Review of Twilight Zone, The: Vol 7

Introduction

Perchance to Dream -- Episode 9 -- Nov. 27, 1959: a man (Richard Conte) who is terrified of falling asleep for fear that he might die. Awake for 78 hours and suffering from a heart condition, he is haunted by a mysterious vixen
The first non-Serling script of the series.

The Hitch-Hiker -- Episode 16 -- January 22nd, 1960: Nan Adams (Inger Stevens) is alone on a cross country trip. After surviving an accident she continues, only to be haunted by the same hitch hiker everywhere see goes.

King 9 in Will Not Return -- Episode 37 -- September 30th, 1960: James Embry (Robert Cummings) a WWII Captain finds himself next to his crashed plane in an empty desert. With no crew around and sightings of futuristic jet planes he must now question his own sanity if he’s ever to get out .

Shadow Play -- Episode 62 -- May 5, 1961: A man (Dennis Weaver) is trapped in a recurring nightmare and tries to persuade those who are sentencing him to death that this really is a dream.


There are some really good episodes here especially “Perchance to Dream” and “Shadow Play”. Its also nice to see similar themes going through all the episodes on one volume as all episodes here deal with reality and perception. “King Nine will Not Return” is probably the weakest story but its still worth a watch. Also “ The Hitch Hiker” episode contains the same sort of ideas and dread that the cult film “Carnival of souls” did, so if you liked that then I would recommend this volume to you. (although you will guess the ending).

Video

The image quality in this Zone collection is actually fairly good, probably due to the fact that all episodes here were shot on film rather than video. There is the occasional nick or scratch but in general this print is suprisingly clean and only very rarely does it show its age with the odd variation in contrast or loss in detail.
There were no major compression problems that I could see and generally all the episodes had fairly good picture detail that remained consistent throughout. Another good edition to add to your DVD Zone collection.

Audio

The standard Dolby Digital mono mix here and is basically at the same standard as all the other Twilight Zone DVDs . It does contain a little more hiss than were used to today, and the odd bit of dialogue does sounds a bit edgy or scratchy now and again but overall considering what it was originally mixed for (those iddy biddy 60’s tv speakers) it does the job well and is far from disappointing.

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.
The cover also says it contains a twilight zone trivia section but I couldn’t find it. You also get the small postcard set that have a brief synopsis and picture of each episode printed on them.

This section is a little brief, which is a shame. I’m sure a decent size essay could have been produced and spread over all the different volumes. What’s here is good, especially the review and credits section which gives some insight into each episode, but really you come away wanting to know more. (Probably time to invest in the “Twilight Zone Companion” then)

Conclusion

Overall volume 7 is a worthy edition featuring good stories and decent video/audio. Another edition which doesn’t disappoint. Good stuff.