Cult Labs - Season 0, Episode 0: The Time Element

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Season 0, Episode 0: The Time Element

Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse: The Time Element

Airdate: 12/11/58
Writer: Rod Serling
Director: Alan Reisner
Starring: William Bendix, Martin Balsam

Generally considered as the pilot episode of The Twilight Zone, despite appearing in the series Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse, The Time Element was an hour long time travel story written by Rod Serling that's included in it's entirety in high definition on the UK BD release of The Twilight Zone Season 1.

A man visits a psychoanalyst, complaining about a recurring dream in which he imagines waking up in Honolulu just prior to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

Post your thoughts, reviews and comments about the episode and/or the BD & DVD release for The Time Element here!

I watched this tonight. I'll lay off the spoilers because a lot of people may not have seen it yet.

Very strange seeing a Twilight Zone episode that is kinda Twilight Zone, but Kinda not.

The story is pure twilight zone, a man dreams of waking up the day before Pearl Harbor. After having been watching a lot of TZ recently the length (about 45-50 minutes) does seem a tad long, and you could imagine it could have been easily re-written to Twilight Zone length. Funnily enough Serling wanted The Twilight Zone to be this length, but ended up having to accept a shorter running time, and then had to accept a longer one in season 4.

The lead in this too is an odd choice; a very un-typical leading man. A middle aged lug of a man.

Overall I find it a little un-even, and some of the time travel logic seems a little laughable after the films we've seen since. But the ending was still pretty effective, and actually un-expected for me.

This is a great little curio, you can see The Twilight Zone starting to develop before your eyes. And you also get the host Desi Arnaz casually start to try to sell you a refrigerator at the end.

Looks great in HD too.

This seems a real interesting one and I'm glad it's available on the Blu-ray set. Now I need to somehow find the money to buy it :o

Watched it last night and thought it was a great episode. Not really pert of the episode as such, but the segment afterwards, with Desi Arnez hawking the westinghouse refrigerators, was jawdroppingly awful. :lol:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stephen@Cult Labs (Post 150632)

Haha, hilarious isn't it? It's like every bad product placement parody you've ever seen.

This does run a little long and I think the move to 30 minutes was a wise one. I think the episode works but it doesn't use the time travel quite as effectively as The Last Flight. It essentially marks the birth of modern TV: without it no Twin Peaks, The X Files, Lost etc etc. Previous to this there was little fantasy on American/British TV with the exception of Quatermass. Its influence and importance cannot be overestimated. And yes the fridge advert at the end is awful:laugh:

I've just got around to watching this and I loved it. The extra length gave time to flesh out the Characters. The lead actor was brilliant, what an absolute nark! I also enjoyed Desi flogging the fridge, a pre-cursor to QVC!