Review of Twilight Zone, The: Vol 20

Introduction

This Twilight Zone collection has the theme of “Between Déjà vu and Longing”


"Elegy", Episode 20 – February 19, 1960: Three astronauts land on an asteroid where in the midst of their activities, people are frozen in place. The only movement is from the caretaker (Cecil Kellaway) who reveals that they are in an exclusive cemetery where the deceased’s wishes can come true.

"The Thirty-Fathom Grave", Episode 104 – January 10, 1963: 20 years after a World War II submarine was sunk by the Japanese a mysterious clanging sound is heard emanating from its hull. A sheared periscope? Or ghosts of the drowned crewmen? Chief Bell (Mike Kellin) reveals a guilty secret that has been tormenting him ever since that horrible day.

“A Short Drink from a Certain Fountain”, Episode 131 – December 13, 1963: Desperate to keep up with his younger wife (Ruta Lee) an ageing man (Patrick O’Neal) tries an experimental youth serum. He is restored to vigorous young manhood but the worm soon turns when the serum continues its work.

In “Elegy” we have an episode that bares notable resemblance to a Ray Bradbury story called “Mars is Heaven” in which astronauts land on mars to find a town straight out of the turn of the century. It is also the reverse set-up to the classic Twilight Zone episode “ I Shot an Arrow into the Air” (DVD Vol 18) in which space travellers believe themselves to be on an asteroid when in fact they are still on Earth. Other notable things in this episode (yes there’s more) include a very famous sound effect which is immediately recognisable to Star Trek fans. The sound of the rocket ships instruments is exactly the same as those on the enterprise. Also one of the doomed astronauts does in fact play the lead character in another classic science fiction film called “This Island Earth”.
I could go on but I’ll spare you. All in all a decent episode which feels just a little too familiar to be a true classic.
The episode "The Thirty-Fathom Grave" doesn’t fair quite so well. The extended episodes on any series rarely work as well as the standard times mainly due to lack of ideas. Usually they are merely stretched out versions of 30minute shows which unfortunately results in a rather lacklustre episode that ultimately drags. The same can be said of this one.
Basically this is a simple sea going yarn that although acted well hasn’t got enough content to keep your interest.
“A Short Drink from a Certain Fountain” like a handful of other Twilight Zone episodes was not included in the original syndication package. Another mediocre episode that fails to involve I’m afraid. There’s nothing particularly new here and the out come of the story is pretty obvious from the beginning.
Not the best selection of stories from the Twilight Zone stable which is further hampered by only three episodes.

Video

Image quality remains the same as all the other Twilight Zone disks meaning that although suffering from the occasional scratch and flecks of dust, it still looks pretty good considering its age. Very little grain is present and no pixelation, or motion artifacts are apparent. Detail and contrast levels are good although occasionally the picture can be a tad soft. Overall a pretty decent picture.

Audio

Basically what you would expect from a made for TV series. The mono track is a little edgy or raspy at times but it’s far from unlistenable. The noise floor is also a little high with a hiss clearly audible in some scenes but its not particularly distracting and nothing that would stop you from enjoying the episodes on the disk.
Again at the same standard as the other disks, so if you enjoyed a previous edition then there’s nothing here to stop you enjoying this one.

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

Not the greatest selection of episodes available as the only one above average would be "Elegy". If they got rid of the hour length episode and included a couple of decent episodes instead then you would see no complaints.
If you were going to buy a Twilight Zone DVD for the first time then this definitely should not be on your top ten list. Don’t get me wrong there is nothing here unwatchable its just that other disks would offer more to the casual viewer. For the collection rather than an essential buy.