With one hundred eleven episodes down, (this being #112), and forty four more to go, I'd have to say that "No Time Like The Past" offers up the best speech of the entire Twilight Zone series. It's the one where Paul Driscoll (Dana Andrews) admonishes Hanford (Robert Cornthwaite) at the dinner table about the blood and guts reality of war against the rabid sentiment of conquest for it's own sake. It provides Miss Abigail (Patricia Breslin) with an insight into Driscoll's character, and perhaps more so, an idea that he's 'in love with a moment' that can't quite be comprehended.
I'm sure like many viewers I was intrigued by the story's choice of moments in time for Driscoll to go back to. With World War II not quite two decades old, Rod Serling found that era a frequent stopping off point for his characters. That was the case with Season One's 'Judgment Night' along with a couple more in Season Three - 'Deaths-Head Revisited' and 'A Quality of Mercy'. Adolph Hitler even made a prior appearance (sort of) in the second season's 'The Man in the Bottle'. This show used actual archive footage of Hitler in a couple of instances, further insinuating Driscoll into events of the past that he initially sought to change for the better.
Since there's no bargaining with history, Driscoll is defeated at every turn in his attempt to affect outcomes. Interestingly, he tries to retreat to the seemingly innocuous America of 1881 where he once again is defeated by the rigidity of the past. Maybe I'm being a bit too naive here, but why was Driscoll so intent on unbridling the horses. Why not just GRAB the lantern?
While watching, I couldn't help but draw a couple of comparisons to the 'Star Trek' episode from that series' first season - 'The City on the Edge of Forever'. Besides the obvious transporter room analogy, I was struck by the similarity between Driscoll's encounter with Miss Abby, and William Shatner's serious fall for the Joan Collins character in that story. Driscoll was certainly more dispassionate about the whole thing, which might have made him a tad bit out of the ordinary when you come right down to it. That, along with a sense of history that I find just too unbelievable. I mean, everyone who was alive when John F. Kennedy was killed remembers exactly where they were and what they were doing on Novemmber 22nd, 1963. But seriously, how would anyone from the future know what day James A. Garfield was shot, much less the day he died?
I'm sure like many viewers I was intrigued by the story's choice of moments in time for Driscoll to go back to. With World War II not quite two decades old, Rod Serling found that era a frequent stopping off point for his characters. That was the case with Season One's 'Judgment Night' along with a couple more in Season Three - 'Deaths-Head Revisited' and 'A Quality of Mercy'. Adolph Hitler even made a prior appearance (sort of) in the second season's 'The Man in the Bottle'. This show used actual archive footage of Hitler in a couple of instances, further insinuating Driscoll into events of the past that he initially sought to change for the better.
Since there's no bargaining with history, Driscoll is defeated at every turn in his attempt to affect outcomes. Interestingly, he tries to retreat to the seemingly innocuous America of 1881 where he once again is defeated by the rigidity of the past. Maybe I'm being a bit too naive here, but why was Driscoll so intent on unbridling the horses. Why not just GRAB the lantern?
While watching, I couldn't help but draw a couple of comparisons to the 'Star Trek' episode from that series' first season - 'The City on the Edge of Forever'. Besides the obvious transporter room analogy, I was struck by the similarity between Driscoll's encounter with Miss Abby, and William Shatner's serious fall for the Joan Collins character in that story. Driscoll was certainly more dispassionate about the whole thing, which might have made him a tad bit out of the ordinary when you come right down to it. That, along with a sense of history that I find just too unbelievable. I mean, everyone who was alive when John F. Kennedy was killed remembers exactly where they were and what they were doing on Novemmber 22nd, 1963. But seriously, how would anyone from the future know what day James A. Garfield was shot, much less the day he died?