Twilight Zone / Probe 7, Over and Out / Notes

 I will include user reviews from January 1, 2011 I withdrew from my old IMDb account.

This is the perfect Monday evening episode, I think. I go back and forth on it. I just don't think it is great Serling. But even okay Serling is better than a lot of writers of 60s science fiction much less after him. I think as I have felt in time's past, that "Probe 7, Over and Out" is too familiar. The themes--such as hate, nuclear fallout, countries attacking each other instead of working things out, two completely different people (in this episode's case, Basehart, seemingly from a type of Earth, and Bower, seemingly from a completely different planet, although she looks human, too) despite their differences, a man and woman, as a type of Adam and Eve, a serious crashlanding causing an astronaut to remain forever stuck on a distant planet without others of his species, etc.--are Twilight Zone regs seemingly culled from the series for the final season, probably because Serling was mentally and creatively exhausted. All those episodes, dealing with CBS, having to budget restrict and attempt to produce quality television; Serling was only human after all. I really think I can watch this episode over and over is because of Basehart being in a Twilight Zone episode. I think of "Two" and "People are Alike All Over", especially, but also "Third from the Sun" while watching Probe 7. Basehart, though, much like Roddy McDowell (and not Chuck Bronson, as much), has to spend a lot of time talking and forwarding his big personality to continue cultivating our interest in his plight. This episode asks a lot of Basehart, and his arm in a sling, that physically limits him as well. Inside some neat wreckage on a hill, only communicating briefly with his colleagues (in a bunker) back home, Basehart is not a happy camper, nor should he be, but as Gould's Larrabee tells him...at least he'll be alive. And with Bower as a companion, at least he won't be alone.

There are some episodes like this one that aren't necessarily at the top of my favorite's list, but they have certain qualities that draw me to them. Surprisingly, Probe 7 hasn't been featured in the more recent SYFY marathons. In the past, especially when I was a teenager in the 90s, this was one of the episodes I remember from marathons. It really is that kind of sci-fi story TZ fans would consider part of the show's DNA.

By season 5 I imagine that Rod Serling was running low on ideas and so PROBE 7, OVER AND OUT feels like one of those cases where even a genius was taxed with spitting out something on schedule. I do think, though, that the casting of Richard Basehart(and, to a certain extent, the haunted face of his commander, General Larrabee, portrayed by television character actor Harold Gould(Rose's long-term boyfriend on THE GOLDEN GIRLS)does adds value to the episode and he's burdened to carry it for large portions on his own. Sure the plot(and end result)are a bit old-fashioned and will probably induce eye-rolling from the more contemporary among us, but I do believe Basehart well establishes in his performance his plight, the desperate attempt to find a friend, a companion, on some seemingly humanoid-less planet which seems to support the fundamentals needed for survival. Gould doesn't stretch into theatrics, his military general holding back the horror Planet Earth is facing as war has broken out between countries behind a defeated calmness, his supposed quiet strength delivering bad news to Basehart as he lies unconscious outside after being hit in the head with a stone, this letting the viewer know that Adam Cook is not alone. When he first arrives, the planet seems to remain in a perpetual nightfall and Cook feels condemned to a "dungeon" existence. As you can expect, the story predictable and tired, Cook makes contact with a humanoid woman who seems to be identical in most respects to earth's race, except her language differs in a more primitive fashion. Sure Serling sermonizes on mankind's inability to communicate without fear or violence, commenting on the Cold War age they were a part of at the time. It ends with Cook and Norda trying to break the communication barrier, naming their new planet--you guessed it--Earth.