The Twilight Zone: To Serve Man /Judgment Night | Twilight Zone

The Twilight Zone: To Serve Man /Judgment Night | Twilight Zone | "Submitted for your approval..."

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	The Twilight Zone: To Serve Man /Judgment Night Twilight Zone 20th Century Fox, 1996 average customer review:based on 5 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Top of the line "Two-Fer"

Most two episode tapes contain one classic and one sleeper. This is an exception. "To Serve Man" is the ultimate tale of where laziness and self-glorification can get you, and "Judgement Night" is a plain old shivers-down-the-back story of final payment coming due. Excellent combination.

"Submitted for your approval..."

First seen during THE TWILIGHT ZONE's initial season, "Judgment Night" has everything: a script with a profound moral, uncanny direction (by John Brahm, director of some of the series' finest episodes) and photography, a bravura performance by Nehemiah Persoff, a moody musical score. And like so many of Rod Serling's most memorable episodes ("Walking Distance" and "A Stop at Willoughby" among them), "Judgment Night" seems to have been influenced by the author's own life - in this case, by his combat experiences in WWII and the trauma, complete with vivid and recurring nightmares, he suffered for the rest of his days.
If a TWILIGHT ZONE fan were asked to name the most famous of the series' titles, surely "To Serve Man" would be on the list. Like many more of Serling's most memorable episodes ("Time Enough at Last" and "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street" among them), this one clearly reflects the anxieties of its era: specifically Cold War tensions and curiosity about mixed with fear of outer space. The stunning conclusion of "To Serve Man" is one of the most unforgettable examples in ZONE history of a "twist" ending; the episode's premise and conclusion, in fact, more than compensate for its lack of a strong, central performance such as Persoff gives in "Judgment Night."

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The very best of "The Twilight Zone"

In my opinion, the three events that would have the greatest impact on human society are:

*) Absolute proof of life after death
*) Absolute proof of the existence of God
*) The arrival of extraterrestrial life on Earth

In fact, it is very possible that all three are different manifestations of the same thing.
The first episode of this tape has the extraterrestrial Kanamits arriving on Earth. They are nine feet tall and they announce that their only goal is to serve man. They provide enormous benefits such as fertilizers so that enough food is grown to eliminate starvation, clean power sources that eliminate pollution and shields to defend a nation so that all wars end. It all seems too good to be true and it is. It turns out that the phrase "to serve man" is correct; however it is not in the supposed context. Humans are in fact being well taken care of so that they can be served as food. They are in fact the Kanamit equivalent of a herd of cattle. Therefore, while this episode is an instance of the third of the items in the list above, it is nowhere near satisfaction of the first two.
The second episode is weaker, yet still has tension. A man is on board a British ship in 1942, at the height of the battle of the Atlantic. He knows his name (Carl Lanser) yet cannot remember anything else. The ship has lost contact with the rest of the convoy and so is vulnerable to U-boat attack. In his conversations with the other passengers, Lanser seems to know a great deal about the tactics of the German U-boat captains. When the engines of the boat fail, Lanser is terrified as he seems to know that an attack will take place at 1:15 AM. He scrambles around trying to alert the other passengers, but the U-boat surfaces and its captain orders the deck gun to begin firing. Lanser grabs a pair of binoculars and looks out at the U-boat, spotting the captain as he is giving his orders. He is astonished to learn that it is him.
The episode then cuts to the U-boat captain in conversation with a member of his crew, who is expressing reservations about their killing innocent civilians. When the crew member expresses his belief that they will all be punished for their murderous deeds, the captain scoffs, noting that it is the nature of war and doing anything else would put them at risk. Therefore, Lanser's presence on the British boat is his eternal punishment for killing He is doomed to relive the event over and over again.
These two episodes are "The Twilight Zone" at its very best. With tight directions and story line, they explore unique aspects of the human condition and some of the possible consequences of unusual events.

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A couple of "Twilight Zone" episodes with Rod Serling twists

Rod Serling wrote both of these episodes of "The Twilight Zone," each of which evidence the sort of O. Henry "surprise" endings that would become better known as "Twilight Zone" twists. "To Serve Man" (March 2, 1962) adapted by Serling from Damon Knight's short story, is one of the most famous Zone episodes with its "Soylent Green" ending. A 9-foot tall Kanamit (Richard Kiel) has come to earth to create a golden age with the advanced technology of his race. However, Michael Chambers (Lloyd Bochner), a government decoding expert, learns to learn the true meaning of the title of the book left by the Kanamit. Not as much fun the second time around when the ending seems so obvious, "To Serve Man" teaches the old lesson that appearances can be deceiving, especially when dealing with strange visitors from another planet.

Episodes: "Judgment Night" (December 4, 1959) is an early first season episode set in 1942 when a German named Carl Lanser (Nehemiah Persoff) finds himself on the deck of a British steamship. He has no idea why he is there, but he does have an overwhelming sense of doom, which gives us a pretty good clue as to who Lanser is and why he is aboard the S.S. Queen of Glasgow. However, Persoff's performance makes up for the shortcomings of the script. Written by Serling, this is another "Twilight Zone" episode where justice is delivered in a way that would have made Dante proud. This episode has Ben Wright as Captain Wilbur, Patrick Macnee as the First Officer, and young James Franciscus as Lieutenant Mueller.

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To Serve Man- a Classic, but what you may not know is...

I interviewed Bart Robinson's (The General in 'To Serve Man') Son on my podcast, RoneyZone Radio (Episode #2). So Google RoneyZone Radio and learn much more about one of the actors in this classic Twilight Zone episode!