History Recap / TheTwilightZoneS3E93TheLittlePeople

[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/twilight_zone_the_little_people_2528.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:300:William beholds the Little People's statue of their "god".]]

->'''Creator/RodSerling''': The time is the space age, the place is a barren landscape of a rock-walled canyon that lies millions of miles from the planet Earth. The cast of characters? You've met them: William Fletcher, commander of the spaceship; his co-pilot, Peter Craig. The other characters who inhabit this place you may never see, but they're there, as these two gentlemen will soon find out. Because they're about to partake in a little exploration into that gray, shaded area in space and time that's known as the Twilight Zone.

Air date: March 30, 1962

William Fletcher (Claude Akins) and Peter Craig (Joe Maross), a pair of astronauts who each happen to be the chief thorn in the other's side, land their ship in a canyon on another planet to make emergency repairs. As he scouts around, Peter finds a tiny city populated by a race of people no bigger than ants. He promptly begins terrorizing the microscopic population by crushing some of their buildings, proclaiming himself their god. Although William says that these people are no different than he or Peter are, his co-pilot believes that they've "been created in his image", even going so far as forcing them to build a giant statue of him. William comes to inform Peter that the repairs are finished and they can depart, but Peter pulls his gun on him and orders his superior to leave him alone, since there's no room for two gods. The disgusted William leaves, but as soon as he does, another ship lands. The pilots of this ship, a pair of astronauts as big as mountains, emerge to make their own repairs. One of them spots Peter and picks him up, accidentally crushing him to death before tossing him away. The Little People rejoice at the death of their "god", pulling the statue they built down on Peter's lifeless body.

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!!The Little Tropes:
* AccidentalHero: It wasn't the giant aliens' intention to kill Peter, but in doing so, they freed the Little Peoples' civilization from his tyranny.
* AliensSpeakingEnglish: The giant aliens, although it's possibly a case of TranslationConvention.
** Averted with the Little People who are mentioned as not speaking any earth language and so Peter relies on numbers and symbols to communicate.
* AllTakeAndNoGive: The nature of the Little People's relationship with Peter. To clarify, Peter makes them give him all their food and water, uses his size to make them bend to his will, forces them to make a statue of his likeness, etc. When William asks Peter he gives the Little People in return for all their work, he responds by saying that he gives them his "smiling beneficence" and his promise to ''NOT'' trample their town. Peter doesn't hold up to the second one, unfortunately.
* AlwaysABiggerFish: Peter was a giant to the Little People, but he's accidentally killed by people who are giants to ''him''.
* AndThereWasMuchRejoicing: After their "god" is killed by a giant spaceman, the Little People gleefully pull down the statue Peter forced them to build atop his dead body.
* AssholeVictim: Peter, who is accidentally crushed by aliens that are as big to him as he is to the Little People. Considering his treatment of the latter beings, there was much rejoicing indeed.
* BadBoss: Peter enslaves the Little People and destroys their town in spite of all the work he forces them to do.
* BinarySuns: The Little Peoples' planet has two suns.
* BittersweetEnding: The Little People, under Peter's rule, have had many of their numbers killed and their buildings crushed, but the end of the episode has them secure in the knowledge that they'll never have to face him again.
* TheBully: Peter, with his greater size, forces the Little People to obey him for his own sociopathy.
* ChromosomeCasting: All the characters who actually appear onscreen are male. It's likely that some of the Little People are female, but we never see them.
* TheDevil: William accuses Peter of being the Little Peoples' Devil rather than [[AGodAmI their god]].
* ADogNamedDog: The Little People's species is never given a name, so William and Peter just refer to them as "The Little People".
* DramaticIrony: When the giant aliens accidentally crush Peter, they express guilt over it for a moment. What they don't know is they've just saved the Little People from his reign of terror, who are more grateful to them for destroying their tyrant than they will ever know.
* TheDreaded: Peter quickly becomes this to the Little People, and he enjoys the feeling immensely.
* DrunkWithPower: It takes mere minutes for Peter to let his newfound power over the Little People go to his head.
* DoesNotKnowHisOwnStrength:
** The giant alien who kills Peter crushes him by accident while curiously trying to pick him up. Unlike Peter's killing of the Little People, he actually feels bad about it.
** Peter himself knows that he is much stronger than the Little People and takes full advantage of it.
* EstablishingCharacterMoment: Both Peter and William's personalities are demonstrated in the first scene. William is checking on the repairs for the ship while Peter lazily does nothing but complain. This continues when Peter complains about their location and the freeze-dried food they have to eat, which he throws away. Infuriated by his actions, William grabs the food and berates Peter, telling him that he should be grateful that they're still alive, on a planet with oxygen, and they at least have any food and water at all. This shows that William is the responsible, sensible member of the duo and Peter [[ItsAllAboutMe cares only about himself]].
* EveryoneHasStandards: William is a rather impatient man, but he expresses pure horror and outrage when he sees that Peter has ''deliberately'' crushed some of the Little People's houses and likely killed many of them. He even tries to stop him from crushing anymore of them and begs the small aliens for forgiveness for what his malicious co-pilot did.
* FirstContactMath: Peter is able to communicate with the Little People by writing equations in the sand.
* ForWantOfANail: The whole plot could have been avoided had the astronauts' ship not needed repairs.
* AGodAmI: It doesn't take long before Peter sets himself up as the Little People's god. It takes even ''less'' time for things to get worse.
* GoMadFromTheIsolation: William invokes this trope to Peter, telling him that he will suffer from loneliness if and when left behind. Peter doesn't live long enough to see if this would have been the case. Of course, given how maniacal he was at that point, it's debatable how much further his sanity ''could'' have declined.
* GoodCannotComprehendEvil: When Peter tries to get William to leave the planet so he can have the little people's "adoration" all to himself, William only asks for one thing in return: for Peter to explain what he has to gain from ruling alone. Yes he'll have power and control, but William can't fathom why any rational human being would think that's more important than returning home or having human companionship. Unfortunately, Peter isn't a rational human being and never answers that question. He instead reminds William he has to choose between leaving or dying.
* GoodIsNotNice: William is easily the morally superior of the two, but he's very stern and short-tempered himself. It's justified, having [[JerkAss Peter]] as a co-pilot, as he apologizes to the Little People and plead that they don't hold the human race accountable for his actions.
* HateSink: ''Peter Craig''. As the episode goes on, it becomes clear just what a cold-blooded sadist he is as he takes enormous pleasure in being worshipped by the Little People, keeping them in line with fear and crushing their civilization anyway for his own amusement.
* HereWeGoAgain: Subverted. After Peter dies, one of the giants wonders if there are any other tiny aliens around. Instead of looking for them, he joins his partner in getting back to work repairing their ship.
* HumanAliens:
** The giant spacemen are essiantially human beings the size of mountains.
** While we never see them, it's possible that the Little People are this, too. It's hinted since they seem to have a similar civilization comparable to humankind's.
* HumansAreCthulhu: The Little People, a race of aliens smaller than ants, worship Peter when he discovers them. This allows him to brutalizes the poor things for his own twisted sense of humor.
* {{Irony}}:
** Peter claims that the Little People worship him as their God, but we soon see that the small aliens likely do not hold any reverence for him at all, only doing as he says because they ''fear'' him.
*** It's revealed that Peter is well aware of this fact, but he ''still'' lords over them, using their fear to make them do whatever he wants.
** The giant spacemen wonder if there are any other "little people" like Peter, but have no time to look as they're repairing their ship. Also, they apparently have a better working relationship than William and Peter did.
** Peter compares the Little People creating his statue to the Lilliputians [[GulliverTieDown tying up Gulliver]]. He is later killed by a pair of giant, Brobdingnagian-like aliens.
** Peter enjoys crushing the Little People's buildings, likely killing many of them, in order to demonstrate his power over them. In contrast, the giant alien who accidentally kills ''Peter'' feels momentary guilt about it.
** For all of Peter's belief that [[AGodIAm he's a God]] to the Little People, it's William who lampshades that Peter's cruelty has gotten them to believe there's such thing as the Devil.
* IResembleThatRemark: After William rightfully tells Peter that he's out of his gourd, [[DisproportionateRetribution Peter tries to kill him]].
* JerkAss: Even before discovering and abusing the Little People, Peter was an unpleasant individual who desired power and ego-stroking.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: William is stern and a bit gruff around the edges, but he isn't a bad guy. He's clearly horrified at Peter's behavior and seeks to protect the Little People from his wrath, apologizing to them for his actions. He also tries to sincerely reach Peter and get him to come back to Earth, seemingly sorry to see him crack up so badly.
* KarmicDeath: After spending the majority of the episode tormenting the Little People and crushing them to force them to do obey his demands, Peter is similarly crushed by a giant alien that shows up in the end.
* KickTheDog: After Peter declares himself as the Little People's "god", he proceeds to stomp on their town, crushing many of them and their structures, ''after'' the Little People had already helped him find food and water.
* LargeHam: Peter's going off the deep end is accompanied by some truly epic scenery chewing on his part.
* LaserGuidedKarma: Peter is killed by a giant spaceman, crushed to death like he has been doing to the Little People.
* LaughingMad: After going off the deep end, Peter devolves into manic laughter that would make ''ComicBook/TheJoker'' uneasy.
* {{Lilliputians}}: The titular race of Little People that Peter discovers.
* LonelyAtTheTop: When Peter tries to get William to leave the planet at gunpoint, the latter tries to figure out the former's thought process of being the only "god" to the Little People. He tries to warn Peter that if he remains, he'll enjoy "a million little microbes honoring [him] with torchlight parades" for two days ay most. The way William sees it, all that worship won't change how Peter will be starved of companionship. If Peter shooting his own statue as a warning is any indication, [[IgnoredEpiphany he thinks otherwise]].
* MinimalistCast: PlayedWith. While the story deals with an entire civilization of ant-sized people, we never see them. Most of the episode features just William and Peter, and the only other characters with speaking parts are the giant aliens who appear briefly at the end.
* MustMakeAmends: William begs the Little People for forgiveness for what Peter did to them, in the hopes that they'll forgive the human race as a whole.
* OnlySaneMan: William is a no-nonsense astronaut who rightly calls Peter out for his actions.
* PetTheDog: Despite Peter's horrible acts, including threatening him at gun point, William still tries to reason with him and get him to return to come back to Earth.
* PsychopathicManchild: It's clear from the start that Peter's not very mature, as he acts sullen and hates authority. His later interactions with the Little People are very much in the vein of a child taking pleasure in tormenting helpless creatures, or a schoolyard bully picking on a weaker kid. One has to wonder how someone so lazy, immature, unstable, and outright depraved could have become an astronaut to begin with.
* {{Sadist}}: Despite claiming to doing what he does to "discipline" the Little People, it's obvious that Peter takes great pleasure in crushing them and forcing them to be his slaves for his own sadism, even looking forward to his plans to "remind them not to make him angry".
* SanitySlippage: Peter's sanity deteriorates as soon as he meets the Little People, spiraling into a full blown [[AGodAmI God]] complex.
* ScrewThisImOutOfHere: After seeing that Peter has utterly lost his mind and threatens him to leave at ''gun point'', William complies, but warns Peter that he will regret this.
* SevenDeadlySins: Peter exhibits all seven throughout the episode:
** Envy: He expresses jealousy at the sight of the giant aliens, as he wanted to be the ONLY giant around.
** Gluttony: He overindulges himself on the the Little People's food and water, refusing to share with anyone else, including the Little People themselves.
** Greed: He didn't want to "share" the Little People with his co-pilot and hoarded them, seeing them as nothing more than his property.
** Lust: Not for sex, but for ''power'', as Peter expressed desires to be in charge even ''before'' he discovered the Little People.
** Pride: Peter has ''A LOT'' of it. He deems himself "God" to the Little People and even demands to have a statue made in his likeness as a sign of his massive ego.
** Sloth: The beginning of the episode shows Peter lazing around while William does all the work on their spaceship. When asked by William what HE can offer the Little People for all the labor he makes them do, Peter replies that he can give them his "smiling beneficence" and NOT trample on their town.
** Wrath: After William rightfully calls him out on his cruelty towards the Little People and tells him that it's time to go, Peter threatens him with his gun, telling him to leave or he ''will'' kill him. He also really enjoys terrifying the Little People with his displays of fury.
* SquareCubeLaw: Apparently, the giant aliens [[ArtisticLicensePhysics have never heard of it]].
* ShutUpKirk: Peter fires a warning shot when William [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech tells him that he's lost his mind]].
* SmallNameBigEgo: Peter is nothing more than a jackass astronaut from Earth, but as soon as he discovers the Little People, he proclaims himself their "God" and begins abusing his power over them.
* StockFootage: The ship that William leaves in looks exactly like one of the Mercury rockets.
* TeethClenchedTeamwork: William and Peter can't stand each other, but the former at least ''tries'' to put the hatred aside so they can get home.
* TooDumbToLive: Peter dies when a giant alien picked him up, accidentally crushing him. To clarify, the moment the giant aliens arrive, Peter has a VillainousBreakdown and demands that they leave, as his ego cannot accept [[AlwaysABiggerFish someone bigger than him being around.]] Had he remained quiet and tried to hide instead of demanding that they leave, they likely would never had noticed him and gone away once their own ship was repaired, while Peter would still be alive.
* ToppledStatue: In the final scene, the Little People topple the statue Peter made them construct on his dead body.
* TwoFirstNames: The protagonists are ''William Fletcher'' and ''Peter Craig''.
* UngratefulBastard: What does Peter do after the Little People help him find edible food and drinkable water? He proclaims himself their "God" and threatens to crush them if they don't bend to his will. He even ''does'' crush some of them just to demonstrate the power he has over them, as well as [[ForTheEvulz for his own amusement]].
* TheUnreveal: We never get to see what the Little People actually look like, though they're most likely HumanAliens.
** InUniverse, William leaves the planet just ''before'' the giant aliens arrive, so as far as he knows, his ex-colleague is destined to waste away from loneliness on an alien world.
* VillainousBreakdown: In his final moments, Peter is left futilely screaming at the giant aliens to go away, claiming that ''he'' is the god, not them. His screaming soon becomes pained as one of them grabs and accidentally kills him.
* VillainProtagonist: Peter, a lazy, selfish, sadistic, tyrannical bully who uses his massive difference in size to enslave the Little People.
* WhatMeasureIsANonHuman: Peter has no problem bullying and terrorizing the Little People. William, meanwhile, averts it by denouncing Peter's actions and sincerely apologizing to the tiny aliens for what's happened.
* WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity: Although Peter was already an unstable JerkAss, he becomes DrunkWithPower as he lords it over the Little People.
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->'''Creator/RodSerling''': The case of navigator Peter Craig, a victim of a delusion. In this case, the dream dies a little harder than the man. A small exercise in space psychology that you can try on for size in the Twilight Zone.

* GoodCannotComprehendEvil: When Peter tries to get William to leave the planet so he can have the little people's "adoration" all to himself, William only asks for one thing in return: for Peter to explain what he has to gain from ruling alone. Yes he'll have power and control, but William can't fathom why that's more important than returning home or at least having human companionship. Unfortunately, Peter never answers that question, and instead makes it perfectly clear to Willaim he only has so little time before he decides to shoot him.

[[caption-width-right:300:Fletcher beholds the Little People's statue of Craig.]]

Astronauts William Fletcher (Claude Akins) and Peter Craig (Joe Maross), each of whom happens to be the chief thorn in the other's side, set down in a canyon on another planet to repair their ship. While scouting around, Craig finds a city populated by people no bigger than ants.

He begins terrorizing the population by crushing three of their buildings (Fletcher interferes with his destruction), proclaiming himself a god; although Fletcher said that the people are no different than we are, Craig believes that they've "been created in his image", even going so far as forcing them to build a life-size statue of him. Fletcher comes to inform him the repairs are done and they can depart, but Craig pulls a gun on him and orders Fletcher to leave him alone; there's no room for two gods.

Fletcher leaves disgustedly and, immediately, another ship lands. Two spacemen, big as mountains, emerge (they're repairing their ship). One of them picks Craig up and accidentally crushes him. The Little People rejoice at the death of their bullying "god", pulling the statue of Craig down, on top of his lifeless body.

->'''Creator/RodSerling''': The case of navigator Peter Craig, a victim of a delusion. In this case, the dream dies a little harder than the man. A small exercise in space psychology that you can try on for size in the Twilight Zone.

* AccidentalHero: It wasn't the giant aliens' intention to kill Craig, but in doing so they freed the small civilization from his tyranny.

** Averted with the Little People who are mentioned as not speaking any earth language and so Craig relies on numbers and symbols to communicate.
* AllTakeAndNoGive: The nature of The Little People's relationship with their "God" Craig, they are the "givers" and Craig is the "taker". To clarify, Craig makes them give him all their food and water, uses his size to make them bend to his will, forces them to make a statue of his likeness, etc. When Fletcher asks what Craig gives the Little People in return for all their work, he responds by saying that he gives them his "smiling beneficence" and his promise to ''NOT'' trample on their town (unfortunately, Craig doesn't hold up to the second one).
* AlwaysABiggerFish: Peter Craig was a giant to the Little People, then he meets people who are giants to ''him''. It doesn't go any better for him than it did for them.
* AndThereWasMuchRejoicing: After their "god" Peter Craig is killed by a giant spaceman, the little people gleefully pull down the statue of Craig that they had been forced to make.
* AssholeVictim: Peter Craig who in the end is accidentally crushed by aliens that are as giant to him as he is to the little people and considering his treatment of the latter beings there was much rejoicing indeed.
* BadBoss: Once again, Peter Craig, who enslaves the little people and destroys their town in spite of all the work he forces them to do.
* BinarySuns: The planet has two suns.
* TheBully: Again, Peter Craig who with his greater size forces the little people to obey him.
* ChromosomeCasting: All the characters who actually appear on screen are male. It's likely that some of the Little People are female, but we never get to see them.
* TheDevil: What Fletcher accuses Craig of being rather than [[AGodAmI a god]].
* ADogNamedDog: The little people's species is never given a name (or show up on screen, so we don't even know what they look like). Fletcher and Craig just refer to them as "The Little People".
* DramaticIrony: When the giant aliens accidentally crush Craig, they express guilt over it for a moment. What they don't know is, they've just saved the little people from Craig's reign, little people who are possibly more grateful to them for destroying their tyrant than the giant aliens will ever know.
* TheDreaded: Craig quickly becomes this to the Little People and immensely enjoys the feeling.
* DrunkWithPower: It doesn't take Craig long to let his newfound power go to his head.

** The alien who kills Craig crushes him by accident while curiously trying to pick him up. He feels bad for it.
** Averted with Craig, who knows that he is much stronger than the Little People and takes advantage of it.
* EstablishingCharacterMoment: Both Fletcher and William's personalities are demonstrated in the first scene: Fletcher is checking on the repairs for the rocket while Craig lazily does nothing but complain. This continues when Craig complains about their location and the freeze dried food they have to eat which he then throws away. Fletcher, infuriated by his actions, then grabs the food and berates Craig, telling him that he should be grateful that they are alive, are in a place with oxygen and they at least have any food and water at all. This shows that Fletcher is the responsible, sensible one of the duo and Craig [[ItsAllAboutMe cares only about himself]].
* EveryoneHasStandards: William Fletcher is a rather impatient man but he expresses horror and outrage when he sees that Craig has ''deliberately'' crushed some of the Little People's houses and likely killed many of them. He even tries to stop him from crushing anymore of them and begs the small aliens for forgiveness for what Craig did.
* FirstContactMath: How Craig is able to communicate with the tiny alien society.
* ForWantOfANail: The whole plot could have been avoided had the ship not needed minor repairs.
* AGodAmI: It doesn't take long before JerkAss Peter Craig sets himself up as the Little People's god. It takes even less time for things to get worse.
* GoMadFromTheIsolation: Fletcher invokes to Craig, telling him he will suffer from this if left behind. Craig doesn't live long enough after to see if it would have been the case. Of course given how frothing mad he was at that point, it's debatable how much further his sanity could have declined.
* GoodIsNotNice: Fletcher is easily the morally superior of the two, but he's very stern and short tempered himself. Justified, having [[JerkAss Craig]] as a co-pilot. Though he apologizes to the Little People and plead that they don't hold the human race accountable for Craig's actions.
* HateSink: Craig. As the episode goes on, it becomes clear just what a vile, sadistic person he is as he takes enormous pleasure in being worshipped by the Little People, keeping them in line with fear and lashing out at them anyway just for his own amusement.
* HereWeGoAgain: {{Subverted|Trope}}. After Craig dies, one of the giants wonders if there are other tiny aliens around. However, instead of looking for them, he joins his partner in getting to work repairing their ship. It's also hinted that the two have a much better working relationship and the giant who crushes Craig seems remorseful about it, in sharp contrast to Craig's behavior throughout.

** The giant spacemen are essiantially humans the size of mountains.
** While we never see them, it's possible that the Little People are this too. It's hinted since they seem to have a similar (albeit smaller) civilization comparable to Earths.
* HumansAreCthulhu: Tiny aliens (smaller than ants) worship Peter Craig, who discovers (and later mistreats) them.

** Craig claims that the Little People worship him as their God, but we soon see that the small aliens likely do not hold any reverence for him at all and only do as he says because they ''fear'' him.
*** It's revealed that Craig is aware of this fact and ''still'' lords over them, using their fear to make them do whatever he wants.
** The giant spacemen wonder if there's any other "little people" but have no time to look as they're repairing their ship and leave. Also they apparently have a better working relationship than Fletcher and Craig did.
** Craig compares the Little People creating the statue to the Lilliputians [[GulliverTieDown tying up Gulliver]]. He is later killed by two Brobdingnagian-like aliens.
** Craig enjoys crushing the little people's houses, likely killing many of them, in order to demonstrate his power over them whereas the giant alien who accidentally kills Craig feels momentarily guilty about it.
** For all of Craig's belief that [[AGodIAm he's become a God]] to the little people, it's Fletcher who lampshades that Craig's cruelty has gotten them to believe there's such a thing as the Devil.
* IResembleThatRemark: After Fletcher rightfully tells Craig that he's out of his gourd, [[DisproportionateRetribution Craig tries to shoot him]].
* JerkAss: Even before discovering (and later abusing) the Little People, Peter Craig was an unpleasant individual who desired power and ego-nourishing.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Fletcher is stern and a bit gruff but he isn't a bad guy. He is horrified at Craig's behavior and seeks to protect the Little People from and apologizes for his actions. He also tries to sincerely reach Craig and get him to come back to Earth and seems sorry to see him crack so badly.
* KarmicDeath: After spending the majority of the episode tormenting the Little People and crushing them to force them to do as he says, Craig gets killed by a giant alien that shows up in the end.
* KickTheDog: After Craig declares himself as the Little People's "God", he then proceeds to stomp on their town, crushing many of them. This is ''after'' the Little People helped him find food and water.
* LargeHam: Craig's going off the deep end is accompanied by some truly epic scenery chewing.
* LaserGuidedKarma: Peter Craig is killed by a giant spaceman in the end.
* LaughingMad: Craig, after going off the deep end, devolves into manic laughter that would make ''ComicBook/TheJoker'' uneasy.
* {{Lilliputians}}: Craig discovers a race of tiny people.
* LonelyAtTheTop: When Craig tries to get Fletcher to leave the planet at gunpoint, the latter tries to figure out the former's thought process of being the only "God" to the little people. He tries to warn Craig that if he remains, he'll enjoy "a million little microbes honoring [him] with torchlight parades" for two days tops. But the way Fletcher sees it, all that worship won't change how Craig will be starved of companionship. If Craig shooting the statue as a warning shot is any indication, [[IgnoredEpiphany he thinks otherwise]].
* MinimalistCast: PlayedWith. While the story deals with an entire civilization of ant-sized people, we never see them. Most of the episode features just Fletcher and Craig; the only other characters with speaking parts are the giant aliens who appear briefly at the very end.
* MustMakeAmends: Fletcher begging the little people for forgiveness for what Craig did to them, in hopes that they'll forgive the human race as a whole.
* {{Sadist}}: Despite claiming to do it to "discipline" the Little People, it's obvious that Craig takes great pleasure in crushing them and forcing them to be his slaves. He also looked like he was looking forward to "remind them not to make him angry".
* OnlySaneMan: Fletcher is a no-nonsense astronaut who rightly calls Craig out for his actions.
* PetTheDog: Despite Craig's horrible actions, including threatening him at gun point, Fletcher still tries to reason with him and get him to return to Earth with him.
* PsychopathicManchild: It's clear from the start that Craig's not very mature, as he acts sullen and hates authority. His later interactions with the Little People are very much in the vein of a child taking pleasure in tormenting helpless creatures or a schoolyard bully picking on a weaker kid. You eventually wonder how someone so lazy, immature and unstable could have become an astronaut to begin with.
* SanitySlippage: Craig's sanity deteriorates as soon as he meets the little people, spiraling into a full blown [[AGodAmI God]] complex.
* ScrewThisImOutOfHere: After seeing that Craig has truly lost his mind and after he threatens him to leave by ''gun point'' , Fletcher does leave but warns Craig that he will regret this.
* SevenDeadlySins: Peter Craig exhibits all seven sins throughout the episode:
** Envy: He expressed Envy at the sight of the giant aliens, as he wanted to be the ONLY giant (and "God") around.
** Gluttony: He overindulged himself on all the the Little People's food and water, and refused to share with anyone, possibly including the Little People themselves.
** Greed: He initially didn't want to "share" the Little People with his co-pilot Fletcher and hoarded them, seeing them as nothing more than his property.
** Lust: Not for sex but for ''power'', as Craig had expressed desires to be in charge even before he discovered the Little People.
** Pride: Peter Craig is has ''A LOT'' of it. He deems himself as "God" to the Little People and even demands to have a statue made in his likeness by them, as a sign of his ego.
** Sloth: The beginning of the episode shows Peter lazing around while Fletcher does all the work on the rocket. When asked by Fletcher what HE can offer the little people for all the labor he makes them do, Craig replies that he can give them his "smiling beneficence" and NOT trample on their town.
** Wrath: After Fletcher rightfully calls him out of his cruelty towards the Little People and tells him that it's time to go, Craig threatens him by gun point, telling him to leave or he will kill him. He also really enjoys terrifying the Little People with his displays of anger.

* ShutUpKirk: Craig fires a stray bullet when Fletcher [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech tells him he's really lost it]].
* SmallNameBigEgo: Peter Craig is nothing more than a JerkAss spaceman from Earth but as soon as he discovers the Little People, he proclaims himself as their "God" and begins abusing his power over them.
* StockFootage: The ship that Fletcher leaves in looks exactly like one of the Mercury rockets.
* TeethClenchedTeamwork: Fletcher and Craig can't stand each other, but Fletcher at least tries to put that aside so they can both get home.
* ToppledStatue: The little people topple it on Craig's body, just for further emphasis.
* TheUnreveal: We never get to see what the little aliens actually look like (though they're more than likely HumanAliens).
** InUniverse example, as Fletcher leaves the alien world just ''before'' the giant aliens arrive (and accidentally kill Craig), so as far as he knows, his ex-colleague is destined to waste away from loneliness and madness on an alien world.
* TooDumbToLive: Crag dies after a giant alien picked him up, accidentally crushing him. To clarify, the moment the two giant aliens arrive, Craig has a VillainousBreakdown and demands that they leave, as his ego cannot accept [[AlwaysABiggerFish that there is someone bigger than him around.]] Had he remained quiet and tried to hide (instead of yelling and demanding that they leave), they likely would never had noticed him and would have gone away once their own ship was repaired while Craig would still be alive.

* UngratefulBastard: What does Craig do after the Little People help him find edible food and drinkable water? He proclaims himself as their "God" and threatens to crush them if they don't bend to his will. He even ''does'' crush some of them just to demonstrate the power he has over them and partially [[ForTheEvulz just for his own amusement]].
* VillainousBreakdown: In his final moments, Craig is left futilely screaming at the giant aliens to go away, that he is the god, not them. Which ends with him screaming in pain as one of them grabs and accidentally kills him.
* VillainProtagonist: Peter Craig, a lazy, selfish bully who uses his size to enslave the little people.
* WhatMeasureIsANonHuman: Craig has no problem bullying and terrorizing the little people. Fletcher, meanwhile, averts it by denouncing Craig's actions and sincerely apologizing for what's happened.
* WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity: Although Craig was already an unstable JerkAss, he becomes DrunkWithPower as he lords it over the little people.
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** For all of Craig's belief that [[AGodIAm he's become a God]] to the little people, it's Fletcher who lampshades that Craig's cruelty has gotten them to believe there's such thing as the Devil.