The Twilight Zone - The Invaders

I have to be honest: the scenes above regarding the saucer from Forbidden Planet (1956) and Agnes Moorehead towering over it are what I truly geek out over. The episode, so synonymous with Twilight Zone, a well-received Richard Matheson scripted classic, with a dialogue-mute Moorehead communicating through grunts and noises, is rather simply plotted. I guess that is why it doesn't reach my upper echelon but remains on top of the "middle rung" of favorite TZ episodes. Moorehead's survival, zapped by laser blasts deriving from astronauts in robot atmospheric protective suits (that ultimately suffer when pummeled by a giant hatchet and open fireplace sizzle), is also of significant emphasis, raising our attention to her danger, her height quite advantageous. That is definitely a visually recognized distinction: she is a giant compared to the little metal men and their metal flying saucer at rest in her attic. They have the stifling weaponry that not only painfully agonizes her but their laser guns cause sores on her flesh. So it is in her best interest to pulverize these intruders in her home.

Obviously the twist at the end is the episode's gotcha. What appears to be a human being invaded by aliens from outer space is actually Earth astronauts landing on a new world and Moorehead is the alien, a giant compared to them. And her fighting against them actually makes her the sympathetic figure and our astronauts the threat. Reacting out of fear towards Moorehead, who is just confused and terrified herself, gives the episode a dichotomy that resonates. Matheson  writes it with that clever spin so that we react to it with that sense of woah. The ship is devastated by Moorehead's hatchet-rage, and the reveal of its origin is a lasting reminder that outer space exploration could very well offer great peril if the ship lands on the wrong planet.

Moorehead's reactions to the invaders, in terms of the misery the laser fire causes her (basically mimicking being hit by the laser to sell the effects) and the bewilderment of what has entered her home is expressively on the mark. You understand all too well why she responds to the astronauts as she does. And their report that the planet Moorehead lives is to be avoided has a point all its own: in the space, if communications work, home base hearing you scream from another planet, heed to the warning. Not everything in space will welcome us...especially if you interrupt a giant's meal in progress.

4/5