History TheTwilightZone1985 / TropesQToZ

** In "A Game of Pool", Jesse Cardiff is Hispanic. In the [[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS3E70AGameOfPool original episode]], he is white.

* RelatedInTheAdaptation: In "Shadow Play", two [[DreamPeople characters]] in Adam Grant's [[RecurringDreams recurring nightmare]], Father Grant and Carol Ritchie, are his late father and his sister in the real world. In the [[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS2E62ShadowPlay original episode]], the priest was Father Beaman, an actual priest who died when Adam was ten years old, while it is never said whether or not Carol is based on anyone from Adam's real life.

** "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS2E47TheNightOfTheMeek Night of the Meek]]" takes place on Christmas Eve 1985 and features an unflattering depiction of yuppies in the store owner Mr. Dundee. The original episode takes place on Christmas Eve 1960.

*** Major Whitmore is named after James Whitmore, who played Sgt. Ben Peterson in ''Film/{{Them}}''. He also played Captain William Benteen in ''The Twilight Zone'' episode "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS4E118OnThursdayWeLeaveForHome On Thursday We Leave for Home]]".

* SomethingOnlyTheyWouldSay: In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZone1985S1E1ShatterdayALittlePeaceAndQuiet Shatterday]]", Peter Jay Novins tests his alter ego's claim to be him by asking him what his childhood friend Skip Fisher's father did for a living. He correctly answers that he was a fireman until he quit his job to work at a Studebaker dealership.

* TalkingToThemself: In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZone1985S1E1ShatterdayALittlePeaceAndQuiet Shatterday]]", Peter Jay Novins talks with a mysterious {{Doppelganger}}.

* TimeFreezeTrollingSpree: In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZone1985S1E1ShatterdayALittlePeaceAndQuiet A Little Peace and Quiet]]", Penny just about resists the temptation to pull down a passerby's shorts when time is frozen. Later, she is annoyed by two anti-nuclear activists who call at her house. After she freezes time again, she drags them over to her lawn and lies them down. When time is resumed, they are too frightened to try talking to her again.

* TimeStandsStill: In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZone1985S1E1ShatterdayALittlePeaceAndQuiet A Little Peace and Quiet]]", a stressed housewife named Penny finds a gold pendant shaped like a sundial. After wearing it for about a day, she discovers that it freezes time when she says "shut up" and resumes the normal flow of time when she says "start talking." However, it only works when she is wearing the pendant. She abuses this privilege for several days until [[spoiler:a nuclear war between the U.S. and the Soviet Union breaks out.[[labelnote:*]]It's never explicitly stated, but it's at this point that Penny realizes the true purpose of her amulet: Freezing time to get the government officials together and forcing them to "start talking" about nuclear disarmament.[[/labelnote]]Penny is able to freeze time just seconds before her hometown is destroyed by a nuclear missile.]]

** In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZone1985S1E1ShatterdayALittlePeaceAndQuiet A Little Peace and Quiet]]", a nuclear war breaks out between the United States and the Soviet Union in 1985.

* TotallyNotACriminalFront: In "Crazy as a Soup Sandwich", the [[TheMafia mob boss]] Nino Lancaster uses Nino's Toys & Imports at the docks as a cover for his smuggling operation.

* RewritingReality: In "The Library", an aspiring writer named Ellie Pendleton gets a job working at a mysterious private library which is BiggerOnTheInside. It is run by Gloria, who explains to her that each book is an accurate, up-to-date account of the life of a living person. That night, Ellie is annoyed by all of the noise made by her obnoxious neighbor Doug Kelleher and his new live-in girlfriend Carla Hollencamp. At the library the next day, she rewrites Doug's life story so that he is a kind-hearted and extremely dedicated priest. However, she feels guilty because Carla is so miserable at being alone so she uses the opportunity to fix her up with the building's wealthy landlord Edwin [=DeWitt=]. When she returns home, Carla is happy and wearing an expensive fur coat but Edwin is bankrupt from lavishing her with so many presents. Ellie rewrites Edwin's life story so that he is financially stable but she finds that her younger sister Lori is leading a strike against the inflated rent that he charges. The next day, she gives herself and Lori a nice house by the ocean. However, as soon as she arrives at her new home, Ellie learns that Lori drowned after rescuing a little boy from the sea. Devastated, Ellie admits to Gloria what she has been doing and pleads for her help. After chastising her for not realizing that people's lives are interconnected, Gloria shoos her out of the library. She immediately finds Lori alive and well and returned to her original self.

*** Sheriff Haskin is named after Byron Haskin, who directed ''Film/TheWarOfTheWorlds''.

** In "Something in the Walls", Sharon Miles determines that the [[WallMaster creatures that live in the walls and in anything with a pattern]] can be prevented from coming through if she surrounds herself with items that are plain and entirely one color. As such, she paints her room at the Crest Ridge Sanitarium white and covers each crack that appears. She also refuses to place a checkered blanket on her bed. In spite of all her precautions, however, the creatures manage to come through a crack in her wall and [[EquivalentExchange replace her with one of their own]].

* WallMaster: In "Something in the Walls", Sharon Miles commits herself to the Crest Ridge Sanitarium as she is convinced that she can see creatures that live in walls, linoleum floors and any item with a pattern and that these creatures are trying to kill her. She tells her psychologist Dr. Mallory Craig that she believes that these creatures are what people see when they look at a patterned object for long enough and imagine that they see faces. Her theory is that they are from an AlternateUniverse that intersects with ours and want to break through to our world. Although Dr. Craig [[CassandraTruth doesn't believe her]], Sharon turns out to be correct as one of the creatures invades her room in the sanitarium and [[EquivalentExchange assumes her identity after absorbing her into the wall]].

** In "Joy Ride", Greg sarcastically asks Adrienne if she wants to vegetate like her mother and watch ''Series/{{Dynasty}}''.

[[/folder]]

* YourCheatingHeart:
** In "Children's Zoo", Sheila Cunningham suspects, with good reason, that her husband Martin is cheating on her but he continually denies it. In his car, she finds proof: cigarette butts with lipstick on them. When they arrive at the Children's Zoo with their daughter Debbie, Martin starts hitting on the attendant Melody.
** In "Ye Gods", Cupid cheated on Megaera with a mortal woman named Drusilla. As a result, Megaera broke up with him and [[{{Animorphism}} turned Drusilla into a tree frog]].
** In "Nightsong", Simon Locke frequently cheated on his girlfriend Andrea Fields, including with a groupie in Fresno. Andrea was aware of Simon's behavior but she did not care as she was so in love with him.
** In "Lost and Found", the female time traveler tells her male companion that she is returning to 2139 and that he shouldn't bother coming home if he stops by to see UsefulNotes/CleopatraVII first. When he leaves 1986, he sets his time travel device for 32 B.C.E., suggesting that he does intend to visit Cleopatra.
** In "Acts of Terror", Louise Simonson overhears her [[DomesticAbuse abusive husband]] Jack asking his friend Phil to cover for him and claim that they went fishing at the weekend so Louise doesn't find out about his affair with Denise. Louise's pain and anger at Jack leads her to once again [[EmotionalPowers manifest the Doberman]] to attack him.
** In "Love is Blind", Jack Haines has cheated on his wife Elaine with at least two women while he was on the road. An overheard phone call leads him to think that she is cheating on him too. [[spoiler:However, he later learns that she was just meeting his best friend Taylor because she needed his help picking out a gift for their anniversary.]]

* RageAgainstTheReflection: In "A Saucer of Loneliness", the extremely depressed Margaret yells "I hate you!" at her reflection several times before breaking down in tears.

*** In the final scene, a young man reports that he saw a FlyingSaucer crash in Matheson, a reference to the profilic author and ''Twilight Zone'' writer Creator/RichardMatheson.

** In "If She Dies", Paul Marano speculates that the soul of Sarah, who died of tuberculois decades earlier, has not moved onto {{Heaven}} yet as {{God}} wants her to save the life of his comatose daughter Cathy.

** In "The Last Defender of Camelot", Lancelot was a mercenery-for-hire who traveled the world fighting for UsefulNotes/{{India}} and UsefulNotes/{{China}} (which he still calls Cathay) and in UsefulNotes/TheCrusades. He did so for centuries after Camelot fell but eventually grew weary of all the death and destruction and refused to fight any more. When Myth/{{Merlin}} awakens, Lancelot asks him if even Camelot was worth all of the "blood and widows' tears" that it cost to built.

* TrumanShowPlot: In "Special Service", John Selig learns that the last five years of his life have been scripted as a television show. This example stands out because it was made nine years ''before'' ''Film/TheTrumanShow''.

* SupernaturalRepellent: In "Something in the Walls", Sharon Miles determines that the [[WallMaster creatures that live in the walls and in anything with a pattern]] can be prevented from coming through if she surrounds herself with items that are plain and entirely one color. As such, she paints her room at the Crest Ridge Sanitarium white and covers each crack that appears. She also refuses to place a checkered blanket on her bed. In spite of all her precautions, however, the creatures manage to come through a crack in her wall and [[EquivalentExchange replace her with one of their own]].

%%* {{Wishplosion}}: "The Wish Bank", "I of Newton"

* ReallyGetsAround: In "Cat and Mouse", Guillaume de Marchaux describes himself as having a great talent for making love. He has spent centuries going from woman to woman, never spending more than a few days with one before getting bored.

* TakeMeInstead: In "Welcome to Winfield", the people of Winfield plead for TheGrimReaper Griffin St. George to take them instead of Matt Winnaker as most of them are over 100 and Matt is only 20. However, Matt will have none of it and asks St. George to take him. Eventually, St. George decides to let them all go.

* StarOfBethlehem: In "The Star", based on a story by Creator/ArthurCClarke, it's discovered by a Jesuit priest and astrophysicist named Father Matthew Costigan that this was actually a supernova in 3120 BCE, which wiped out an entire species of peaceful aliens. The fact troubles him deeply.

** In "Monsters!", Emile Francis Bendictson appears to be in his early 80s but is actually a 158-year-old vampire.

* LaResistance: In "Room 2426", Dr. Martin Decker's cellmate Joseph claims that he is a member of the resistance who got himself arrested so that he could help Martin escape using [[{{Teleportation}} teletransportation]]. [[spoiler:It turns out that Joseph is in fact a [[TheMole mole]] placed in Martin's cell by his torturer Dr. Ostroff.]]

** In "A Message from Charity", after she is [[WitchHunt accused of witchcraft]], Charity Payne claims to have second sight and obliquely reveals that she is aware of the bodies of two murdered sailors hidden in Squire Jonas Hacker's root cellar. She had in fact learned of the bodies from a history book that Peter Wood found in 1985. As a result, Hacker finds her innocent of witchcraft, saying that second sight is a gift from {{God}} which his own grandmother possessed.

** "Cat and Mouse" has one such friend.

* WritersSuck: In "Act Break", Maury Winkler and Harry are a pair of middle-aged writers who have written 17 unsuccessful plays in 22 years. Each one took six months to a year to write but most of them closed after only one night and none of them got anywhere near Broadway. They are two months behind on the rent for their filthy, cramped office and the landlord is threatening to throw them out.

* TanksForTheMemories: The protagonist of "The Mind of Simon Foster" sells chunks of his memories to pay his living expenses.

** In "Wong's Lost and Found Emporium", the elderly man who lost the respect of his children is white. In the short story by William F. Wu, he is Chinese.

* RaceLift: In "Wong's Lost and Found Emporium", the elderly man who lost the respect of his children in white. In the short story by William F. Wu, he is Chinese.

* TimeFreezeTrollingSpree: In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZone1985S1E1ShatterdayALittlePeaceAndQuiet A Little Peace and Quiet]]", Penny just about resists the temptation to pull down a passerby's shorts when time is frozen. Later, she is annoyed by two anti-nuclear activists who call at her house. After she freezes time again, she drags them over to her lawn and lies them down. When time is resumed, they are too frightened to try talking to her again.

** In "Our Selena is Dying", Debra Brockman, who is in her early 30s, has her LifeEnergy [[LifeDrinker drained]] by her aunt Selena. Afterwards, she appears to be in her 70s. The same is true of her cousin Diane, whose youth was drained by her own mother Martha.

** In "Monsters!", Emile Francis Bendictson appears to be in his 70s but is actually a 158-year-old vampire.

** In "Ye Gods", the yuppie Todd Ettinger comes to realize that his life that he leads is hollow, empty and calculated as it is all about acquiring money and possessions and he doesn't have a meaningful relationship with a woman. Cupid also twice refers to him as a "yuckie."

* TheyWouldCutYouUp: In "The Toys of Caliban", Miss Kemp suggests that Ernest Ross allows his son Toby to be examined by experts after discovering that he can [[YourMindMakesItReal manifest anything after seeing its picture]]. Ernest angrily tells her that Toby would be subjected to countless tests and experiments to determine how his power works and then would most likely be killed.

** In "Extra Innings", an [[CareerEndingInjury injured baseball player]] named Ed Hamner receives a 1910 baseball card from his teenage neighbor Paula depicting a player named Monte Hanks who looks just like him. Possessing the card allows Ed to travel to 1910 and play as Monte free of any injury.

* WhoWantsToLiveForever: In "The Last Defender of Camelot", Lancelot has grown weary of immortality after 1,000 years and tells Morgan le Fay that he would welcome die to put an end to his pain and guilt over betraying Myth/KingArthur through his affair with Guinevere.

* YoungerThanTheyLook: In "Our Selena is Dying", Debra Brockman and her cousin Diane are both in their 30s but have the appearance of women in their 70s as they have had their LifeEnergy stolen by Selena and Martha respectively.