Twilight Zone- 80s Revival: The Beacon

The 60s classic sci-fi series was revived twice, once in the mid 80s and later in 2002-2003. While I can briefly recall a memory of the show’s return to television and my excited knowledge of it, it wasn’t until 2009 (I had assumed it was earlier, but just the same…), when it debuted on Chiller, that I could truly get an idea of how it compares to my favorite television show of all time. I will also be watching the 02-03 revival for the first time.

“You must atone. No one must escape…the beacon.”

Charles Martin Smith just runs into a shit load of bad luck in this effective episode of the the 80s Twilight Zone. This episode has Smith starring as a doctor whose car breaks down near a fenced off road telling anyone who nears to keep out. But with nowhere to go, Smith needs help repairing his car, and the next town is like 50 miles away. He encounters Martin Landau, who stars as a rather seemingly harmless (but rather stand-offish and secretive) shop owner in a coastal town overlooking the ocean, containing a peculiar lighthouse with a particular beacon that shines its light for a certain purpose. Smith needs a place to bed for the night and Landau indicates he might can get the car up and running in the morning. A kid Giovanni Ribisi has a sister that is ill and the lighthouse beacon posits its beam right on their house. This is the house Smith is staying in, and the mother accepts that her daughter is to be sacrificed for the beacon...this bewilders Smith. When Ribisi summons Smith's sympathy for his sister, a cure for her respiratory infection defies the beacon's next choice and there are repercussions. 

I think this is one of the revival's finest half hours. It appears in the first season's hour long format with another episode titled, "One Life, Furnished in Early Poverty". Smith is an outsider who happens upon a town with an old history and kooky way of life, with an idol worship whose evil will envelope him. He's basically in the wrong place at the wrong time. His only crime is helping a sick girl. In doing so, Landau is pissed as our his fellow villagers. Their way for 200 years, since their ancestor, lighthouse keeper, Seth, died (well, he sort of died) was to offer a human sacrifice--chosen by the beacon's light--as a compensation for being kept happy, given proper guidance, and fully functioning in their own community. Smith questions this, addressing Landau and the villagers at the door of the lighthouse about whether it was the spirit of Seth or their own sustainability. 

The village is cut off from the outside world--normal society--and doesn't welcome anyone into their community. Smith is given a rather cold reception from Landau who grudgingly allows him in his shop. After it is over, I think the viewer can go over how this could have resulted far better for poor Smith had he not been so forthcoming about his willingness to help the girl. How could he have planned for what happens to him?

Landau, when on his game, can be so damn good. At the end, he turns from a calm and docile storyteller--leader and vocal orator for his community--into an advocate of murder, declaring that the beacon must have its sacrifice in order to continue to bless their village. He's fucking creepy when lighting his pipe and watching as the townsfolk descend upon a frightened Smith who has no one to help him. Smith was a memorable 80s presence, especially in "The Untouchables", "Starman", and "Never Cry Wolf". Here, he's typical Mr. Friendly. There's nothing at all offered from his character that warrants his resulting fate. It is horrible that a good deed goes punished.

Twilight Zone did that from time to time. The bad guys suffer but so do the good. When a reader working in a bank finally is allowed to have his time with his books, his glasses accidentally break. A nobody always bullied is given alien powers producing strength that allow him to defend himself until the aliens decide he doesn't need them anymore, resulting in him being mistreated again. Smith follows the mold. He arrives in a place that doesn't want him. He only agrees to help a sick girl when her little brother begs him. He mistakenly interferes (unbeknownst to him) with a supposed supernatural ritual demanding life in exchange for producing the good life for its people. In other words, classic Twilight Zone. 

And just remember: “May the Beacon pass you by.”

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