Okay episode of The Twilight Zone stars John Beck as Major Alex McAndrews, a decorated fighter pilot who is asked by General Greg Slater (George R Robertson; Commissioner Henry J Hurst in the Police Academy movies, always flustered at GW Bailey's Captain Harris) to enter a discovered portal by the military to locate missing military personnel who had went before him never to return. Through Beck, we see that McAndrews has been a good soldier his whole career, but is overcome with a sense of sadness and regret for what the military actually took away from him—what does this man do once he is retired, put out to pasture and no longer needed in the role he has filled an entire career? On the other side of the portal could be the answer as he finds the likes of Captain Henry Kincaid (Eugene Clark) and 2nd Lieutenant Emilio Perez (Robert Collins) perfectly content, living new lives with an agrarian farming community who offer solitude and all the comforts, without the hate, anger, and violence that comes from the earth they all know. This episode's story feels quickly rushed as a great deal of time is spent describing how Slater's bunch discovered and maintain the portal, not as much given to the "Eden" Kincaid blissfully enjoys. Beck, to his credit, is a sympathetic figure as the major who has followed orders and been an obedient soldier, showing us the disappointments and melancholy derived from missing out on life by submitting himself wholly to the military, this Eden, this heaven, perhaps a godsend he desperate needs. The conclusion, when McAndrews discovers that the portal (he couldn't find during the day, Kincaid knowing this, but concealing the secret because he worried that once the military knew of a place that could be taken through force if necessary would ruin the beauty, peace, and tranquility this new world provides), presents the major with a quandary: does he go back through the portal and tell his superiors what he found, or does he keep the secret and stay with Village Leader Brenn (Patricia Collins) and her family, starting a brand new life, one free of loneliness? Directed by Atom Egoyan (Exotica).
5 Reviews
Go to the other side a different world go back in time!
blanbrn29 August 2019
This "Twilight Zone" episode called "The Wall" from season 3 1989 is one that's different a journey back in time. It involves an older Air Force officer who goes thru a portal of energy a place a strange dimension or the past a place that's seems so different. Only it's seems like paradise, many might consider this episode like "The Ninth Gate" or something similar to The "Wizard of Oz". Overall good episode of wonder a journey and escape from time and reality.
60's commune, Amish village minus the religion?
cpotato101019 August 2019
What would you do, if you ended up in a small village, with something above subsistence farming?
This looks like some of the 60's era communes, less the mechanical devices (mostly, there is a clock in the background during the first indoor talk), and apparently, electricity.
Another analog might be the Amish, but possibly even simpler, and without the religious basis.
But what happens when someone tries to "improve" things, with some type of mechanical invention? And then another, and another. All with the idea of being "labor-saving" devices.
What is not brought up is their method of conflict resolution. I suspect that is usually what ends these types of groups, other than lack of resources.
Me, I like my tech toys too much to voluntarily join such a group.
It was interesting that this episode was written by J. Michael Straczynski, who wrote Babylon 5, among other things.
This looks like some of the 60's era communes, less the mechanical devices (mostly, there is a clock in the background during the first indoor talk), and apparently, electricity.
Another analog might be the Amish, but possibly even simpler, and without the religious basis.
But what happens when someone tries to "improve" things, with some type of mechanical invention? And then another, and another. All with the idea of being "labor-saving" devices.
What is not brought up is their method of conflict resolution. I suspect that is usually what ends these types of groups, other than lack of resources.
Me, I like my tech toys too much to voluntarily join such a group.
It was interesting that this episode was written by J. Michael Straczynski, who wrote Babylon 5, among other things.
I'd Be Bored to Death
Hitchcoc5 July 2017
A soldier is sent through a kind of worm hole. An opening has appeared in a research facility and four other folks have gone through, but have not returned. This guy has been dutiful his whole life and has no happiness in it. His wife left him and he feels desperate, hence his volunteering. When he goes through he finds a kind of "paradise" where a sort of Amish people are running things. The others who have preceded him are there and they try to convince him there is no way back. The indigenous people grow their own food, live a life of calm, and have no conflict. It is a sort of Eden. By the same token, there is no change, only existence. Personally, I can't imagine living in such a place, but for a therapeutic experience, it serves the purpose. The military comes off pretty badly here. Just a bit simplistic in their overzealous bellicose nature.
John Beck's 'Stache
CherCee19 August 2019
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