![]() ![]() Whereas Torchwood made a weird classist argument against being isolated from society, “Not All Men” suggests that many males of the human species are simply or one or two asteroids (or drinks) away from becoming monsters.įurther reading: The Twilight Zone On Stage – A Classic Enters a New DimensionĪnecdotally, this assertion from the Zone is pretty accurate. Turns out: NOPE! It’s not aliens at all, but just really screwed up humans who live in really big houses in the country. Written by Heather Anne Campbell (she co-wrote last week’s episode, “Six Degrees of Freedom”) “Not All Men,” seems to split the difference between a dark-but-happy Captain Kirk sentiment, and lands somewhere a little closer to Captain Jack from Torchwood.įor those who remember, the Doctor Who spin-off briefly featured all sorts of X-Files-esque adventures, including an episode called “Countrycide.” In it, the Torchwood team discovers some weird butchering of humans happening in the English countryside and just assumes it’s the work of aliens. This sentiment was put more cheerfully by Captain Kirk in the classic Star Trek episode “A Taste of Armageddon” when he said that every day a human being could “choose not to kill…TODAY!” The implication is that evolved humans make that choice over and over and over again, and that is the definition of progress. ![]() The episode casually floats the idea that human beings (and men in specific) might all be inherently bad, but that our ability to choose to act against our nature is what makes us civilized. After Annie and her sister are nearly killed the the suddenly rioting men, it’s eventually revealed that there was no spooky extraterrestrial influence from the space rocks instead, it just created a pretense for these men to act terrible.įurther reading: Ray Bradbury’s Influnece is All Over “Six Degrees of Freedom”Īnnie’s nephew puts it like this: “I chose not to.” What he means is that he chose not to give into the rage and hatred inside of him, even though he felt it, too. Ditto for “Not All Men,” but minus the aliens. In “Maple Street,” the humans are being manipulated by aliens, even though their decisions are their own. In “Maple Street,” this caused paranoia, whereas in “Not All Men,” it causes the males of the species to behave like violent, murdering assholes. In both “The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street,” and the new episode, “Not All Men,” a meteor shower is blamed for strange, behavior. ![]() But, perhaps most obviously, the essential premise seems lifted from one of the most beloved Zone episodes ever the 1960 story “The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street.” The biggest difference here is that the twist is made a little more damning and specific. For fans of old-school sci-fi, this set-up recalls everything from Invasion of the Body Snatchers to Robert Heinlein’s novel, The Puppet Masters. They aren’t listed in any particular order of recommendation or relevance to the work we’re putting on stage, since all of these are so different.After mysterious red asteroids shower a small town, a woman named Annie (Taissa Farmiga) starts noticing certain people behaving oddly. Here’s a list of the episodes we studied (although many of the company watched even more – it’s a tough job, but some improviser has to do it!). Denton on Doomsday”, or the science fiction in “To Serve Man”. We looked at how various genres were carried out in the show, like the Western story of “Mr. So we looked at these episodes…a LOT of them! We looked to find the overall framework of the show (it’s just not Twilight Zone without those Rod Serling monologues). Twilight Zone had science fiction episodes, western episodes, horror episodes, psychological thriller episodes, comedic episodes – all of which were told from the viewpoint of the later 50’s / early 60’s. Unlike Star Trek, Twilight Zone isn’t just one genre. Twilight Zone in particular presents an interesting (and exciting) challenge for improvisers. We always get asked what we do to prepare for certain shows.Īnd just because we make it up at show time doesn’t mean we don’t do a lot of homework! In a show like Twilight Zone, we go right to the source – the original show! Through the miracle of Netflix, we have the entire series at our fingertips at any time. ![]()
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