Here's a question to ponder: What is your Favorite Television Show?
As some of you may know, I like writing diaries about pop culture. While some claim it rots peoples' brains, I think it offers a glimpse of humanity that can sometimes explain other "serious" issues.
For example, one of the first "Star Trek" episodes I remember seeing was the one where the Enterprise crossed paths with the black & white cookie people. The episode is just damning proof of how absurd & stupid racial divisions are.
Bele: "It is obvious to the most simpleminded that Lokai is of an inferior breed."
Spock: "The obvious visual evidence, Commissioner, is that he is of the same breed as yourself."
Bele: "Are you blind, Commander Spock? Well, look at me. Look at me! ... I am black on the right side. Lokai is white on the right side. All of his people are white on the right side."
However, as much as I love Trek, there is another television show that gets my vote.
When I was a wee little lad back in the late '80s, I grew up on re-runs of "The Twilight Zone" that came on after school. I would get off the bus & my mother would have a near-frozen Coke ready for me to sit and watch "Transformers," "Voltron," "G.I. Joe," and "The Twilight Zone." When I think about it, I sorta believe some of the lessons learned from those episodes informed my political values, as well as taught me to never get on an alien ship before knowing what said aliens like to eat.
The impetus for this diary was watching the New Year's Day marathon of episodes on the Sci-Fi Channel. Even though the show is half a century old, it still works damn well. And some of the messages in those episodes are as relevant today as when they were made.
► The Eye Of The Beholder
This episode deals with one Janet Tyler. Her head is wrapped in gauze because she is undergoing experimental treatment to deal with a hideous deformity that has made her an outcast from the rest of society. All she wants and dreams to be is normal. Also, the state has deemed that which is different in society to be dangerous, and must be "cut out like a cancerous growth."
The entire story you're led to believe that under those bandages is a hideous monster (playing on the viewers own preconceptions of beauty), only to have the story twist & find out that she is the one who looks "normal," and the world in which she lives in is populated by what looks like pig-people.
The story has been seen as one of universal tolerance for differences, from race to homosexuality. Rod Serling ends the episode with this message.....
"Now the questions that come to mind. Where is this place and when is it, what kind of world where ugliness is the norm and beauty the deviation from that norm? The answer is, it doesn't make any difference. Because the old saying happens to be true. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, in this year or a hundred years hence, on this planet or wherever there is human life, perhaps out among the stars. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Lesson to be learned... in the Twilight Zone.
► To Serve Man
A linguistic lesson to be learned. "Serve" has two meanings, and when you assume.....
► It's A Good Life
The story has been seen as a metaphor for totalitarian political leaders who rule out of ignorance & can't stand to be told they're wrong, and the people who acquiesce to their wishes. You can see the latter when one of Anthony's (Bill Mummy) neighbors is at his wit's end, and can no longer take living under the rule of a six-year-old with God-like powers. He begs the others to help him stop Anthony. But none lift a finger to help, and the neighbor gets to be a Jack-in-the-Box before going to the cornfield.
"On a given morning not too long ago, the rest of the world disappeared and Peaksville was left all alone. Its inhabitants were never sure whether the world was destroyed and only Peaksville left untouched or whether the village had somehow been taken away. They were, on the other hand, sure of one thing: the cause.
A monster had arrived in the village. Just by using his mind, he took away the automobiles, the electricity, the machines - because they displeased him - and he moved an entire community back into the dark ages - just by using his mind. Now I'd like to introduce you to some of the people in Peaksville, Ohio. This is Mr. Fremont. It's in his farmhouse that the monster resides. This is Mrs. Fremont. And this is Aunt Amy, who probably had more control over the monster in the beginning than almost anyone. But one day she forgot; she began to sing aloud. Now, the monster doesn't like singing, so his mind snapped at her, turned her into the smiling, vacant thing you're looking at now. She sings no more. And you'll note that the people in Peaksville, Ohio, have to smile; they have to think happy thoughts and say happy things because, once displeased, the monster can wish them into a cornfield or change them into a grotesque, walking horror. This particular monster can read minds, you see. He knows every thought, he can feel every emotion. Oh yes, I did forget something, didn't I? I forgot to introduce you to the monster. This is the monster. His name is Anthony Fremont. He's six years old, with a cute little-boy face and blue, guileless eyes. But when those eyes look at you, you'd better start thinking happy thoughts, because the mind behind them is absolutely in charge.
This is the Twilight Zone."
► Nightmare At 20,000 Feet
This episode is great, but when I watch it now I can't help but laugh at the "gremlin" on the wing. It looks like a mean-ass version of Snuggle (the fabric softener bear) ripping up the engine.
► The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street
Aired not long after the era of McCarthyism, the story shows the effect of what giving in to paranoia & fear can have on a society.
"The tools of conquest do not necessarily come with bombs and explosions and fallout. There are weapons that are simply thoughts... attitudes... prejudices. To be found only in the minds of men. For the record, prejudices can kill, and suspicion can destroy, and the thoughtless, frightened search for a scapegoat has a fallout all its own for the children, and the children yet unborn. And the pity of it is that these things cannot be confined to The Twilight Zone."
► Time Enough At Last
All Henry Bemis (Burgess Meredith) wished was to be left alone to read with his books, only to one day be given his wish by the total destruction of the world in a nuclear war. However, be careful what you wish for.....
► Will The Real Martian Please Stand Up?
You're stuck in a diner in the middle of nowhere with a bunch of people you don't know waiting to get back on your bus and get underway. A jolly cook is tending the counter when police officers come in with the news of a crashed UFO nearby, and footprints leading towards the diner. Though the only patrons of the roadside eatery are bus passengers, there is one more diner than there were people on the bus. So, who isn't who they claim to be?