The Dummy
Episode 98, May 5, 1962
I'll go out on a limb here and say that many of us have this little spot inside that is scared witless of the concept of a doll or a puppet that comes to life. Like the evil clown doll from Poltergeist, or that little devil doll from Trilogy of Terror (that little bastard scared the crap out of me when I was younger!), this episode is about a ventriloquist's doll that seems to have a life of it's own. Cliff Robertson is the ventriloquist who is convinced that his doll is alive and fooling with his mind. No-one believes him though, and says he should stop drinking and get psychiatric help, so he's on his own with this little issue. Very strong episode with a very quick and very cool ending.

The Fever
Episode 17, January 29, 1960
Perhaps seeming a little heavy handed these days, this episode was a clear-cut message about the evils of gambling. A wife wins a trip to a casino, and the moralizing husband is determined not to let a single penny escape from his pockets into the ghastly slot machines. But when he is unexpectedly forced to do it by a stranger, he gets a small taste of winning -and likes it. From then on, it's a downward spiral into instant addiction as the Fever sets in and he is haunted by the machine calling his name, driving him to place more and more money into it. This one really interested me because although it started off being fairly predictable, it takes a turn into the surreal when he sees the slot machine come after him in his hotel room.

Living Doll
Episode 126, November 1, 1963
Telly Savalas is a stepdad who is less than pleased when his wife buys the daughter a Talky Tina doll. Oh, the doll seems nice enough at first, pull the string and it says "I love you" and "We can be friends" doll type talk, but when no-one's around except the father, the doll turns nasty and tells him what she really thinks about him. Of course, he thinks the wife and daughter are playing tricks on him. Naturally they think he's nuts. Obviously it will all end in tears.

The After Hours
Episode 34, June 10, 1960
A woman purchases a gold thimble for her mother at a department store. Noticing that it's scratched, she tries to return it, only to be told the floor she purchased it on doesn't exist and she must have imagined it. She freaks out when she sees the saleslady she purchased the thimble from is actually a mannequin and then discovers the real reason why she's at the store.

If this section sometimes sounds a bit repetitive, that's a good thing. That's because it means that I found the quality of the audio and video on this dvd to be generally happily to the rest of the series. For your $32.95 (including GST) you have a nice clean 1.33:1 B & W picture that will look great on just about any television set you watch it on. It has just one tiny little section where there is the first real distracting case of aliasing in the series so far. It occurs on a suitcase in the episode Living Doll and is the only real flaw in an otherwise fine and dandy picture. The sound is fine as well, with good clarity to dialogue and the score and never suffering from too much background hissing. The best thing about the Twilight Zone dvd series is it will look and sound great through any amp or television. In fact, why not sit on the floor and watch the show through an old tiny black and white mono television to get that real Twilight Zone feeling happening again. Better yet, here's a great idea for television manufacturers. Why not make a modern sized t.v. tube, house it in half a ton of wooden cabinet like you used to, with big round channel selectors that go CLUNK CLUNK CLUNK as you change channels and rotary volume controls that were either too loud or too soft, but put a bunch or modern a/v connectors on the back to hook up a dvd player. Huh? Why don't you? Yeah, that's what I thought…

Anyway, moving on we have the extra features of the dvd, which consist of text based screens. They contain a Rod Serling Biography, Season By Season Commentary, History Of The Twilight Zone and Reviews of the individual episodes on the disc. Sure, it’s not a comprehensive package, but there’s some good (but brief) reading, and the reviews are quite interesting.

There's something creepy about inanimate objects talking back to you, and this dvd delves into that theme very successfully with four interesting tales about a talking dummy (no, not me…) a talking slot machine, a talking mannequin and a talking doll. On the whole, this has some good performances, some great writing and a typically good transfer, which makes it easy for me to recommended this dvd for your The Twilight Zone collection.