"the Shelter" is by far the most unsettling and frightening episode of all Twilight Zones. What makes it so is that there is no paranormal elements to the story. It is absolutely grounded in reality. That's what makes it better than " the Monsters are due on Maple st". The panicked neighbors show their true colors when nuclear war is threatened, trying to get into the Doctors bomb shelter in his basement. Most reviewers give the Doctor a pass for his behavior in the shelter but I think even he is does not act in the best way. He basically tells them to go away and die. And his wife makes the very important argument that maybe surviving the initial nuclear attack may not be worth it - it will just prolong their suffering. That has always been the folly of nuclear bomb shelters. You may survive for a couple of weeks or months in your shelter but eventually you have to come out to a world utterly destroyed and covered in lethal fallout.
The Doctors thin veneer of civilization is stripped off just the same as his neighbors. He wants to survive at all costs too. Even if it means listening to his friends die right outside his shelter door.
Finally, as an aside, I wonder if the fact that the shelter door was so flimsy that a pipe could bash it open was an intentional part of the story. Was the writer suggesting that the shelter was so poorly built no one would have survived?
The Doctors thin veneer of civilization is stripped off just the same as his neighbors. He wants to survive at all costs too. Even if it means listening to his friends die right outside his shelter door.
Finally, as an aside, I wonder if the fact that the shelter door was so flimsy that a pipe could bash it open was an intentional part of the story. Was the writer suggesting that the shelter was so poorly built no one would have survived?