Rest in Peace, Richman.

 Just in early January, I was thinking about how cool it was Peter Mark Richman was still around considering a good majority of actors and actresses who appeared in The Twilight Zone had now passed. I was watching "The Fear" during my final evening of the Twilight Zone Marathon Weekend and his still being with us gave me a kind of fleeting appreciation for any remaining members of a class of talent almost gone now. He was 93; an incredible career, too, considering he retired in 2011. Nehemiah Persoff, of the Twilight Zone episode, "Judgement Night" is still with us, aged 101. But I guess I couldn't help reflect back on just a few days ago before Richman's passing thinking to myself how awesome it still was to have Richman with us. I have brought up that while the ending of the episode, "The Fear", left me disappointed, I really liked him in it. It is probably one of his more significant roles, along with "Three's Company" (his episodes I've never seen) and "Friday the 13th Part 8: Jason Takes Manhattan" (1989). I guess, for me though, considering I'm such a Twilight Zone mark, I just always go back to "The Fear". I think that has a lot to do with my love for Hazel Court, too, because of my love for classic horror. Her only association with TZ being so late in the show's run was too bad--I would have loved to see her in an episode more well received and respected--but I'm actually glad it was a two-performer plot with only Richman. The episode did give the two all of the attention.

I did recently revisit an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation called "The Neutral Zone" that featured Richman as a financial wizard from a previous century finding himself out of place and sorts on board the Enterprise D, wanting to know answers while Picard was less than enthusiastic with his presence on the ship. Found on a ship left abandoned in space, his body frozen for reawakening when scientific advances might save him, Richman awakens a man whose investments no longer matter, with a portfolio that is bubkis in the time of Romulans re-emerging with questions as to why outposts were being attacked. I had actually planned to drop a post on this episode. I don't know what it is about "The Neutral Zone" that I like returning to it from time to time. At the end of a questionable-in-quality first season (it had its ups and rather quite disappointing downs), it tries to juggle two plots that seemed shoehorned together rather uneasily. But I just perk up seeing Richman as the once-important, once-prominent businessman no longer of any significant stature, on board the ship at a time of great anxiety since the Romulans (at that time) had been quiet. He could play someone who thought the sound of his voice meant something important. As anyone watching "Jason Takes Manhattan" could attest. But I like that my personal Richman is "The Fear". A hero who braves the unknown, prepared for a giant, even if little aliens are ultimately the culprit in the presence of danger.