart wraps up his review by criticizing the writing, direction, and character motivation in the film.

-Next on the chopping block is Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982). Goulart writes that “before the first reel of this latest Trekkie epic was over, I’d begun to feel I was marooned inside a vast and endless video-game arcade.” The ironic thread running through this issue is that The Wrath of Khan is highlighted in multiple places, including an interview with the film’s director Nicholas Meyer, and yet the position of the magazine’s writers is uniformly negative. Although the film appears to have not engineered much positive interest, at least at TZ Magazine, it is now considered the best of the early Trek movies, and is credited with renewing interest in the franchise.

-Finally, Goulart allows a little space to look at Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner (1982). Goulart praises the production values but takes issue with the story and screenplay. Goulart highlights the performances of Sean Young and Rutger Hauer in the film. He concludes his review in a tepid way: “Despite several reservations, I think I enjoyed the movie.” Goulart concludes his column by addressing the lack of a review of Conan the Barbarian, which was promised last issue. Goulart expected the film to have an extended theatrical run, in the manner of Star Wars, but the film flopped and left theaters before Goulart could attend a showing.

--Other Dimensions: Books by Thomas M. Disch

-Disch allots the majority of space to The Fate of the Earth by Jonathan Schell (1982), a triptych of essays on the subject of nuclear war which apparently caused a sensation when it was published. Disch is enthusiastic about the book, quoting passages and tracing its lineage in the arts to such works as Richard Matheson’s I Am Legend, Steven Spielberg’s Raiders of the Lost Ark, and such doomsday novels as On the Beach, Fail-Safe, and A Canticle for Leibowitz.

-Disch also looks at three new horror novels. Old Fears by John Wooley and Ron Wolfe is “a horror novel of almost unrelieved dullness, and there can be no fault more unforgivable in a horror novel.” Control by William Goldman is “a Jekyll and Hyde of a novel. When it is good, it’s sensationally good, and when it’s bad it’s horrid, and its goodness and horridness are inseparable, each a function of the other.” Finally, on The Selkie by Charles Sheffield and David Bischoff, Disch writes: “If The Selkie finally falls short of achieving classic status, it’s probably less the fault of the authors than of the selkies, whose only real fault seems to be an excess of philoprogenitive feeling. Even so, it’s a decidedly good read – but more for winter evenings by the fire than for taking to the beach.”

--Other Dimensions: Spoken Word Records by Ronald Smith
Illustration by Carol Sun

-Spoken word records, or audio books, seem ubiquitous today but were at one time very much a fringe industry which generally catered to libraries, schools, and the collector. As such, many interesting and desirable recordings were produced, unlike today in which a book’s entertainment value is prized over any sort of posterity in the recording itself. Ronald Smith looks at a number of recordings in the fields of horror, fantasy, and science fiction from such publishers as Caedmon Records, Spoken Arts Records, and CMS Records. At the time of this article vinyl records were still the primary medium for the distribution of spoken word albums but cassette tapes were beginning to gain prominence. Of course, compact discs soon replaced tapes and were themselves replaced in the twenty-first century by digital downloads.

-Many of the recordings mentioned in the article, too numerous to list here but Smith’s article can be read here for those interested, will be highly desirable to readers of this blog. Vincent Price reading John Collier? Burgess Meredith and Leonard Nimoy reading Ray Bradbury? David McCallum reading H.P. Lovecraft? These and many more sound highly appealing and very little like these vintage recordings is currently available. Although many of these recordings are likely difficult to obtain nowadays (although perhaps many have been uploaded online; I have not checked) I highly recommend Smith’s article for those interested in the form who wish to seek out older recordings.

-Other Dimensions: The ‘So Saying, He Vanished’ Quiz by Chet Williamson
Illustration by H.J. Ford

-A new quiz this month challenging the reader’s ability to match the final lines of notable works of fantasy literature with the work. I have included the quiz and the answers below.



--Other Dimensions: Etc.
-The miscellany feature for this issue includes The Twilight Zone making a California ballot, Twilight Zone cited in a case of mugging, a quote from The Black Book of Clark Ashton Smith (Arkham House), Nancy Reagan look-alike model Jo Ann Johnson photographed reading an issue of TZ Magazine, two cartoons, and two samples of local newspapers using The Twilight Zone and references to aliens.

--“Summer of Monsters” by Dale Hammell
Illustrated by D.W. Miller
“They were young and in love – the last of a dying breed”


-With the end of the world looming, two families retreat to a beach house and discover themselves not only segregating into units (adults, teenagers, children) but also undergoing strange physical mutations.

-“Summer of Monsters,” a moody and atmospheric tale of doomsday, is given the cover and prime position in the magazine. It reminded me in places of Rod Serling’s “The Midnight Sun,” particularly in the recurring motif of the growing, burning sun as the environment is changed by the doomsday event. The influence of novels such as On the Beach and Alas, Babylon is also evident. Hammell leaves the cause of the doomsday event vague with veiled references to war and changes in the environment, preferring instead to focus on character. The story is told through the eyes of a young boy who, along with the other small children, undergoes a physical transformation into something more than human. The focus of the story shifts to two teenagers who seem to be the only ones not physically affected by the event. The story contains some truly creepy sequences, such as the image of the adults retreating into the darkness of the house like reclusive animals, whispering constantly, and the mutated children hiding along the beach to watch the two teenagers swim in the waters.

-Dale Hammell, according to T.E.D. Klein, “has done a lot of good student writing and has published an award-winning amateur fiction magazine called Copper Toadstool, but Summer of Monsters, our cover story, represents his first sale to a national magazine.” Hammell sold a few additional stories in the field of speculative fiction, as well as some poetry and interior art. “Summer of Monsters,” despite being a fine story on a popular theme, has not been reprinted since its appearance in TZ.

--“Mexican Merry-Go-Round” by Avram Davidson
Illustrated by Bill Logan
“Fate played comedian as two gringos took a ride with death on the . . .”


-Two small-time hoods pulling a job in Mexico each experience the bureaucratic nightmare of the other man dying when they turn to Mexican authorities for help instead of abandoning the body of their dead companion.

-Davidson’s tale reminds me of such stories as “The Party” by William F. Nolan or “The Jam” by Henry Slesar, in which characters are subjected to a cycle of hellish experience until the realization of their own deaths dawn on them. The story has not been reprinted since its appearance here. Davidson (1923-1993) is perhaps best known as the editor of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction from 1962-1964, for which he won a Hugo Award in 1962. He also reviewed books for the publication and compiled three volumes of their annual The Best from Fantasy and Science Fiction. Davidson was also a fairly prolific writer of science fiction and fantasy. He won the Hugo Award for his 1958 story, “For All the Seas with Oysters.”

--“Five Minutes Early” by Robert Sheckley
Illustrated by Annie Alleman
“He had a few precious moments left – and they’d have to last him an eternity.”

-A man is accidentally brought to Heaven five minutes early and is given the choice to forego those minutes or to go back to earth until the proper time for his death. The man chooses to go back and uses the brief time to fill his memory with the pleasures of life on Earth.

-Sheckley returns with his fifth story for the magazine with this slight, touching fantasy. The story was reprinted in 100 Great Fantasy Short Short Stories (1984) and collected in Sheckley’s Is That What People Do? (1984).

--“The Silly Stuff” by Al Sarrantonio
Illustrated by Marty Blake
“Rose bushes that walked? Dead fish from the sky? Surely there was a perfectly logical explanation for it all.”


-An intrepid journalist follows a pattern of strange events and uncovers the existence of an alien, who once lived as a human named Charles Fort, who has been tasked with creating unexplainable occurrences in order to spark curiosity and intelligence in humans. The journalist is taken aboard the alien’s spacecraft and held in cryo-sleep until being released decades later into an unfamiliar future. He is taken to be a raving lunatic with no known provenance and becomes one of Fort’s strange occurrences himself.

-This was a fun story from Sarrantonio (b. 1952) who is best-known for his horror novels and stories, many of which center on Halloween, including his contribution to next month's issue, "The Spook Man." Sarrantonio is also an accomplished editor. He won the 1999 Bram Stoker Award for his anthology 999: New Tales of Horror and Suspense, and the 2001 Shirley Jackson Award (shared with Neil Gaiman) for Stories: All-New Tales. “The Silly Stuff” was collected in Halloween and Other Seasons (Cemetery Dance, 2008).

--TZ Interview: Nicholas Meyer: “. . . and here I am – making movies!”
Interview by Mark Denis Shepard
“Having written his way into bestsellerdom and Hollywood, the novelist-turned-director is looking for new worlds to conquer.”


-This is an interview spanning the then-brief career of novelist, screenwriter, and director Nicholas Meyer (b. 1945), director of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Meyer remains well-known for his 1974 bestselling Sherlock Holmes novel The Seven-Per-Cent Solution, which he adapted as a screenplay for the 1976 film directed by Herbert Ross, starring Nicol Williamson, Robert Duvall, and Alan Arkin. The interview focuses chiefly on Star Trek, a series with which Meyer was largely unfamiliar before he took on the role of director for The Wrath of Khan. Meyer’s formative years as a writer and director are also discussed, including Meyer’s H.G. Wells meets Jack the Ripper film, Time After Time (1979). Other projects briefly discussed include the television film The Night That Panicked America (1975), about the Orson Welles War of the Worlds radio broadcast, and the cult film Invasion of the Bee Girls, which Meyer disowns due to meddling with his script.

-After The Wrath of Kahn, Meyer returned to the Star Trek franchise as a writer on Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986) and writer/director of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991). Meyer is credited as a writer and creative consultant on the CBS All-Access series Star Trek: Discovery. He has worked primarily in television since the mid-nineties. A color album of images from Meyer’s films, with commentary, concludes the interview.

--Another View: Star Trek: The Great American Love Story by Richard Matturro

-This is a brief essay examining the reasons why Star Trek continues to appeal to new audiences. The essay begins this way: “As everyone knows by now, the latest Star Trek movie, The Wrath of Khan, is something of a disappointment. The action is slow, the special effects only so-so, and the characterization, which ought to be its strong point, is weak and inconclusive.” After dismissing the recent Trek film in such a manner, Matturro proceeds to explore the reasons for Trek’s continued appeal to audiences, coming to the conclusion that the series endures because it celebrates love in the face of differences between people, or in the case of Trek, between people and aliens. It is this which touches the basic human (and perhaps particularly American) quality of welcoming diversity and celebrating differences.

--“Broken Walls, Shattered Dreams” by Duncan McLaren (words) & Simon Marsden (photographs)
Castleboro House
From the book: In Ruins: The Once Great Houses of Ireland (1980)
“Magnificent even in death, these ruined Irish mansions are now haunted by ghosts . . . and by history.”

-This is a fascinating photo-essay concerning the ruined mansions of Ireland. The essay is part memoir and part sociological history examining the times during which these great estates thrived and the reasons for their demise.

-The places photographed and described in the essay include:
Belview House (Lawrencetown, County Galway)
Castleboro House (Enniscorty, County Wexford)
Ballynatray House (Glendine, County Waterford)
Ardfry House (Ornamore, County Galway)
Dunboy Castle (Castletownberehaven, County Cork)
Connolly’s Folly (Celbridge, County Kildare)
Castle Bernard (Bandon, County Cork)
Menlough Castle (Galway, County Galway)
Waterston House (Athlone, County Westmeath)
Danganbrack Tower (Quin, County Clare)

--“In a Green Shade” by Melissa Mia Hall
Illustrated by Jill Karla Schwartz
“The love Andrew offered was not the ordinary sort – but then, he was a far-from-ordinary man.”


-A teenaged girl becomes infatuated with a beautiful older man who lives next door. He is reclusive and his home is known for its extensive garden. Slowly, a relationship forms between them but their contact fades as the girl grows up and goes off to college. Now a woman, she returns home and reconnects with the neighbor, who finally shows her the dark secret of his luscious garden when he asks her to lie down to be planted in the soil.  

-This was the best story in the issue, as it was not only an imaginative variation on the theme of fantastical plants but also a captivating narrative of youthful longing and awkwardness which subtly changed into a harrowing account of inhuman love and bodily mutation. All of this is couched in a simple, yet striking prose style which utterly convinces the reader of the experiences of the narrator. Surprisingly, “In a Green Shade” has not been reprinted since its appearance here but is a ripe rediscovery for an editor or anthologist.

-Melissa Mia Hall (1954-2011) previously appeared in the magazine with “Wishing Will Make It So,” in the November, 1981 issue, a story I also greatly enjoyed. She was a prolific short story writer in the eighties, publishing many of her tales in anthologies edited by Charles L. Grant (Shadows, After Midnight, etc.). She continued writing and publishing short fiction well into the twenty-first century but subsisted mainly as a books reviewer for a number of publications. The circumstances of Hall’s death are notable and understandably caused outrage among those who knew her and her colleagues in the publishing industry. Hall suffered a heart attack while attempting to pick up her dog, Daisy. Hall did not recognize the attack for what it was and did not go to the hospital because she did not have health insurance. As a freelance writer, Hall could not afford to pay the high premiums for health insurance. She suffered in great pain for two days before dying in her home. Her preventable death has been used as an example of the need for a universal healthcare system to cover all Americans.

--“One Small Change” by Gary Brandner
Illustrated by Mark Yankus
“As Dan Chance discovered, facing reality was no easy trick – because the damned thing kept changing.”


-A man wakes up to discover a number of terrifying changes in his life, including his appearance, the disappearance of his wife, the existence of a son he never knew, and even a change in the city where he lives. Turns out he is a character in a proposed television series undergoing last-minute changes to bring the character in line with the network’s desires.

-Brandner (1933-2013) returns to the magazine after an appearance in the Sept, 1981 issue with the story, “The Loaner.” “One Small Change” will remind readers of a couple of TZ episodes, including Charles Beaumont’s “Person or Persons Unknown,” and, especially, Richard Matheson’s “A World of Difference,” in which a man discovers his life is actually that of an actor in a film. Brandner was best-known for his novel, The Howling (1977), adapted into a 1981 film by director Joe Dante. Brandner wrote two sequels to the novel plus other horror novels such as Hellborn (1981) and The Brain Eaters (1985). He also wrote the novelization of Cat People, the 1982 film profiled in last month’s issue of TZ. “One Small Change” has not been reprinted since its appearance here.

--“Alive and Well in . . .” by Michael S. Smith
Illustrated by José Reyes
“With German in ruins, he planned the perfect escape: to the future.”


-Near the end of WWII Adolf Hitler fakes his death and utilizes the Third Reich’s most valuable top-secret project, a time machine, to catapult into the future to an unknown destination in South America. The machine disintegrates upon arrival, leaving Hitler with an odd group of people in the middle of the jungle. They call themselves the Peoples Temple and are led by the Reverend Jim Jones.

-This was a fun little shock-ending tale about Hitler getting his comeuppance in a most unusual and satisfying way. This was the first fiction sale for Smith, a technical writer whose work has appeared in such publications as Oui, New West, and The People’s Almanac. The story has not been reprinted since its appearance in TZ.

--“Pigs are Sensitive” by Jon Wynne-Tyson
Illustrated by Frances Jetter
“It was only cloth and stuffing. It couldn’t talk. It couldn’t even squeal. But it had a message for mankind.”


-A stuffed pig seems to take on a life of its own and begins to reflect the discord in a marriage, which ultimately ends when the couple are found butchered like pigs.

-This pleasingly gruesome tale was the first of three stories Wynne-Tyson (b. 1924) placed in TZ publications. Another story, “Mistral,” appeared in the July-August, 1983 issue of TZ, and the story “Monarch of the Glen” appeared in the Winter, 1985 issue of Night Cry. “Pigs are Sensitive” does not appear to have been reprinted since its appearance in TZ.

--“Saratoga Winter” by Jeff Hecht
Illustrated by Yvonne Buchanan
“Hattie had received the old house as a gift – or maybe it was the other way around.”


-When the old woman she cared for dies, a caretaker is given the old woman’s house by the woman’s family. The house is home to a particularly nasty haunting or presence, one which induces the inhabitant to drink themselves to death. The caretaker descends into the depths of alcoholism until she is rescued by her family, who remove her from the house and burn the place to the ground.

-Hecht returns to the pages of TZ after placing his story, “On 202,” in the December, 1981 issue. “Saratoga Winter” is an atmospheric gem of a haunted house tale, with a particularly inventive haunting at its core. Surprisingly, it does not appear to have been reprinted since its appearance in TZ. Hecht is probably best-known for his science fact articles for such publications as Analog, Odyssey, Lightspeed, Nature, and others. He also writes the occasional short story, mostly science fiction.

--Show-By-Show Guide: TV’s Twilight Zone, Part Nineteen by Marc Scott Zicree
-Zicree rolls on in the fifth season of his guide to the original TZ series, providing cast, crew, summaries, and opening and closing narrations for “Probe 7 – Over and Out,” “The 7th Is Made Up of Phantoms,” and “A Short Drink from a Certain Fountain.” An error is made in the feature when the images for “Probe 7 – Over and Out” and “The 7th Is Made Up of Phantoms” are transposed.

--TZ Classic Teleplay: “In Praise of Pip” by Rod Serling

-The complete shooting script for Serling’s fifth season opener which originally aired on September 27, 1963. “In Praise of Pip” is one of Serling’s strongest teleplays, and certainly among the best episodes of the final season. It concerns a small-time bookie named Max Phillips (Jack Klugman) who gets shot during an altercation with a crime boss while trying to protect a young man who made the mistake of betting with money he, the young man, stole. Max earlier got news that his son, Pip, was injured during fighting in the emerging conflict in Vietnam. Pip is close to death. Although he loves his son dearly, Max was often absent and neglectful as a father. Max, nursing his gunshot wound, stumbles into an deserted amusement park which was home to some of his best memories with Pip. He prays to God to let him see Pip again. Pip appears, but as a ten-year-old. Father and son enjoy a magical hour together until Pip declares that his time is up and runs away. Max prays to God to be taken in place of Pip. Max dies from his wound. Pip recovers and returns to the amusement park on a crowded day and remembers the great times he had there with his father.

-“In Praise of Pip” is an emotional gut-punch of an episode featuring perhaps Jack Klugman’s strongest performance on the series. Klugman previously appeared in “A Passage for Trumpet,” “A Game of Pool,” and “Death Ship.” Billy Mumy, who previously appeared in “Long Distance Call” and, unforgettably, “It’s a Good Life,” portrayed young Pip. The cast is rounded out by Robert Diamond as older Pip, Connie Gilchrist as Mrs. Feeney, and S. John Launer as the crime boss Moran. Launer previously appeared in “The Purple Testament” and in uncredited roles in “And When the Sky Was Opened” and “Third from the Sun.”  

--Looking Ahead: In November’s TZ



Next time out we take a look at celebrated dramatist Reginald Rose’s contribution to The Twilight Zone, “The Incredible World of Horace Ford.” See you then!

-JP

2 comments:

  1. Another great review, Jordan. It's so interesting that Star Trek 2 was criticized! I loved it and recall seeing it when it cam out with a very responsive and appreciative audience.

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    1. Thanks, Jack! I was surprised by this as well as I thought it was always generally considered the best of the Trek films. I suppose the negative response from the writers in TZ was the exception rather than the rule.

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