The parallel between the names of the doll, Tina, and the little step daughter, Christie, both short for Christina presents a psychological paradox which the writer so cleverly included. You wonder if the doll was a psychic extension of the little girls hate for her new step Daddy and any doll would have served it's ultimate purpose. The tense atmosphere in the fractured household plays up the intervention of fate by introducing a scary magical doll which speaks mean words to the protagonist alone. We eventually become almost sympathetic to his plight as we realize the anger expressed by the smiling plastic doll exceeds the meanness of the Step Father. We reach a point where we have to decide between two evils and when the step dad wins out, we regret even have to choose sides in the first place. This episode pioneered the evil doll concept which Serling visited in his later series, Night Gallery as well. The only uniquely disturbing part of this story is that the doll doesn't move around in our sight nor does she change her plastic expression making the title of the episode a paradox in itself. One of the most memorable episode with a timeless innovative method of using a harmless object to scare the crap out of us. Casting June Foray as the creepy voice was a masterful move.
Review of Living Doll
