Philip asks for an explanation from Ellen.
Rod Serling: You've seen them. Little towns, tucked away far from the main roads. You've seen them, but have you thought about them? What do the people in these places do? Why do they stay? Philip Redfield never thought about them. If his dog hadn't gone after that cat, he would have driven through Peaceful Valley and put it out of his mind forever. But he can't do that now, because whether he knows it or not his friend's shortcut has led him right into the capital of the Twilight Zone.
Air date: January 17, 1963
While on a relaxing drive through the countryside with his dog Rollie, reporter Philip Redfield (Ed Nelson) finds himself in the small, seemingly mundane town of Peaceful Valley, New Mexico. While looking around for a place to eat, fill up on gas, and get some directions back to the main road, Philip gradually discovers that the residents of Peaceful Valley possess machines that can create invisible forcefields, transport matter from one place to another, and even bring the dead back to life, given to the townspeople by an otherworldly scientist over a century ago. Philip also meets a beautiful hotel porter, Ellen Marshall (Natalie Trundy), who acts more sympathetic to his problem than other people in the town. With Ellen at his side, Philip tries to convince the town's elders to share this miraculous technology with the world, but the elders firmly decline, as their ancestors were warned to only share these devices when humankind craves peace above all else.
Valley of the Tropes:
- All Just a Dream: Instead of killing him or trapping him in town forever, the elders wipe Philip's memories of their technology, load his car up with gas, and give him directions to the main road, keeping him ignorant of Peaceful Valley's marvels.
- Balance, Speed, Strength Trio: Played with, to an extent, during the brief scuffle between Philip and the elders.
- He knocks Evans, the leaner and shorter aide of Dorn, to the ground.
- He simply pushes Connolly, a big and burly man, away, as he takes several steps back and nearly loses his balance.
- Dorn remains in his armchair the whole time. As Philip overpowers both of his aides, he simply applies a device and dematerializes him.
- Back from the Dead: Rollie is killed when Philip's car crashes into the Invisible Wall surrounding Peaceful Valley. He is almost immediately revived and appears none the worse for wear shortly after.
- Blatant Lies: Peaceful Valley's people use them several times:
- Several of them say that Philip needs a doctor and lead him to Dorn, who is clearly not a doctor.
- Dorn himself tells Philip that his car is being repaired. When Philip comes out later, his car is still in ruins.
- Ellen is guilty of this as well. She says that her hotel is full when the board behind her is overflowing with keys.
- Butt-Monkey: Evans. Not only does he get the worst of the beatings when Philip gets physical, but Dorn actually stabs him in the heart to demonstrate how the healing device works. No one else in the ruling council ever listens to his suggestions, either.
- Character Filibuster: The characters delve into deep philosophical debate about whether the Applied Phlebotinum at the disposal of Peaceful Valley's elders will do either more good or more harm if it's shared with the whole world.
- Cutesy Name Town: Peaceful Valley, which is generally played straight. In the end, the people there are indeed peaceful.
- False Friend: Ellen, who leads Philip back to the elders when he wants to escape with her. Her teary eyes as the memory-wiped Philip leaves indicates that her love for him was truly genuine.
- Generic Guy: Philip lacks any special features, and he is also a reporter, a very common profession for these types of characters in fiction.
- Godwin's Law: Philip invokes this when Evans starts talking about the need to make sacrifices for the greater good, even calling him "Hitler" outright.
- Have We Met?: Philip reacts this way to Ellen at the end of the episode, after he's woken up in his restored car and is ready to leave town for good when she comes to look at him, teary-eyed.
- He Knows Too Much: The town elders inform Philip that he must agree to remain in Peaceful Valley forever or be executed to prevent his sharing knowledge of their technology with the outside world.
- Hidden Elf Village: Peaceful Valley is a small, isolated town in New Mexico, where people live quiet lives with advanced technology and no cares about the outside world.
- Hypocrite: Philip claims that the people of Peaceful Valley are selfish for keeping their miraculous technology to themselves and claiming they're worse than Adolf Hitler for doing so, while he has resorted to violence and tried to steal the technology himself, which could cause just as many problems as it could solve.
- The townsfolk likewise qualify, as they chastise Philip for resorting to violence when they had earlier murdered one of their own and revived him just to demonstrate their power. In their case, at least, they seem somewhat aware of the hypocrisy.
- Imported Alien Phlebotinum: Implied. Dorn explains that Peaceful Valley was given its advanced technology 104 years ago by a scientist with knowledge centuries ahead of its time. Whether he was human or alien, nobody knows for sure.
- Instant Death Bullet: After Philip creates a .38 Special revolver, he shoots Dorn and his two aides with one bullet each, instantly killing them. They did not appear to be shot in an area which would kill them that quickly (head or heart) and there was no blood.
- Intrepid Reporter: A reporter named Philip Redfield is forced to stop in a quiet town when he gets lost and runs out of gas. He notices odd events and realizes that there's something unusual going on, leading him to investigate. Once he discovers the truth he is determined to reveal it to the world, even risking death to do so.
- Invisible Wall: Philip cannot go through the invisible wall. That's how he is confined in the town.
- It Began with a Twist of Fate: As Rod Serling's opening narration says, the episode's events very likely would never have happened if Rollie hadn't chased that cat.
- It Meant Something to Me: Invoked by Ellen after she turns against Philip during their attempted escape and he is detained, asking her if everything she said was a lie.
- Kick the Dog: Subverted for the citizens of Peaceful Valley. They detain Philip via an invisible wall, his car is severely damaged, and his dog Rollie is killed. Thankfully, they use their technology to revive Rollie and, at the end of the episode, fully restore his car.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: See Take a Third Option below.
- Matter Replicator: The citizens of Peaceful Valley can replicate any object, provided that they have its atomic structure on file. Dorn demonstrates this to Philip by replicating a ham sandwich with mustard on white bread. Philip later uses it to create a .38 special.
- Mood Whiplash: The scene where Philip ostensibly kills Dorn, Connolly, and Evans. The violent act was never properly set up, even though he previously fought with Dorn's aides.
- Most Writers Are Writers: Philip is a journalist, but he's also an aspiring writer. The trope "every journalist dreams of writing a novel" is mentioned in this episode, too.
- Nothing Personal: Connolly personally tells Philip that he and his fellow elders have nothing against him when they try to stop him from leaving.
- "Not So Different" Remark: Philip makes such a remark when the elders suppose that they should execute him to keep the secret of their town from the world, dubbing them as bad as the humans outside their town whose deeds they abhor. It's immediately subverted, as it turns out that Philip has a choice: either be eliminated or remain in the town and live a comfortable life. It's subverted again when it turns out to have been a test of character, which Philip had failed by resorting to violence. Finally, the elders are able to find an alternative, see Take a Third Option below.
- This is, in fact, the primary theme of the episode, as the townsfolk realize, to their shame, that they're really no more qualified to wield their power than Philip or anyone else in the world. Their panic and isolationism drags an innocent into a no-win situation, which in turn forces him to take more drastic action to escape. In the end, no one is ready for the power, which they choose to keep hiding.
- Power Trio: Played straight, as there are three elders of Peaceful Valley who always meet with Philip.
- Secret Test: Philip learns too much and is taken prisoner by the inhabitants of Peaceful Valley. The attractive Ellen sets him free and he takes advantage of this to steal their secrets, killing several of them in the process. After he escapes with her, Ellen turns on him, revealing that the whole set-up was a test of his worthiness to know the information, which he failed.
- Small Role, Big Impact: Cissie, the little girl who uses her desimulator on Rollie, which Philip witnesses.
- Small, Secluded World: Peaceful Valley.
- The Smurfette Principle: Played nearly straight. Philip meets only two women in the Valley. One of them is a little girl named Cissie Johnson, who sets the plot in motion. The other is Ellen, who becomes Philip's Love Interest.
- Standard Female Grab Area: Played very straight with Philip and Ellen. She's ready to walk away, but he grabs her exactly by that area and she stops.
- Take a Third Option: After studying the law, Dorn figures out an alternative to either keeping Philip imprisoned or executing him: he has Philip's memories of the episode's events erased, making it seem like it was All Just a Dream. This satisfies their laws while sparing his life at the same time.
- Teleportation: The citizens of Peaceful Valley have the ability to teleport anything using a device called a "desimulator". Philip first realizes that something unusual is going on in the town when a young girl named Cissie uses her desimulator to make Rollie disappear when he chases her cat. Dorn later prevents Philip from leaving in the same way.
- Town with a Dark Secret: The secret of Peaceful Valley isn't that dark, as the people there don't resort to violence to protect it.
- Traitor Shot: Played straight in the beginning, when several discreet shots of the facial expressions of Peaceful Valley's denizens reveal that they're hiding something from Philip.
- Unresolved Sexual Tension: Invoked between Philip and Ellen very soon after they meet, eventually becoming a couple.
- Was It All a Lie?: Philip asks Ellen as such when she turns on him and leads the elders to capture him. She reveals that it wasn't, and is seen weeping at the end, as he leaves town.
- The World Is Not Ready: The residents of Peaceful Valley were instructed not to share their technology with the outside world until mankind learns the ways of peace. It's notably ironic since it's implied that they themselves aren't ready, either.
Rod Serling: You've seen them. Little towns, tucked away far from the main roads. You've seen them, but have you thought about them? Have you wondered what the people do in such places, why they stay? Philip Redfield thinks about them now and he wonders, but only very late at night, when he's between wakefulness and sleep in the Twilight Zone.
