I have a bone to pick with Rod Serling for fucking up an episode

[Rabrrrrrr]

I just watched the episode - can't remember the name, and I already deleted it - but it's the one that a lady out in a farmhouse in the middle of nowhere has a spacecraft land and very small aliens come out and harass the hell out of her, until she finally takes an ax to them and their spaceship.

It's a FUCKING GENIUS episode, because THERE ARE NO WORDS. The aliens get only a few seconds of screen time - it's all sound effects and her acting without speaking. FUCKING GENIUS, and SO amazing that a TV show would be done without anyt dialogue at all (except Serling's voice).

Until the very end - after she's smashed everything, one of the aliens speaks in English over the radio saying "Don't send any more to this planet - populated by gigantic people - dangerous. We've all been killed". (not exact quotes, but close).

Then the camera pans over to the spaceship showing the lettering on it - it says "US Air Force Spacecraft 1" or something like that.

Rod, you fucked this one up - you had a Nobel winner and then threw it away with having the astronaut speak. You should have just let her kill and destroy everything, then pan the camera and show the viewer the writing on the spaceship, without any fucking dialogue.

So close. SOOOOOO close to perfection.

ARGH!!!!!!!!!

It's stuff like that drives me crazy.

[Blue-Jay]

1. That's the one with Agnes Moorhead.

One of my least favorites. The dialog sucks.

[Rabrrrrrr]

6. I'm stalking you from another thread just so I can call you a douchebag

you douchebag.

:rofl:

[graywarrior]

2. Yeah, that was an awesome episode.

Stephen King just did one like that last year with a guy fighting little toy soldiers. Not one word was exchanged for the half hour show. It was great.

[derby378]

3. Oh, I liked that episode just fine

It's still one of my all-time favorites.

[rug]

4. I am compelled to agree with you on this.

[Okiojira]

5. I just saw that one yesterday on SciFi Channel

Enjoyed it, although the "scary" spacemen were pretty laughable, looking, as they did, not unlike windup toys.

You're right though; they should have stuck with the no-dialog concept all the way. Having the astronaut speak was redundant; panning in on the US Air Force Spacecraft emblem at the very end said all that needed to be said.

[NYYFan]

7. It's called "The Invaders"

One of my brother's favorites.

[Elidor]

8. Agnes Moorehead was the real deal

An award-winning actress with some powerful mojo. I certainly haven't seen everything she ever did, but that should be a candidate for her best performance. Riveting.

[Rabrrrrrr]

9. A truly amazing performance!

All of Welles' performers were goddamned incredible, but she was one of the top even of that group.

It's kind of sad that she'll always be most remembered for playing Endora - which she played amazingly well, but which has, I think, stained peoples' ideas of what an actress she really was.

And speaking of Bewitched, I also watched the Twilight Zone "Two" tonight with a young Elizabeth Montgomery - I always thought Audrey Hepburn was the hottest of the hotties in Hollywood, but I'm thinking I might need to reconsider that opinion: it might very well be a tie. Rowr.

It's interesting that Agnes and Elizabeth were both in the Twilight Zone in 1961, and both played roles only called "The Woman" and AM spoke not at all and EM spoke only one word. And then later on, they end up in a TV show together! (And they play women who never stop talking :-))

[texanwitch]

10. This episode is the first one I remember seeing when I was a little kid.

I like it.