Treasures of The Twilight Zone

Of all the review I've ever done, I could easily say that my most consistently enjoyable experiences have been with The Twilight Zone dvds. No other title has the ability to take me back to my childhood before the cares and concerns of modern life overtook the simplicity of just being young, innocent and care-free. School was a breeze, friends were for life and then there was The Twilight Zone. It was that weekly dose of the macabre, the slightly left of centre feeling and the vague impression that something out there just wasn't right.

Taking me back to that place once again is this gathering of “special episodes� from the legendary series. Bringing together the debut episode, another shown only once until the release of the dvd series and an Academy Award winning French short film aired as part of the show. They comprise:

“Where Is Everybody?�
A man finds himself in a deserted town with no memory of who he is or where he came from. The very first episode of The Twilight Zone, written to be an easy and palatable introduction to what was to come later. When the original choices for the debut episode were scrapped for being too down or out there to start the series in the eyes of sponsor/studio, this was the compromise used. I don’t feel it’s one of the stronger episodes due to this fact, but still demands some respect for being the first, I guess.

“The Encounter�
An American war veteran and a Japanese/American are brought together by fate to battle with their own and each others internal demons. Apparently never show again after the first airing, it’s not hard to see why. Serling probably pushed his luck with his episode and I’d say it was a miracle that the sponsors allowed this one to air at all.

“An Occurrence At Owl Creek�
A confederate soldier to be hanged is saved when the rope breaks. This French production won the Best Short Film Academy Award in 1963, and was specially aired as part of The Twilight Zone in 1964. Interesting to see a Zone-ish type story filmed outside the sphere of influence of the show’s creators. Much more cinematic in style. To me, it is more importantly the foundation for one of my favourite films, Jacob's Ladder (PLEASE release this movie in R4..someone?...anyone?...PLEASE?)

Couple these episodes with the inclusion of an interview with Rod Serling by Mike Wallace and a promotion piece filmed to introduce sponsors to the show, and I can tell you that I eagerly await the next installment of Treasures of The Twilight Zone...and my next journey back to my childhood.

I have something to say here that isn’t strictly about the transfer, but rather about the way I review the titles in the Twilight Zone series. I’ve always loved this series. The concept, the stories, the morals, the sting in its tail, the b/w film, the score, simply everything about it. Personally, I’ve never been disappointed with the visual quality of the series to date, and I’m happy to report the same again here. For you to understand my perspective, keep in mind that I consider us extremely lucky to even get such a legendary series on dvd. Being realistically aware of the limitations/variability of the source footage I’m more than happy to be tolerant of any imperfections in the end result of the transfer (what few imperfections there actually are). And the important thing to remember here is that this is a review of the DVD TRANSFER QUALITY, not the quality of the original show. If the original had some dirt, bad lighting, scratches on the film stock, or problems which may have been inherent in the filming technology of the time etc, then we shouldn’t be too picky when these show up in the final result and list the timecode for every occurrence, should we?

The way I see it is simple: If I am able to sit through an episode and not be distracted by flaws in the transfer, then it gets a passing grade. If I tell you where things are, you’re just going to go looking for them, aren’t you? If you look for them then you’re not watching the show are you? If you’re not watching the show, you’re not going to enjoy it, are you? If you don’t enjoy it, why did you buy the disc in the first place?

So, I’m happy to report that I watched the shows, enjoyed the shows, and this transfer gets a passing grade, just like The Twilight Zone dvds that have come before it. It’s an old series, in black and white, it has the odd speck or flaw but the transfer itself is very good.

Considering we’re watching shows recorded up to 40 years ago, we can’t be too picky about the quality of the audio on offer, either. As with the majority of the previous Twilight Zone episodes, sound is relatively clean and easy on the ol’ ear holes. The final episode (An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge) probably has more clearly audible background noise low level hiss and pops)than the others, but this story was an independent French production and used by Serling on the show. The included interview and sponsor pitch are variable in quality, but again this is all due to the condition of the source material, and not a reflection of the transfer quality. Again, what remains important here is that the sound quality as well as the video quality is good enough that is doesn’t detract from your enjoyment of the individual episodes and the extras provided.

So we easily have another passing grade.

Where as previously released discs merely had a bundle of text based notes, we are blessed with an interview with Rod Serling conducted by Mike Wallace. This provides tremendous insight into Serling’s mind, touching on topics of his success, his stories and how they get past the sponsors control of the show, and his views on television. At a little over twenty minutes in length, I was absolutely rapped to be able to see this footage, and many a time wanted to get up and slap Mike Wallace upside the head for the manner in which he clearly didn’t understand what Serling was telling him.

Another great inclusion is the footage created for Serling to sell the concept of the show to potential sponsors, including a brief rundown of some stories and the insistence that viewers will want to run into sponsor’s stores to buy their products after watching the show each week.

The rest of the extras consist of the text notes available on previous Twilight Zone discs that discuss the history of the show, a season-by-season commentary, Serling bio, and reviews of the individual episodes on the disc.

If you know me or my past reviews, you know that I’m a big fan of The Twilight Zone and the release of this series on dvd. In a perfect world you’d buy every disc released in this series. However, if you can only buy the occasional Twilight Zone dvd for your collection then I’d urge you to put Treasures of The Twilight Zone at the top of your “must buy� list today.