Review of Twilight Zone, The: Vol 19

Introduction

This Twilight Zone collection has the theme of “At the intersection……of The Twilight Zone”


"A Most Unusual Camera", Episode 46 - December 16, 1960: The discovery of a camera that two thieves have stolen (Fred Clark and Jean Carson) that takes pictures of the future turns out to be a goldmine in the wrong hands. However not every picture develops as might be expected.

"The Jungle", Episode 77 - December 1, 1961: Returned from a business trip to Africa, Alan Richards (John Dehner) scoffs at the voodoo lion curse that was placed on him. Soon he will sense that Africa is all too near and that something is chasing him through the streets of New York City.

"The 7th Is Made Up of Phantoms", Episode 130 - December 6, 1963: A war exercise by the National Guard in 1964 near Little Big Horn encounter evidence that another battle is going on…only one that occurred in 1876.

"Uncle Simon", Episode 128 - November 15, 1963: Barbara Polk (Constance Ford) has taken care of her detested Uncle Simon (Cedric Hardwicke) for 25 years, waiting impatiently to inherit his wealth and her freedom. But his will stipulates that she must take care of his latest invention. An invention with a familiar personality.


Standout episodes include “The Jungle” and “Uncle Simon”. The Jungle is a nice moody piece whereby the unbeliever is taunted and punished not only for his deeds but for his inability to accept and respect other peoples believes however unconventional and unscientific they may seem to be. Inevitably this reaction incapacitates him in taking any preventative steps in which he could save himself. A nicely shot episode with plenty of atmosphere and an unsettling story.
The “Uncle Simon” episode is an altogether lighter affair and features one of the most famous robots in film history. I’ll leave it up to you to discover which one, although you can probably guess. With the little twist in the tail this memorable episode will bring a few smiles to your face. Excellent stuff.

The other episodes "The 7th Is Made Up of Phantoms" and "A Most Unusual Camera", are the standard fair although always watchable. "A Most Unusual Camera" has a fairly basic plot and is similar to the “What’s in the Box” episode on volume 17 although with a lot more deaths.
"The 7th Is Made Up of Phantoms" has a fairly obvious storyline and provides little surprise. It reminded me of an old Japanese film (I think, but could be mistaken) called Time Slip released around the 80’s in which a tank crew were sucked back in time to the days of the Samurai. Here they used their advanced weapons to slaughter the enemy side but were ultimately destroyed by their own arrogance and faith in their technology. If memory serves me right it was actually quite good in an obscure low budget kind of way. If you can find it, it maybe worth checking out if the storyline interests you, although don’t blame me if turns out a bit crap. (It was a long time ago)
Anyway back to the zones.

Video

Another quality print to add to the collection with only the occasional bit of dirt or dust to lower the overall quality. Image detail remains good throughout with solid blacks, a good contrast and only limited amounts of grain. Sometime the picture seems a little soft lacking detail but there were no compression problems that I noticed and the picture remained (for a made for TV series of this age) excellent throughout.

Audio

Again the standard mono mix which remained clear and concise throughout with no major problems. The track maybe a little edgy at times or have a slightly higher noise floor than your used too but overall the audio remains solid and workmanlike. Some episodes suffer from a higher noise level than others but its never so bad as to be unlistenable.

Features

Like the rest of the Twilight Zone volumes on DVD this edition contains various notes and essays about the series in general and the specific featured episodes. Inside the Twilight Zone contains a Rod Serling biography, a season by season commentary, history of the twilight zone and a review and credit section for each episode on the disk. This section is written by the author of “The Twilight Zone Companion” Marc Scott Zicree.
You also get the small postcard set that have a brief synopsis and picture of each episode printed on them.

Conclusion

Some quality episodes here with equally good audio and video quality. The Twilight Zone has aged extremely well providing a great source of Sci Fi and Fantasy stories over the years, and by releasing the series on DVD The Twilight Zone can hopefully continue to influence for years to come as well. Another great edition to the Twilight Zone stable.