Just a Twilight Zone Afternoon on a Friday

 Pluto TV currently has Twilight Zone's first two seasons On Demand, so I thought I would throw on a few episodes, sort of mixed bag on a Friday while working my way through some accounts.

I have always wanted to pair Nick of Time with A Hundred Yards Over the Rim. For whatever reason, I don't think I've ever done those two together.

I really like this Noon with Twilight Zone idea but since Pluto TV only has two seasons, I'll have to mix and match accordingly.

Shatner recently celebrated a birthday and is still with us, so I was really thinking about when to revisit "Nick of Time" and what better time than a pretty Spring day in April. I have my window open and letting the blue sky and sunshine pick up my mood. It felt like the perfect episode, really. A traveling honeymooning couple passing through Ohio, Shatner a superstitious future accountant (sorry, "office manager") with a very patient Breslin accompanying him. I want to say that is a good feature for the episode, that feeling of the noon stop at a quiet little town in Ridgeview, Ohio. Coincidence? Fate? That devil head napkin holder, or as Breslin calls it, "gizmo", actually at all in control of some sort of destiny for the couple? I still like that the damned machine just shoots out penny cards with ambiguous responses that really are as Breslin said, "generalities". Still, this remains the power of the camera and the use of music. And that moment where Shatner clutches the machine is *chef's kiss* (something I learned as vernacular I'm using here and that's it!) because he's fully bought in to its power. Breslin, the actual rational one, snaps him out of it. I did ask myself: I wonder how many times the counterman/cook/waitor of the cafe has seen folks entangled in emotional chaos due to one of many napkin holders.

I think why I wanted to follow "Nick of Time" with "A Hundred Yards Over the Rim" is because, quite frankly, the cafe and when Robertson arrives to meet married couple, Crawford and Jones. Just this hot Arizona setting in what looks like the afternoon as Crawford sizes up the peculiarly "costumed" (and miserable, dirty, starving, and dehydrated) Robertson, eventually offering this glass of water he gobbles up something fierce. I was always curious about the police and doctor so interested in stopping Robertson, though they seemed hospitable and caring enough to want him help. But that damned harmonica music just brings me to tears. And Robertson's shock and awe...I'm always impressed with how he really sells that.

I talk about these two episodes every year. They are just special to me. Shatner's two contributions to the Twilight Zone have really given the show continued legs. And Robertson's work in "Hundred Yards" shouldn't be overshadowed by his work in "The Dummy".