twilight-zone-as-tma-fears

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The Twilight Zone S1E7

The Lonely

“For the record, let it be known that James A. Corry is a convicted criminal placed in solitary confinement. Confinement in this case stretches as far as the eye can see, because this particular dungeon is on an asteroid nine-million miles from the Earth. Now witness, if you will, a man's mind and body shriveling in the sun, a man dying of loneliness”

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The Twilight Zone S1E5

Walking Distance

“To a man like Martin Sloan, to whom a memory has suddenly become reality, a resolve can come just as clearly and inexorably as stars in a summer night. Martin Sloan is now back in town. And his resolve is to put in a claim to the past.”

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The Twilight Zone S1E4

The Sixteen-Millimeter Shrine

“Barbara Jean Trenton, struck down by hit-and-run years and lying on the unhappy pavement, trying desperately to get the license number of fleeting fame.”

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The Twilight Zone S1E3

Mr. Denton on Doomsday

“Mr. Henry Fate, dealer in utensils and pots and pans, liniments and potions. A fanciful little man in a black, frock coat, who can help a man climbing out of a pit - or another man from falling into one. Because, you see, Fate can work that way - in The Twilight Zone.”

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The Twilight Zone S1E2

One for the Angels

“In just a moment, Lew Bookman will have to concern himself with survival - because as of three o'clock this hot July afternoon, he'll be stalked by Mr. Death.”

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The Twilight Zone S1E1

Where Is Everybody?

“The place is here, the time is now, and the journey into the shadows that we're about to watch could be our journey.”

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Episode 7: The Lonely

HMM I WONDER WHAT FEAR THIS ONE IS

Do I even need to say this episode is The Lonely? Its literally the title of the episode

going to start putting in Rod Serlings opening narrative so I can explain less:

"Witness if you will a dungeon, made out of mountains, salt flats and sand that stretch to infinity. The dungeon has an inmate: James A. Corry. And this is his residence: a metal shack. An old touring car that squats in the sun and goes nowhere - for there is nowhere to go. For the record let it be known that James A. Corry is a convicted criminal placed in solitary confinement. Confinement in this case stretches as far the eye can see, because this particular dungeon is on an asteroid nine million miles from the Earth. Now witness if you will a man's mind and body shriveling in the sun, a man dying of loneliness."

James A. Corry is only a few years into his 50 year sentence, completely alone. He spends his time re-reading the few paper-back books he has, playing chess by himself and… that’s about it. Every few months, a ship lands to deliver supplies, staying for only a few minutes in which Corry begs for just one game of chess, just a few minutes of their time. Other than that he is alone 365 days of the year. One day, the captain of the supply ship (Allenby) sneaks him a gift: a large wooden crate. When Corry opens the box he finds a robot woman named Alicia. At first Corry rejects her because she is a robot and she isn’t a real woman, but over the months together they become close and he falls in love with Alicia. She is the thing that makes this existence worth living. The next supply delivery arrives, and Allenby announces that Corry has been pardoned. He can grab 15 pounds of gear, and they need to leave soon or they’ll be trapped on the asteroid. He realizes he won’t be able to bring Alicia with him and refuses to go, because to him she is a woman not a robot. Allenby shoots Alicia in the head, revealing the mess of wires and tech underneath, and Corry is forced to get on the ship.

So! A man trapped, all alone, on an asteroid? With almost zero human interaction all year every year for 50 years? I think that is 100% the lonely. Especially since at the end he loses the thing that kept him going, the person who kept him company and meant everything to him. Now he’s alone.

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Episode 6: Escape Claus

Central character’s fear: The Corruption

this episode is about Walter Bedeker, a hypochondriac who is obsessed with his health and believes he has a dangerous disease. He stays in bed all day and doesn’t trust his doctor when he continually tells him he is perfectly fine. Soooo I would say the fear of disease fits him pretty well. Also, the corruption also manifests as unhealthy love and companionship which I think also applies because of how he treats his wife and makes her stress and take care of him.

Overall Episode’s fear: The Vast

Walter Bedeker is approached by the devil, who offers him immortality and immunity to illness and harm. He readily accepts, and proceeds to perform deadly acts like jumping in front of a train or drinking poison. But he quickly learns how boring life is when there is nothing at risk. When his wife accidentally falls off a building, he confesses to murder in hopes of trying the electric chair. But to his dismay he gets a life sentence in prison… which for him will be for thousands of years. In the end he uses an escape clause the devil gave him instead of spending eternity in prison and dies of a heart attack.

I’m more looking at the fear of meaninglessness and “the transformation of something that should have a limit into something infinite”. He cannot die but it doesn’t matter because hes not really living anyway, and he choses to give up his soul and eternal life because the alternative is spending thousands of years in a cell

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~hello to the 11 people who are following this account~ I’m going to start posting again but I’m gonna change the format up a bit cause I don’t feel like writing an entire paragraph for every episode :P

stay tuned

Edit: i immediately started writing entire paragraphs again so. That was partly a lie

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i know I just started this blog and I DO plan to take it somewhere but I have been unexpectedly swamped with work so I gotta stop for a bit

(probably could have thought ahead a little bit lmao)

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Episode 5: Walking Distance

The Spiral

I’m tired rn so I’m not gonna explain the plot but you can find a quick description here (its jusr the wikipedia page lol, I think theres one for every episode)

this one is the the spiral to me because the guy the story is focusing on wonders if hes crazy at first and everyone else thinks hes insane. Plus everything just seeming wrong because he doesn’t realize hes in the past. basically the whole “mind is lying to you” and “the world you know is wrong” aspects of the spiral.

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My guilty pleasure right now is watching luxury hotel reviews and I found this british guy who keeps accidentally clipping into the backrooms.

He's unintentionally making the best liminal horror content on youtube

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Episode 4: The Sixteen Milliliter Shrine

The Stranger

This episode centers on a Barbra Jean Trenton. She was big move star in her youth, but she has grown older and now spends every day in her theater room, watching her old movies and reminiscing. Her agent arranges for a part in an upcoming movie but she refuses as it is the role of a mother, and the director says she is living in the past and this would be charity. After spending days in the theater room without coming out, her agent gets an old co-star to visit. She gets upset when she sees he is old, and learns he has retired from acting and now runs a supermarket chain. In the end, the maid finds Trenton not in her chair but somehow in the screen. She wished so hard for the past and now she’s with all her friends and never has to grow old.

this one was harder for me to place, id love to get other perspectives! I said the stranger because of how it manifests in theaters and performances. Also, the way the plot progressed and the ending. It seemed like something was off, especially in the end, and the way she ends up in the screen feels uncanny and like it would fall in with the stranger.

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Episode 3: Mr. Denton on Doomsday

The Desolation

Al Denton used to be a excellent marksman until he killed a 16 year old in a duel and is now an alcoholic. He finds a gun that makes him regain his talent, but he knows that with his reputation back he will be forced to duel more men who challenge him. After a terrible practice, he wants to skip town, but a salesman named Henry J. Fate gives him a potion that will make him be able to hit any target. Then, the other man shows up with the same potion, and they shoot each other in the hand. Denton ends by telling him he is blessed because he will never shoot out of anger again.

This is one where I’m focusing on the fear of the characters rather than what makes it scary to the audience. I would say desolation for this one, focusing on the fear of senseless loss and destruction of potential. Denton stopped originally because he killed someone so young who hadn’t lived yet, and he shot the other man in the hand so he wouldn’t go down the same path he did.

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he walked so cecil gershwin palmer could run. tbh