# "Twilight Zone" glaring errors
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twilight-zone-glaring-errors/351532
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [April 6, 2006, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twilight-zone-glaring-errors/351532 "2006-04-06T04:56:00Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 3
### Author:  [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)
#### Post date: [April 8, 2006, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twilight-zone-glaring-errors/351532/41 "2006-04-08T12:17:30Z")
Face it Rod Serling pounded out a LOT of the TS scripts in short time, and for short money. The cheesey effects were also part of the show-but I kinda liked it. Face it, there’s NO way to make interplanetary travel feasible with 1950’s technology. I especially like how Sparse the interiors of those spaceships were-like an Apollo capsule looked like a jumble of switches, displays, etc., by comparison. As for the aliens, the model seemed to follow the “To Serve Man” model-tall, big bald heads, etc. The earth as an interstellar “beef ranch”? Doesn’t make a lot of sense to me-but any civilization willing to travel 1000’s of lightyears to get a superior cut of meat has my respect.
Anybody remember the William Shatner episode where he was death (disguiused as a cop)-that one featured some pretty good acting.
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### Author:  [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)
#### Post date: [April 8, 2006, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twilight-zone-glaring-errors/351532/42 "2006-04-08T13:11:57Z")
> [@ralph124c](#):
>
> Anybody remember the William Shatner episode where he was death (disguiused as a cop)-that one featured some pretty good acting.
Pretty sure that was a young Robert Redford, which is appropriate since the old woman was atraid of venturing outside her basement apartment, and today Robert Redford does look like the personification of death from exposure to sunlight.
Twilight Zone did at least one story adapted from John Collier, about a man who wants to buy a love potion but the proprietor of the obscure little shop (often a delightful feature in a Collier story) tries to sell him “glove cleaner” poison instead. The Collier story satisfyingly ends with the store owner saying “he’ll be back,” while the episode dumbs it down and has him coming back, buying the poison, and spilling it; cue the laughing trumpets.
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### Author:  [@wolf\_meister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolf_meister)
#### Post date: [April 8, 2006, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twilight-zone-glaring-errors/351532/43 "2006-04-08T19:04:10Z")
**Slithy Tove**
You are right. It was definitely Robert Redford.
As for the “love potion” episode, it was called “The Chaser”. (That featured some jazz music played in a few other TZ shows. I liked it a lot).
Okay, not just a science fiction error but how about just plain logic errors in “The Long Morrow”? Robert Lansing is an astronaut soon to embark on a 40 year round trip journey to a star. It’s okay because he’ll be in suspended animation and won’t age very much. Shortly before he leaves, he meets Mariette Hartley and the two fall in love. SO, you can guess there’s going to be some problems. She’ll be in her 60’s when he gets back but he’ll still be young. Do we really need spoiler boxes for Twilight Zone episodes?
The exact oppostie happens. Suspended animation was still a tricky process even in the science fiction future. Unbeknownst to Lansing, Mariette Hartley chooses to undergo suspended animation for 40 years on Earth. Meanwhile, Robert Lansing took himself out of suspended animation and comes back to Earth 40 years older and meets Mariette who hasn’t aged at all. A good story and a rather tragic ending.
However…
If Robert Lansing was put into suspended animation, how did he take himself out of it? Granted, when he reached the star he could have chosen to remain “unsuspended” for the return trip but he would only have aged 20 years - not 40.
Also, if he was not in suspended animation for 20 or 40 years, what did he do for food, water, oxygen, hygenic facilities, etc?
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### Author:  [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)
#### Post date: [April 8, 2006, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twilight-zone-glaring-errors/351532/44 "2006-04-08T20:01:59Z")
> [@Earl Snake-Hips Tucker](#):
>
> In “Third from the Sun,” I believe the planet they’re escaping to is 11 million miles away.
And, worse, escaping **from** a country with a culture indistinguishable from the U.S. in the 1950s.
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### Author:  [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)
#### Post date: [April 8, 2006, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twilight-zone-glaring-errors/351532/45 "2006-04-08T21:27:46Z")
> [@ouryL](#):
>
> Soylent Green, the book where the movie got it’s title, not the book the movie was based on.
Soylent Green is nutria! It’s **nutria!** :eek:
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### Author:  [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)
#### Post date: [December 14, 2014, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twilight-zone-glaring-errors/351532/46 "2014-12-14T01:36:06Z")
In [Changing of the Guard](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59PXJCtlr7Y), Professor Fowler meets the ghost of Dickie Weiss (at about 19:10), who was the first of his former students to die, aboard the USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor (1941). Then, just moments later, he is greeted by the ghost of a former student named ‘Rice’ (at about 20:10) who was killed at Chateau-Thierry (1918), 23 years earlier.
Yeah, it’s a zombie, and so it’s appropriate that the post that bumps it is about ghosts.
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### Author:  [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)
#### Post date: [December 14, 2014, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twilight-zone-glaring-errors/351532/47 "2014-12-14T05:35:24Z")
> [@Ukulele\_Ike](#):
>
> You’re just not cooking it right.
Exactly. IIRC, there’s a cookbook out there somewhere…I forgot the name.
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### Author:  [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)
#### Post date: [December 14, 2014, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twilight-zone-glaring-errors/351532/48 "2014-12-14T06:21:52Z")
This is the one show where breaks from reality are perfectly acceptable. You’re in the Twilight Zone, not the real world. It may not even be internally consistent.
(And people thinking this is legit criticism are being whooshed, right?)
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### Author:  [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)
#### Post date: [December 14, 2014, 8:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twilight-zone-glaring-errors/351532/49 "2014-12-14T08:14:18Z")
And a link to the scene from [From Agnes With Love](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4MEDouHibo). It’s at about 2:20.
(And I was wrong, it was nine trillion, not 12 trillion, although the math works out the same.)
This is not the exact episode, though. Someone has dubbed in lines for Agnes that weren’t in the original, but the aforementioned goof is still the same.
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### Author:  [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)
#### Post date: [December 14, 2014, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twilight-zone-glaring-errors/351532/50 "2014-12-14T15:33:30Z")
> [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](#):
>
> In “Third from the Sun,” I believe the planet they’re escaping to is 11 million miles away.
>
> And a math error from “From Agnes With Love:”
>
> Wally Cox asks this question to the computer (whose name is Agnes):
>
> “What is the first prime number larger than the 17th root of 12 trillion, (some number) million, (some other number) thousand, and (the rest)?”
>
> (I apologize for the gaps, but I don’t remember the exact number.)
>
> The computer responds “5.”
>
> Not true.
>
> If the number was supposed to be 12 BILLION, etc., then 5 is correct.
>
> But he said “trillion.”
>
> The first prime larger than the 17th root of 12 trillion is 7.
>
> (Personally, I think the intended number was supposed to be “billion,” and either Wally misread, or a writer mis-transcribed the wording.)
> [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](#):
>
> And a link to the scene from [From Agnes With Love](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4MEDouHibo). It’s at about 2:20.
>
> (And I was wrong, it was nine trillion, not 12 trillion, although the math works out the same.)
>
> This is not the exact episode, though. Someone has dubbed in lines for Agnes that weren’t in the original, but the aforementioned goof is still the same.
I love the Dope, because this is considered a “glaring” error. 😃
Regards,
Shodan
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### Author:  [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)
#### Post date: [December 14, 2014, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twilight-zone-glaring-errors/351532/51 "2014-12-14T15:53:10Z")
> [@BigT](#):
>
> This is the one show where breaks from reality are perfectly acceptable. You’re in the Twilight Zone, not the real world. It may not even be internally consistent.
This completely misses the point. In a show based on fantasy, you should minimize the features for which you need to suspend your disbelief, and those should be critical to the premise of the show. The more the background is in accord with the familiar world, the better the fantastical elements will work. Even if a show isn’t based in reality, that’s not an excuse to throw in all kinds of nonsense at random or to make glaring mistakes out of carelessness.
I just watched one of the worst episodes of the fifth season, _Black Leather Jackets_. Three aliens wearing the titular items and disguised as members of motorcycle gang blow into a small town and take up residence. They are plotting, along with other infiltrating teams, to introduce lethal microbes into the water supply that will kill everyone so they can take over. But the youngest member of the team falls in love with the girl next door, and tries to blow the whistle on things (which is trite enough in itself). But no one believes him and they think he’s crazy, and eventually he’s taken away by other aliens disguised as the sheriff and attendants at a mental hospital.
This makes no sense. If they’re on an undercover mission, the aliens should try to blend in as much as possible. Instead they show up in just about the most threatening guise possible to small town inhabitants, and draw lots of attention to themselves. Also, since they have telekinetic and hypnotic powers, the youngest one should easily be able to produce convincing proof of his story, but he makes no attempt to do so.
The motorcycle gang element has no relevance to the fantasy element at all, and seems just to be thrown in to take advantage of all the apprehension about such gangs at the time. This is just bad writing.
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### Author:  [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)
#### Post date: [December 14, 2014, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twilight-zone-glaring-errors/351532/52 "2014-12-14T16:26:05Z")
> [@Terrifel](#):
>
> _De gustibus non est disputandum_, of course. But consider the possibility that you may just have gotten a bad one. It happens.
Make sure you don’t get a smoker or a drug-user. They taste funny. I heard.
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### Author:  [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)
#### Post date: [December 14, 2014, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twilight-zone-glaring-errors/351532/53 "2014-12-14T17:01:17Z")
> [@Voyager](#):
>
> I thought that was the stupidest misunderstanding of interstellar distances - until _Space 1999_ came along.
Yeah, I watched a few episodes of that earlier this year after having read in a couple places that it was seen as kind of classic thoughtful sci-fi. And while there were a few touches that seemed smart, I couldn’t get past this crazy idea that radioactivity on part of the moon could send the whole moon flying off into space at this ridiculous rate that allowed them to regularly visit other planets and so on. (Yet the initial blast, which had to do all the acceleration in a very short period of time, did not kill them all with the unbelievably massive amount of g-forces that would imply.)
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### Author:  [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)
#### Post date: [December 14, 2014, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twilight-zone-glaring-errors/351532/54 "2014-12-14T21:32:35Z")
Far be it from me to defend Space:1999. I never liked it, I always thought it silly, especially the woman who changed into animals. However, I’ve previously pointed out that The Moon is experiencing a combination of sub-lightspeed travel and time dilation. It takes them years to reach another star system, but they subjectively experience only a few days. If they accelerated at 1G for a year, they would be traveling at near light speed, while experiencing only Earth-like gravity. It doesn’t entirely hang together, but there was at least the attempt to make the science real.
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### Author:  [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)
#### Post date: [December 15, 2014, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twilight-zone-glaring-errors/351532/55 "2014-12-15T03:22:20Z")
Except what in God’s name is accelerating the Moon? I mean, yes, the Moon could be zipping through the galaxy at 99% of the speed of light, and therefore experience time dilation. Except how does it slow down enough to drift through alien solar systems such that [Eagles](http://catacombs.space1999.net/main/models/eagle/ab/imeab1025.jpg) from the moon can match velocities with bodies in that solar system?
If you’re zipping through the galaxy at 99% of the speed of light you can’t stop to sightsee. Unless you have some method of slowing yourself down and speeding yourself back up when you’re done. And then you don’t need to drift through the galaxy, instead you can go wherever you like, including back to Earth.
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### Author:  [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)
#### Post date: [December 15, 2014, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twilight-zone-glaring-errors/351532/56 "2014-12-15T03:26:23Z")
> [@Lemur866](#):
>
> Except what in God’s name is accelerating the Moon?
A MacGuffin Time/Space fluctuation.
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### Author:  [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)
#### Post date: [December 15, 2014, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twilight-zone-glaring-errors/351532/57 "2014-12-15T03:31:12Z")
> [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](#):
>
> (Personally, I think the intended number was supposed to be “billion,” and either Wally misread, or a writer mis-transcribed the wording.)
Of course, being from Detroit, he used the British meaning of trillion, which is what we Americans call a billion.
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### Author:  [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)
#### Post date: [December 15, 2014, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twilight-zone-glaring-errors/351532/58 "2014-12-15T03:55:56Z")
> [@Baldwin](#):
>
> I suppose if the Jupiter 2 could get up to a significant percentage of lightspeed right off the bat, then you’d have to take time dilation into account, i.e. the first 8 hours shiptime might correspond to a much longer time on Earth. (What was the ship’s mode of propulsion, anyway?)
That spinning thing on the bottom of the hull. 😃
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### Author:  [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)
#### Post date: [December 15, 2014, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twilight-zone-glaring-errors/351532/59 "2014-12-15T06:32:34Z")
> [@Ukulele\_Ike](#):
>
> You mean “The Feast in the Abbey,” from _The Opener of the Way_? (Supposedly Bloch’s first published short story)
>
> [spoiler]"…I can never bear the menace nor the memory of what I saw when the abbot Henricus lifted up the lid of the small silver platter to disclose the rest of the meat…
>
> “It was the head of my brother.”[/spoiler]
Didn’t see this 8 years ago, but the story is “The Deadliest Art” collected in “Tales in a Jugular Vein.”
“But Crocker [a cop] wasn’t listening to him. He was off in the bushes, being sick. [Analysis was enough to prove the meal was the murdered man.] He’s described Chester as a good man. And it’s well known that you can’t keep a good man down …”
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### Author:  [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)
#### Post date: [December 15, 2014, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twilight-zone-glaring-errors/351532/60 "2014-12-15T06:46:26Z")
> [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](#):
>
> A MacGuffin Time/Space fluctuation.
Not mentioned in the first season, as far as I can recall. Spider Robinson’s review in Galaxy came with a cartoon of three ships sailing over the moon which had a fuse in it.
“Aye Caramba, Columbus, I smell electromagnetic radiation.”
“That means we’re sitting on the biggest bomb in history!”
Truer words …
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