The Twilight Zone - Stopover in a Quiet Town*

I felt like I had reviewed this one not too long ago. I might have, but looking through my archive on the blog I didn’t find it. I’m sure at one point or another I did. Just the same, I only really wanted to watch one episode this month, and the one on my mind was “Stopover in a Quiet Town”. This was on the Decades channel’s lineup during its Independence Day marathon this year. I remember it being on during New Year's Day marathon a few years ago, with my family actually watching it with me on a Sunday after noon. It just sort of grips you, I think, because you have two people in this odd, unexpected dilemma, walking around a town that appears uninhabited. It recalls Twilight Zone episodes like "Where is Everybody?" among others where characters are seemingly isolated in the silence of a location, just looking for anyone and attempts to escape seem futile.

Although there is not one thing about it that is fresh or new that hadn’t been covered it seems during the previous four and a half seasons [natch] by the time we reach it in the fifth and final of the series’ run, I have always enjoyed it. And personally I never tire of it. Maybe it is just seeing props actually revealed to be just that…a tree knocked down, paper mache “grass” easily set on fire by a dropped cigarette butt, a squirrel dislodged from a fake tree branch, a kitchen with a prop phone on the wall and food in a non-running refrigerator, and kitchen cabinets that don’t exist because when you pull on the handle nothing but a board snaps off. There are no people, a mannequin sitting in a car (naturally, this is The Twilight Zone, by the way), no birds chirping, and a train that moves around in circles, taking you from “Centerville” right back to “Centerville”. 

Barry Nelson (you know him from The Shining (1980) as Ullman, of the Overlook) and Nancy Malone are a married couple who awaken in a strange town, seemingly unoccupied, wondering where that little girl’s laugh is located. They hear the girl occasionally while trying to find a way out of Centerville.

 Nelson wakes up with a hangover, just wanting an aspirin and explanation for how they got to this town. All Malone can give him is she was driving because he was hammered, but she also admits to having a few drinks herself. She recalls a shadow enveloping them and then awakening in Centerville in that weird bedroom in the prop house. They will soon learn where the little girl is and what causes the giant shadow chasing after them. Most of the fun is the two leads trying to figure out what the hell is going on. And this gives those in the prop and construction departments the chance to pull the curtain back on the “tricks of the trade”. Plus, I figure this episode saved them a great bit of money because they could just dump two very capable actors in a fake town, actually revealing a set and what is supplied on said set. 

Nelson’s confusion and frustration and Malone’s terror and bewilderment are understandable, and that train ride that brings right back to where they start is my favorite of the episode because they are so relieved to be leaving only to realize that there is no escape. That hopeless feeling is especially leavened by the twist involving “giant aliens”. While I do not believe it can escape the feeling of déjà vu, it nonetheless always holds my attention to it. I think the leads have a great deal to do with that. Their reactions and questions about the situation they’re in is always believable. These are extraordinary circumstances and the gleeful dénouement, which tells us they will not be going anywhere, incapable no matter how they run or hide of getting away, allows Serling to give us a “don’t drink and drive” message to put a bow on it. 4/5