History NightmareFuel / TheTwilightZone1959

* The episode revolves around the first manned mission into space (the episode was made before the 1969 Moon Landing), which loses contact with Earth, and crashes on an unknown desert planet. The crash kills most of the crew, and destroys most of the supplies, leaving three men stranded in a harsh, unforgiving terrain with very limited water. What's worse, the ship was a PROTOTYPE, and the only one of its kind; a replacement would require years to produce, leaving little to no hope of rescue. One of the survivors quickly begins to lose his mind, and kills one of the other three while he is returning from a recon mission, seemingly in a hurry. Before the crewman dies, he scribbles an odd symbol into the sand that resembles a cross with two horizontal lines on it. The killer overpowers and murders the remaining survivor, takes the water that's left, and begins to climb the surrounding mountains, eventually reaching the summit, where he sees what his first victim saw, and instantly breaks down in tears. The symbol in the sand was that of ''an electrical pole'', overlooking a highway leading to Reno. They never left Earth; they simply crashed ''in the Nevada desert''.

* It's a simple premise, and an interesting case of EarlyInstallmentWeirdness, but the idea of being alone in empty town, which seems to still have recent signs of life in it, is a very unsettling one.
* Mike spent 484 hours, or ''twenty days'', in that isolation tank in preparation for a trip to the moon.

* The entire experience of Walter Bedecker, a hypochondriac man desperate to find any sort of thrill when he is unable to die. Everything from jumping off of buildings to running in front of speeding trains; no doubt terrifying many many people through his insurance fraud. And through sheer happenstance his wife ends up dying via falling off the very roof he intended to jump off. Walter feels absolutely ''nothing'' beyond his desire to experience the electric chair after claiming to the police he did the deed.

-->"I don't mind. I have to do a little waiting myself. You see, Mr. Ross, my name isn't Haley. And I do agree with you that this is an extraordinary place to colonize. We folks on Venus got the same idea."

-->'''Patty:''' Mr. Chambers, don't get on that ship! The rest of the book, [[DoubleMeaning "To Serve Man"]], it's... IT'S A COOKBOOK!!!\\
''(Chambers attempts to escape but is dragged screaming onto the UFO, as the hatch is sealed behind him)''\\

-->[[ExactWords "You're caricatures, all of you! Even without your masks, you're ALL caricatures!"]]

'''Chambers:''' NO! NO! NO! ''NO!" '''''NO!!!'''''

* The episode takes place on board of the S.S. ''Queen of Glasgow'', a WWII ship that got separated from her convoy in thick fog... while German U-Boats prowl outside... and the dread and tension builds and builds as the main character becomes convinced that they are being stalked by a German U-Boat and that something bad is going to happen at 1:15 in the morning. It turns out the that the main character was the U-Boat captain that sank the ship without warning, killing everyone on board and scoffing the notion from one of his underlings that God will judge them for that they've done. Then it cuts back to the opening scene, showing that the Captain has been damned to repeat the events of that fateful night... for all of eternity.

* Haley, the diner's cook, turns out to be from Venus, with a [[ThirdEye creepy third eye]] under his hat.
-->"I don't mind. I have to do a little waiting myself. You see, Mr. Ross, my name isn't Haley. And I do agree with you that this is an extraordinary place to colonize. We folks on ''Venus'' got the same idea."

* The part where the woman screams and everything in the room just starts ''melting''...
* The very premise: the earth has fallen out of its elliptical orbit and is about to be consumed by the sun. Think of it this way: Everyone on the planet spends their last hours ''burning to death''. At the end of the episode, it's revealed that the scenario was AllJustADream, caused by the main character's dangerously high fever. So everything's okay... Until her doctor and neighbor start talking about how the earth has moved out of its elliptical orbit ''away'' from the sun and will completely freeze over in up to 3 weeks. *shudder*

''(Chambers attempts to escape but is dragged screaming onto the UFO, as the hatch is sealed behind him)''

** It's not even that he tries to use the vice; Erich also tries [[NoKillLikeOverkill a blowtorch, and a table saw]]. [[NothingIsScarier The blowtorch keeps getting blown out the second he tries moving it towards the doll's face,]] [[MadeOfIndestructium while the table saw doesn't even make a scratch.]]

* Jason's Foster's final words to his heirs right before he dies.

* An old, wheelchair-bound woman receives constant phone calls from a man who only says "Hello? Where are you? I need to talk to you." That's bad enough on its own; what makes it frightening is how the man's voice sounds ghostly... The identity of the caller? HER DEAD HUSBAND! Telephone wires had snapped in a storm and come to rest over his grave.

* Creator/SterlingHolloway's telephone repairman, who seemingly causes the whole plot because Joe complained about the bill. "You will recommend my service... won't you?" It gets even creepier upon the realization that this is literally Franchise/WinnieThePooh's voice talking.

* TheReveal: the couple are going to spend the rest of their lives alone as a giant alien's dolls in a toy town.

-->''[[ExactWords "You're caricatures, all of you! Even without your masks, you're ALL caricatures!]]"

* Haley, the man in the diner, turns out to be from Venus, with a [[ThirdEye creepy third eye]] under his hat.

** Making it worse? Becker reveals to a now insane Lutze that this is only the beginning for him...and that his final judgement will come from God. And given that the majority of Lutze's victims worshipped an all-powerful, omnipotent, just God who (famously) broke a powerful empire that had enslaved them because they wouldn't "let My people go"...

* According to the main character's wife, he and his company have been cursed by the jungles of Africa for "wounding" the land, for "making it bleed". The main character, although a skeptic, best describes that the African tribe who invoked the curse are infamous for making the people they curse die without explanation.
* On his way home, the main character tries to take a cab home. And after stopping at a red light, he tries to urge the cab driver that the light is green and they can go. ...Only, when he touches the still cab driver's shoulder, the driver drops dead like a twig!
* After running through the early morning streets, surrounded by the sounds of wild animals, beating tribal drums and loud chanting, [[HopeSpot he finally makes it home to his apartment and the noises stop]]. He decides to pour himself a drink, only to hear something else coming from his bedroom. He opens the door to see a ''lion'' sitting on his bed, having already mauled his wife. The episode ends as [[NothingIsScarier the lion pounces him offscreen, leaving us with nothing but roars and screaming.]]

** The episode ending, which involves Chambers giving in to the Kanamits attempts at FatteningTheVictim, resigned to his fate, and BreakingTheFourthWall to tell the viewers it doesn't matter if they're still on Earth or on the ship with him, they're all going to inevitably end up as food.

* "My name is [[CreepyDoll Talky Tina]], and I'M GOING TO KILL YOU." It was a thousand times scarier when the episode aired because the doll was voiced by Creator/JuneForay, the same woman who voiced an ''actual'' talking doll called [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chatty_Cathy Chatty Cathy]], which looked very similar to the Tina. What's more, June was mostly well-known for lightweight roles in the WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes series and as [[WesternAnimation/RockyAndBullwinkle the original Rocket J. Squirrel]], making this one ''[[StealthPun hell]]'' of an example of her rarely PlayingAgainstType.
* Early in the episode, when talking with the doll at the dinner table, Erich pokes in the nose with a lit match, causing it make a startled noise. When he notes this means it has feelings, Tina responds [[ArmorPiercingResponse "Doesn't everything?"]] This comes back around [[CerebusCallBack disconcertingly]] when Erich tries to destroy the doll while in the garage; as Erich attempts to crush its head in a vice, as seen above, and it doesn't have any effect:
-->'''Erich''': I thought you said you had feelings.
-->'''Talky Tina''': ''[[ToThePain I can stand it if you can.]]''

* What about this slice of FridgeHorror: What would happen when Christie (the man's stepdaughter) gets bored of her?

* An old, wheelchair-bound woman receives constant phone calls from a man who only says "Hello? Where are you? I need to talk to you." That's bad enough on its own; what makes it scarier than shit is how the man's voice sounds so goddamn ghostly... The identity of the caller? HER DEAD HUSBAND! Telephone wires had snapped in a storm and come to rest over his grave.

* Quite possibly one of the most disturbing episodes this show has to offer. It features a perpetually young and beautiful actress, and it is gradually revealed that she is part of something similar, through her mother. In the end it is revealed that she is a [[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld thousands-year-old Egyptian queen,]] [[ScarabPower who uses a scarab beetle to]] [[LifeDrinker SUCK THE LIFE OUT OF PEOPLE SHE MEETS to preserve her youth.]] The scene that reveals the twist ending is HORRIFYING.
* And the mother? The old lady isn't her mother at all but one of her ''daughters'', who grew up and got old while her mother stayed the same age the whole time.

* The episode revolves around the first manned mission into space (the episode was made before the 1969 Moon Landing), which loses contact with Earth, and crashes on an unknown desert planet. The crash kills most of the crew, and destroys most of the supplies, leaving three men stranded in a harsh, unforgiving terrain with very limited water. What's worse, the ship was a PROTOTYPE, and the only one of its kind; a replacement would require years to produce, leaving little to no hope of rescue. One of the survivors quickly begins to lose his mind, and kills one of the other three while he is returning from a recon mission, seemingly in a hurry. Before the crewman dies, he scribbles an odd symbol into the sand that resembles a cross with two horizontal lines on it. The killer overpowers and murders the remaining survivor, takes the water that's left, and begins to climb the surrounding mountains, eventually reaching the summit, where he sees what his first victim saw, and instantly breaks down in tears. The symbol in the sand was that of '''an electrical pole''', overlooking a highway leading to Reno. They never left Earth; they simply crashed in the Nevada desert.

* The episode revolves around the first manned mission into space (the episode was made before the 1969 Moon Landing), which loses contact with Earth, and crashes on an unknown desert planet. The crash kills most of the crew, and destroys most of the supplies, leaving three men stranded in a harsh, unforgiving terrain with very limited water. What's worse, the ship was a PROTOTYPE, and the only one of its kind; a replacement would require years to produce, leaving little to no hope of rescue. One of the survivors quickly begins to lose his mind, and kills one of the other three while he is returning from a recon mission, seemingly in a hurry. Before the crewman dies, he scribbles an odd symbol into the sand that resembles a cross with two vertical lines on it. The killer overpowers and murders the remaining survivor, takes the water that's left, and begins to climb the surrounding mountains, eventually reaching the summit, where he sees what his first victim saw, and breaks down on the spot. Power lines, which overlook a highway leading to Reno. The ship never left Earth; they were simply stuck in the Nevada desert.

-->''"The tools of conquest do not necessarily come with bombs and explosions and fallout. There are weapons that are simply thoughts, attitudes, prejudices, to be found only in the minds of men. For the record, prejudices ''can'' kill, and suspicion can destroy... and a thoughtless, frightened search for a scapegoat has a fallout all of its own — for the children, and the children yet unborn. And the pity of it is, that these things cannot be confined to... The Twilight Zone."''

* This episode might be the most terrifying of all, as it reveals just how thin and fragile the veneer of civilization is. Imagine your beloved friends and neighbors [[HumansAreBastards becoming your mortal enemies]] because a disaster is coming, and you have a way to escape it, while they don't. And it's hard not to imagine ''not'' becoming a bastard yourself if you're one of those in the "unprepared for disaster and screwed" column. What depths wouldn't you yourself sink to, in order to save your life or the lives of your children?

* The condemned man (Jagger) is prickly and cold with everyone around him. You can chalk this up to Jagger being (understandably) furious at being unjustly executed for killing a popular bigot in self defense. However, as Jagger is being taken to the gallows, the Reverend tries to talk to him. It comes out, much to the Reverend's growing dismay that the one person who stood up for him and his congregation in the whole town is also affected by the same hatred that drove the bigot to persecute them.

* The last thing Tina says to the stepfather:

* The ending is particularly chilling, after the man's wife finds him dead after being tripped down the stairs by the doll. When she picks the doll up, she opens her eyes and says "My name is Talky Tina. ''And you better be nice to me.''" It is the first time Tina speaks to someone other than the husband... and it confirms that he ''wasn't'' just going crazy.

* The episode centers around a young woman who lives with her elderly parents and their domestic robots. She begins to wonder why she and her parents never go outside and questions other such abnormal behavior. The twist is that she is a robot built to be their daughter, and when she figures this out, she freaks. She starts hitting her arm screaming "No pain!" and lastly says "I can't even feel love!" The parents then convert her to a maid robot that then [[{{Squick}} gives the mother a shoulder massage]]. Worse, it's easy for them to reprogram their "daughter" because they never considered her human, [[HumansAreBastards just a machine they can discard if she became too much to handle]].

[[AC: [[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS1E10JudgementNight Judgement Night]]]]

[[AC: [[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS3E74DeathsHeadRevisited Deaths-Head Revisited]]]]

[[AC: [[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS5E150StopoverInAQuietTown Stopover in a Quiet Town]]]]

* Mike spent 484 hours or ''twenty days'' in that isolation tank in preparation for a trip to the moon.

* The episode "The Monsters are Due on Maple Street" is scary mainly because of the real life subtext. Especially when you consider that "Due" aired almost 50 years before the remake, and how little things have changed....
-->''"The tools of conquest do not necessarily come with bombs and explosions and fallout. There are weapons that are simply thoughts, attitudes, prejudices, to be found only in the minds of men. For the record, prejudices can kill, and suspicion can destroy...and a thoughtless, frightened search for a scapegoat has a fallout all of its own—for the children,and the children yet unborn. And the pity of it is, that these things cannot be confined to... The Twilight Zone."''

** The radio drama makes it worse by having him ''melt.''

-->'''Pip:''' Heaven? ''*scoffs*'' [[WhamLine Whatever gave you the idea you were in Heaven]], Mr. Valentine?! [[ThisIsntHeaven This IS the other place!]]

* The fact that the end of the episode confirms Bob [[RealAfterAll wasn't crazy]]: the Gremlin was real, the engine is badly damaged, and ''nobody else realized it was there.'' Everyone on that plane was at serious risk of dying in a horrifying crash and nobody would've known why.