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<\/a>By William Kozy<\/strong><\/p>\nSometimes the flowery prose Rod Serling writes works out very nicely in \u201cTwilight Zone\u201d episodes\u2014the tone and circumstances of the story help determine the appropriateness of that style. He attempts it here as well, but from the very opening scene it feels off, forced. And it doesn\u2019t help that the lead character Paul Driscoll, played by Dana Andrews is as interesting as a rice cake. But do watch Andrews in the 1957 horror film classic \u201cCurse of the Demon\u201d directed so evocatively by Jacques Tourneur; Andrews\u2019 style is well-suited to the character there. \u201cNo Time Like The Past\u201d is one of the hour-long episodes, but don\u2019t worry, it feels like two hours. And\u2026it <\/p>\n
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
Paul Driscoll is disenchanted with humanity and the world at large so he sets out to use a time machine to go back in time to see if he can intervene at key moments and set the future on a better course. What\u2019s hard to swallow is that even though he tells his friend that there\u2019s no guarantee he\u2019ll end up where and when he wants to, he indeed manages to arrive in the most precisely significant place and time for his pop-ins: a Japanese police captain\u2019s office in Hiroshima just few minutes before the bomb is dropped, a hotel room (with a rifle) and a window facing a terrace across from where Hitler is giving a speech, and aboard the Lusitania moments before it is torpedoed. Each visit resulted in a failure to influence history.<\/p>\n
Driscoll returns to his home base and time, understanding that the course of history is immutable. He is defeated, but his spirit isn\u2019t crushed. Instead he is content to go with his Plan B. Still wishing to escape the unpleasantness he finds in his modern day existence, he plans to visit a town called Homeville in Indiana that he has read about in a book \u201cA Study of 19th Century Midwest America.\u201d On page 90 the book describes the idyllic town in 1881, and how charming it was. Paul explains to his friend Harvey that he will be going back there to live out his years in a serene existence of \u201cband concerts, and summer nights on front porches\u2014a world that never heard of an atomic bomb or world war or germ warfare.\u201d He\u2019s going back there \u201cto live, not to change anything.\u201d Yes, our Paul Driscoll is yet another character in the pantheon of Twilight Zone men obsessed with visiting a past that they imagine was a paradise of simplicity, a recurring theme in the show: Martin Sloan in \u201cWalking Distance\u201d, Gart Williams in \u201cA Stop at Willoughby,\u201d Booth Templeton in \u201cThe Trouble With Templeton,\u201d Dean Jagger in \u201cStatic,\u201d Charles Whitley in \u201cKick The Can.\u201d<\/p>\n
We cut to Driscoll walking through the town dressed in appropriate period garb, observing the couple walking with parasols, men riding Penny Farthing bicycles, and a gazebo in the middle of the town square. He stops in a quaint watering hole and orders a beer from the bartender, and to me seems unduly surprised that it costs only a nickel. He picks up a newspaper there on the table and reads a headline: \u201cPresident Garfield To Attend Commencement Exercises At Williams\u2019 College.\u201d We can tell that something gnaws at him as he mutters, \u201cIt begins, right away it begins\u2026\u201d He looks at a calendar and realizes that \u201cIt\u2019s tomorrow.\u201d For those viewers who know their history, they\u2019ll perhaps assume he\u2019s talking about the assassination attempt on Garfield. He walks out purposefully, and we suspect he\u2019ll want to save the day, despite having learned that it\u2019s impossible. Or is it? The last words his friend Harvey told him before Driscoll left were to be very careful about changing anything because the slightest change could bring about a drastic change in the future. So which is it? It seems that we won\u2019t find out as he muses aloud to himself upon leaving the bar that tomorrow Garfield will be shot. \u201cSo be it\u201d he surrenders, and heads over to a boarding house he eyed and which the bartender recommended.<\/p>\n
There he is introduced to the local school teacher, Abigail Sloan, played by Patricia Breslin who was William Shatner\u2019s wife in \u201cNick of Time\u201d another episode exploring the theme of the mutability of the future. There are some sparks between them for sure, and as Driscoll settles into his room, he contentedly lists the pleasures that await him in this setting, saying finally, \u201cI\u2019m home.\u201d<\/p>\n
The best scene in the episode comes that evening as the borders sit around the dinner table, including one particular loudmouthed Mr. Hanford, portrayd by Robert Cornthwaite who played the director in \u201cShowdown With Rance McGrew\u201d yet another episode toying with the conflict between present and past. Hanford blathers on about American politics and trumpeting his brand of jingoism and nationalist aggression. Serling does a good job with him, but comes back even stronger with Driscoll\u2019s retort. After Abigail voices her opinion that the country has seen enough war, and Hanford bullies back at her about spoon-feeding her school children, Driscoll fires back. Asked with suspicion if he\u2019s \u201csome kind of pacifist,\u201d Driscoll answers, \u201cNo, I\u2019m just some kind of sick idiot that has seen too many young men die because too many old men like you fight their battles at dining room tables.\u201d And, \u201cI take offense at arm chair warriors who don\u2019t know what a shrapnel wound feels like, or what death smells like after three days in the Sun, or the look in a man\u2019s eyes when he realizes he\u2019s minus a leg and his blood is seeping out. Mr. Hanford, you have a great enthusiasm for planting the flag deep, but you don\u2019t have a nodding acquaintance with what it\u2019s like to bury men in the same soil.\u201d When Hanford takes offense and gets up to leave, Driscoll\u2019s parting shot is, \u201cYou\u2019ll go back to your bank and it\u2019ll be business as usual, until the next dinnertime when you\u2019ll give another of your vacuous speeches about a country growing strong by filling its graveyards.\u201d You want to pat Serling on the back and tell him \u201cThank you\u201d after that.<\/p>\n
Driscoll leaves in a huff after tossing a heated history lesson at Hanford, and Abigail follows quickly behind, catching up to him out in the square. The two have a getting-to-know-you scene. They share a tender kiss, and then people gather across the way when word comes over the telegram that President Garfield has been shot. The end of the scene then plays a bit illogically. Driscoll had told Abigail how much he wants to come in, after she describes that she feels like she\u2019s a passerby, looking in. And then he goes into this sad sack bit about how it cannot be. The writing is going for a feeling of mawkish impossible romance, but why is he saying how impossible it is, if this is exactly what he\u2019s said outright he\u2019s been looking for? He gives no clear reason for the turnabout, especially after such a kiss. Abigail runs off.<\/p>\n
The next morning, they resume the mysterious back and forth of who he is and what matters. He doesn\u2019t reveal much though and she runs off to school to tend to her students.<\/p>\n
Driscoll relaxes in the gazebo, making pleasant small talk with one of the townsmen practicing his French horn for the Fourth of July concert. The subject of the schoolhouse comes up and it rings a bell for Driscoll. He remembers something distressing, and he goes to his room fetching the history book. He reads about how the building will burn down that very day because of a \u201ckerosene lantern from a runaway wagon.\u201d He wrestles with what to do, not wanting to intervene. Why the change of heart? He went back to kill Hitler, didn\u2019t he think that would alter the future? And if he convinced himself that the future can\u2019t be affected, then why not go ahead and try to save the school children?<\/p>\n
His solution is a completely awkward attempt, as he tries to force a snake oil salesman to unhitch his horses from the wagon with the lamps. His dumb aggressiveness as he tussles with the salesman cause the horses to get spooked and take off galloping with the wagon. The lamps of course set the school afire\u2014with Driscoll being the cause of it.<\/p>\n
That night, Abigail confronts him, asking how he knew the accident would occur. He confesses to knowing too much about the town\u2019s future. He explains how he realizes he doesn\u2019t belong there because the past is sacred, belonging to those who live in it. They share one last kiss and he walks away, back to the future (sans DeLorean).<\/p>\n
Back with his friend Harvey, he tells him that perhaps he should be concentrating on the tomorrows because that\u2019s what really counts.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ll rate this episode a 5.5, but who knows what I\u2019ll rate it tomorrow. Or yesterday.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n [si-contact-form form=’2′]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [AdSense-A] By William Kozy Sometimes the flowery prose Rod Serling writes works out very nicely in \u201cTwilight Zone\u201d episodes\u2014the tone and circumstances of the story help determine the appropriateness of that style. He attempts it here as well, but from the very opening scene it feels off, forced. And it doesn\u2019t help that the lead […]<\/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":[25394],"class_list":["post-99759","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-boxing-news","tag-the-twilight-zone-review-no-time-like-the-past"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99759","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=99759"}],"version-history":[{"count":-1,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99759\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=99759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=99759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=99759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}