Twilight Zone Episodes - Ranked, Rated & Reviewed (TOS)
The list is obviously still incomplete. Hoping to rate/rank all 156 episodes eventually. The episodes are listed in the order of quality. The list ends with the 30-40 episodes that are still unranked/unrated.
WARNING: This list is full of spoilers. Not just my comments have them, but the synopsis of most episodes contain spoilers to some degree.
My Outer Limits list:
https://www.imdb.com/list/ls088432880/
WARNING: This list is full of spoilers. Not just my comments have them, but the synopsis of most episodes contain spoilers to some degree.
My Outer Limits list:
https://www.imdb.com/list/ls088432880/
List activity
1.1K views
• 2 this weekCreate a new list
List your movie, TV & celebrity picks.
157 titles
- DirectorDouglas HeyesStarsRod TaylorJim HuttonCharles AidmanThree astronauts return to Earth after seemingly having made an encounter that dooms them and their craft to erasure from existence itself.RATING: best
CONCEPT: reality
GENRE: sci-fi, mystery
PLOT TWIST: great
ENDING: downer
PREMISE: great
WRITER: Serling
STORY: Matheson
My favourite episode because it works on all levels. Some people are unhappy that it lacks an explanation, but this is precisely the sort of premise that shouldn't have an explanation, doesn't even require hints.
Very well played by Aidman and Taylor (less so by the bed-ridden astronaut who is somewhat miscast), highly effective. - DirectorBoris SagalStarsHarold J. StoneFredd WayneNoah KeenFederal aviation investigator Grant Sheckly must deal with a mystery when a plane lands at an airport without pilots, passengers or luggage.RATING: best
CONCEPT: insanity
GENRE: mystery
PLOT TWIST: great (several, all excellent)
ENDING: downer
PREMISE: great
WRITER: Serling
Hard to believe that Serling wrote this. Surely he must have stolen the premise from somewhere? (As he had, several times. Lawsuits included.) No moralizing, no dull speeches, every line serves the highly original plot which is full of interesting twists.
In any case, plagiarism or not, the best episode attributed to Serling. So the man did have some talent, after all.
Why this episode is so underrated among IMDb users? I'd venture a guess that most people just didn't get it, despite the fact that the plot isn't difficult to follow. (Which isn't saying much: most people struggle with the simplest of concepts.) Or they simply couldn't wrap their tiny heads around the bizarre story that explores reality in a very clever and fun way. People general don't like clever, and have fun mostly with nonsense. - DirectorAlvin GanzerStarsInger StevensAdam WilliamsLew GalloA young woman driving cross-country becomes frantic when she keeps passing the same man on the side of the road. No matter how fast she drives, the man is always up ahead, hitching her for a ride.RATING: best
CONCEPT: reaper
GENRE: mystery, thriller, drama
PLOT TWIST: great
ENDING: downer
PREMISE: great
WRITER: Serling
STORY: Fletcher
Perhaps the only episode with the main character acting as narrator, and it adds a whole level of mood and meaning to the already great story. Inger Stevens looks great, that helps too. Poor thing committed suicide several years later, which adds a certain element of morbid irony to all of this.
The "I'm a ghost" shtick had been done already several episodes earlier in "Judgment Night", but the overused premise (now, not so much back then) gets a completely different treatment which is why it works. In a way, premise-wise at least, this is a cross between "Judgment Night" and "One for the Angels".
It is a great shame that so many writers feel the need to "educate" their audiences, even within a pure-entertainment genre such as horror which primarily exists in order to ESCAPE from all the daily malarkey - which includes social issues and other baloney. If I wanted an education I'd get one. No, wait... I have one already... So why would I need Serling of all people to teach me how to think, how to vote, and how to be an "upstanding citizen". I need his political opinions in my TZ episodes like I need a great white shark in my pool.
Thank God this episode is one of the exceptions.
These righteous "moralists" were always deeply suspect to me anyway. What lies behind this strong urge to preach, anyway? Ego-tripping? Misplaced fanatical idealism? What? Why can't fantasy/horror writers simply be content with the genre itself? Is the genre itself not enough? Do they even LIKE this genre? Must political propaganda and manic-street-preaching be that annoying ingredient in most movies and TV shows? Just what kind of a narcissistic personality is needed to appoint themselves the "voice of reason"?
One can include some basic morality in a story, that's perfectly fine, but what one should never do is use the horror genre to disseminate one's own political views, because frankly, I'm not going to vote how Hollywood tells me to, ever. Never did, never will. They sure keep trying, but at least in my case I can safely say that the barrage of brainwashing I'd been subjected to in over 30 years of being a cinephile have had zero effect. I know that this is NOT the case with most movie-goers and casual TV fans, that most have had their politics finely tuned by devious writers and lying propagandists. Such pushovers... - DirectorTed PostStarsHoward DuffDavid WhiteFrank MaxwellA businessman sitting in his office inexplicably finds that he is on a production set and in a world where he is a movie star. Uninterested in the newfound fame, he fights to get back to his home and family.RATING: best
CONCEPT: identity
GENRE: mystery
PLOT TWIST: great
ENDING: upper
PREMISE: great
WRITER: Matheson
Excellent premise, great start, and interesting throughout, well acted. It is these "full-on mystery" episodes that really represent TZ at its best. - DirectorAlan Crosland Jr.StarsSteve ForrestJacqueline ScottFrank AletterAstronaut Robert Gaines returns from space to a world that is not exactly the one he left from.RATING: best
CONCEPT: parallel worlds
GENRE: sci-fi, mystery
PLOT TWIST: great
ENDING: upper
PREMISE: great
WRITER: Serling
A top-notch episode in every way. Great acting, dialog (atypically good for Serling who abandons all his bad habits such as moralizing and speech-making), sense of mystery, the only tiny flaw being that the title serves as a spoiler. - DirectorDouglas HeyesStarsRod SerlingAnne FrancisElizabeth AllenA woman is treated badly by some odd salespeople on an otherwise empty department store floor.RATING: best
CONCEPT: dolls, secret society, reality
GENRE: mystery, horror
PLOT TWIST: excellent
ENDING: excellent
PREMISE: excellent
WRITER: Serling
I was so surprised to read that Serling wrote this that I had to check on Wikipedia whether someone else had a hand in it as well. Because Serling very rarely wrote such effective, natural dialogue. Also, he never misses out on a chance to hand out long speeches to his characters, or to make them bitter (about something or other), not to mention his habit to moralize and preach.
There is literally none of that here: no moralizing, no damn political subtext, no boring lofty speeches, and no bitterness whatsoever. Admittedly, his writing was much better in early TZ, generally speaking.
I am almost tempted to believe that he "borrowed" this idea from old 40s/50s pulp fiction (as he was known to do) but that wouldn't explain at all the top-notch dialogue and the rest.
This episode profits from several things other than the dialog and the brilliant premise. The mood created by the director is flawless, and the use of silence is highly effective and clever. Over-use of music can ruin many great scenes in horror/mystery films/stories.
And of course, Anne Francis, looking beautiful as ever. That helps enormously too: casting as impeccable as this.
The story plays with the idea of reality, my favourite TZ shtick. There is mystery here aplenty, and many ideas that fascinate, some of which are obvious, some which are not very obvious. - DirectorJohn BrahmStarsRod SerlingNehemiah PersoffDeirdre OwensIt's 1942, and a man finds himself on a ship in the Atlantic, not knowing who he is, nor how he got there. He does know the ship will soon be attacked by a German U-boat.RATING: best
CONCEPT: groundhog day
GENRE: war, mystery
PLOT TWIST: very good
ENDING: upper
PREMISE: great
WRITER: Serling
The episode benefits from a great mood, created by the good photography and the ship/ocean setting.
The first of many "oh, so I'm a ghost" episodes, a cliche to be further milked for top dollars decades later by the vastly overrated, barely talented M Night Charlatan, in his "Sixth Sense" bore-fest. - DirectorJames SheldonStarsDick YorkJune DaytonDan TobinGaining telepathic abilities when his coin lands on its edge, bank clerk Hector B. Poole learns about the difference between other people's plans and fantasies.RATING: best
CONCEPT: mind-reading
GENRE: comedy, romance
PLOT TWIST: good
ENDING: upper
PREMISE: great
WRITER: GC Johnson
Skillfully written and played episode with a great cast, very little buffoonery, quite subtle for its time, funny at moments and always interesting, full of little twists and turns.
There is a very good dumb blondes gag which probably wouldn't be possibly in our over-sensitive SJW era. - DirectorJack SmightStarsRod SerlingJack WardenJohn DehnerA convict, living alone on an asteroid, receives from the police a realistic woman-robot.RATING: best
CONCEPT: robots
GENRE: sci-fi, drama
PLOT TWIST: very good
ENDING: downer/upper
PREMISE: great
WRITER: Serling
"Some think your punishment is cruel". Forget cruel, talk about expensive! 4 trips a year to a remote asteroid just to bring him supplies. Keeping this kind of prisoner on a remote celestial object would be more expensive than building 100 pyramids. Under normal circumstances. But this is the TZ, so it's OK.
Jack Warden (no pun intended, his real name) complains "go away, I don't need a machine", despite the fact that he's thrilled about having a car built from parts. He seems unnecessarily bitter. In reality, any man given even a blow-up doll after 4 years of no female contact would make them ecstatic. But this is Serling's logic, he can't do without high-and-mighty principles, as if there is any dignity in sexual instinct. She is way too real-looking to have him react negatively to her.
But aside from these more-or-less minor points, this is a good episode in a terrific setting and with an interesting premise. Should have been a 50-minute episode though. But I guess that's why they have narration here, to speed up the cluttered story. 50 minutes would have allowed the romance to develop slowly, and to build a stronger relationship between Warden and the robot, rather than leave them only several minutes joint screen time. It would have been a near-perfect episode that way. But, as it is, it's still one of the best in the series. - 1959–196425mTV-PG8.1 (3.2K)TV EpisodeDirectorBuzz KulikStarsCliff RobertsonJohn CrawfordEvans EvansA settler from a wagon train in 1847 sets off to find something to help his ill son and stumbles into 1961 New Mexico.RATING: best
CONCEPT: time travel
GENRE: western
PLOT TWIST: very good
ENDING: upper
PREMISE: very good
WRITER: Serling
A very fun premise, very well acted, and within a great setting.
The same desert location was used to shoot "The Rip Van Winkle" episode, but with far worse results. Hence both episodes were shoot back to back. One with a good script and good actors, the other with a laughable script and mediocre actors. But such is the nature of the show: the quality of episodes varies from excellent to rubbish. - DirectorJohn BrahmStarsDennis WeaverHarry TownesWright KingAdam Grant is trapped in a recurring nightmare, in which he is sentenced to death by execution. He tries to convince the people around him that they are imaginary and that they will cease to exist if the execution is carried out.RATING: best
CONCEPT: groundhog day, reality
GENRE: mystery, drama
PLOT TWIST: very good
ENDING: downer
PREMISE: excellent
WRITER: Beaumont (stolen idea)
SP has one of the best premises in the show, and represents all that's great about TZ. Any piece of fiction that investigates the topic of reality in an intelligent way gets my thumbs up. There are quite a few great movies that toyed with this or similar ideas, and perhaps a half-dozen or so TZ episodes are based on such wild concepts and themes. All such episodes happen to be among the best.
However, it is a premise already explored in "Dead of Night", a movie made years earlier.
It is fascinating that a story which centers around an electric-chair execution ISN'T political, not even slightly. Execution was picked simply because it is the ideal plot-device to keep this Groundhog Day plot going in circles, in a precise and exact way, which serves the story.
The acting is very good, the dialog never wasteful, and the script is tight. The 1987 TZ version is also pretty good, though I can't vouch for it being as apolitical as the original because it's been a very long time since I'd last checked it out. If they remade this now, it would be quite literally an anti-death-penalty propaganda piece hence completely worthless. I don't know HOW they would manage to inject so much politics into a story that leaves no room for such nonsense, but they would have definitely done it. Nowadays, EVERYTHING is infused with political subtext, because we must prepare/condition the sheep for neo-Marxism, mustn't we... And God knows, they are such receptive subjects.
This episode is further indication how top-notch consistent the series could have been if only Serling hadn't insisted on writing so many episodes himself. Gene Roddenberry isn't the only proof that the creator of a great show isn't necessarily the ideal person to remain at its helm. - 1959–196425mTV-PG8.5 (3.9K)TV EpisodeDirectorLamont JohnsonStarsSusan HarrisonWilliam WindomMurray MathesonAn Army major awakens in a small room with no idea of who he is or how he got there. He finds four other people in the same room, and they all begin to question how they each arrived there, and more importantly, how to escape.RATING: best
CONCEPT: dolls, identity, reality
GENRE: mystery
PLOT TWIST: great
ENDING: downer
PREMISE: excellent
WRITER: Serling
STORY: Petal
Like "Shadow Play", "A World of Difference", "Judgment Night", "In His Image", "And When the Sky", "Arrival", "Person Or Persons" and especially "After Hours", this is another story that deals with loss of identity and/or search for reality. My favourite type of episode.
The great irony about so-called "mind-expanding drugs" is that they are nearly always used by morons without minds. If you are intelligent, all you need to do in order to "expand the mind" is to play around with concepts such as the one offered here. A highly imaginative premise that opens a plethora of possible worlds, and a variety of questions without answers. My kind of questions. Because it's usually the unanswerable questions that are the most fascinating and the most fun.
The one thing that makes no sense though is that the "5 characters" feel nothing, yet they do feel pain. Or is it really illogical? After all, they are capable of feeling mental anguish, which begs the question: can there be mental anguish without its physical counterpart? Are the two mutually exclusive or do they rely on each other to form a complete whole?
And this is precisely why these kinds of TZ episodes "expand the mind", because they make you pose questions you might have never done otherwise. (This doesn't apply to halfwits, naturally, who will find nothing here of interest, because there are no kabooms, no guns being aimed at anyone, and no fashionable anti-racist message. A halfwit would "accuse" this episode of being too cerebral - right after someone explains to them what that word means.)
The fabric of reality is completely unknown to us, regardless of all of mankind's technological achievements and scientific breakthroughs. You can figure out the size and age of the universe, but does that tell you WHAT it actually is, where it is, and why it is? No. Nor would some of these answers perhaps even mean much in the context of the infinitely grander multiverse which we almost definitely inhabit. Note I said "almost" because nothing is a certainty, not even a self-evident "truth" such as the existence of the multiverse.
The only things that are certain in this world are that Serling usually didn't come up with the best ideas, and that halfwits will always prefer the dumbed-down or more preachy episodes to these more "cerebral" ones. Because "oh my brain hurts" is the most oft-heard complaint on Earth - or it would be if only halfwits would voice their complaints aloud. The brain doesn't feel pain, unlike these five lost-and-confused toys, yet the pain that a smart script such as this inflicts on halfwits is enormous.
A halfwit thinks he knows everything, so why would he ever ask so many questions? A premise such as this one is extremely annoying for these people because it wants to question everything, and halfwits NEVER question anything - much less their own halfwittedness.
I had to laugh when I read that one person thought the episode's central theme was "about everyone's need to be loved" - just because Serling in his outro narration makes a brief mention of it. If you think this story is about the need to be loved (or any kind of love-related theme) then you'll probably find that same message in "120 Days of Sodom" as well as in "Cube" i.e. Pretty much anywhere.
Some people actually complained that the story is "too slow". The irony is that it's not the plot that moves slowly by that thing that often hurts them... - DirectorRichard DonnerStarsWally CoxRalph TaegerSue RandallA computer technician begins to take advice for his love life from Agnes, the computer he works with.RATING: best
CONCEPT: computers
GENRE: comedy
PLOT TWIST: very good
ENDING:
PREMISE: very good
WRITER: Shoenfeld
Funny episode with an ideally cast lead actor who plays a geek very well, without hamming it up as many actors would have done. Great direction, clever, original and no flaws. - DirectorRichard L. BareStarsWilliam ShatnerPatricia BreslinGuy WilkersonA pair of newlyweds stopping in a small town are trapped by their own superstition when playing a fortune-telling machine in a local diner.RATING: best
CONCEPT: fortune-telling
GENRE: drama
PLOT TWIST: good
ENDING: upper
PREMISE: very good
WRITER: Matheson
This episode shows just how good Shatner can be when he doesn't overact. Very well written, realistic dialog, but it's the acting that holds everything in place. Shatner's fall into madness is on target, and while there is no major plot-twist - as is nearly always the case - at least none that directly relates to the main characters, there is an intelligent point to be made, devoid of over-the-top preaching. But then again, Serling didn't write it.
In fact, TZ would have been a much better series overall had Serling not been so egotistic, wanting to script most episodes. Had the writing work-load been fairly distributed among more writers, the series would have had far less duds, and more classic episodes. - DirectorRobert FloreyStarsRichard ConteJohn LarchSuzanne LloydA fatigued man fights to stay awake as he explains to a psychiatrist that if he falls asleep it will trigger a nightmare, which will cause his heart to fail.RATING: very good
CONCEPT: insanity
GENRE: horror
PLOT TWIST: great
ENDING: downer
PREMISE: great
WRITER: Beaumont
A typical high-quality season 1 episode with a clever ending that makes you wonder what had really transpired. The conclusion opens several different possibilities, which is partially why this story is so good - and why not all TZ fans seem to be thrilled about it. ("Noooo! My brain hurts!")
The fact that the protagonist dreamed almost everything we'd witnessed can mean several things. One interpretation is that he did have these episodic nightmares involving a woman he feared wanted to kill him but never got round to telling the shrink about them, which would be of course ironic since he dreamt that he did tell him. Another version is that he came into the office with the intent of complaining about some other problem, perhaps very similar, but incorporated the shrink's secretary into his paranoid world, which lead to his demise.
The fact that we don't know the truth is intriguing, not a disadvantage.
The direction is advanced for its period, quite experimental, and the mystery woman is played well. - DirectorBuzz KulikStarsDean JaggerCarmen MathewsRobert EmhardtAn old radio is taking bitter bachelor Ed Lindsay back to a happier time before what he considers worthless tripe on television when he starts picking up radio programs from the 1930's and 1940's.RATING: best
CONCEPT: time travel
GENRE: drama
PLOT TWIST: great
ENDING: upper
PREMISE: great
WRITER: Beaumont
A low-key episode that disappoints both the simple-minded "social message" crowd and the cheap-thrills love-me-some-overacting demographic. No politics here and certainly no action here, none whatsoever.
This is one of several Season 2 episodes shot entirely on video as opposed to film. While this approach may have hurt most of these video episodes, it seems to suit the peculiar mood and slow pace of this particular story. It feels like one of those older British TV plays except that it's shorter and with American accents. Like theater, but in a good sense, not in the overacting, annoying sense.
The choice of music i.e. "Getting Sentimental Over You" was as key to this episode as its romantic premise and the very good cast. In fact, this is where I first heard this song. Where else would I hear it? On MTV? In a Tarantino movie? - DirectorJohn BrahmStarsRichard LongFrank SilveraShirley BallardPaying homage to It's a Wonderful Life (1946), David Gurney wakes up to another ordinary day. Except today, nobody knows who he is including his own wife Wilma.RATING: best
CONCEPT: identity, reality, it-was-all-a-dream
GENRE: mystery
PLOT TWIST: good
ENDING: upper/downer
PREMISE: great
WRITER: Beaumont
Similar twist to "Where Is Everybody", and similar premise as "A World of Difference". Acting and dialog are realistic, and though the twist that his wife is different is obvious from her hidden face it's still a clever twist. A cop-out twist to some extent perhaps but it works.
There is no explanation given in the conclusion, but then again why should there be one? The entire episode is intriguing, and that in itself is enough. And anyway, a character being stuck in the Twilight Zone makes perfect sense, within the show's overall concept. - DirectorDouglas HeyesStarsJohn CarradineH.M. WynantRobin HughesSeeking refuge from a storm, a traveler comes upon a bizarre abbey of monks, who have imprisoned a man who begs for his help. When he confronts the head monk, he is told that the man is the Devil, and he must decide whom to believe.RATING: best
CONCEPT: devil
GENRE: mystery
PLOT TWIST: great
ENDING: downer
PREMISE: great
WRITER: Beaumont - DirectorJacques TourneurStarsGladys CooperNora MarloweMartine BartlettTelephone calls begin to haunt a disabled elderly woman.RATING: very good
CONCEPT: from beyond
GENRE: mystery
PLOT TWIST: great
ENDING: downer
PREMISE: good
WRITER: Matheson
The final plot twist isn't that great, but the main twist makes up for it, plus an interesting mystery that isn't drawn out in a boring way.
The morals are a bit iffy, typical for season 5: the woman gets punished for something that happened 50 years earlier, a case of the punishment way outweighing the "crime". - DirectorPerry LaffertyStarsMike KellinSimon OaklandDavid SheinerAs a U.S. Navy destroyer cruises near Guadalcanal in the South Pacific, its sonar detects muted but constant hammering on metal undersea. The eerie sounds emanate from a submarine on the ocean floor, apparently there since World War II. The ship's chief boatswain's mate becomes very nervous, having served aboard that sub - and he was its sole survivor.RATING: very good
CONCEPT: ghosts
GENRE: mystery
PLOT TWIST: good
ENDING: downer
PREMISE: very good
WRITER: Serling
Well acted and with some unusually solid dialog from Serling who resists the urge to ham it up or give everyone lengthy preachy speeches. The set-up is excellent, i.e. the first half, then the twist comes perhaps a tad early, making the subsequent events somewhat predictable.
Logic-wise, there is the small issue of HQ telling the captain that no sub was ever downed there. - DirectorRichard DonnerStarsWilliam ShatnerChristine WhiteEd KemmerA man, newly recovered from a nervous breakdown, becomes convinced that a monster only he sees is damaging the plane he's flying in.RATING: very good
CONCEPT: gremlins
GENRE: thriller
PLOT TWIST: average
ENDING: downer/upper
PREMISE: great
WRITER: Matheson
The most highly rated episode on IMDb, later re-done in the 80s to better effect. The flaw is Shatner hanging from the window - being held by... what? Opening a door in mid-air would have far worse effects on the passengers than just one person miraculously hanging half-way out of the window.
One of the most original episodes, also strangely combining suspense with elements of comedy. Or did they NOT play it for laughs with the Gremlin? - DirectorChristian NybyStarsLarry BlydenArch JohnsonRobert CornthwaiteThe star of a Western TV series suddenly finds himself transported back in time to the real Wild West, and face-to-face with the real Jesse James.RATING: best
CONCEPT: ghosts
GENRE: comedy, western
PLOT TWIST: good
ENDING:
PREMISE: great
WRITER: Serling
IDEA: Fox
Possibly the best comedic episode, quite funny and clever. Premise kind of a reverse of "A World of Difference".
One of the worst-rated episodes on IMDb, and I struggle to come up with a theory as to why this is. - DirectorDouglas HeyesStarsJohn McIntirePatricia BarryGeorge GrizzardA young man obsessed with winning over an uninterested beauty gets more than he bargained for when he buys a love potion to gain her affection.RATING: very good
CONCEPT: magic potion
GENRE: comedy
PLOT TWIST: good
ENDING: downer/upper
PREMISE: good
WRITER: Presnell
STORY: Collier
The main character is annoying, but otherwise a clever script. Some very funny moments, and an intelligent take on the subject of love, though some people might miss the points. - DirectorJohn BrahmStarsRod SerlingVera MilesMartin MilnerWhile waiting in a bus station, Millicent Barnes has the strange feeling that her doppelganger is trying to take over her life.RATING: very good
CONCEPT: parallel worlds
GENRE: mystery, sci-fi
PLOT TWIST: good
ENDING: downer
PREMISE: great
WRITER: Serling
Should have been more action-packed, given the excellent subject matter. The plot-twist is ruined by a dumb grinning double running stupidly. They didn't have special effects back then, true, but that means they shouldn't have even attempted the scene, or shot it in a more conventional way that does look credible. But there's no excuse for having that actor grin like a moron. - DirectorPerry LaffertyStarsDavid OpatoshuEd NelsonNatalie TrundyA reporter stumbles into a peaceful town where miracles seem to occur due to technology and the townsfolk won't let him leave.RATING: very good
CONCEPT: secret society
GENRE: mystery
PLOT TWIST: very good
ENDING: upper
PREMISE: very good
WRITER: Beaumont
Nice setting, interesting plot, although with rare Ed Wood-like cheese such as "it would destroy the universe" and a bizarre opinion on e=mc2, but overall well acted and decent. Unlikable journalist character. Serling stupidly asks "why do people stay in these small towns", which is typical East/West coast big-city elitism rearing its ugly head. Hollywood people had always felt superior to "Middle America", as if living in a city guarantees intelligence, taste and moral superiority.
A bit like a Star Trek episode.