In which we take a closer look at each issue. For a history of the magazine, go here.
Volume
4, Number 1 (March/April,
1984)
Third Anniversary Issue
Cover
art: Image from the film Dreamscape
TZ
Publications, Inc.
Chairman
and Executive Publisher: S. Edward
Orenstein
President
and Publisher: Milton J. Cuevas
Treasurer:
Sidney Z. Gellman
Associate
Publisher and Consulting Editor: Carol
Serling
Executive
Editor: John Bensink
Editor
in Chief: T.E.D. Klein
Managing
Editor: Robert Sabat
Assistant
Editor: Alan Rodgers
Books
Editor: Thomas M. Disch
Contributing
Editors: Gahan Wilson, James
Verniere, Ron Goulart
Design
Director: Michael Monte
Art
Director: Pat E. McQueen
Art
Production: Florence Neal, Ljiljana
Randjic-Coleman, Susan Lindeman
Typography:
Irma Landazuri
Production
Director: Stephen J. Fallon
Vice
President-Finance, Controller: Thomas
Schiff
Assistant
Controller: Chris Grossman
Assistant
to the President: Jill Obernier
Assistant
to the Publisher: Judy Linden
Public
Relations Director: Jeffrey Nickora
Special
Projects Mgr.: Brian Orenstein
Accounting
Ass’t.: Annmarie Pistilli
Office
Assistant: Linda Jarit
Traffic:
Ray Bermudez
Circulation
Mgr.: Carole A. Harley
Circulation
Ass’t: Stephen Faulkner
Midwest
Circ. Mgr.: Richard Tejan
Western
Circ. Mgr.: Dominick LaGatta
Advertising
Coordinator: Marina Despotakis
Advertising
Ass’t.: Karen Martorano
Contents:
--In the Zone: “The Winners’ Circle” by
T.E.D. Klein
--A Note from the Publisher by Carol
Serling
--Other Dimensions: Books by Thomas M.
Disch
--Three Cartoons
--Other Dimensions: Screens by Gahan
Wilson
--Other Dimensions: Nostalgia by Ron
Goulart
--Other Dimensions: A Twilight Zone
Trivia Quiz by Gary Frisch
--Other Dimensions: Etc.
--TZ Interview: Scott Glenn by Lorenzo
Carcaterra
--TZ Interview: Burgess Meredith by
James H. Burns
--Presenting the Winners of Our Third
Annual Short Story Contest
--First Place: “Invitation to a Party”
by Jon Cohen
--Second Place: “Denny at Midnight” by Pamela
J. Jessen
--Third Place: “Dog” by Bertram W.G.
Doyle
--Bonus Short-Short: “Wanna Bet?” by E.
Walter Suba, Jr.
--“The Last Voyage of Sinbad” by Lee
Duigon
--TZ Screen Preview: Dreamscape
--“Blunder Buss” by Richard Matheson
--“Judgment Day” by Jack C. Haldeman II
--“Coming Soon to a Theater Near You” by
Oliver Lowenbruck
--“God Shed His Grace” by Evan Eisenberg
--“A Little Two-Chair Barber Shop on
Phillips Street” by Donald R. Burleson
--Tracking Down the TZ Alum by Bill Bauernfeind
(and Allan Asherman)
--In and Out of The Outer Limits by David J. Schow
--Show-by-Show Guide: The Outer Limits, Part Two by David J.
Schow
--Beyond the Zone: The Way Out World of Feggo
--TZ Classic Teleplay: “Mr. Dingle, the
Strong” by Rod Serling
--Looking Ahead: Next Issue
--In the Zone: “The Winners’ Circle” by T.E.D. Klein
-Klein provides biographical information on the winners of the magazine’s third annual short story contest, and describes the characteristics which made their work stand out from the other submissions. Klein next highlights the Twilight Zone quiz created by high school senior Gary Frisch, and the interview with actor Burgess Meredith conducted by James H. Burns. Klein calls attention to the return of Richard Matheson to the magazine, the interview with actor Scott Glenn conducted by Lorenzo Carcaterra, and the feature by Bill Bauernfeind (and Allan Asherman) looking at Twilight Zone actors’ roles in other television series and films. Klein next provides biographical information on the remaining contributors of fiction to the issue, including Donald R. Burleson, Lee Duigon, Jack C. Haldeman II, Evan Eisenberg, and Oliver Lowenbruck. Lastly, Klein directs readers to David J. Schow’s continuing history of The Outer Limits, and provides a correction for the previous issue where a caption incorrectly identified Charlie Ruggles as John Barrymore.
--A Note from the Publisher by Carol Serling
-Carol Serling returns for her annual column to highlight the winners of the magazine’s third annual short story contest, and to describe the storytelling qualities which best capture the spirit of The Twilight Zone. “Hopefully,” Serling writes, “you’ll also find in these new stories some of the same caring, concern, and commitment that we did – qualities that were such a crucial part of the tv series. There’s no question in my mind that these unusual odysseys are of, in, and about that other dimension.”
-The remainder of Serling’s column is dedicated to the results of a survey conducted to determine which episodes of The Twilight Zone readers of the magazine thought were the best. A quote from Rod Serling on the uneven quality of the series is included, and Carol Serling writes: “If there is a lingering message to be found in The Twilight Zone, it is a reminder of man’s inhumanity to man – and a warning that the crime of the century is a lack of caring and the loss of our capacity for outrage.” The results of the reader’s poll are below.
1.
“Eye of the Beholder” (a runaway favorite)
2.
“Time Enough at Last”
3.
“Nightmare at 20,000 Feet”
4.
“To Serve Man”
5.
“Night of the Meek”
6.
“It’s a Good Life”
7.
“Walking Distance”
8.
“A Stop at Willoughby”
9.
“The Invaders”
10.
“The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street”
11.
“Living Doll”
12.
“Five Characters in Search of an Exit”
13.
“The After Hours”
14.
“Kick the Can”
15.
“The Obsolete Man”
16.
“A Hundred Yards Over the Rim”
17.
“A World of His Own”
18.
“And When the Sky Was Opened”
19.
“Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up?”
20.
“Deaths-Head Revisited” and “Nothing in the Dark” (tie)
-Serling notes that the magazine has published the teleplays of fourteen of the above episodes, and that the three episodes which inspired segments of Twilight Zone: The Movie made the top twenty. Serling concludes by noting that the list will serve to direct the magazine on which teleplays to print next.
--Other Dimensions: Books by Thomas M. Disch
-Disch reviews three books in this issue. He begins with a look at The Queen’s Gambit by Walter Tevis, which Disch describes as “an inspirational novel for intellectuals.” The novel illustrates the psychological development of a chess prodigy and the problems she encounters as she grows into adulthood. Disch notes that other novels from Tevis have become classic films (The Hustler and The Man Who Fell to Earth), and that The Queen’s Gambit “is the stuff that Academy Awards are made of.” Disch notes that although The Queen’s Gambit “is not in any sense science fictional, its appeal is similar to that of such sf classics as More than Human or Flowers for Algernon, both effective wish-fulfillment fantasies for those whose organ-of-preference is the brain.” The novel was recently (2020) adapted into a television miniseries for Netflix, which won several awards.
-Disch next looks at The Complete Stories of Franz Kafka, who Disch describes as “the king of worriers, the Lord Apollo of the Age of Anxiety.” Disch notes that “all of Kafka’s stories have an element of fantasy, or at least of radical strangeness, but Kafka’s fantasies bear little resemblance to what is traditionally offered to readers of genre fantasy.” Disch details the elements of Kafka’s stories which resonate with the reader, offering examples from the writer’s works, and concludes by noting that for “sf writers with New Wave affinities, Kafka has been a major source of inspiration and touchstone of excellence.”
-Finally, Disch looks at a horror anthology, the “lamely titled” The Dodd, Mead Gallery of Horror, edited by Charles L. Grant. Disch begins with an examination of the traditional storytelling elements of the horror tale before diving into the contents of the book. He applauds the best story in the anthology, “Something Nasty” by William F. Nolan, while commending those stories that strike equally high notes, including “Petey” by T.E.D. Klein, editor of Twilight Zone Magazine. Disch spends more time, however, on the “decomposed lemons” which rate a “D” or lower on his grading scale. Disch saves his most savage remarks for stories by Alan Ryan and Eric Van Lustbader. Of Ryan’s “Death to the Easter Bunny!” Disch writes: “Alan Ryan, who sets out to sinisterize Easter Bunny lore and fails, and then, to compound the failure, tries to pretend he was only joking, which he wasn’t, not for a comma. Ryan deserves a bag of killer tomatoes for this one.” For Eric Van Lustbader’s “In Darkness, Angels,” Disch provides examples of Lustbader’s prose and compares the author to Florence Foster Jenkins, a notoriously bad New York singer who held no conception of her own lack of talent. “In Darkness, Angels,” writes Disch, “is like hearing Florence Foster Jenkins perform Vissi d’arte – an unforgettable and incomparable experience.”
--Three Cartoons by Thomas Cheney, Stan Timmons, and Chris Roth
--Other Dimensions: Screen by Gahan Wilson
-Wilson discusses three films in this issue: Strange Invaders, Brainstorm, and The Right Stuff. Wilson describes the science fiction film Strange Invaders (pictured) as “the lightest, least demanding, and in its modest way, the best of the lot.” Wilson highlights the “lovingly assembled” cast of the film, including Nancy Allen, Paul LeMat, Kenneth Tobey, Michael Lerner, and Louise Fletcher. Of Brainstorm, a film that has received a lot of coverage in the magazine, Wilson writes: “Brainstorm is, in its essence, exactly the same in structure, milieu, and basic intent as Altered States. If you saw the first, there is no way in the world you can avoid comparing it to the second in all the above categories – and unfortunately for Brainstorm, it comes away the loser in every one of them.” Wilson found The Right Stuff, a film about Project Mercury, to suffer “because one of the outstanding aspects of the movie is its lack of believability.” Wilson particularly disliked the portrayal of Lyndon Johnson. He concludes: “I really think, all in all, I much prefer the science fiction movies which are fiction. They’re much less frightening.”
--Other Dimensions: Nostalgia by Ron Goulart
-Urban Tales of Tarzan
-The tales of Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs are the subject of this issue’s nostalgia column. Goulart describes his discovery of the Tarzan films while still a child, long before he had any idea there were novels written about the character. Goulart profiles actor (and Olympic swimmer) Johnny Weissmuller (pictured), who portrayed the most popular screen version of Tarzan. Goulart also lists the many actors who portrayed Tarzan in the silent and early sound eras of film, as well as actors who almost played Tarzan. Goulart then describes the fantasy Africa created by Burroughs (“no more based on reality than was Oz”), as well as the racism in the novels and films. Goulart next describes his discovery of the Tarzan Sunday newspaper comic strip and the artists, such as Hal Foster and Burne Hogarth, who illustrated the character. Goulart details his discovery of a Tarzan novel, Tarzan and the Hidden Empire, while visiting a department store with his mother. This discovery instilled in him a lifelong love for the works of Edgar Rice Burroughs. Goulart sought, found, and read the entire series of Tarzan novels in the following years. He details the differences between Tarzan in the novels and Tarzan in the films.
-In concluding his column, Goulart describes finding Edgar Rice Burroughs’ address in Who’s Who and writing to the famous author. Burroughs replied to Goulart’s letter and the two began an annual correspondence that lasted until Burroughs’ death in 1950. Goulart describes the 1963 Burroughs parody he wrote, The Yes Men of Venus, which was published in Amazing Stories and received a less than warm welcome from readers. “I have a feeling,” writes Goulart, “that Edgar Rice Burroughs himself, who obviously had a sense of humor, wouldn’t have taken the matter that seriously. Still, I wouldn’t care to run into Tarzan in a dark stretch of the jungle.”
--Other Dimensions: A Twilight Zone Trivia Quiz by Gary Frisch
--Other Dimensions: Etc.
Illustration by Jason Eckhardt
-The miscellany column this issue begins with the news of a stage adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe’s unfinished story “The Lighthouse” by Richard A. Lloyd. The striking poster by Debs Lloyd for the stage production is included. Extensions of other features in the issue include comments from readers on the survey of the best episodes of The Twilight Zone, and a list of eighteen Tarzan “clones” from literature, film, and television. Also listed are the editor’s favorite story titles from the pulps. In a callback to the magazine’s coverage of the film Iceman two issues before, included is the story of a man named Frank D. Hansen of Rollingstone, Minnesota who claims that the film was made to cash in on the notoriety of the ice-encrusted creature he possesses and has displayed to audiences. A reader’s request for music cues from “Where Is Everybody?” is answered by another reader who obtained cue sheets from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers for the episode. A quote from a New York Times article written in the style of Rod Serling’s episode narrations is included. Finally, there is an image by artist Jason Eckhardt illustrating the imagined meeting between interviewer Peter Cannon (born 1951) and author H.P. Lovecraft (died 1937) for the Lovecraft “interview” included in the magazine last August (created by Cannon from Lovecraft’s letters). The artist “currently resides in a house where Lovecraft lived and who has clearly been touched by his spirit.”
--TZ Interview: Scott Glenn: Now He Can Say No by Lorenzo Carcaterra
-This relatively brief interview with actor Scott Glenn focuses on his recent appearances in the films The Right Stuff, Personal Best, and The Keep. The latter film is discussed in some detail, focusing on Glenn’s role as an element of the Devil. Glenn then discusses the challenges of filming The Right Stuff, and describes the trajectory of his acting career. Glenn discusses his unsatisfying career as a local newspaper journalist before embarking on an acting career. When Carcaterra asks Glenn how he feels about being compared to a young Steve McQueen, Glenn replies: “I’d rather be called a young Paul Muni, but you don’t always get what you want.”
--TZ Interview: Burgess Meredith, Multidimensional Man by James H. Burns
-This informative interview begins with Meredith discussing his initial meeting with Rod Serling during the filming of The Twilight Zone episode “Time Enough at Last.” Meredith recalls becoming quick friends with Serling, prompting Serling to cast Meredith in three additional episodes of the series: “Mr. Dingle, the Strong,” “The Obsolete Man,” and “Printer’s Devil.” Meredith details his enjoyment of working with director John Brahm on “Time Enough at Last” and “Mr. Dingle, the Strong” (the teleplay of which is included in this issue). Meredith discusses working with Don Rickles on “Mr. Dingle, the Strong,” being typecast as a meek man, the failed follow-up series that Meredith planned to do with Rod Serling (based on Twilight Zone episodes “Mr. Bevis” and “Cavender Is Coming”), and Rod Serling’s battles with network censors. Meredith talks at length about his experiences portraying The Penguin on the Batman television series. Meredith also discusses his career behind the camera, as a writer, producer, and director, mostly on documentary films. Meredith discusses his appearance on Rod Serling’s Night Gallery (in “The Little Black Bag”), narrating Twilight Zone: The Movie, appearing in the horror films Burnt Offerings and The Sentinel, the financial failure of the psychological horror film Magic, appearing in the Academy Award-winning film Rocky, working with Ray Harryhausen, Claire Bloom, and Laurence Olivier on Clash of the Titans, narrating the stories of Ray Bradbury, and finding new avenues of interest as a lecturer. Meredith also discusses his interest in sensory deprivation and the beneficial results he has experienced.
--First Place: “Invitation to a Party” by Jon Cohen
Illustration by Stephen W. Andrus
-Mr. and Mrs. Sherwood hire a strange babysitter named Iris to watch their children for the evening while they attend a party. Iris allows the children to break their mother’s rules (like eating lots of cookies before bedtime) but then quickly sends them to bed. Iris walks around the house pretending to be the mother of the children. The fantasy grows stronger as she looks through the mother’s things in the bedroom. When one of the children challenges Iris’ fragile fantasy, the game turns deadly.
-“Invitation to a Party” was reprinted in TZ Special #1: Night Cry. Cohen sold several additional stories to Twilight Zone Magazine. He is best-known as a co-writer on the screenplay for Steven Spielberg’s Minority Report.
--Second Place: “Denny at Midnight” by Pamela J. Jessen
Illustration by Stephen W. Andrus
-A young boy named Denny races the clouds overhead on his Big Wheel. Denny died a short time ago but still rides his Big Wheel outside, hoping to make contact with his family. His mother and one of his brothers, a sensitive boy who was very close to Denny, continue to sense his presence.
-Jessen sold additional stories to such publications as The Horror Show and Cemetery Dance.
--Third Place: “Dog” by Bertram G.W. Doyle
Illustration by Stephen W. Andrus
-Bobby mounts his motorcycle and heads for home during a break from college. He’s excited to see his old pet Dog, who wasn’t doing well the last time Bobby saw him. Bobby is struck by a vehicle and dies in a twisted wreck. Back at home, Bobby’s father puts Dog in the basement, where Dog doesn’t like to go. The family leaves and Dog is left alone down there. Sometime later, Dog hears someone come home, someone he knows. The storm doors break open and Dog rushes out to meet the twisted, dead form that was Bobby.
--Bonus Short-Short: “Wanna Bet?” by E. Walter Suba, Jr.
Illustration by Stephen W. Andrus
-Two boys make a bet while standing in the driveway. Then one boy steps on a crack in the concrete. They look into the boy’s home and see the boy’s mother suddenly cry out and fall down with a broken back.
--“The Last Voyage of Sinbad” by Lee Duigon
Illustrations by Jill Karla Schwarz
“Who were the monsters on the island?
And what monsters had made them?”
-Sinbad the sailor comes out of retirement for one last voyage. He seeks an uncharted isle which may hold the secrets to the origins of humanity. Sinbad gathers his crew and is requested by the Caliph to take along the scribe, Rashid, who documents the journey. They sail for days in open water, encountering strange sights which frighten the crew. They arrive at the isle and find an ancient temple, whose geometrical structure is beyond understanding. Within the temple the men discover effigies of an ancient reptilian race in the act of creating the first human, a horrible mockery of man. Disgusted and frightened, the men draw their swords to destroy the effigies. The creatures come to life and battle Sinbad and his men to the death. Sinbad manages to destroy the hideous progeny of the creatures before he dies alongside his men. Only Rashid the Scribe remains to tell the tale. He stumbles from the unholy temple to find that the ship has sailed. He clings to a rotting fragment of the boat and prays to Allah to sustain him.
--TZ Screen Preview: Dreamscape by James Verniere
“A psychotic assassin stalks the
president’s nightmares in the latest of the recent crop of inward-looking SF
films. James Verniere reports.”
-The color feature this issue covers the science fiction, horror, action adventure film Dreamscape, which tells of a psychic named Alex Gardner (Dennis Quaid) who enters the dreams and nightmares of others to offer psychological therapy. He is enlisted in the search for those behind a conspiracy aimed at killing the president through his dreams, for if you die in your dreams, you die in real life. Verniere profiles the cast of heroes and villains, including an interview with Kate Capshaw, and describes the makeup effects in the film (the work of Craig Reardon, who created the Gremlin for Twilight Zone: The Movie). He concludes: “What, then, will the dreams of Dreamscape reveal to us? Will they depict a world full of Jungian archetypes or a bizarre gallery of Freudian sexual innuendoes? Will they offer retreads of old Twilight Zones? Or will Dreamscape give us just another Heavy Concept that is nothing more than an excuse for gratuitous special effects?”
--“Blunder Buss” by Richard Matheson
Illustration by Randy Jones
“It was easy to reach paradise. All you
had to do was close your eyes and pucker up.”
-Henry Shrivel is stuck in an unsatisfying middle class life with a wife he doesn’t love and children he doesn’t want. He develops an obsession with a beautiful actress named Marilyn Taylor. Through concentrated willpower, he attempts to be with Marilyn in an imagined home in the Hollywood hills. For more than a thousand days he tries this, until he is nearly successful. He plans to leave his family as he drifts off to sleep in the night. He concentrates until suddenly, amazingly, he is with Marilyn, and she wants him. Then Henry’s wife turns on the light, looks at the other woman, and demands to know what’s going on.
-“Blunder Buss” was reprinted in Matheson’s Off-Beat: Uncollected Stories, edited by William F. Nolan (2003).
--“Judgment Day” by Jack C. Haldeman II
Illustration by David G. Klein
“Would Earth’s best be good enough?”
-The people of Earth learn than an alien race of superior intelligence is coming to their planet to take with them two representatives from the planet’s population. People worry and stress about whether they are good enough to go with the aliens and stand for Earth in front of the galactic community. The aliens arrive and select two dolphins to take with them.
-Haldeman II returns to the magazine (previously: “Open Frame” in the July/Aug TZ) with this short-short story, which was reprinted in 100 Great Fantasy Short Short Stories (1984) and in Bruce Coville’s Book of Aliens (1994). Haldeman II wrote the notes on the authors and stories for the anthology Rod Serling’s Other Worlds (1978).
--“Coming Soon to a Theater Near You” by Oliver Lowenbruck
Illustrations by Mark Nickerson
“There was a horror show at the Omicron
Cinema – even when nothing was playing.”
-A disabled Vietnam veteran named Jonathan Daniel Stoner finds solace for his miserable existence at the grindhouse Omicron Cinema. While watching a film there one dismal afternoon, he makes the horrifying discovery that an army of roaches infests the theater and have taken control of the bodies of the ushers. Stoner witnesses the brutal murder of another patron. He pulls out the handgun he always carries and hides behind the filthy theater curtains to witness an enormous pit of swarming insects open in the floor of the theater. Stoner shoots one of the ushers and runs for his life. He discovers to his horror that his artificial leg is filled with roaches. He throws the leg away and propels himself through the night on a crutch.
-Oliver Lowenbruck is a pseudonym for the author David J. Schow, who wrote several stories and articles for the magazine, including the history and episode guide for The Outer Limits that continues in this issue. “Coming Soon to a Theater Near You” was reprinted in The Year’s Best Horror Stories XIII, edited by Karl Edward Wagner, and collected in Schow’s 1990 collection Seeing Red. The story was later included in DJ Stories: The Best of David J. Schow, published by Subterranean Press in 2018.
--“God Shed His Grace” by Evan Eisenberg
Illustration by Yvonne Buchanan
“Tour the eternal moment!”
-Tourists visit America years after a volcanic explosion in the Northwest has preserved everything in gray layers of ash. The tourists explore the final moments of the people and their world. This short-short marks a return to the magazine for Eisenberg, who previously appeared with the story “Heimlich’s Curse” in the November, 1981 issue.
--“A Little Two-Chair Barber Shop on Phillips Street” by Donald R. Burleson
Illustration by Jim Harter
“More than a haircut awaited him in . .
.”
-A man suffering from high blood pressure decides on a whim to go into an unusual barber shop for a haircut and a shave. He closes his eyes and imagines the barber to be an old shaman whose practice includes blood rites. The imagining seems to become real and the man is subjected to an incision in which a straw is inserted into his heart and his blood drained. He comes out of his reverie and leaves the barber shop. Later, he is disturbed to find that his blood pressure problem has been cured, and that he can no longer find the location of the barber shop. Burleson’s story was reprinted in The Year’s Best Fantasy Stories 11, edited by Arthur W. Saha.
--You Saw Them in The Twilight Zone: Tracking Down the TZ Alum by Bill Bauernfeind (additional material by Allan Asherman)
“Stars from the series turned up just
about everywhere, from Mission:
Impossible to Mary Tyler Moore.”
-The Twilight Zone featured virtually every notable television performer of the time. This detailed article traces performers from the series across other television series. Performers (as well as directors) from The Twilight Zone are traced to Star Trek, Mission: Impossible, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, My Living Doll, The Andy Griffith Show, Gomer Pyle USMC, The Beverly Hillbillies, Bewitched, Mr. Novak, The Farmer’s Daughter, The Virginian, Checkmate, Ellery Queen, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, and the films This Island Earth and The Thing.
--In and Out of The Outer Limits: Budgets, Bibles, and Stack Visions by David J. Schow
“Working at touch-type speed, the show’s
producers churned out scripts, rewrote others, and gave TV audiences a weekly
jolt of ‘tolerable terror.’”
-Schow’s history of The Outer Limits continues with a detailed look at the scriptwriting on the series. The article explores the writer’s bible created by Joseph Stefano, the failed attempt to procure material from science fiction writers, the process of rewriting scripts, and working around network censorship and budgetary constraints. Schow details the storytelling processes behind several notable episodes and describes the methods for achieving the desired effects in the episodes. Schow quotes from several creators on the series, notably Joseph Stefano, who is positioned as the creative guiding force on the show.
--Show-by-Show Guide: The Outer Limits, Part Two by David J. Schow
“Continuing David J. Schow’s seven-part
survey of the series, complete with the words of the celebrated ‘Control
Voice’.”
-Schow provides broadcast dates, complete cast and crew listings, Control Voice narrations, and detailed summaries for the following episodes of The Outer Limits: “The Human Factor,” “Corpus Earthling,” “Nightmare,” “It Crawled Out of the Woodwork,” “The Borderland,” “Tourist Attraction,” and “The Zanti Misfits.”
--Beyond the Zone: The Way-Out World of Feggo (Felipe Galindo Gomez)
--TZ Classic Teleplay: “Mr. Dingle, the Strong” by Rod Serling
-Serling’s teleplay about a meek man (Burgess Meredith) who is gifted with extraordinary powers by extraterrestrials is presented in this issue. We reviewed the episode here.
--Looking
Ahead: In Next Month’s TZ
-Next month’s issue looks like a good one. The cover feature is Richard Matheson’s “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet,” featuring Matheson’s script for the episode. The color feature is on dystopian films. There is an illustrated selection of poems by Joseph Payne Brennan, and stories by Andrew Weiner, John Sladek, Jim Cort, and Stanley Wiater. Another interesting feature is an essay on the Benson brothers by Mike Ashley, along with stories by E.F. Benson and R.H. Benson. There is an interview with screenwriter and actor John Sladek, The Universal All-Purpose Fantasy Quiz, and regular columns by Thomas M. Disch, Gahan Wilson, and Ron Goulart. Thanks for reading!
Acknowledgements: The Internet Archive (archive.org) provided the scan of the magazine used for this review. The Internet Speculative Fiction Database (isfdb.org) provided bibliographic details.
Next Time in the Vortex: We continue our episode guide with a look at Rod Serling's "The Long Morrow."
-JP
Thanks for reporting on this issue! They were always worth reading.
ReplyDeleteThanks for reading!
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