# "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:** 4
### Author:  [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)
#### Post date: [December 15, 2014, 6:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twilight-zone-glaring-errors/351532/61 "2014-12-15T06:50:37Z")
> [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](#):
>
> In “Third from the Sun,” I believe the planet they’re escaping to is 11 million miles away.
Based on a Richard Matheson story - which has them traveling to a different solar system, so they screwed it up. (I’m not sure I ever saw the episode.) But their home world is just like Earth - has to be for the surprise ending.
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### Author:  [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)
#### Post date: [December 15, 2014, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twilight-zone-glaring-errors/351532/62 "2014-12-15T12:53:57Z")
> [@Lemur866](#):
>
> 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.
Right. And furthermore, in the pilot they were shown to have gotten up to an insanely fast speed in very short order, so it couldn’t have been an acceleration of 1g for a year.
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### Author:  [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)
#### Post date: [December 15, 2014, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twilight-zone-glaring-errors/351532/63 "2014-12-15T13:14:16Z")
As I said, it doesn’t quite work. It’s poorly executed, but there is at least a plausible concept underlying it. And I’m not denying that the series sucked overall.
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### Author:  [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)
#### Post date: [December 15, 2014, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twilight-zone-glaring-errors/351532/64 "2014-12-15T13:45:26Z")
> [@Voyager](#):
>
> “That means we’re sitting on the biggest bomb in history!”
This line was in the series’ pilot, and should have been avoided at all costs! :smack:
With respect to the (mercifully!) unsold pilot _ **Into Infinity** _, Gerry Anderson replied “I’m sure we’re allowed some license in how we depict such things” when someone complained that it took their spaceship less than 30 seconds to accelerate from dead stop to lightspeed. :rolleyes:
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### Author:  [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)
#### Post date: [December 15, 2014, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twilight-zone-glaring-errors/351532/65 "2014-12-15T15:25:18Z")
> [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](#):
>
> 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.
That doesn’t have to be an error of the show. It could simply be that Fowler thought Weiss was the first of his students to die (and Weiss’ spectre thought so too, possibly simply mirroring Fowler’s belief). Then he meets Rice, who he didn’t recognize, hadn’t known about, and learns of his earlier demise.
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### Author:  [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)
#### Post date: [December 15, 2014, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twilight-zone-glaring-errors/351532/66 "2014-12-15T15:40:26Z")
> [@Hypno-Toad](#):
>
> I remember some cheesy scifi flick where aliens abduct some boneheaded jock-type nuclear scientist and a bimbo who wouldn’t even admit to having slept with him and take him off to their planet to make nuclear fuel.
Oh, is _that_ what they’re calling it now?
> [@Anne\_Neville](#):
>
> You couldn’t move the Earth close enough to the Sun that the Sun would be overhead everywhere on Earth all the time without having the Earth actually inside the Sun.
As **Skywatcher** noted, that all turned out to be a dream, so it actually makes sense that it doesn’t really make sense.
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### Author:  [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)
#### Post date: [December 15, 2014, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twilight-zone-glaring-errors/351532/67 "2014-12-15T16:42:37Z")
> [@Bricker](#):
>
> That doesn’t have to be an error of the show. It could simply be that Fowler thought Weiss was the first of his students to die (and Weiss’ spectre thought so too, possibly simply mirroring Fowler’s belief). Then he meets Rice, who he didn’t recognize, hadn’t known about, and learns of his earlier demise.
Professor: You were the first!
Student: The first one to die, Professor. I was at Pearl Harbor on the Arizona.
I interpret that as meaning that he was, more or less, the first American casualty of WWII.
---
### Author:  [@Learjeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Learjeff)
#### Post date: [December 15, 2014, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twilight-zone-glaring-errors/351532/68 "2014-12-15T17:59:22Z")
I have fond memories of the TZ. As a young kid, it was on at 10, past my bedtime. But there was an old TV in my bedroom, which even worked for about an hour or so before the picture would condense into a white dot in the center of the screen. So, I’d turn it on with the volume as low as possible, my light off, and ready at an instant to click it off and hop in bed if I heard movement in the hall. Really the perfect setup for watching a show like TZ! I also remember watching another show like that, whose name I’m not sure I remember, though I can still play the theme song in my mind’s ear. “Journeys in the Unknown” is what I think it was.
Years later, about age 20, I remember TZ being on late night TV and I watched them all again, and it was interesting to compare my adult experience watching them with my memories from childhood!
> [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](#):
>
> It’s no more ridiculous than the pilot episode of _Lost in Space_.
Even as a kid, LIS made me roll my eyes (watching reruns, I believe.) I remember watching Robot roll ahead of … Timmy? whatever the kid’s name was … anyway, rolling ahead of him, detonating dangerous mines. He hits the first one, BOOM. “That was a ten megaton explosion. I can withstand up to a 30 megaton explosion.”
LOL. For one thing, he pronounced the “ton” as in “automaton”. And yeah, well, a 10 MT bang is gonna leave you right where you were, about 20 feet in front of the kid you’re protecting. Of course, he rolls on, to meet with a 20, and yes, a 30 MT explosion, which of course proves momentarily fatal for Robot. Sigh!
> [@Ukulele\_Ike](#):
>
> You’re just not cooking it right. C’mon over the the Ukulele household for a barbecue.
“The secret’s in the sauce.”
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### Author:  [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)
#### Post date: [December 15, 2014, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twilight-zone-glaring-errors/351532/69 "2014-12-15T18:20:57Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#):
>
> Make sure you don’t get a smoker or a drug-user. They taste funny. I heard.
I thought it was clowns that tasted funny?
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### Author:  [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)
#### Post date: [December 15, 2014, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twilight-zone-glaring-errors/351532/70 "2014-12-15T18:29:12Z")
> [@Learjeff](#):
>
> Even as a kid, LIS made me roll my eyes (watching reruns, I believe.) I remember watching Robot roll ahead of … Timmy?
Try saying in a robot voice: “Danger…\_\_\_\_\_ \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_.”
His name will come to you.
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### Author:  [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)
#### Post date: [December 15, 2014, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twilight-zone-glaring-errors/351532/71 "2014-12-15T18:33:13Z")
> [@bup](#):
>
> Try saying in a robot voice: “Danger…\_\_\_\_\_ \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_.”
>
> His name will come to you.
I think LJ is making a joke: As was noted in _ **MAD Magazine** _, June Lockhart was the mom in both _ **LiS** _ and _ **Lassie** _. 🆒
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### Author:  [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)
#### Post date: [December 15, 2014, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twilight-zone-glaring-errors/351532/72 "2014-12-15T18:39:19Z")
> [@Learjeff](#):
>
> I also remember watching another show like that, whose name I’m not sure I remember, though I can still play the theme song in my mind’s ear. “Journeys in the Unknown” is what I think it was.
Sure it wasn’t _ **The Outer Limits** _? That’s the other one I remember.
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### Author:  [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)
#### Post date: [December 15, 2014, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twilight-zone-glaring-errors/351532/73 "2014-12-15T19:59:38Z")
> [@terentii](#):
>
> I think LJ is making a joke: As was noted in _ **MAD Magazine** _, June Lockhart was the mom in both _ **LiS** _ and _ **Lassie** _. 🆒
:smack:
This is worse than the time I didn’t foresee the twist ending of _Twilight Zone_ where aliens brought a book called _To Serve Manicotti_.[sup]1[/sup]
[sup]1[/sup]It was a cookbook.
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### Author:  [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)
#### Post date: [December 15, 2014, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twilight-zone-glaring-errors/351532/74 "2014-12-15T20:09:59Z")
> [@Learjeff](#):
>
> . . . I also remember watching another show like that, whose name I’m not sure I remember, though I can still play the theme song in my mind’s ear. “Journeys in the Unknown” is what I think it was. . . .
In addition to ‘Outer Limits’ there was a brief program called “'Way Out,” hosted by Roald Dahl.
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### Author:  [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)
#### Post date: [December 15, 2014, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twilight-zone-glaring-errors/351532/75 "2014-12-15T20:15:13Z")
NM
---
### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [December 15, 2014, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twilight-zone-glaring-errors/351532/76 "2014-12-15T20:21:10Z")
> [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](#):
>
> In addition to ‘Outer Limits’ there was a brief program called “'Way Out,” hosted by Roald Dahl.
There was also **One Step Beyond**
> **[Alcoa Presents One Step Beyond](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcoa_Presents:_One_Step_Beyond)**
>
> Alcoa Presents: One Step Beyond (also known as One Step Beyond) is an American anthology series created by Merwin Gerard. The original series was broadcast for three seasons by the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) from January 1959 to July 1961.
> Created by Merwin Gerard and produced by Collier Young, One Step Beyond was hosted by John Newland, "your guide to the supernatural" (also credited as "Our guide into the world of the unknown"). Newland, who also directed every episode, presented tale...
and **Boris Karloff Presents Thriller**
> **[Thriller (American TV series)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thriller_(U.S._TV_series))**
>
> Thriller (also known as Boris Karloff's Thriller and Boris Karloff Presents) is an American anthology television series that aired during the 1960–61 and 1961–62 seasons on NBC. The show featured host Boris Karloff introducing a mix of macabre horror tales and suspense thrillers.
> Thriller was created by Hubbell Robinson for MCA's Revue Studios. Though remembered primarily as a series that emphasized gothic horror, under producer Fletcher Markle Thriller was initially a series oriented towards su...
and Karloff aghain in **The Veil**
> **[The Veil](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Veil)**
>
> The Veil may refer to:
and some people have confused TZ episodes with episodes of **Alfred Hitchcock Presents**
> **[Alfred Hitchcock Presents](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Hitchcock_Presents)**
>
> Alfred Hitchcock Presents is an American television anthology series created, hosted and produced by Alfred Hitchcock, airing on CBS and NBC, alternately, between 1955 and 1965. It features dramas, thrillers, and mysteries. Between 1962 and 1965, it was renamed The Alfred Hitchcock Hour. Hitchcock himself directed only 18 episodes during its run.
> By the time the show premiered on October 2, 1955, Hitchcock had been directing films for over three decades. In the 21st century, Time magazine name...
There were lots of weird story anthologies on TV in those days.
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### Author:  [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)
#### Post date: [December 15, 2014, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twilight-zone-glaring-errors/351532/77 "2014-12-15T20:54:48Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#):
>
> There was also […]
> and Karloff aghain in **The Veil**
>
> [The Veil - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Veil)
>
> There were lots of weird story anthologies on TV in those days.
Although _ **The Veil** _ was never aired - the production company went bankrupt before any syndication deal was ever made. It was a completely wonderful idea - TZ-type “true” stories with Boris Karloff appearing as a major character in each one.
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### Author:  [@Learjeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Learjeff)
#### Post date: [December 16, 2014, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twilight-zone-glaring-errors/351532/78 "2014-12-16T03:12:12Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#):
>
> There was also **One Step Beyond**
> [Alcoa Presents One Step Beyond - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcoa_Presents:_One_Step_Beyond)
> and **Boris Karloff Presents Thriller**
> [Thriller (American TV series) - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thriller_(U.S._TV_series))
> and Karloff aghain in **The Veil**
> [The Veil - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Veil)
> and some people have confused TZ episodes with episodes of **Alfred Hitchcock Presents**
> [Alfred Hitchcock Presents - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Hitchcock_Presents)
>
> There were lots of weird story anthologies on TV in those days.
Thanks, but I actually got it right:
> **[Journey to the Unknown](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journey_to_the_Unknown)**
>
> Journey to the Unknown is a British anthology television series, produced by Hammer Film Productions and 20th Century Fox Television. It aired on ABC from September 26, 1968, to January 30, 1969. The series first aired in the UK on the ITV network on 16 November 1968.
> The series has a fantasy, science fiction, supernatural and horror theme, very similar to the American television series The Twilight Zone, and deals with normal people whose everyday situations somehow become extraordinary. It fea...
I’d misremembered the theme a bit, correct motion but different intervals and harmony. I kinda like my version better.
[ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ecwd_Ww8tHQ)
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### Author:  [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)
#### Post date: [December 16, 2014, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twilight-zone-glaring-errors/351532/79 "2014-12-16T20:00:45Z")
> [@panache45](#):
>
> I’ve been watching some of the old “Twilight Zone” reruns lately. Time and again, there have been inaccuracies mentioned that can’t be excused by the fact that these were produced some 45 years ago.
>
> For instance, in one episode, “The Lonely,” a convicted murderer is kept in solitary confinement on an asteroid with enough mass to have earth-like gravity, and it’s described as being 9 million miles from earth.
>
> 9 million miles? Surely, in 1959, people knew that there was no such object a mere 9 million miles from earth (and the implication that the distance is constant is even more baffling).
>
> Why didn’t they make an attempt to get a little more accuracy into the show? They’d be better off just not mentioning the distance in the first place.
You know what? Eight and a half years later, I demand the rite of fanwank.
They called it an asteroid, because historically it had been an asteroid. Now, however, the government has harnessed this planetoid, and put it in a circular 9-million-mile-radius orbit of earth. They’ve pumped in some artificial gravity and atmosphere, and have a first-rate solitary confinement rock.
True, it’s an artificial _moon_, but because they typically use the asteroid belt for resources, the Blackwater guys still call them asteroids. Some are trojans, some are even completely artificial jobs, but try to chase out established jargon, you know?
---
### Author:  [@That\_Don\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/That_Don_Guy)
#### Post date: [December 16, 2014, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twilight-zone-glaring-errors/351532/80 "2014-12-16T20:51:23Z")
> [@dropzone](#):
>
> Of course, being from Detroit, he used the British meaning of trillion, which is what we Americans call a billion.
Other way around - British billion = American trillion (1 followed by 12 zeroes).
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