A "Twilight Zone" Halloween

posted by Tygrrius @ 11:41 AM

Not exactly being a party animal, I’ve celebrated the last several Halloweens by watching horror movie marathons. I tend to stick with horror movies made in the 1950’s through the 1980’s.

A couple of the ones I’ve done in past years were a Nightmare on Elm Street marathon and a Vincent Price marathon (classics like House of Wax and House of Usher).

This year, though, I’m scaling it back a bit as far as time. In order to get the most bang in a two-hour timeframe, I’m going to have a Twilight Zone marathon instead. Here are the episodes I've selected.

"Nightmare at 20,000 Feet"
Aired: October 11, 1963
Written by Richard Matheson
Starring: William Shatner
Directed by Richard Donner

Recently recovered from a nervous breakdown and anxious about flying, a man sees a shadowy figure on a wing of the plane as it flies through a thunderstorm. The figure attempts to rip apart the engine and always moves out of sight before anyone else looks. Given his history, everyone begins to doubt his sanity.

"Tonight, he’s traveling all the way to his appointed destination which . . . happens to be in the darkest corner of the Twilight Zone."

This was William Shatner’s second and final journey into the Twilight Zone, three years before his Star Trek debut.

"Nightmare" was the first of a half dozen Twilight Zones for then 33-year-old television director Richard Donner. Donner, of course, later broke into feature films with 1976’s The Omen and 1978’s Superman.

Both Donner and Shatner’s talents shine in this episode, one of the scariest for the Twilight Zone. I first encountered this story as a remake in Twilight Zone: The Movie, but the original television version is much better.

"And When The Sky Was Opened"
Aired: December 11, 1959
Written by Rod Serling & Richard Matheson
Starring: Rod Taylor
Directed by Douglas Heyes

Three astronauts survive the crash of the X-20, an experimental spacecraft returning from her maiden voyage. Major Gart is hospitalized, but Colonel Forbes and Colonel Harrington are well enough to go out for a night of drinking.

Harrington gets a strange feeling and decides to call his parents. They tell him they have no son. He soon vanishes, and Forbes is the only person who can remember him. Even Gart remembers there only being two astronauts aboard the X-20. To his horror, Forbes realizes that now he has a strange feeling.

"If any of you have any questions concerning an aircraft and three men who flew her, speak softly of them and only in the Twilight Zone."

"And When The Sky..." was one of the first Twilight Zones I can remember watching. The idea that a person’s entire existence could be so completely erased is horrifying in that subtle way that only Twilight Zone could deliver.

"Judgment Night"
Aired: December 4, 1959
Written by Rod Serling
Starring: Nehemiah Persoff
Directed by John Brahm

A man aboard a British sea freighter bound for New York during World War II is convinced it is about to be attacked by a German U-boat. At the precise time of his prediction, a U-boat surfaces for an attack and he is shocked to learn why he knew.

"This is judgment night in the Twilight Zone."

This is another one of the first episodes I ever saw. I suppose early exposures to the Twilight Zone tend to stick with you, and the conclusion of "Judgment Night" is definitely no exception.

"The Howling Man"
Aired: November 4, 1960
Written by Charles Beaumont
Starring: H.M. Wynant
Directed by Douglas Heyes

On foot through a terrible storm, a man seeks refuge in a monastery. The brothers turn him away but when he passes out, they allow him to stay the night. He is awakened by a loud howling that the brothers claim not to hear. He tracks it to a man, locked in a cell by the brothers. Though the man appears innocent, the brothers claim he is the devil and must not be freed.

"A man who knocked on a door seeking sanctuary found instead the outer edges of the Twilight Zone."

I first saw "The Howling Man" as a teenager, flipping through stations in the middle of the night. Since I had missed the beginning, I actually had no idea it was a Twilight Zone until Rod’s narration at the end. A very unusual episode that remains one of my all-time favorites.

"Living Doll"
Aired: November 1, 1963
Written by Jerry Sohl
Starring: Telly Savalas
Directed by Richard C. Sarafian

For whatever reason, I was afraid of dolls as a kid. I think it stems back to a dream I had about my older sister’s room where her dolls were all alive and staring at me.

At least, I think it was a dream.

With that being the case, this episode scared the @!#?@! out of me as a kid.

A man’s stepdaughter brings home a new doll that can talk: "My name is Talky Tina, and I love you very much." Sweet, except for the fact that she’s very expensive. He upsets the little girl over the cost and she runs off to her room. With no one else around (of course), he finds that the doll says quite different things to him, like "My name is Talky Tina, and I’m going to kill you."

"She is a most unwelcome addition to his household but without her, he’d never enter the Twilight Zone."

Of course, now, I’m no longer afraid of such things.

I have conquered my childish fears.

I just hope my wife doesn’t mind sleeping with the lights on Tuesday night.

Why Are There Clouds In Space?

posted by Tygrrius @ 12:04 AM

I'm back from vacation, well-rested for the first time in a long time. I want to thank JS for taking such great care of things here at the Film Frontier while I was away. For a guy that specializes in reviews and color commentary, he did an awesome job on the news, too.

Finally, a Superman video game that might actually be . . . good! Disappointing that it's apparently not going to be released for PCs, though. I won't be able to play it, either.

Even if it was a PC game, I probably still couldn't play. Our computer has an Intel 82865 chipset. This is apparently code for "No game will ever work on your computer, you loser." Even seemingly non-intensive games like Law & Order: Criminal Intent flail about helplessly.

Oh well, I'm really not much of a gamer these days anyway (obviously). I did manage to make the first Star Wars: Battlefront work a bit, despite the lack of "Transform & Lightning" capability on the graphics card. Not that I have any idea what that means, but the game complained about it every time I started to play.

I didn't bother to press my luck by buying Battlefront II. Besides, the first one was, in the end, just a boring take on "Capture the Flag," like Battlefield: 1942 and similar games. My favorite Star Wars PC game is still Dark Forces. Yeah, it was to Doom what Star Wars: Battlefront was to Battlefield: 1942, but it was never, ever boring. I loved Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight as well. I still have that around here, somewhere. Hey, I wonder if it would run on our PC. Probably not.

I have, however, managed to move into the 21st century (or at least the latter half of the 1990's) as of today by finally upgrading to DSL from a dial-up connection. Wow, it's a whole new Internet world out here to me! Finally, I get to see what all of this YouTube fuss is about. And JS can stop complaining that I never watch the preview trailer links he sends me.

I wonder if a funny Sonic commercial I saw the other day has been uploaded to YouTube yet. Doesn't look like it. A guy and his wife are sipping shakes while leaving the drive through. The guy says something like, "I think I'll write a blog about the experience of drinking this shake. My fans will want to know how good this is."

His wife replies, "Your fans? You mean your mom?"

The guy answers, "She said she was going to get her neighbor to read it, too."

"Oh, your mom and her neighbor," she teases, like any good wife.

I wish I could find it, because I'm sure I'm horribly misquoting it. I thought it was hilarious because it's so true! (Hi, Mom.)

So, William Shatner is getting into the game show hosting business. What's next, a talk show? "Live with Bill & Lenny." As long as he doesn't shave his head and start talking like a mogwai, I guess we're okay.

Shatner has been his usual busy self, it seems. I caught him on a DirecTV commercial last weekend. It mixed footage from Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country with some new footage of Shatner as Captain Kirk. The commercial is a nice reminder that Shatner is still more than capable of playing our favorite Captain. And wouldn't you know it, this one is available on YouTube.

Chekov: "Shall we raise our shields, Captain?"
Kirk: "At ease, Mr. Chekov." (to camera) "Again with the shields. I wish he'd just relax and enjoy the amazing picture clarity of the DirecTV HD we just hooked up. With what Starfleet just ponied up for this big screen TV, settling for cable would be illogical."
Spock: (clears throat)
Kirk: "What? I can't use that line?"

Wondering who that non-descript crewman sitting at the helm is? Well, I have no idea either, but he was digitally added to replace the Star Trek VI footage of Kim Cattrall's Valeris character. Incidentally, it's a good thing it's never cloudy in space. Otherwise, that "amazing picture clarity" might be replaced with a "No signal" message.

While on vacation, we made a brief stop at the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum on the National Mall in Washington, DC. In a city so rich in history, there are overwhelming numbers of historical artifacts in this museum alone. It's a lot to take in, and we didn't even come close to covering it all.

One of my favorite parts was seeing an actual Apollo command module. These were the crafts that carried astronauts to the moon from 1969 to 1972. The capsule seemed much smaller than I expected.


Much larger than I expected, though, was a test version of a lunar landing module. Large, yet fragile. It is truly amazing and humbling what the astronauts and NASA were able to accomplish.
After the Air & Space Museum, we walked by the US Capitol building. It was an overcast day, but I still loved the way this photo in particular came out.

Well, though I now have DSL, don't expect too many insane changes to the Film Frontier. One of my pet peeves as a dial-up user was websites that took three hours to load a single page.

I plan to keep the Film Frontier near or below its current load times in the foreseeable future.

Sadly, this means no video or radio broadcasts from me and JS anytime soon.

You just don't know what you're missing.

GAME OVER, Insert Coins

posted by Tygrrius @ 9:35 PM

Before we get started, a quick programming note. Immediately after posting this entry, I’ll be on vacation from the site until October 12. Never fear. In the grand tradition of Lassie, Benji, and Paul Anka, JS the Wonder Dog will come to your rescue by keeping the site’s news and reviews up-to-date in my absence. I can’t imagine the Film Frontier in better hands . . . er, paws. And now, back to our story.

One of the cool things I enjoyed as a kid was playing arcade games at the theater before or after seeing a movie. In fact, I’m pretty sure the first video game I ever played was Pac-Man. I was probably five or six years old.

Okay, "played" is a bit too generous.

As Pac-Man appeared on the screen, I had no idea what to do. I don’t believe I ate a single dot before a ghost came by and swallowed me up.

For Pac-Man’s second life, I managed to use the joystick and eat an entire row of dots before another ghost consumed me.

After that, I started to catch on. My brother pointed out the magical qualities of the power pellets, so I ate one and gobbled up a ghost. Now, I understood! Eat the blue ones! This was fun!

Here comes another ghost and . . . oh no. For the first time, I saw those infamous words: GAME OVER.

Mixed with the disappointment, though, was something else: I had Pac-Man fever!

Another early favorite was Pole Position. I fared a little better on that one, as the concept was a lot more straightforward. Drive fast. Real fast. And don’t crash.

I’ve played a ton of race games since then, including fairly complicated and highly detailed simulations, but none of them have come close to the fun and excitement of Pole Position.

While I played Pac-Man at the movie theater, Pole Position was located at the bowling alley. I played in a youth league there in second grade. My first team was called the Jedi Knights. And, though you may not believe this, that name was not even my doing.

There was an older kid on the team, Ryan, who thought of the team name. I guess he was the captain. He told me that he saw Star Wars 14 times in the theater, or some other number that I found impossible to imagine at the time. In my mind, he might as well have been Yoda, the Jedi Master.

The only problem with a cool team name like the Jedi Knights was that the opposing team would really give you the business if they beat you. Fortunately, we didn’t lose often.

Another kid on the team, closer to my age, was Jimmy. Now, though he was a pretty good bowler, Jimmy mostly came for the french fries.

And while I certainly helped to lead the team to victory, I must admit I mostly came for the video games. You see, the bowling alley had the best arcade outside of Chuck E. Cheese’s Pizza Time Theatre.

And it was at the bowling alley, in 1983, that I first experienced the ultimate arcade game.

The arcade game to end all arcade games.

Of course, I’m talking about Atari’s Star Wars.

With cutting-edge vector graphics, the Star Wars arcade game actually gave a fairly decent illusion that you were Luke Skywalker, flying your X-Wing through the Death Star battle.

And this was a sit-down, cockpit version, too, which added to the effect. With the actual voice of Obi-Wan Kenobi urging you to use the Force, how could any eight-year-old resist the urge to fill the game with quarter after quarter?

I played it every week, intent on beating it. I was going to use the Force, blow up the Death Star, and finally beat an arcade game.

You see, I was an idiot back then. Yeah, I know that’s hard to believe, but it’s true. And I thought it was possible to beat an arcade game. I thought it was possible to win.

While my bowling average went up each week, my allowance savings steadily declined. But I was getting closer.

But first, I had to figure out how to use the Force.

Whenever Obi-Wan offered, helpfully, "Use the Force, Luke," I interpreted this to mean "Start firing wildly all over the screen with your eyes closed, Luke."

You can thank Luke’s lightsaber training against the remote aboard the Falcon for the eyes closed bit.

Luckily for me, Ryan/Yoda happened to watch me play one week. "Why do you close your eyes and start firing wildly all over the screen whenever Obi-Wan says to use the Force?" he asked.

"Isn’t that how you use the Force?" I replied.

"You must unlearn what you have learned, young one," he said.

Well, no, he didn’t really say that. He probably laughed. But he was nice enough to suggest that I try battling the Death Star with my eyes open next time.

Soon thereafter, I did it.

I destroyed the Death Star.

I waited, patiently, for the medal ceremony that was sure to follow. And I was pretty sure the folks at the bowling alley would want to give me a special trophy or something, too. I mean, if bowling a 110 earns a patch, surely blowing up the Death Star would warrant at least a nice plaque.

The screen refreshed. No medal ceremony. What was this?

It couldn’t be.

But it was true. On my screen was the Death Star again.

As my impending victory celebration faded away, I went in a bit half-heartedly against more and faster TIE fighters and was soon destroyed.

Weeks of waiting to find out what happens when I blow up the Death Star, and what do I get? Another Death Star! The screen might as well have said, "Be sure to drink your Ovaltine."

By the next week, though, I had made sense of this impossibility. Obviously, the second Death Star represented the one in that summer’s big movie, Return of the Jedi.

Of course, if the Rebels had to destroy two Death Stars, then so did I! How silly of me to think otherwise.

So I powered up my X-Wing with a shiny, new quarter, fought the TIE fighters, faced down the gun turret towers, and blew away the Death Star. Twice.

As Level 3 began, I realized that a third Death Star now had to be destroyed.

I finally mentioned my frustration to Ryan. "I’ve made it to Level 18 so far," he told me. "There’s always a new Death Star. It just keeps getting harder."

All along, I thought I was Luke Skywalker. But, as it turned out, I was actually Chewbacca. I wasn’t going to get a medal.

Maybe Jimmy had the right idea after all. Bowling wasn’t about the arcade games. It was all about the french fries.