2x11 "Dearthlings"

Two stone-cold Twilight Zone classics get the full body cavity search this week: “Third from the Sun” and “The Invaders” are compared and contrasted to determine definitively which is more classic than the other. Or will we see a historic first-ever tie…? Along the way Craig regales with a dramatic reading (okay, maybe “regales” is the wrong word. “Attempts to regale,” maybe?) and places a last-minute call to fan favorite Dr. Reba Wissner… but doesn’t talk about music. Intrigued? Commence downloading and check it out!

The notorious Invaders thong: http://www.cafepress.com/+twilight_zone_invaders_classic_thong,322482279

Opening music: “Neither Here nor There (Earth/Not Earth Variant)” by Twin Loops

“Discipline 27 II: What Planet Is This?” performed by Sun Ra and His Space Arkestra (from the album What Planet Is This? copyright 2006 by Golden Years of New Jazz)

“Earth Floor” performed by Michael Brook (from the album Hybrid, copyright 1985 by EG Records)

“Fever Bomb” performed by The Technicolors (from the album Metaphysical, copyright 2017 by The Technicolors)

"I'm Afraid of Americans (Nine Inch Nails V1 Clean Edit)" performed by David Bowie (additional production by Trent Reznor, copyright 1997 by Virgin Records)

“Third from the Sun” performed by Psilonaut (from the Pi original motion picture soundtrack, copyright 1998 by Thrive Records)

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Between Light and Shadow: A Twilight Zone Podcast is a nonprofit podcast. Music clips and dialogue excerpts used herein are the property of their respective copyright owners; we claim no ownership of these materials. Their use is strictly for illustrative purposes and should be considered Fair Use as stated in the Copyright Act of 1976, 17 U.S.C. section 107. 

TZ Repeat: "Third from the Sun" (7/22/1960)

Television during the summer was different in 1960. The viewing public wasn't offered an endless parade of second-tier reality shows (wait, is there such a thing as top-tier reality shows?). No, we actually got repeat telecasts of shows that were aired during the other nine months of the year. You know, in case we missed a few. We didn't have VCRs. We didn't have DVRs. We didn't have On Demand. So yeah, we got reruns, and we didn't mind at all. Imagine not being able to simply grab a DVD off the shelf, or download an episode of your favorite show onto your iPod. Imagine having to wait until it's shown on network TV. And not every episode got reran, either. If you missed it the first time, you might never see it.

Back then, television series actually ran for the entire year, and The Twilight Zone was no exception. 50 years ago tonight, a pretty great episode from the series' inaugaral year was repeated. "Third from the Sun" premiered on January 8, 1960, and was spotlighted on that same date this year, on its 50th anniversary, here. The episode is a true classic, and comfortably resides in my Top 40 favorite episodes.

Next week: One of the all-time great episodes is repeated. What if, in your darkest nostalgic hour, you could simply take a walk... into your past?

TZ Promo: "Third From the Sun" (1/08/1960)

The title pretty much gives it away. However, when I was young (like 12 or 13) and viewing the episode for the first time, I totally didn't see it coming.

Fifty years after its original broadcast, "Third From the Sun" still manages to be completely entertaining, despite what amounts to an obvious surprise ending. Fritz Weaver, Joe Maross, and Edward Andrews star (all three of them, incidentally, would appear in later TZ episodes) in an episode written by Rod Serling, based on a Richard Matheson short story (this time around, Serling is much more faithful to the source material than the last Matheson adaptation, detailed here). Richard L. Bare directs. The underscore is made up almost entirely of selections from Bernard Herrmann's "Outer Space Suite," a collection of musical cues which would be utilized in several future Twilight Zone episodes.

The episode features ingenious cinematography work from DOP Harry Wild, who fills the frame with odd angles and unconventional camera set-ups. This in and of itself is strange, since George T. Clemens was the DOP on almost every TZ episode throughout its five year run. I can't find anything documenting why Clemens didn't work on this episode... maybe he was sick that week? I dunno.

This episode also marks the first appearance of the flying saucer from Forbidden Planet. This particular prop would go on to appear in many Twilight Zone episodes, most notably season four's "Death Ship" (one of my all-time favorites).