History TheTwilightZone1959 / TropesIToP

* NoChallengeEqualsNoSatisfaction: In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS1E28ANicePlaceToVisit A Nice Place to Visit]]", an inveterate criminal named Rocky Valentine dies and goes to the afterlife: a pleasant place where he gets everything he wants and all his gambles always pay off. He becomes dissatisfied and asks to be sent to [[{{Hell}} The Other Place]], saying he doesn't belong in Heaven. The reply he gets: [[spoiler:"[[ThisIsntHeaven Whatever gave you the idea you were in Heaven]], Mr. Valentine? [[WhamLine This]] ''[[WhamLine is]]'' [[WhamLine the other place!]]"]]

* OneGenderRace: In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS2E55MrDingleTheStrong Mr. Dingle, the Strong]]", one Martian notes that one of the three planets on their itinery after Earth seems particularly interesting, since it contains only females.

* NoTimeToExplain: In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS4E119PassageOnTheLadyAnne Passage on the Lady Anne]]". [[spoiler: it turns out that the traveling on the titular ship is only meant for people who are dying or want to die.]]

* MindRape: In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS3E73ItsAGoodLife It's a Good Life]]", Aunt Amy was the only person who could exercise any control over Anthony Fremont, until she offended him by singing in his presence and his mind "snapped" at her. She's left as a shell of her former self, smiling vacantly and no longer watching how she acts or what she says around Anthony.

** In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS5E151TheEncounter The Encounter]]", Fenton tries to justifies killing a Japanese officer who had already surrended on the grounds that he and his fellow soldiers were ordered to take no prisoners on Okinawa.

** In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS5E155TheFear The Fear]]", Charlotte Scott and a highway patrolman named Robert Franklin are harassed by a 50 foot tall alien monster. [[spoiler:It turns out that the monster is in fact a giant balloon being controlled by two very small aliens. They soon leave Earth to avoid being crushed by the "giant" humans.]]

* JobStealingRobot: "The Brain Center at Whipple's" has a CorruptCorporateExecutive replacing factory workers with robots, a plot that was still science fiction in 1964.

* MasterComputer: In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS5E140FromAgnesWithLove From Agnes - With Love]]", Agnes is the most advanced and powerful computer in existence that is being used by the US government to determine the feasibility of sending a probe to UsefulNotes/{{Venus}}.

* MurderBallad: Used as a PlotDevice in "Come Wander with Me".

* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS5E130The7thIsMadeUpOfPhantoms The 7th is Made Up of Phantoms]]", Private Michael [=McCluskey=] is struck in the back with an arrow when he enters a Sioux encampment during the Battle of Little Bighorn on June 25, 1876.

* JustFollowingOrders: In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS3E74DeathsHeadRevisited Deaths-Head Revisited]]", Gunter Lütze claims that he simply functioned as he was told in abusing and torturing the prisoners at Dachau but his flashbacks indicate that he [[PsychoForHire revelled in carrying out his orders]]. Becker describes this defense as "the Nazi theme music at Nuremberg."

* ItsAlwaysMardiGrasInNewOrleans: "The Masks" tells the story of wealthy but terminally ill New Orleans resident Jason Foster, who is visited by his useless daughter and her even more useless husband and children. The day of this visit happens to be Mardi Gras.

* TheNightThatNeverEnds: The subject of "I Am the Night--Color Me Black". It only happens in certain areas of the world that are dominated by hatred.

** In "The Masks", Jason Foster tells his daughter and her family that unless they wear the Mardi Gras masks he has made for them until midnight, their inheritance when he dies will consist solely of train fare back to their home in UsefulNotes/{{Boston}}.

* ImmortalityImmorality:f

* IHaveManyNames: In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS1E24LongLiveWalterJameson Long Live Walter Jameson]]", the 2,000-year-old immortal protagonist has gone by many names during his exceptionally long life, including Hugh Skelton, Tom Bowen and finally Walter Jameson.

%%* ImmortalityImmorality: "Love Live Walter Jameson", "Queen of the Nile".

* IntrepidReporter: In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS4E105ValleyOfTheShadow Valley of the Shadow]]", a journalist named Philip Redfield discovers a small town named Peaceful Valley while driving through UsefulNotes/NewMexico. He notices strange occurrences around town and realizes that there's something unusual going on, leading him to investigate. Once he discovers that the town's citizens have access to various extremely advanced forms of AppliedPhlebotinum, he is determined to reveal the truth to the world, even risking death to do so.

** "Queen of the Nile". A woman uses a scarab beetle to drain the life force of men so she can maintain her eternal youth. It's implied that she's the actual Cleopatra of Egypt.

* MyGrandsonMyself: In "Queen of the Nile", Pamela Morris lives with the elderly Mrs. Viola Draper, ostensibly her mother. She is actually [[spoiler:Pamela's daughter and Pamela is at least several hundred years old, heavily implied to have been Cleopatra.]]

* InvisibleWall: In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS4E105ValleyOfTheShadow Valley of the Shadow]]", after Philip Redfield learns that there is something unusual about the town of Peaceful Valley, UsefulNotes/NewMexico, its mayor Dorn activates an invisible wall to prevent him from leaving. His car crashes into it and his dog Rollie is killed, though he [[BackFromTheDead brought back to life]]. Later, Philip very reluctantly agrees to remain in town and another invisible wall is erected around his house.

** "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge", one of the final episodes - actually an unrelated, Oscar-winning short film that Serling purchased the rights to and had re-edited into an episode - also contains virtually no dialogue beyond Serling's narration.

** In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS5E137Number12LooksJustLikeYou Number 12 Looks Just Like You]]", two of the women who underwent the Number 12 transformation, as Lana did, are named Jane and Doe. This refers to the fact that the people of this society are all beautiful and therefore essentially anonymous as they lack individuality. Furthermore, the psychiatrist is named [[UsefulNotes/SigmundFreud Professor Sigmund Friend]].

** "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS5E139NightCall Night Call]]" only features three credited actors: Gladys Cooper, Nora Marlowe and Martine Bartlett. The voice of an uncredited male actor is heard in the final scene.

** In "Night Call", an invalid starts receiving mysterious phone calls. The calls are eventually traced to a cemetery, where a fallen phone line is in contact with the grave of her deceased fiancé.
** "Long Distance Call" has a grandmother calling from beyond the grave and urging her beloved grandchild toward acts of suicide so they can be together again.

* MindOverMatter: In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS2E57ThePrimeMover The Prime Mover]]", Jimbo Cobb has possessed the power of telekinesis all of his life. When he was young, he assumed that [[IThoughtEveryoneCouldDoThat everyone had this ability]]. He stopped using his ability as it frequently got him into trouble in school and gave him headaches. He is forced to reveal it when a car turns over outside of the Happy Daze Café, which he owns with his friend Ace Larson, and there is no other way to save the people inside. Ace sees the possibilities of Jimbo's power and the two of them take a trip to UsefulNotes/LasVegas, where Jimbo uses his ability to move the dice as Ace pleases.

** The only credited actors to appear in "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS3E91LittleGirlLost Little Girl Lost]]" are Sarah Marshall, Robert Sampson and Charles Aidman. Although they are uncredited, Tracy Stratford and Creator/JuneForay nevertheless play prominent roles.

* NoChallengeEqualsNoSatisfaction: In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS1E28ANicePlaceToVisit A Nice Place to Visit]]", an inveterate criminal dies and goes to the afterlife: a pleasant place where he gets everything he wants and all his gambles always pay off. He becomes dissatisfied and asks to be sent to [[{{Hell}} The Other Place]], saying he doesn't belong in Heaven. The reply he gets: [[spoiler:"[[ThisIsntHeaven Whatever gave you the idea you were in Heaven]], Mr. Valentine? [[WhamLine This]] ''[[WhamLine is]]'' [[WhamLine the other place!]]"]]

** In "Uncle Simon", Barbara Polk is told she has inherited her misanthropic uncle's entire estate, as long as she sells none of it and looks after his last invention: a robot which [[spoiler:gradually takes on his personality, and eventually speaks in his voice.]]

* IHaveManyNames: In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS1E24LongLiveWalterJameson Long Live Walter Jameson]]", the 2,000 immortal protagonist has gone by many names during his exceptionally long life, including Hugh Skelton, Tom Bowen and finally Walter Jameson.

** In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS5E129Probe7OverAndOut Probe 7, Over and Out]]", two humanoid space travelers from different races, a man and a woman, are stranded on a planet. After they meet, they have to learn how to communicate with each other.

** "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS5E129Probe7OverAndOut Probe 7, Over and Out]]" only features four actors: Richard Basehart, Antoinette Bower, Harold Gould and Barton Heyman.

** "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS5E128UncleSimon Uncle Simon]]" only features three credited actors: Cedric Hardwicke, Constance Ford and Ian Wolfe.

%%* LookMaNoPlane: "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet".

* MoodWhiplash: "A Kind of a Stopwatch" is a very funny episode until [[spoiler:the watch breaks, trapping [=McNulty=] in a timeless world forever.]]
* MotorMouth: [=McNulty=], the main character of the episode "A Kind of Stop Watch.”

%%* NotSoImaginaryFriend: "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet", "Mirror Image".

* OneWordTitle: "Elegy", "Execution", "Dust", "Static", "Two", "Mute", "Miniature" and "Steel".