THE MOVIE

Perchance to Dream
Episode 9 November 27, 1959

A man who hasn’t slept for 4 days tells a psychiatrist that if he falls asleep he will die in his dream and never wake up.

The Hitch-Hiker
Episode 16 January 22, 1960

On a long cross country trip, lone driver Nan starts to freak out when she begins seeing the same old hitch hiker everywhere she goes.

King Nine Will Not Return
Episode 37 September 30, 1960

Awaking in the desert besides the remains of his crashed WWII bomber, the captain of the plane finds that his crew has abandoned him and that he can’t recall what has happened.

Shadow Play
Episode 62 May 5, 1961

A man sentenced to death knows that he is living the same horrible nightmare over and over again, but he can’t convince anybody to believe him.

Unlike the previous Twilight Zone disc (Volume 6) which mixed styles of straight drama with some light natured comedy/drama, this set stays on the straight and narrow with four very dramatic episodes. I think this works to better effect overall. Helped by the generally stronger stories and some fantastic acting, especially a great turn from Dennis Weaver in “Shadow Play”, this dvd is a pleasure to watch straight through in a single sitting. I’ve watched this dvd around 4 different times by the time this review has been written, and each time I couldn’t stop because I was so into the Twilight Zone state of mind.

This was the same feeling I had when watching this series so many years ago on television. Sitting up in a darkened room to watch the macabre stories unfold each week, I never would have imagined that so many years later I would be able to buy the show off any retailers shelf and watch them in fantastic quality sound and picture as many times as I wanted, whenever I wanted. For this I thank every individual involved in bringing The Twilight Zone to dvd, from the late Rod Serling for his brilliance in creating this phenomenon in the first place, all the way down to the person who puts the final retail dvd on the shelf for me to buy.

THE TRANSFER

Video:

We’ve been lucky with the Twilight Zone dvd’s so far, and this is no exception. Although the show all have some trivial flecks and marking on the prints, generally the picture continues to look very good. Greys are well rendered, with shadow detail occasionally lacking depth but still remaining solid. Some close-ups reveal nice amounts of detail and info, thankfully without the annoying use of edge enhancement and appearing to be free of obvious major visual flaws.

Audio:

Didn’t find the results for this dvd any different than the previous releases, so I’ll just repeat what I generally said in those reviews. Essentially, where it counts in the dialogue/effects/score, the DD1.0 mono sound does a very good job of relaying these elements with ease and clarity, even when I played this dvd on a few different systems to compare results. I’m happy to report that I can’t really find a thing to complain about here, as that’s about as good a result as you could ask for.

THE EXTRAS

With plenty of notes based screens to read through, covering topics such as Serling himself, the series run on television and reviews of the shows presented on the disc, we have enough reading to fill us in on the background of the show and the creator. Simple but good reading.

SUMMARY

A very good set of episodes that delve into the dubious stability of the human mind. All very strong in their dramatic content and well acted, with only the odd minor slip into being slightly hammy-but even that is part of the allure of this series.. The picture and sound quality are on par for the Twilight Zone course and make watching a treat. Great stuff, keep ‘em coming!