"The Twilight Zone" Nick of Time (1960)

User Rating:

8.2/10   

Director:

Richard L. Bare

Writers:

Richard Matheson (writer)
Rod Serling (creator)

TV Series:

"The Twilight Zone" (1959)

Original Air Date:

18 November 1960 (Season 2, Episode 7)

Genre:

Drama | Fantasy | Horror | Mystery | Sci-Fi | Thriller

Plot:

A pair of newlyweds stopping in a small town are trapped by their own superstition when playing a fortune telling machine in a local diner. |

Plot Keywords:

Diner | Superstition | Fortune Telling Machine | Honeymoon | Car

US TV Schedule:

Sat. July 4

9:30 AM

SCIFI

Nick of Time

#2.7

Cast

William Shatner	...	Don Carter
Patricia Breslin	...	Pat Carter
Guy Wilkerson	...	Counterman
Stafford Repp	...	Mechanic
Walter Reed	...	Man
Dee Carroll	...	Woman

Runtime:

25 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Colour:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Filming Locations:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios - 10202 W. Washington Blvd., Culver City, California, USA

Company:

Cayuga Productions

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "The Twilight Zone: The Path (#1.25)" (2003)

Soundtrack:

American Patrol

What?

I borrowed Season 2 of the Twilight Zone from my mother-in-law about a week ago (my brother's wife's mother. Is that my mother-in-law? Stepmother-in-law?), and this was the first episode that I watched, just because I was surprised to see that William Shatner was starring in it. He looks absolutely nothing like the William Shatner that we now know and love (seriously, nothing at all. If it wasn't for his voice it would be hard to believe it's the same guy), and the second thing that struck me was that there was nothing at all strange or paranormal taking place in the episode from beginning to end, which is something that I haven't come to expect from a Twilight Zone episode.

Shatner stars as Don Carter, and one day he and his wife Pat go into a cafe that has a little penny machine on the table that tells your future. Casually, he puts in a few pennies and asks a few yes or no questions, and is absolutely astonished by the generic answers that he gets. Why is he so stunned by the answers? Never once does the machine give anything but a generic response, and never once does it give either a yes answer or a no answer to one of Don's yes or no questions.

All he ever gets are things like "What do you think?" and "It has already been taken care of," and "Your chances are good." Don is blown away. I would hate to see this guy reading some fortune cookies or his horoscope, he might lose his mind! The black and white lighting, as usual, is one of the best elements of the episode, and the music does a fine job of lending a tone of otherworldly presence in a show whose most otherworldly thing is the incredible gullibility of the main characters. Even though the episode is ultimately disappointing in its lack of content, it's still another interesting look at that Back to the Future set at Universal Studios and the early career of one of science fiction's most recognizable stars.