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General		Extras
Category	Sci-Fi / Television	Biography - Rod Serling Production Notes - Season By Season Production Notes - History of The Twilight Zone Reviews and Credits
Rating
Year Released	1960 - 1963
Running Time	101:02 minutes
RSDL/Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region	2,4	Directors	Douglas Heyes Perry Lafferty Bernard Girard
Studio Distributor	Warner Vision	Starring	Jeff Morrow Cecil Kellaway  Mike Kellin Simon Oakland Bill Bixby Ruta Lee Patrick O'Neal
Case	Transparent Amaray
RPI	$34.95	Music	Van Cleave stock

   The episodes on offer on Volume 20, in the running order on the DVD, are:

    Elegy (Episode 20, Feb 19 1960, 24:59 minutes) - The year is 2185 and the people, having suffered a nuclear holocaust in 1985, have slowly rebuilt their world and have gone to the stars to further expand the human experience. And so it is that three astronauts find themselves over 600 million miles from home - and lost. Short of fuel, they have no option but to land on an asteroid that seems to have remarkable properties similar to Earth. However, this is no Earth as all the inhabitants are suspended in some sort of suspended animation. All except one that is - the caretaker Jeremy Wickwire (Cedric Kellaway) - who eventually reveals the true nature of this world to the three bewildered astronauts who have no option but to make this place their home for eternity. One of the earlier episodes of the series, it is highlighted by some rather poor spacecraft effects along with a decently handled story and some decent performances. Directed by Douglas Heyes.

   The Thirty-Fathom Grave (Episode 104, Jan 10 1963, 50:58 minutes) - The location is the South Pacific Ocean and the time is 1963. The USS Edson is on a routine patrol when a metallic object is discovered by sonar, but then mysterious sounds are heard as well. With little option but to investigate, Captain Beecham (Simon Oakland) diverts the ship to the location of the object. Meantime Chief Bell (Mike Kellin) is suffering from some form of delusion and is slowly unravelling the closer the ship gets to the object. Further investigation reveals that the object is indeed a submarine that sunk during 1942 with the loss of all hands but one. Hopes are raised that the mysterious sound is a survivor in the boat - but then again how does a person survive twenty years in a sunken submarine? The investigations are not going well and the diver sent down is not doing too well, but makes an interesting discovery - a set of dog tags. Guess who they belong to? Turns out that Chief Bell has a secret - and a huge guilt complex. Another of the hour long episodes from the fourth season and one that I remember as being one of the better ones from that season. Good solid performances from the leads and a decent enough story that does just about sustain the length of the episode. Directed by Perry Lafferty.

    A Short Drink From A Certain Fountain (Episode 131, Dec 13 1963, 25:05 minutes) - Harmon Gordon (Patrick O'Neal) is an ageing businessman deeply in love with and married to a woman many years his junior, Flora Gordon (the beautiful Ruta Lee). Keeping up with his younger wife is killing him, and literally so. Accordingly, he turns to his brother Raymond - begging him to be injected with an experimental drug that reverses the effects of ageing. The result of the use of the drug initially delights his young wife as it returns him to the vigorous appearance of a thirty year old. Unfortunately, the effects of the drug are not really controllable and the dosage has more of an effect than Flora would like. So much so that the tables are turned and Flora can no longer be a user but has to be a giver. One of the episodes that was not included in the original syndication package, this is indeed a rare episode - one I certainly have no recollection of ever seeing. Ruta Lee is great as the conniving former chorus girl leeching off a wealthy older man, played well by Patrick O'Neal. Directed by Bernard Girard.

Video

    These are three generally quite consistent quality episodes in terms of the transfers. Quite sharp and well detailed, these are quite watchable episodes from a transfer point of view. Definition is quite good, although some of the effects work comes up rather poorly under the digital spotlight. Shadow detail is good throughout, with little in the way of noticeable problems anywhere. Clarity is generally good throughout with just the odd evidence of grain. There does not appear to be any real issues with low level noise in the transfers.

    Overall the quality of the black and white here is good, with decent depth to the tones. There is a general decency in the depth of the blacks. They are not the ultimate in deepest blacks, but they are nice and evenly solid. The grey scales across all three episodes is very good and there is little in the way of murky greys to be seen here other than in the credits (which normally exhibit these issues).

    There did not appear to be any significant MPEG artefacts in the transfer. There is still evidence of aliasing in the transfers, but again this is on the better end of the scale and is not really distracting at all. There is unfortunately quite noticeable wobble at the end of the The Thirty-Fathom Grave, a rare problem indeed in the twenty volumes released thus far in the series. Film artefacts are a little more noticeable in this collection of episodes, but they are still towards the comparatively clean end of the scale.

    The minor presentation changes noted in by review of Volume 19 are withdrawn in this volume.
 
 

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain
Film-to-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The dialogue for all episodes was clear and easy to understand, and there did not appear to be any audio sync problems in the transfer.

    Only Elegy has a music credit, with the music coming from Van Cleave. The remaining episodes get the usual stock contributions. Once again there is not a whole lot memorable in any of the music.

    Apart from Elegy which has a slightly hissy soundtrack at times, these are generally identical audio transfers to those of earlier volumes in the series. The remaining two episodes are free of noticeable hiss, and the overall presentation of the sound here is quite good. The soundtracks are generally free from any significant distortion or congestion and this is generally very decent sounding mono.
 
 

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

Biography - Rod Serling

Production Notes - History Of The Twilight Zone

Production Notes - Season By Season

Reviews and Credits

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Ian Morris (have a laugh, check out the bio)
20th May, 2001.