You know a series is in trouble when it comes up with an entry as dazzlingly bad as Black Jackets. The infamous Plan 9 from Outer Space has absolutely nothing on this turkey. Just consider the brain-dead logic behind the following: Alien scouts infiltrate an Ozzie & Harriet neighborhood dressed as motorcycle hoodlums; Alien Control consists of a talking eye and an erector set receiver; Super space travelers sneak around to poison a water supply; and a puppy dog invader named Scott whimpers plaintively, "Do you know the meaning of the word' love' ?" Well, uh, no, but I do know the meaning of 'rock bottom' , and I think what I just heard was a 'thud'!. Okay, maybe you can get some laughs by taking all this as high camp. I can't, because I hate to see a once proud series reduced to the level of My Daughter is Dating a Space Creature. The biggest unanswered question for the normally savvy Mr. Serling-- Was someone actually paid real money for putting these ideas down on paper? No wonder the series was soon canceled.
REPLY to Icravens42. "...no concept of what the Twighlight Zone was about when it came out, the era when it was shown." Quite the contrary. I was a teen-ager during the 1950's, ripe for the times, and for better or worse, saw just about every piece of drive-in schlock coming down the pipe, including a carload of leather jackets movies . You give this entry probably a "D", I give it an "F"-- okay, no big deal. But no concept? I give it an "F" precisely because this was the kind of television dreck that TZ had to surmount in order to lift science-fiction beyond the level of a "Tom Corbett, Space Cadet". Serling had to persuade sponsors that adult-level science fiction was even possible and wouldn't "confuse" a mass audience. (Check my series review for a fuller discussion.) Like so many others accustomed to the "talking eyes" of typical TV fare, I was bowled over by the sheer excellence of "Where is Everybody" on that first night (a Sunday, I believe) in 1959. Serling's groundbreaking series suddenly opened up a whole new world of TV imagination for me and, I think, millions of others. No concept? The fact that this retro turkey showed up when it did signals a clear series' exhaustion after 5 years of unremitting pressures. To me, given the notorious demands of the serial format, that's understandable. So, who is it that lacks the appropriate concept? And, by the way, Mr.42, just how did you get inside author Hamner's head.
