Which episodes best exemplify dream logic?
Off the top of my head I'd say "The After Hours," "Come Wander With Me," and "The Arrival."
shareI'd say "Perchance to Dream."
shareDream Logic was definitely a specialty of Charles Beaumont's. "Person or Persons Unknown," "The Howling Man," and "Shadow Play," all had it in spades.
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"Willoughby" works so well because Serling eschews the soapbox and instead creates a murky world so unlike his social injustice tracts that often paint everything in stark black and white terms. We feel Gart Williams' disorientation as we too try to get our bearings. The fact that "Willoughby," like most dreams, isn't easy to pin down with just a viewing or two is what makes it timeless. When Serling favors sermonizing instead we get the insufferable likes of the end of "The Shelter" where the main character Dr. Stockton -- a stand-in for Serling himself -- lectures the other characters and the audience on how "We were spared a bomb tonight, but I wonder if we weren't destroyed even without it." Lines like these work better visualized not verbalized.
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I agree. Those with a yen for lectures, and in possession of a nest egg, have plenty of colleges to choose from.
What's great about "Willoughby," and Serling's output absent of bombast, is that more than one reading works. Depending on who you are "Willoughby" might be a story of hope or one gloomy piece of TV. Take the critic at Midnite Reviews who terms "Willoughby" prime fodder for those "who prefer Serling's gentler offerings." One of the hosts at the podcast "The Fifth Dimension" on the other hand calls it "the darkest episode that there is ..." How this not-easily-categorizable classic got made in a medium rife with a brown shirt distaste for its ilk is beyond me.
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"Spur of the Moment" is one of the better Season Five episodes. I didn't like though that ripple effect they used when transitioning from one reality to the other It reminds me of the effect employed in "Wayne's World." The transitions were done much better in "A Stop at Willoughby."
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More like nightmare logic on the Zone. Perchance To Dream is one such. Also, The After Hours, Nightmare As Child, The Hitch-Hiker, Shadow Play, A Game Of Pool, In Praise Of Pip.
share"Nightmare logic" is indeed a better term. I should probably re-label this post.
I would add "And When The Sky Was Opened" and "Mirror Image."
Yup: the one I just finished watching this A.M.: Come Wander With Me, from the final season, one of the last episodes of the series. It's one that people seem divided over. Some love it (me); many hate it. I don't think it's perfect,--they messed up the end using standard issue chase music instead of the haunting title tune when Floyd Burney's being chased by the Rayfords--but overall I find the episode truly bewitching. No, it doesn't make much sense. It's like some other episodes, such as Shadow Play, but more open season (so to speak). This one takes place outdoors. Great use of the MGM back lot forest.
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