Rod Serling: Jordan Herrick, syndicated columnist, whose work appears in more than a hundred newspapers. By nature a cynic, a disbeliever, caught for the moment by a lovely vision. He knows the vision he's seen is no dream; she is Pamela Morris, renowned movie star, whose name is a household word and whose face is known to millions. What Mr. Herrick does not know is that he has also just looked into the face – of the Twilight Zone.
Air date: March 6, 1964
Jordan Herrick (Lee Philips), a columnist, has arrived to interview veteran actress Pamela Morris (Ann Blyth). Strangely enough, she looks just as young and beautiful as she did years earlier, when she starred as Cleopatra in a picture called Queen of the Nile. As he visits with her, he notices other odd things, such as a claim from Pamela's "mother" that she is in fact her daughter. His research also turns up that another movie star named Constance Taylor, who'd appeared in the silent version of Queen of the Nile in the 1920s, looked startlingly like Pamela. When he confronts her, Pamela reveals that she was also Constance Taylor – and is actually Cleopatra as well. Withdrawing a scarab from a compartment, she drains Herrick's youth. As another reporter drives up, Morris tells her daughter to clean up the mess and walks to meet him.
Queen of the Tropes:
- Abusive Parents: Not only does Pamela not share her "gift" of eternal life with any of her children through the ages, it's also implied through what she says to her daughter that she's murdered some of them for their lifespan and that they only exist to serve her.
- The Bad Guy Wins: Pamela steals Jordan's Life Energy and prepares to do so to another reporter.
- Empty Piles of Clothing: Dust is all that's left of Pamela's victims.
- Faking the Dead: On the last day of shooting for the Silent Movie version of Queen of the Nile in about 1920, Constance Taylor was supposedly killed in a cave-in in Egypt. In reality, the immortal woman faked her death. She had re-emerged as the stage actress Gladys Gregory by 1923 and assumed her latest identity of Pamela Morris by 1935.
- Family Relationship Switcheroo: Jordan is led to believe that the elderly Viola Draper is Pamela's mother. In reality, Viola is actually Pamela's daughter.
- He Knows Too Much: Once Jordan Herrick starts getting wise to the truth, Pamela poisons him and ends up draining his life force and killing him.
- Here We Go Again!: As the episode ends, another columnist arrives for an interview with Pamela.
- I Have Many Names: Pamela's previous identities include the Silent Movie star Constance Taylor and the stage actress Gladys Gregory. In his closing narration, Rod Serling implies that her original identity was Cleopatra VII.
- Immortality Immorality: Killing other people to remain young qualifies.
- Intrepid Reporter: Jordan arrives at Pamela's house in Hollywood to write a fluff piece about her and is immediately smitten with her. However, his curiosity is piqued when Viola Draper, ostensibly Pamela's elderly mother, tells him that she is in fact her daughter. With the help of Mrs. Draper and his editor Krueger in Chicago, Jordan determines that Pamela is immortal and has used many identities over the years.
- Life Drinker: A seemingly 38-year-old actress named Pamela Morris is actually thousands of years old - she maintains her youth by draining the Life Energy of young men.
- Looks Worth Killing For: Pamela has killed seemingly thousands of men to maintain her youth and beauty over the course of more than 2,000 years.
- Rapid Aging: After she steals their life energy, Pamela's victims age to death and turn to dust within less than a minute.
- Really 700 Years Old: Jordan learns from Viola Draper that her mother Pamela has not aged in at least 70 years. Just before she steals his life energy, Pamela herself tells him that she was once Cleopatra, making her more than 2,000 years old.
- Reduced to Dust: After Pamela drains Jordan's Life Energy, his body is changed to dust.
- Scarab Power: Pamela lures men to her and steals their life energy with a magical scarab beetle in order to maintain her eternal youth.
- Show Within a Show: The immortal woman starred in the Silent Movie Queen of the Nile in about 1920, under the name Constance Taylor, and in its 1940 remake, under the name Pamela Morris. In the interim, she starred in Trails West in 1935.
- Slipping a Mickey: Pamela drugs Jordan's coffee so that she can use her scarab beetle on him and steal his life energy.
- Spoiler Title: The episode's title Queen Of The Nile foreshadows the reveal that Pamela is not only a centuries old sorceress but also Cleopatra.
- Supernaturally Young Parent: Pamela lives with the elderly Mrs. Viola Draper, whom she introduces to Jordan as her mother. She is actually Pamela's daughter.
- Wham Line: The elderly Viola Draper to Jordan Herrick about Pamela: "No, I'm not her mother. I am her daughter!".
Rod Serling: Everyone knows Pamela Morris, the beautiful and eternally young movie star. Or does she have another name, even more famous, an Egyptian name from centuries past? It's best not to be too curious, lest you wind up like Jordan Herrick, a pile of dust and old clothing discarded in the endless eternity of the Twilight Zone.
