Welcome to Six Damn Fine Degrees. These instalments will be inspired by the idea of six degrees of separation in the loosest sense. The only rule: it connects – in some way – to the previous instalment. So come join us on our weekly foray into interconnectedness!
I moved twice in the last few years, and somehow, my complete Twilight Zone BluRay collection got lost. I suspect, quite fittingly, that it may still exist somewhere at my new place, but in another dimension. I locked myself in the basement for half a day and tried to find it, but still nothing. I miss it more than I expected. Somehow, I am still in mourning, if you can believe that.
Part of the allure comes from the fact that they made much with so little. It premiered in the early ‘60s, and so, if a spacecraft was said to have landed on Mars, they had to shoot the episode in a desert because it’s cheap, it’s not made up, and, just like on another planet, they is no sign of prior human intrusion. Yes, granted, some of the masks were cheap and tacky – remember the episode where all the nurses in the hospital have pig snouts? But even there – if it’s only in your mind, it does not have to look very much CGI.
There are other episodes where there is that spooky little girl who wants to convince you that she is you from years ago. No special effects needed, just two actresses of very different age who look somehow similar. There is not much that computer-generated images could add to this, the situation, if well-written and well-acted, will have the same effect.
You could go one step further, like they do in the pilot, and show a lonely, thirsty and hungry man stumbling into some town square where all the signs of everyday life are there, but not one single inhabitant is present. If that location looks familiar to you, it’s the Universal Studio backlot that was used later for Back to the Future.
And of course we were always prepared for the uncanny, the strange and bizarre and frightening, by the ever-smoking Rod Serling with his trademark snarling voice, telling us what was in store for us with that half-smirk. I even miss that half-smirk. I need to go once more into the basement, maybe now the box set is there.
A Damn Fine Cup of Culture 