Elegy

Elegy combines a great story with a great cast, and runs it with a Van Cleave score (which sounds so much like a Leith Stevens score?) playing over it, the end result is a 25 minutes thrill ride with many story/casting/costume/music cross-overs to other 1950s/1960s sci-fic productions. Unlike so many other Zones, such as the over-rated pilot, we are not waiting around for the all-important twist at the end, this is a nice compact 25 minute story that keeps moving.

Other sci-fic TV shows, such as The Outer Limits and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, did this kind of "alone-but-not-alone-story" but these shows spread it out over 50 minutes and the end result was boring! Elegy did it better than anyone else ever would...and one hell of a lot better than the Zone pilot - Where Is Everybody?

However, when fans do a list of Zone episode favourites, you don't usually see Elegy on the list. Perhaps the storyline is a bit too ugly for some? I like the light hearted nature of The After Hours and Five Characters In Search Of An Exit, but if you want an episode loaded with vintage sci-fic quirks, then Elegy is the one for you. The writer of Elegy would also script the just-as-grim and just-as-good Long Live Walter Jameson in this first season of The Twilight Zone.

Fans of Elegy may email me with your views.