Usually I avoid reviewing where several hundred people have beaten me to it. I'm breaking my rule because TZ is my favourite SF anthology, and recently I've been able to watch some episodes previously unfamiliar to me, courtesy of Internet Archive.
I love time travel, space travel, and larger than life characters. I dislike the would-be humorous, whimsical, or sentimental stories involving children or animals. I don't share the majority view that the fifty minute episodes are on the whole inferior to the shorter ones. My half dozen favourites, in order:
Walking Distance. Best scene: Martin's father poignantly explains to him that he doesn't belong in the past.
Long Live Walter Jameson. Best scene: colleague Sam confronts Walter with convincing evidence of his considerable past.
No Time Like the Past. Best scene: a dinner table debate between world weary Paul and the jingoistic Mr Hanford.
Of Late I Think of Cliffordville. Best scene: ruthless Feathersmith explains to two businessmen, one of whom he ruined some fifty years in the future, how he's got the better of them, only to be swiftly and brutally disabused.
The Parallel. Best scene: Robert's wife kisses him, and realises he is not the same man she married.
A Kind of a Stopwatch. Best scenes: whenever the tiresome McNulty argues with acid tongued bartender Joe, invariably coming off worse.
Almost as good are Hocus-Pocus and Frisby, Valley of the Shadow, A Stop at Willoughby, Printer's Devil, A Hundred Yards Over the Rim, Death Ship, Persons or Persons Unknown, Back There, Escape Clause, and Stopover in a Quiet Town.
Judging the worst is more problematical, even the lamest turkey has its admirers. The Bard is outrageously bad, Come Wander with Me and The Gift are just terribly dull. Some aren't exactly bad, but overrated. I like Burgess Meredith, but his character in Time Enough at Last is such a wimp, he was far better in Printer's Devil and Mr Dingle. Eye of the Beholder is my TZ equivalent of Star Trek's The Trouble with Tribbles, I just can't fathom why it's always the first or second most highly rated. It completely lacks wit, the dialogue is repetitive, and it's not pleasant to watch. This will probably earn me downvotes, but there it is.
I love time travel, space travel, and larger than life characters. I dislike the would-be humorous, whimsical, or sentimental stories involving children or animals. I don't share the majority view that the fifty minute episodes are on the whole inferior to the shorter ones. My half dozen favourites, in order:
Walking Distance. Best scene: Martin's father poignantly explains to him that he doesn't belong in the past.
Long Live Walter Jameson. Best scene: colleague Sam confronts Walter with convincing evidence of his considerable past.
No Time Like the Past. Best scene: a dinner table debate between world weary Paul and the jingoistic Mr Hanford.
Of Late I Think of Cliffordville. Best scene: ruthless Feathersmith explains to two businessmen, one of whom he ruined some fifty years in the future, how he's got the better of them, only to be swiftly and brutally disabused.
The Parallel. Best scene: Robert's wife kisses him, and realises he is not the same man she married.
A Kind of a Stopwatch. Best scenes: whenever the tiresome McNulty argues with acid tongued bartender Joe, invariably coming off worse.
Almost as good are Hocus-Pocus and Frisby, Valley of the Shadow, A Stop at Willoughby, Printer's Devil, A Hundred Yards Over the Rim, Death Ship, Persons or Persons Unknown, Back There, Escape Clause, and Stopover in a Quiet Town.
Judging the worst is more problematical, even the lamest turkey has its admirers. The Bard is outrageously bad, Come Wander with Me and The Gift are just terribly dull. Some aren't exactly bad, but overrated. I like Burgess Meredith, but his character in Time Enough at Last is such a wimp, he was far better in Printer's Devil and Mr Dingle. Eye of the Beholder is my TZ equivalent of Star Trek's The Trouble with Tribbles, I just can't fathom why it's always the first or second most highly rated. It completely lacks wit, the dialogue is repetitive, and it's not pleasant to watch. This will probably earn me downvotes, but there it is.
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