A young couple are traveling through Ohio when their car's fuel pump takes out, having to wait in a café for a few hours. Don(William Shatner)is an accountant wanting a promotion for office manager, Pat(Patricia Breslin)his lady. Don becomes overwhelmed by a devil-headed penny machine napkin holder that shoots out cards which supposedly foretells the future. Pat tries desperately to pull Don away from it so they can be relinquished from the fear such a machine causes to those who honestly believe of its power to dictate the future. This is an episode dependent on the performers with only a small, rather unintimidating machine as the "doom device". Shatner scores again as a young man who becomes so dependent on the machine(even though it could just be popping out random messages) that he considers it too accurate to be anything but legit. Patricia tries to be the more grounded one who attempts to break her man from the machine's hold on him. Sadly, NICK OF TIME is overshadowed by the other Shatner TWILIGHT ZONE episode, but this is quite a good showcase for his talents(he can deliver a subtle performance, you know).
Review of Nick of Time
