[The Collector's Room]

The Twilight Zone had always seemed like a myth to me. It was nothing more than a theme tune used to describe eerie things happening, a ride in Disney World and something that the Simpson spoofed.

Despite my love of all things Sci-Fi in in all kinds of media, I never thought to find episodes of the show to discover what this show was all about.

In 2007, I was visiting my friend Wilf in Portsmouth and on a hangover morning we were deciding what to watch when I admired a few collectable figures he had in his room. The collectables in question were the 12” Slideshow Collectables Twilight Zone figures of The Gremlin (Nightmare at 20,000 Feet), The Kanamit (To Serve Man) and the Doctor and Nurse (Eye of the Beholder). Still within their packaging, he started to discuss his love of The Twilight Zone and told me that he had loads of them on DVD – the Aviva Volume releases from 2000.

Interested in watching them, Wilf quite literally submitted the show for my approval. I can clearly remember watching Nightmare at 20, 000 feet and being instantly hooked. We spent the rest of the day working our way through his countless volumes and when he went to work the next day, I watched the remaining episodes. I couldn’t get enough of the excellent writing, the breathtaking performances and the overall feel of the show and found myself watching some episodes twice. It amazed me that I hadn’t got hooked on this show sooner – but I was now glad that it was in my life.

Upon returning back to my home town, I took what was left my of my paycheque and bought the 2Entertain Seasons 1-5 box sets (at a modest price of £30 each). Being an unemployed graduate at the time meant I had a lot of free hours on my hands and I worked my way through every episode one after the other – even the ones I had previously seen the weekend before. I showed them to my friends, family and anyone who would listen. I bought books, t-shirts and anything that bore the Twilight Zone branding. I was obsessed.

In 2009, I came up with the idea of creating a ‘Twilight Zone inspired’ online show called The Collector’s Room where I could flex my Twilight Zone addled mind to its full capacity. We created 3 half hour episodes, comic books and a radio play and I wrote more than I had ever written before. I never would have made this show without Rod Serling’s genius.

The Twilight Zone for me is now more than just a theme tune or a ride at Disney, it’s a part of my life. It rejuvenated my writing style and reignited my passion for script writing and filmmaking. Without this great show, I don’t think I would be the man I am today. While I may not be a ‘life long fan’, I am most certainly a devotee. I can’t wait to be able to show this great program to my own kids one day and maybe, just maybe, get my girlfriend on board too!