Without ever having seen this episode of The Twilight Zone before, I'm prepared to conditionally confer it to my personal Top Ten list. It helps that the Western is my favorite movie genre, and having Cliff Robertson head the cast along with a couple more veteran character actors in support makes the story even more intriguing. Of course the similarities to other TZ episodes are apparent; one that immediately comes to mind testing the time travel concept is the first season's "Execution", similarly starting out in the heyday of the Old West. Interestingly, that story also had it's dislocated protagonist become fascinated with a jukebox. It seems Rod Serling had no problem rehashing plot lines to the most minor detail.
As the local doctor called in to examine Christian Horn (Robertson), Ed Platt has a curious diagnosis of the wagon master's malady - a delusion of the purest form. You know, I liked that. I don't know if that's a clinically accepted term today, but it seemed to make sense within the confines of the story presented here. The history book passage mentioning Horn's son as a pioneer in the field of antibiotics was just the cleverest way to have the story come full circle to it's inevitable conclusion. The other neat touch was the way Horn's rifle turned into a virtual relic the minute he ventured back 'over the rim'. More subtle than most of the Zone's twists, I think that's what makes the episode so appealing.
Anyone who's read any of my other Twilight Zone or old time classic movie reviews knows I like to go in for an examination of those remembrances of the past as highlighted by the going price of commodities back in the day. As this story ended, I couldn't help but think about the price of homemade apple pie at Joe's Airflite Cafe pegged at fifteen cents, with an additional twenty cents for a la mode. Wouldn't it have been cool if Horn had noticed those signs, and scratched his head at how expensive things had gotten so far in the future!
As the local doctor called in to examine Christian Horn (Robertson), Ed Platt has a curious diagnosis of the wagon master's malady - a delusion of the purest form. You know, I liked that. I don't know if that's a clinically accepted term today, but it seemed to make sense within the confines of the story presented here. The history book passage mentioning Horn's son as a pioneer in the field of antibiotics was just the cleverest way to have the story come full circle to it's inevitable conclusion. The other neat touch was the way Horn's rifle turned into a virtual relic the minute he ventured back 'over the rim'. More subtle than most of the Zone's twists, I think that's what makes the episode so appealing.
Anyone who's read any of my other Twilight Zone or old time classic movie reviews knows I like to go in for an examination of those remembrances of the past as highlighted by the going price of commodities back in the day. As this story ended, I couldn't help but think about the price of homemade apple pie at Joe's Airflite Cafe pegged at fifteen cents, with an additional twenty cents for a la mode. Wouldn't it have been cool if Horn had noticed those signs, and scratched his head at how expensive things had gotten so far in the future!