![\"\"](\"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Twilight_Zone_In_His_Image_1962-225x300.jpg\")
<\/a>By William Kozy<\/strong><\/p>\nHere\u2019s an episode that initially might seem confusing, but upon repeated viewing, you\u2019ll discover a much simpler story structure. It\u2019s the curse of the Season 4, hour-long episodes. Essentially, these hour-long episodes aren\u2019t terribly complicated but because they are padded with so much unnecessary dialogue, or repetitive scenes illustrating the same point, one\u2019s mind clouds over as the story becomes obtuse. This episode received only 4 votes in my survey that asked, \u201cWhat is your favorite episode of the original Twilight Zone series?\u201d tying it with 9 other episodes for 124th thru 132nd place.<\/p>\n
We begin with Alan Talbot leaving his hotel and walking into the subway. He\u2019s played by George Grizzard who does very well in a dual role. For reasons you\u2019ll see at the end of the episode, I do have to wonder where he got the funds to pay for a hotel. In any case, on the subway platform he encounters a religious fanatic played by Katherine Squire who was so good in \u201cOne More Pallbearer\u201d, and she starts in on him with pestering and proselytizing there on the platform (some things never change.) Right before that though, Alan had a brief odd episode in which he heard some electronic sound effects, and light glowed on his face inexplicably. This gave him pause, but then it came time to deal with the fanatic. As she becomes more overbearing, Alan stands at the platform looking down the tunnel, and the weird sound effect and glow come again; the glow has the nice dual purpose of fooling us into thinking a train is approaching. She rants, \u201cOh the dear good Lord\u2019s own sweet breath, and his voice, like an electric shock!\u201d Well, another shock is about to befall both these characters, as Alan suffers another \u201cepisode\u201d as a voice says in his head, \u201cYou\u2019re perfect, you\u2019re perfect.\u201d The pressure mounts and her ranting gets to him causing him to toss her in front of the oncoming train.<\/p>\n
After Rod\u2019s monologue, Alan next shows up at his girlfriend Jessica\u2019s apartment, all flirty and fun, seemingly unaffected by the subway incident. There is some issue about misjudging the time he was supposed to arrive at her apartment, so we can chalk up his nonchalance to some kind of blackout. After knowing each other for only four days, this couple has become engaged. That alone is crazy enough for a TZ plotline, but their plan for the day is to go visit his family back in his hometown, Coeurville. On the drive, he has a nightmare as he sleeps in the passenger seat, calling out the name \u201cWalter\u201d. I have to wonder if a woman would really be so quick to get engaged in only four days to a guy having these episodes. They get to his hometown and everything\u2019s amiss\u2014new buildings where they weren\u2019t a week ago, some buildings with new businesses, then the coup de grace: they drive to his Aunt Mildred\u2019s house and his key doesn\u2019t work. He bangs on the door, and a cantankerous fellow answers, claiming to have lived there nine years. Another weird glowing episode, which is unseen by the other characters. To hammer home the idea we essentially repeat the scene with the next door neighbor who also doesn\u2019t know the people he\u2019s looking for. His workplace has also vanished.<\/p>\n
Jessica has an idea. \u201cMaybe twenty years has gone by\u201d, she says, but Alan shoots that down because at his current age that would have meant he was 10-years-old in college and working at the office. And besides that there\u2019s no record of him attending high school there.<\/p>\n
He gets the idea to go to the cemetery to look for his parents\u2019 graves. He walks to the plot where they should be, but instead of the Talbots, a Walter and Mary Ryder are on the tombstones. Aha, what\u2019s that you say? \u201cWalter\u201d Ryder. That\u2019s the name he was groaning in his nightmare. Just then the sheriff drives up with the cantankerous man in Aunt Mildred\u2019s house. Now how did he know Alan would be here? That doesn\u2019t make sense, but worse is that the ensuing confrontation is a scene that adds nothing new to the plot.<\/p>\n
Driving home, Jessica suggests things like amnesia and going to see a doctor. Suddenly Alan has another episode and a voice intones \u201cPut it down Alan! Get away!\u201d He yells for Jessica to stop the car. He runs out and dashes into the forest. In anguish, he picks up a rock and calls to Jessica. Uh oh. Luckily his love for her allows him to fight past his desire to kill, and he yells at her to get in the car and get away. It is naggingly not believable that she would do so. That she would get in her car and leave him there in distress in the middle of the night in the middle of nowhere. And as it turns out she didn\u2019t even go to get help, like from a doctor. She simply drove home!<\/p>\n
Alan stumbles out of the woods, and gets clipped by a car. The driver stops to see if he\u2019s all right, which he is, that is if you consider peeling back the skin of his injured arm and revealing wires, transistors, and circuitry inside all right. The driver gives Alan a ride back to his hotel, but as Alan gets out of the car, a conversation follows that seems bizarrely unlikely. The driver keeps asking Alan if he\u2019s sure he\u2019s all right, and Alan shoos him off telling him, \u201cLook I signed a paper absolving you of any blame, isn\u2019t that enough?\u201d Is that really something that would have happened? The man drew up a statement and had Alan sign it? And Alan did? Sounds like more padding to me, especially since the parting conversation goes on and on.<\/p>\n
Up in his hotel room, he tests his hand by holding a lit match to it. No pain. But wouldn\u2019t pain receptors be an important function to have in order to sense potential physical destruction? Eh, skip it. The phone rings and it\u2019s Jessica who has kept calling to see if he\u2019s all right. He tells her it\u2019s best for her to just forget about him, but she persists, telling him she\u2019ll pick him up tomorrow and take him to a psychiatrist for an appointment. He\u2019s touched that she still wants to be with him. He looks in the phone book for the name of the person who was on the gravestone where his parents should have been, and he shows up at the home of Walter B. Ryder, Jr . Instead of knocking he pushes open the door and enters. We can justify these unusual decisions at this point since clearly the character knows something is amiss and perhaps wants to keep some sort of upper hand.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s shadowy inside, and as Alan walks deeper into the spacious house, a figure in the foreground creeps after him and slides the room\u2019s doors behind him, startling Alan who swivels around to face\u2026.a man looking exactly like him. This duplicate is much more confident than our Alan who is still quite lost over what\u2019s going on. The man tells Alan, \u201cYou know you almost killed me with those scissors,\u201d and the perceptive viewer might hearken back to the nightmare Alan had: \u201cPut it down, Alan!\u201d<\/p>\n
The pieces come together as to how Alan found Walter, who in return provides coy little hints about Alan\u2019s self. How he \u201cdelivered\u201d his birth only 8 days ago, and how Alan\u2019s question \u201cWho am I?\u201d is like asking \u201cWho is this watch I\u2019m wearing?…Who is the refrigerator in the kitchen?\u201d Finally, he comes out with it: Alan is a machine. A robot he made to fulfill an aspiration he had ever since he was a kid.<\/p>\n
But Alan isn\u2019t having it. He figures it\u2019s an artificial arm, because after all, he eats, he drinks, he sleeps. Walter doesn\u2019t quite answer that, and instead takes him to the laboratory where he created Alan, and hey, just like that we\u2019ve been distracted from Alan\u2019s sensible rebuttal. Walter turns on some switches and we hear the same sound effects that accompanied Alan\u2019s episodes. Walter shows him some earlier prototypes, and explains at length how he got the money to fund his work, attracting brilliant minds to assist, but somehow instead of solidifying our willing suspension of disbelief we feel like the writing works too hard to reach a minimal level of believability. Oh right, and let\u2019s not forget that all the blather helps make this an hour-long episode. On and on the details go, and actually the more he explains things the less convinced we are because it only serves to raise more scientific oddities to poke holes in.<\/p>\n
So what makes Alan have these episodes? Walter\u2019s theory is that we all have killer instincts, but our inhibitions hold them in check. But something went wrong with Alan. Okay, that explains why he\u2019d want to kill the annoying evangelist at the subway, but what on Earth would induce him to want to pick up a rock with an instinct to kill Jessica? There was no provocation. Walter finally admits that getting as far as he did with creating Alan, was a huge lucky break. He doubts he could come that close again, let alone repair whatever\u2019s wrong with Alan. Walter comes clean with the true subconscious motive that drove him\u2014he wanted to create a being that was like him, but better. Outgoing where he was shy, ambitious instead of fanatical, etc. Alan brings up Jessica, pointing out that Walter\u2019s actions had consequences affecting not just him and Alan.<\/p>\n
Alan then tells Walter to create another Alan, and I have no idea what his intention was but he writes down Jessica\u2019s address, and before he can get to the heart of his plan he finds the evangelist\u2019s pamphlet in his pocket which triggers another episode. He attacks Walter and the two battle it out there in a melee in the lab. We dissolve however to the next scene before finding out the fight\u2019s outcome. There is a buzz at Jessica\u2019s apartment door and it\u2019s Alan; the two agree to forget about the past two days. She heads to the kitchen happily turning around to him and asking if he\u2019d like some pan fried eggs as she holds her arms out as if to welcome him to her bosom. She adds, they\u2019re \u201cguaranteed to make a new man out of you\u201d, and you should see the look on Alan\u2019s face. It\u2019s a nice subtle take by Grizzard.<\/p>\n
But wait a second, here comes the button on the episode. Back at the lab the camera glides across the room, settling on\u2026a beaten Alan, dead on the floor. So Walter has decided to insinuate himself in Alan\u2019s place and into Jessica\u2019s life, sight unseen. It probably makes sense as he and Alan would likely have the same taste. The episode gets its title from Genesis 1:27 in which it\u2019s said, \u201cSo God created mankind in his own image\u2026\u201d It looks now like Walter is ready to move onto Genesis 1:28 \u2013\u201c God blessed them and said to them, \u2018Be fruitful and increase in number\u2019\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
And then God said,<\/p>\n
\u201cLet\u2019s rate this a 4.8\u201d<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n [si-contact-form form=’2′]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [AdSense-A] By William Kozy Here\u2019s an episode that initially might seem confusing, but upon repeated viewing, you\u2019ll discover a much simpler story structure. It\u2019s the curse of the Season 4, hour-long episodes. Essentially, these hour-long episodes aren\u2019t terribly complicated but because they are padded with so much unnecessary dialogue, or repetitive scenes illustrating the same […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[25071],"class_list":["post-98961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-boxing-news","tag-the-twilight-zone-review-in-his-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=98961"}],"version-history":[{"count":-3,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98961\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=98961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=98961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=98961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}