To Serve Man 

An alien race comes to Earth, promising peace and sharing technology. A linguist and his team set out to translate the aliens' language, using a book whose title they deduce is "To Serve Man".

Director:

Richard L. Bare

Writers:

Rod Serling (teleplay by), Damon Knight (based on a story by)

Stars:

Lloyd Bochner, Susan Cummings, Richard Kiel

Cast

Episode complete credited cast:
Lloyd Bochner	...	Michael Chambers
Susan Cummings	...	Patty
Richard Kiel	...	Kanamit
Hardie Albright	...	Secretary General
Theodore Marcuse	...	Citizen Gregori
Bartlett Robinson	...	Colonel #1
Carleton Young	...	Colonel #2 (as Carlton Young)
Nelson Olmsted	...	Scientist
Robert Tafur	...	Señor Valdes
Lomax Study	...	Leveque
Jerry Fujikawa	...	Japanese Delegate (as J.H. Fujikawa)

Storyline

Michael Chambers recounts recent events on Earth after the arrival of a alien space craft. The aliens, known as Kanamit, seem friendly and assure everyone they have nothing to be afraid of. In fact, they offer to share wonderful technology that will provide limitless energy, cure all disease and convert deserts into lush gardens. For the people of Earth, paradise has arrived. Chambers is an encryption specialist and they try their best to decrypt a book the Kanamit left behind. The book's title seems benign - but it's not what they think it is.

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Plot Keywords:

bad guys win | disarmament | alien | book | desert | 

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Genres:

Fantasy | Horror | Mystery | Sci-Fi | Thriller

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Certificate:

TV-PG

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English French Japanese Spanish

Release Date:

2 March 1962 (USA)

Also Known As:

To Serve Man

Filming Locations:

United Nations - First Avenue at 46th Street, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Cayuga Productions, CBS Television Network

Technical Specs

Runtime:

25 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

KROQ radio (Pasadena, Los Angeles) used to use the dialogue when Michael Chambers asks Kanamit the time ("What time is it?") to announce the midday time ("On earth it is 12:00 noon.")

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Goofs

Chambers compares translating the Kanamit book into English to decoding Japanese messages in World War II. This analogy makes no sense. The WWII code-breakers took a coded message which looked like a meaningless string of Japanese characters, and reversed the coding process to produce a readable Japanese message. The problem here is not that the Kanamits coded their book, but that no one on Earth knows the Kanamit language. There is no way that they could take the book by itself and translate it if they did not have a "Rosetta stone".

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Quotes

Michael Chambers: [narrating] This is the way nightmares begin - or, perhaps, end. Very simple, direct, unadorned. Incredible, and yet so terribly real, that even while they're happening we live with them, and digest them, and assimilate them. And if it's twelve o'clock noon, that's what you preoccupy yourself with. You don't think about twelve o'clock noon on the next day or the day after that. But that's what we should have been thinking about - tomorrow and the day after tomorrow. We were preoccupied with ...

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Connections

Referenced in The Simpsons: Treehouse of Horror XVII (2006)

User Reviews

You can't get any better than this....

The episode begins with a race from another planet coming to Earth and offering to make all our problems disappear. Despite our natural distrust of such claims, the planet soon becomes a paradise--with plenty to eat, peace throughout the land and humans praising these well-intentioned beings. However, despite the windfall, two translators who work for the United Nations doggedly try to unlock the alien language contained in one of their books. So far, they only have been able to translate the title, "To Serve Man", but the rest alludes them.

When it comes to the excellent show THE TWILIGHT ZONE, you can't find a better episode than this one--and that's saying a lot because they made quite a few gems. That's because this one is based on a short story that is so gosh-darn clever that you can't help but admire the episode. Plus, the acting, sets and mood is so well created that it just screams "quality television".