It's like trying to take down a bomber with a peashooter

But it's all we got.

Just tuned in to the last 15 minutes of the current Twilight Zone episode at the Sci Fi Channel. As usual, for a holiday, they'showing marathons, and also as usual, it's the Twilight Zone.

Unlike usually, or unusually I suppose I should say, the TV guide on my TV (I"ve got satellite) is no help. It tells me that I"m watching Twilight Zone, but doesn't give the title. Most annoying.

Anyway, a police officer and a woman are being terrorized by something out in the dark. All kinds of stilted dialog - you know right away Rod Serling wrote this episode. At the end, the woman runs...and of course she falls. Anytime in a 1950s tv series - heck, probably even up to the 80s, anytime a woman runs she will inevitably fall so that the man can arrive and protect her from whatever it is she's runnng from (or allow her to be captured so the man can rescue her).

Then, we see this giant spaceman, 40 stories taller than they are. Just standing there, not making any threatening moves.

The cop says all he's got is a gun, and that trying to take down the alien with it is "like trying to take down a bomber with a peashooter, but it's all we've got."

And so he starts shooting with this "peashooter" - at an alien that's doing nothing more than standing still, making no threatening moves, but fortunately it's not an alien but a balloon, and so it crumples.

Then they find a teeny tiny flying saucer, and fortunatley the two aliens inside speak English as they beg to be able to return home, as the Earth people aren't frightened.

To put it bluntly, not one of TZ's better episodes.

Anyway, starred Mark Richman, an actor with a recognizable face, but I couldn't place the name to it until the end. Took me slightly less time with Hazel Court, although she did look a bit more aged than in The Raven (Boris Karloff, Vincent Price, Peter Lorre, Jack Nicholson) which is the onl thing I've ever seen her in.

Most of the Twilight Zone episodes are a lot of fun. Several of 'em have "morals" or "messages" that could be well-considered today, but I must say that Rod Serling's dialog does run a little stilted and/or ...grandileloquent isn't the word I'm looking for but the proper word is escaping me for some reason...pompous? It takes great actors to be able to say those lines with a straight face, or convincingly.

Just c hecked the IMDB, and found that this episode, filmed in the 5th season, 1964, was the last episode of Twilight Zone to be filmed. The last episode to be aired was The Bewitchin Pool.