User Reviews

In memoriam to a wonderful actor, Cliff Robertson, who passed away yesterday, I watched a terrific little Twilight Zone episode featuring him as a nineteenth century pioneer man who has been leading a wagon train through hostile territory facing the elements and Apache, his wife tired, son running fever, and the company of families with him absent hope or belief that California, a place where such a journey offered the possibility of prosperity and purpose, was worth their sacrifice (leaving Ohio), the effort and time they have spent fighting hunger, heat, cold, and illness.

Christian Horn (Robertson) tells his wife and men (one of which is John Astin, Gomez Addams of "The Addams Family" fame) that he will go over a rim not too far ahead and see what lies in front of them before the company decides it might be wise to turn back and just give up. What Horn finds is beyond his comprehension: power lines and a highway, including a giant monster that nearly hits him (a truck). He treks a mile or so, finds a diner, its owner, Joe (John Crawford) and Joe's wife, Mary Lou (Evans Evans). Horn learns from an equally perplexed Joe (taken aback by Horn's stovepipe hat, unusually "new" relic of a rifle, and serious look of bewilderment) that he is in Arizona, outside of Phoenix. Invited in to the diner, Horn is stunned by what he sees. When Horn discovers that he is in the year 1961, instead of 1847, you can imagine his surprise.

A pure performance from Robertson, who I think just nailed the role to perfection, as he conveys a man totally shell-shocked by what he sees in this new time. It's authentic because we would carry the same expression if facing similar circumstances. Horn sees these "inventions" that are so far advanced from the time he comes from, the experience would elicit shock and awe. All Horn can do is look at a jukebox, the inside of a diner, the instant appearance of a glass of cool water with mouth agape and in total silence. I think the characters of Joe and Mary Lou are just as important because they have a hard time conversing with such an *oddball* (you see, to them he is strange because of his outfit and puzzled demeanor), needing to call the local doc (Edward Platt, Chief of "Get Smart" fame) to help them out. Doc chats with Horn and informs Joe and Mary Lou that the patient's details of his pioneer travels, family, and struggles seem so intricate that such a delusion (as they three believe, because the preposterous notion that he really is a man from 1847 is just too hard to accept) would be incredible to create. When Doc calls the local authorities, Horn flees, running hard and fast to get back to his family. Will Horn be able to return to his family?

The inclusion of penicillin and how an encyclopedia describes Horn's son, the time paradox theme, always used so effectively on the Twilight Zone, once again is utilized to describe how a man—somehow taken from his time and transplanted to the future—can be put somewhere else seemingly for a reason, a purpose he may soon learn later. I just love the idea of the fish-out-of-water formula, regarding time travel and the way others within the "future"(normally in the 60s when the Twilight Zone was current)respond (and vice versa) to their *visitor*. That awkwardness that derives from such an impossible series of events has a special place in the Twilight Zone. Rest in everlasting peace, Cliff Robertson.

Having just re-watched this--and without trying to spoil it--an aspect of the story that seems to have been missed in other reviews is that at the beginning of the story, the group has reached the end of its rope and going "A Hundred yards Over the Rim" is an act of desperation and not a particularly hopeful one.

By the end, as part of the time-travel paradox, all that the Robinson character has seen and experienced is what gives him the inspiration--and the others, by extension--the hope to carry on and create the future (1960's present) he alone experiences first-hand. THAT's what makes he story for me.

It isn't a fashionable point to make now-a-days, when "progress' is all but a dirty word, but surviving what we now call the "Westward Expansion" wasn't a foregone conclusion for any one person, or group of people, and only the hope of a brighter future kept some of them from giving up, and "going back," which would have meant almost certain death for many, not to mention for their children and grandchildren.

That's the hopeful message I take away from this episode (as well as most of the high points others have mentioned). But, as I say, not a message that I fear gets taught much in today's schools or comes across in the media, much to our detriment.

Hardy 19th century wagon train leader Christian Horn (superbly played with total conviction by Cliff Robertson) goes over hundred years into the future in New Mexico in search of medicine for his sick son.

Director Buzz Kulik keeps the engrossing story moving at a constant pace and ably crafts an absorbing enigmatic atmosphere. Rod Serling's potent script says something poignant (and significant) about the remarkable strength, resilience, and determination of the human spirit. Robertson completely nails the confusion of his fish out of water character; he receives fine support from John Crawford as friendly café owner Joe, Evans Evans as Joe's equally nice wife Mary Lou, Edward Platt as a pragmatic doctor, and, in a solid serious role, John Astin (Gomez on "The Adams Familt") as the weary Charlie. Fred Steiner's moody score and the crisp black and white cinematography by George T. Clemens further enhance the overall sterling quality of this excellent episode.

The ending when Christian disappears but drops his rifle and now the gun looks a hundred years older is both uneven and pointless.

Another problem. He has seen too much of the future and brought back a modern bottle of pills into 1847. More unevenness.

Here is the ep should have been. The couple from the diner should have been out hiking in the desert and suddenly they come across a man (Christian) in a stovepipe hat who tells them he is from a wagon train and about his sick son with pneumonia. They just give him a few health pointers (no bottle of pills) to help and then he wanders off and the couple is left to wonder if he really was from the past. Later back at the diner they look in an encyclopedia and find mention of Christian's son and they believe they really did meet a man from the past. Much better even story.

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!

In "A Hundred Yards Over the Rim" an 1800's Ohio family making the trek via wagon to California find themselves sick, thirsty, and dying. The patriarch heads over the rim up ahead to look for water and finds himself transported into the 1960's. He meets a couple who run an isolated gas station. Puzzled by his surroundings, he soon learns the truth and is thought of as a madman for his stories. He ends up taking some penicillin and fleeing the cops back to his own time back over the rim. The medicine helps his sick boy and the caravan continues on to California.

This is a fun little time travel story with a heartwarming ending. The bulk of this episode is Cliff Robertson doing the "fish out of water" bit typical of these kind of stories but he pulls it off well. It never feels too rushed or too slow. Just a really solidly paced and acted episode.

"A Hundred Yards Over the Rim" is a decent enough episode, but don't expect a lot of magic. That's because it's one of these time travel episodes but it doesn't really have any sort of twist or unexpected endings--it's all very straight forward. Why it is currently rated 8.3 I really don't know.

The episode begins in 1847. A wagon train from Ohio headed for California is bogged down in the New Mexico desert and it looks like they will soon succumb to the elements, lack of water and illness. The leader is Cliff Robertson, whose son has had a fever for 11 days and can't endure much more. At one point, Robertson tells the rest of the people that they should stop and rest--he'll go on up ahead and scout things. However, when he goes up over the ridge, he's magically transported to 1961. The folks in the diner who meet Robertson are pretty baffled by his clothes and ancient rifle. Likewise, nothing seems right to Robertson. Eventually, he leaves--after taking some antibiotics with him for his son. Then, once again, he goes over the ridge and lands back in 1847. The people chasing him cannot locate him after they go over the ridge and all that's left of Robertson is an old rotting gun.

The acting was good in this one but there wasn't much irony or fun or chills. A guy magically transports himself to get antibiotics for his dying son and therefore lives happily ever after--nothing more. The how and why of this time travel, like the episode "Back There", is unexplained--and this is one of the weaknesses of the plot.

Picture if you will a Serling script which goes from stem to stern with a great cast for 30 minutes of tv. Cliff Robertson was 88 years old when he died in 2011. John Astin is 88 years old as I write this in 2018. A strange coincidence to be sure.

There is 2 most odd things that happen when Christian (Robertson) steps over the rim looking for water for his 1840's wagon train. First, in the future, he finds the medicine he needs to cure his ailing son and is able to take it back with him, Second, the gasoline station owner tells him where a natural spiring is located so that when he steps backs to the 1840's from 1961, he knows exactly where to go to save everybody in his party.

This one is well acted and Serling wrote a solid scipt here. In a way, this one might have been an idea for Ed Simmons sit com in1967 - "The Second Hundred Years". Serling here hits a lot of the time change issues that would be used for comedy in this sitcom later on. Robertson, oer 100 years after his time, has a lot of the same issues anyone would have going that far ahead of their own time. A brillant idea by Serling, who makes this work within the constrictions of the tv studio budget. While Serling could create money in the Twilght Zone, he could not print it to spend on producing his show. Very well written episode.

This is a western episode you never see on the likes of Wagon Train. Indeed it is about a wagon train, but it involves a different type of discovery we're somehow in the desert, Cliff Robertson passes through a time tunnel that takes him from 1847 to 1961 (or somewhere around that time). he's first spooked by a speeding semi on a highway, two things he's never seen before, and he gets a little freaked out when he comes across a modern-looking civilization that is nothing like the desert or open plains he's been used to seeing.

This is another one of those episodes that leaves more questions than it answers. It's simply an odd situation that happens and nothing is really dealt with to create a strong plot. The performances and script are decent for what it is, but what is the purpose supposed to be? John Crawford, Edward Platt and John Astin are among the familiar faces in the episode, but nothing is really revealed to indicate why this needed to be done and there certainly isn't any other message other than that those who lived decades before us have a lot to deal with, something entirely too obvious to make the subject of a TV episode.