[The Collector's Room]

Up next, a modern day version of "A Kind of Stop Watch" - "A Little Peace and Quiet" which was also directed by Wes Craven.

a harried housewife struggling with rambunctious children, a demanding husband, and the stress of modern life, finds relief from an unusual source that brings both power and responsibility.

Again, another strong episode. However, my only complaint about this it is the ending.

The intro narration reads, "Wouldn't it be nice if everyone just shut up once in a while? Wouldn't be great to have the time to finish a thought? Or spin a daydream? To think out loud without having to stop to explain what you meant? If you had the power, would you dare to use it? Even though silence may have a voice of its own? To The Twilight Zone?"

Now, the last part of that opening doesn't make sense. The addition of "The Twilight Zone" is posed as a question when it reads as more of a statement. It was just shoehorned in badly. But the real key to that is "If you had the power, would you dare to use it? Even though silence may have a voice of its own?" which is something that isn't really addressed in the episode.

I really empathised with Penny. Her home life is just a barrage of questions and complaints and her ability to get everyone to "shut up" is well earned. However, she question of whether she would dare use this power knowing that silence has it's own voice never feels truly satisfied. She only uses the power just to get a little peace and quiet - and it never back fires on her.

In the episode on which this is based, McNulty wants to use the watch as the ultimate talking piece only he can't talk to anyone about it. He then uses it for the wrong reasons and it back fires on him. In this episode, Penny uses it for her own ends, but they never back fire on her. Instead an outside source, in this case a nuclear missile, is going to kill everyone and she stops it before it lands. She hasn't learnt from having this great power nor has she paid the price of owning it. If Craven really wanted to have addressed that, he should have made more of the fact she has to now live in a world where she can't start time again in fear of being destroyed.

At the time that this was made, the fear of nuclear missiles was a big issue so I guess Craven was making a social statement, but the point is never really made clear. However, the real deterrent from this is that the opening narration is redundant. None of the issues it raises are answered and none of said issues are resolved. It's a shame, as the episode was playing very well up until that point.