Sometimes an episode of the Twilight Zone is too big for a regular episode of
the Twilight Zone podcast, which is why last time round we had an extended
edition to look at Nightmare at twenty thousand Feet in all of its forms.
But even after that two and a half hour podcast, that is still some
unfinished business now. As we know, Nightmare of twenty thousand Feet were supposed
to be covered two years ago in twenty twenty two, and I even had
a Nightmare of twenty thousand Feet month over at the after Hours Club on Patreon
with the reading twilight Zone Radio, a commentary, all kinds of stuff.
It was going to be a big deal, but unfortunately life just got very
busy at the time, and because this was a landmark episode and I wanted
to give it that extra special attention, I just wouldn't have been able to
do that. I was gearing up for it, though, and I even
put our regular poll over on the after Hours Club on Patreon for members to
vote and comment on Nightmare twenty thousand Feet. So before we get to anything
else, why don't we tackle that now. At the time, fifty three
members voted, and of them, fifty called it top Tier three voted at
mid tier and nobody at all voted at bottom tier, so probably not very
surprising results there. And we had a few comments from members. Our old
friend uncommon Nasa said it's top tier, but at the bottom of the top
tier hashtag hot take. Mark Mustyle said top tier, even with the Shad
doing his thing and the Teddy Bear costume. Chad Boykin said not a personal
favorite, but I'd say clearly top tier. It's one everyone knows and the
suspense is palpable. My good friend Mark Ramsey said, I hope to write
something half that good one day. Well, well, Mark is doing good
stuff in the podcast and space all the time, so I think he's on
the road to that for sure. Jay Howard said top tier. It has
Shatner and Richard Donner directing Matheson's script, just payerfect. Longtime friends of the
show Vera Bible said top tier, though I think Shatner's best Tez work is
a nick of time. Well that's the old debate, isn't it which one's
the best? So thank you, Vera. Nick Wakeling says clearly top tier.
My good friend Roger Scarlett said I watched The Twilight Zone during its first
run, but cannot record a specifics of those face viewings for the most part,
but the cart and pullback in this episode was etched in acid on my
eight year old brain. At that age, Nikravat's Gremlin suit was not an
impediment to a truly nightmarish experience. Top tier all the way. My good
friend Brandon Shane Mtala said the Lithgo Vasion is better and then in brackets afterwards
ducks and runs. Roger Moore says, when you say classic Twilight Zone episodes
to save man time enough at last, will the real Martian please stand up?
I have the beholder and it's a good life just instantly pop into your
head. I definitely think this episode holds a spot with them in this category
and it's definitely top tier. The architect of the After Hours Club, Sean
Fitzgibbon says iconic director Richard Donner manages to ratchet up the tension throughout this episode
and within the tight confines of a commercial airline and utilizing a wonderful script by
the great Richard Matheson. William Shatner is paerfect as the tormented airline passenger with
a history of mental illness. Christine White does a wonderful job trying to balance
understanding her husband while also suspecting that he may be suffering another nervous breakdown.
Thank you, Sean. Harold know Me says, narrowly misses out on the
top tier. For me, I did enjoy this story of man's anxiety being
given flesh and therefore made tangible by the twilight Zone. That's how I see
the story. The last shot is a bit of a cop out in my
opinion. I would have preferred that the existence of the gremlin remained ambiguous,
but I suppose Matheson wanted a clear supernatural element in this one good episode with
some great elements. Shatner was pretty good, though I did prefer his performance
in Nick of Time to this one from Haroldnmi aka Day from Germany. Thank
you, Dave. Now, because members of the After Hours Club will come
and go, and a lot of people have joined since then, I thought
I would put a new poll out just to test the waters with this one
again. Now the results will not surprise anyone. For some reason, the
historic pole gives you number of votes where this one gives you percentages. But
I guess the results are pretty much the same. Ninety eight percent say that
it is top tier, two percent say it's middle tier, and nobody says
it's bottom tier, so you know, pretty much the same. Joseph Flicino
says, truly an impactful episode on the zone and pop culture, A certified
top tier in my book. The creature may be a goof from a distance,
but close up shots or the suspenseful window reveal still make me jump when
seeing them on the internet. But who am I to judge? The two
headed miss Dingle Martians terrified me at eight in the early two thousands. Best
wishes, Tom, best wishes to you, Joseph, thank you. Uncommon
NASA chimes in again. He says top tier, of course, not sure
it's in my top ten or twenty, though. I like how when I
was a kid the jump scares and monsters' facial expressions were scary, and as
I've gotten older, I find all that funny. Not because of the costume
quality, but the actor's mannerisms on the wing while he's doing stuff are so
nonchalant if you pay attention to it, it's kind of like dark humor to
me. Now, now this kind of triggered a bit of a memory for
me because I remembered research in the episode and the short story the first time
round, and it's something that maybe I should have brought up in the podcast
this time round. In the short story, it seems like the man on
the wing is actively trying to antagonize our main character, whereas in the TV
show, the gremlin has, like NASA says, a bit of a more
nonchalant kind of thing. He's just there to destroy the plane. He gets
kind of curious about Wilson in the plane, so he does check him out
a few times, but it's less about actually going for him, whereas in
the original short story it was more definitely going for him. So I think
NASA brings up a good point there. Champagne Drum says, what an episode.
It's historical, fantastic pacing by the director, Shatner is the best,
the wife is great, supporting actors are great, the setter is perfect.
The monster couldn't imagine him any other way. And I think that's thank you
Champagne Drum, by the way, but I think that's key for me as
well. It's like, you know, we can talk about how it could
have been better or this or that but in my lifetime, because it was
made before I was, it's always been this way, so I've never really
had that much of an issue with the Gremlin or any issue really. It's
just well, that's the way it is. Al Shadsman says top tier and
top ten. Anyone who thinks Shatner is not a great actor has not seen
this episode. Thank you, Al. I completely agree. Joe Mayer says
top tier. There are levels to this episode that are quite fascinating. You
think about Wilson's predicament. He wants nothing more than to be considered mentally healthy,
to regain the confidence and faith of his wife, and he is confronted
with this decision tell the truth and knowingly portray himself as being compromised, or
say nothing and hope that the Gremlin simply stops before it's too late. The
true horror of this story is in the decision that Wilson has to make so
many rabbit holes to think about. I love it, Thank you, Joe
appreciating Man. Longtime friend of the show, John Hayes says easily top tier.
In fact, top ten. Shatner's over the top acting was perfect for
this story and his character having come out of an insane asylum, and the
creature was just scary looking enough for the time without being egregious. The only
improvement would have been if they had been able to bring in the actress that
had played his wife and Nick of time. That would have been the only
time that the series had a sequel episode, at least in spirit. Thank
you, John much appreciated. Jordan Dollek says, I actually have a hard
time with this one. I enjoyed the episode. I like Matheson's work in
general. It's thoroughly memorable, but it doesn't stare anything special inside me.
With that in mind, I'm left to wonder what I would think of the
episode if it weren't something so ingrained in pop culture. I'm surprised that the
podcast episode didn't make mention of the Simpson's version of the story. I think,
Jordan, you bring up an interesting point about I suppose received wisdom.
You know, what do you do when the world is telling you something is
great or you know, legendary, but you just aren't getting that feel And
I think we all have those things, so it's completely understandable the podcast episode
not mentioning the Simpsons. Well, I replied to Jordan on the post.
Actually, I did consider doing a section all about parodies and homages and all
that stuff, but you know, the podcast was two and a half hours
long at that point. Anyway. You know, sometimes it's not about what
you put in but what you leave out. You've got to make those decisions,
and it was kind of at the point where, you know what,
I think two and a half hours is good. Let's just go with it.
So thank you, Jordan. Our old friend Joe Brown says, I
enjoyed this episode a lot. I don't think Shatner overacts here. I think
it's genuine concern of flying, and then the Gremlin shows up, making Shatner's
anxiety at a fever pitch. I can't imagine what it's like to have to
entertain a fear of something and then forced to do it while encountering an even
more disturbing scene that no one else shares. I do like the ending where
no one believes the character until they see the damage on the wing. Now
what happened here? It's great suspense. Thank you, Joe, much appreciated.
So that is our comments over on the After Hours Club Patreon dot com,
slash Twilight Zone podcast. Now we have some more fun and games with
Nightmare of twenty thousand Feet coming up in just a moment. But I just
wanted to say briefly that today, as of recording this now, I did
put out that podcast episode about sailing Fest taking place in August twenty twenty four.
Now they have just announced that it's going to be delayed. Apparently it's
still going to be in twenty twenty four, just not in August. So
if you follow the Rod Sailing Memorial Foundation on their social media, and I
will obviously be talking about it here as well, then you know we'll give
you the updates on when it's actually going to be. Hopefully those who are
going to make it can still make it. Now with that in mind,
I just want to say a big thank you to some people, because,
as I mentioned, you know, this is a bit of a trip of
a lifetime going to see Rod's statue and quite possibly my last sailing fest.
I would never say that one hundred percent, because you know, I wish
I could go every year, but if I'm going to kind of put a
bookend on this thing, the first time I went it was the sixtieth anniversary
of the Twilight Zone and this time it's rod Sailing Centena a year and also
the unveiling of a statue. But it is an expensive trip and I want
to say a great thank you to some generous people who since I announced,
since I announced the trip and sailing Fest and everything, have been very generous
in making donations towards my airfare and so on. And they are my old
friend Mark Barnhill, had a great time with him at sailing Fest last time.
Looking forward to doing it again this time. So thank you Mark.
I appreciate it a lot. Carra she also made the donation, so thank
you so much, Caara, I really appreciate it. And also Jim Thin
he made the donation as well. Very generous donation, and Jim, I
really appreciate it. Man, thank you so much. My old friend Chad,
the author of the Twilight Zone High Coup still out there, still available
Amazon, Barnes and Noble all those places, or the audio book narrated by
me is also out there as well. Chad made the donation. Hope to
see more of you in sailing Fest this time round, Chad, and I'll
be pointing them out if you're around in sailing Fest and Chad is around,
I'll be saying I'll be saying this, Chad boy can go and get a
book signed by him. Also, Joe Mayer, great friend of the show.
Joe Mayer made a very generous donation as well. Thank you so much,
Joe. I really appreciate it. You are you helping me make this
dream trip a reality. And then Dane Bauerman. Dane has been a great
supporter for a long time. Back in twenty nineteen, he made a very
generous donation as well towards the trip, and he has done this time round
as well. So thank you, Dane, I really appreciate it. And
then Dennis Funk, another longtime friend of the show, a great supporter,
and he too has made a very generous donation. And I got to say,
you know, this podcast there is a lot of work. You know.
You sit in this room doing editing for hours on end and recording and
putting things together and writing things. And I think the kindness and generosity that
people show me at times like this, I never take it for granted,
and I really appreciate it. And one thing I've done for anyone who makes
a donation towards the trip. I've set up an Instagram page. Now it's
going to be private for anyone who makes that donation. Patreon people, just
hold that thought for now. I will come back to you about that in
the future. But anyone who's made these donations in this way will get access
to this private Instagram account where when I'm on the trip, I will post
photos there. I will post videos there, videos where yes, I'm talking
to you through the camera, so you know, it'll be on camera there
in front of Rod's statue or whatever. You know, it'll be a video
diary on this Instagram account for people who have made donations towards the trip.
So, if you would like to make a one off donation or support me
on Patreon at the after Hours club, go to the Twilight Zone podcast dot
com slash donate and there's a couple of options there on how to do it.
And like I say, if you do that one time donation, then
I will send you the details about how to get access to that Instagram account
where you know you will be along for the ride on that trip with me.
And like I say, Patreon supporters, I've got you two or we'll
talk about that in the future. Down the line. But I've had some
new members of the After Ours Club as well, and I will shout you
guys out on the next episode now. Originally, when I'm meant to put
out Nightmare of twenty thousand Feet two years years ago, I also put the
weird out for podcast listeners to send in their feedback on the episode, and
I was going to play out that episode with those clips, but when I
put the podcast together, it was just so long. I thought, I
thought, let's just put that out and then clear up any other business in
this extra episode that we're doing now. So I'm going to play out with
those later on. But in the meantime, like I said, there has
been two years since that episode should have come out. And one of the
things that I do every month over in the After Hours Club is a monthly
Twilight's Own commentary, and it's usually on a season one or two episode that
I'd already covered in the podcast. But to celebrate Nightmare of twenty thousand Feet,
I brought in my old friend Zach Moore and we did a commentary together
on this season five episode Nightmare of twenty thousand Feet. And this was just
a very off the cuff thing. It's not like a planned commentary with facts
and figures. All the commentaries I do on there are just very spontaneous and
on the spot. But it was just fun to sit and talk Nightmare of
twenty thousand Feet with my old friend Zach. So I'm going to play that
commentary for you here and now as a little bonus for you, the listeners
of the twilight Zone podcast, to kind of end the celebration if you like,
for Nightmare of twenty thousand Feet, but if you are a member of
the after Hours club over on Patreon, this month, Zach and I are
going to get together again and bookend this with a commentary on the movie version
of Nightmare at twenty thousand feet and just wrap this whole thing up with a
nice bow. So this is the audio commentary that we did a couple of
years ago for Nightmare of twenty thousand Feet, and then after that I will
play out on some listener clips and I think you can say that we've celebrated
this episode pretty well. So thank you for listening, and I will speak
to you soon here in the twilight Zone. If there's one thing that I've
learned while doing my research on nightmare at twenty thousand feet. It's that if
you're going to freak out on a plane, then you want someone next to
you with a good supply of sleeping pills. And thank goodness, tonight I
have my good friend Zach Moore or Zach, how's it going. Hey,
that's what I'm here for. Put you to sleep? So thank you,
man, thank you. Just close the window, just don't look outside.
Everything will be fine. Just pass me another sleeping pill please. Ever since
I've known you, man, I don't think it's ever changed, that nightmare
of twenty thousand feet. There's always been your number one. Has that been
the same ever since you've first seen it? I would think so. You
know, I was introduced to all these things at a very young age by
my parents, who also watched these things back in the day. And and
when I say all these things, I mean the Twilight Zone and Star Trek.
So it's like it's hard to separate the too. It's like, of
course, you're gonna love the episodes, or William Shatner Captain Kirk himself is
in the Twilet Zone. You're gonna love those, right. But it also
helps that they're very, very good episodes like they're legitimately some of the best
of the show, like just objectively right, And then favorites is so subjective,
but it's like, if there's one that I will always think about and
revisit it, it's this one. And in addition to just like the everybody
gets on airplanes and six x windows and you know, it's just you can
put yourself in this more than a lot of You're not gonna I mean,
you're probably not gonna go into space. You know, you're not gonna meet
an alien, right, but you can put yourself on an airplane and be
kind of nervous, right, and that plays out from there. So I
think all those reasons are why this ranks is as my favorite. And there's
so many that are my favorites, but you know, if you have to
pick one, this is the one for me, and I think it is.
You're right, you know, William Shatner two for two in the Twilight
Zone. I mean, we'll get into some of the kind of law of
this episode a bit as we speak, But I wanted you to be here,
man, because I knew it was your favorite episode, and I wanted
to do something a bit special for Nightmare of twenty thousand feet months here on
Patreon, So you know, it's always it's always good to talk to you
about it, and you and I with Brandon spoke about Nightmare at thirty thousand
feet on the main show and that came out, so you know, I
thought it'd be a good idea to get you on here or also when I'm
going to do the podcast, the first thing I do is I watched the
episode. I don't take any notes or anything like that. I just sit
and watch it, you know, let it work its magic kind of thing.
But I haven't actually done that yet. I am prepping the main show
episode, but I haven't done the watch. So this is the watch.
This is the watch. Yeah, so we're going to do it here live,
and you know, I've not prepared any trivia, no facts or figures.
I'm sure both of us will know a few as we go, but
we're just going to sit and watch it and you know, and have a
chat through it. So sound good, sounds good? Usually I do what
did I think of it? Then, you know what, I can't really
do that on this occasion, so we will just we will just go with
it. So when you are ready, Zach, I will count us down
and at home, if you've got your Blu Ray DVD or digital copy ready,
then we will go after three. So three two one play, Okay,
I think I think we're going. It's all it's always a bit precarious
when we're doing this kind alive on the podcast. You never quite know what's
going to happen. So this, this Twilight Zone opening, is this your
favorite? It's hard to say favorites. I think season one has just got
a wonderful atmosphere to it. But in terms of iconography, this one's pretty
hard to beat, isn't it. You know, right, the eye,
the door, what about you the same? I think it's just because it's
been reused like in the movie right, And I think that alone kind of
submitted it. And it's in two seasons, and all the other openings are
just in one, or even less than one in some cases. So yeah,
yeah it he is the man himself there is. I'm always kind of
sad that. I mean, you probably know the trivia that they wanted to
get the wife from Nick of Time to do this as well. Matthison one
said that, but they couldn't get it to work out for whatever reason.
I think that's interesting, but it's also very confusing. So it's probably for
the you know, because this is not the same guy. You know.
No, it's one thing to have returning characters, but then to have like
returning couples, you know. Yeah, it was a just set geeks kind
of like cause filling in those gaps for years on end. Maybe he changed
his name, you know, after that experience, he had a mental brickdown
and a diner very much like this one. Yeah, smoking on planes.
Did you ever go on a plane when you were still allowed to smoke?
You know? I remember I remember there being ashtrays on planes, but I
think when I was a kid, but I think even by that time it
had been banned from airlines, like in the early nineties. But that's just
it's incredible to think just that smoking, right, I mean, like restaurants
used to go into all the time, right, smoking not smoking, right,
And just to think its a smoke on an airplane, it's just insane.
No, like the most air tight thing you can get, it's just
full of smoke. I went on one flight as a youngster in the smoke
and compartments on a plane, and it's crazy to think of it now six
months, six months, six months. I mean a lot of this trivia
will go in the main show. But in Matheson's original short story, he
actually had a load of stuff on at the beginning of you know how he
got to this point before they got on the plane. You know what happened
to him. His instinct to was we've got to get it on the plane.
And I think that's a good instinct, you know, Yeah, you
gotta put the lid on, that pressure cookon and get things move and but
yeah, it's sort of interesting to think of the road not taken. You
know, well, you're mentioning, you know, Nightmare month. On the
Patreon, you posted the radio play of this with John Shinner from Smallville Jonathan
Hint playing the main character, which is all my favorite things. Right.
They added a lot of stuff before, like they had him at the institution
getting discharged and stuff, and it's like, wow, like they just added
a lot of stuff. But it makes sense because you're an episode like this
is so visual, it's like you kind of have to add other things because
it's that was interesting too, not to talk about I remember we're talking about
the episode, not the radio play. But like that one has a lot
of interior like narration in his head. M hm. Because there's really no
other way to do that, right, even because he's the only one they're
seeing this experiencing and he can't talk out loud, is why. I just
thought that was a very interesting way to approach it. So a lot of,
like you said, different roads you could take to the same story.
Yeah, I was quite impressed by ware we go. Let's well listen to
the man himself has just been discharged from spent Shata does good work here.
Man Shada always does good work. He gets a bad rap. Just look
at this acting. Yeah, oh, I mean that's that's kind of iconic.
The terminal sign behind him. We've seen this image a lot. But
he needed to be sat on that plane, you know, smoking with the
no smoking sign on next to him, you know, darkest quarter of the
twilight Zone. Yeah, whatever you like, I'd say one averay five pictures
you see Rod Serling in an article somewhere is him and from that terminal sign
for whatever reason. So yeah, yeah, but it's a real shame,
right, But yeah, I think John Schneider did a great job on that.
And you're right because he about Richard Donner from Superman the movie. I
know, somebody's supermad. He directed so many episodes in the season. I
think he directed about five. Probably this is the only one we all remember
though. Unfortunately, I'm sorry, didn't mean to cut you off about talking
about John Schneider. Yeah, you know, he really had a lot of
heavy lifting to do with it, you know, because all this visual stuff
isn't there, and I think he's done a really good job of it.
Mm hmm. She's been on the sleeping pills. What are you doing?
Yeah? And how many airplanes we've been on where there's two seats I can't
recall. Sometimes there's like three in the middle, two on each side.
Yeah, but I've never been on where it's just two two. That's so
nice, because if you're traveling with a friend or your significant other and there's
two of you, there's always that like we're gonna have to sit by akin.
It's like, if there's only just two seats, that really clean it
up. So okay, there is Oh, he's already there in a way.
That's probably the best shot of the thing of the Gremlin, where you
can barely see him. You can just see the movement in the distance.
Yeah, the more you see, Yeah, that's a gift right there.
There's so many gifts from this episode. Do you use his reactions? And
you've used them all. I've used them all. It's amazing though, you
know from the short story how much of it is really dead on, you
know, like I was shocked as well, like lions directly from that into
this. I feared there'd be a lot more variation. But even though the
wife isn't there, they lift so many things lying for line and the behavior
of the gremlin as well, you know, the way it floats onto the
wing and stuff like that. Yeah, I always criticize that. In the
episode, I was like, why is he doing floating on and off?
It's done, But in the story they explain it exactly like that. I'm
like, Wow, they're actually being faithful to the words. Well, I
mean, you'll hear it in the main show because there's a big section about
gremlins, but it's based on actual kind of airplane folklore where like all these
World War II pilots would crash their planes and they'd be like it was a
gremlin, you know, there was a little creature. It's done this it's
done that, and it was so well known that it just became this kind
of weird phenomenon. And apparently the people who said it really believed it,
but they would describe things like this, you know, Gremlin's flying onto their
plane and getting in. And I think an explanation for it that's kind of
been floated is because the planes were so basic back then. You know,
they probably had lack of oxygen. They were Yeah, they were just hallucinating
them because it was in their mind that other people had seen them, then
they saw them as well. So you know, I think it's all kind
of based on that. Really. No, it's interesting because you think about
the term grimlin of these days are right, I mean, I don't know
if everybody does, but you think that the movies Grimlins, right, little
critter guys are around doing their nonsense. And then also that the term grimlin
is still used for like software, like, oh, there's a Grimlin in
the software your computer crash, like that terminology has has. But that's way
off what it wasn't back in the day. But it's interesting that sticks with
us even today. That's it, yeah, based on the similar thing.
And you know, like like I said, Shatner is a great actor,
Okay, Like I will defend him to my last breath because like when he's
like such subtlety he has to put on display here like look like it's all
on his face, like and yeah, when he tears it up to eleven,
which is great, you know here Captain Kirk. Other places, he
knows what to do, right, But he's just so there's a reason he's
such a successful actor for like sixty years, right, yeah, definitely.
Oh, here we go, look, here we go. Just just a
little tiny reaching up to the cat and biggest drump scare ever coming up right
here. Wait for it. That's creepy, Okay, yeah, yeah it
looks got a fake Okay, but if you're like a five year old kid
like I was when I first saw that, that burns into your nightmares forever.
You know. It's one of those things I think we can kind of
talk ourselves into something and talk ourselves out to something sometimes, you know what
I mean. You could probably be with your friends having a bunch of beers
just laughing at that, right, or you can kind of lean into the
magic a bit, you know, and just go with it. I love
how he covers it here. He's like, uh uh are we going to
a store? Yeah? We are, no, you know, and it's
interesting. We know we mentioned the radio play, but the way that was
the one time I thought, okay, I think they're leading into the narrational
too much, like John Shotty's like, I reach my hand up to the
curtain and I hold the curtain and I could there he is floating back.
That's a rough shot. But that was the one time I thought, Okay,
that's a little much, guys. But how else do you describe that
an audio? Right? It's such a visual jump scare, you know.
And I think if you're leaning onto that folklore, into that folkload, the
folklore is that we are going to a place where these things live and we
shouldn't really be there, you know, and so they're going to float down
or you know that kind of thing. There has to be some mystical element
too, because there's no way anything could stand on a plane going planes go
pretty fast. They're going thousands of miles an hour, so and you know,
this is when you start to see like the feet, I'm like,
oh, come on, that's a little much, guys. Like it's clearly
like a boot or something. That's when I really like right there, like,
come on, man, there you go, there's a gift. There's
a legendary Shatner gift for you. You use that one all the time.
Well, a lot of things are really of that reaction. So but this
guy, he was a gymnast, and I just think, you know,
the if you probably could have got him to do you know, if he
wasn't encased in like two foot thick of wool, you know what I mean?
Yeah, because like in the in the story, and even look at
that, what is that he just jumped off the wing for those just listening,
But in the story and even in the in the movie. The movie
is like Brandon and I our friend Rana Shimatila, Right, we always go
back and forth about which version this is better. He likes the movie version
better. I will admit the movie version is a much better grumblin, much
better monster. Yeah, there's no question. But that's a lot more faithful
to the story. Like it's a little guy with hair stringing out, and
he's a little wiry dude, and anyway, I don't know what I mean,
And the story does call him a man most of the time, doesn't
It I'm pretty sure it says. When he's got this and you know,
talking about it, he's saying, there's a man out there, you know,
but I guess what else? You go? There? You go?
He now he called it he grumlins. She's like, what, I'm not
imagining it. Imagine you know another thing. You know, I'm going I
keep talking about this radio play because it expands in all these things been over
so many times, they actually tell you what happened, like what he saw
in his last mental breakdown, which makes his wife misbelieve him even more because
he's like, oh, I saw a guy like skiing on the clouds.
And it's like, oh, I see a guy on the plane. I'm
like, come on, like that is It's almost like the radio play makes
you think he really is crazy. Maybe because you don't see it for yourself
and you only have his word to go by. Maybe that's the logic.
Yeah, you look insane, buddy. Never has anyone look more insane when
he asked that. But here, like obviously I don't think this is an
ambiguous one, right, I mean you see the wing be damage at the
end, like there was a there was a creature here, Like that's bottom
line, right, Yeah, yeah, I've never really took it as ambiguous
either, you know, just to worry. You know, I didn't tell
it before. I want you to tell me. I didn't tell it before
because I wasn't sure whether it was real or not. But I am sure
now it is real. Sure, no, grandlin whatever. Yeah, look
at those facial expressions. It's funny as well. And I know we keep
going back to the radio player, the way they fill little narrative gaps like
conversations between the pilots and stuff like that. That's all there. Don't that
remise me? I am not in so patronize me. Doesn't have to be.
He's right too, He's like, come on, like, I don't
know, I know what you're thinking, you know, so, but you
know, I don't remember reading this back in the day, and I'll I'm
looking forward to your official episode on it on the on the main podcast.
But like I remember in the in the Companion, like I think Richard Matheson
didn't like I mean, I don't know how the creature looked like. He
says something about how like there was going to be a different director and they
were going to do it differently, and he would have preferred that then what
Richard Donner did. Yeah, I've seem to remember that from from back in
the day. But I mean I love Richard Donner, right, Superman the
movie is my favorite superhero movie. I mean, he's a great director.
He did Goonies and lethal Weapon and prolific director. I don't know who was
in charge of making the way that Grimmal looked the way he did, but
you know that was. It's not it's just why. It's just a weird
choice based off the source material. You know. Yeah, it's funny how
you can get so much right in it because it's so tense, and you
know, he got a great lead in mind. Oh if they do quite
claustrophobic and things like that. But then you know, and I think we'd
only saying this because you know, we do a certain amount of critique even
though we love it, you know what I mean. And I think we've
both made our peace with it. But yeah, it could have been better,
I think, Although I wish I could get one of those little plush
toys from you know, Nightmat of thirty thousand feet that they showed on the
beach. I wish they released those. I would have liked, you know,
they make toys of these, and that would just creep me out having
like in my office sitting on my desk, like, that's not this is
a terrifying thing. I don't want that thing looking at me all the time.
Yeah, and it moves around exactly. See that. That's how you
get really meta right on. The Twilights only have props from a Twilight Zone.
It is creepy. How it is creepy. How like he's looking at
you know, Shatner, like observing him, like, oh, is he
looking at me? Now? Okay, I can do some stuff like to
me. That's that That interaction is creepy. What's going on In the original
story it seems like it's purposely antagonizing them, whereas in this it's more it's
just doing its thing, and it gets a bit curious about him, like
what's he looking at? I'm just trying to, you know, play with
the wing he how sweat he's getting too. So Mattheson liked the episode better
with this one, but preferred the gremlin in the Twilight's in the movie one.
So perfect melding of the two with what they can do with you know,
cg and you know all that stuff. I'm sure someone could mock something
up with that. I like how this pilot plays it here. He's like,
Okay, I'm gonna just of course we have Yeah, And this is
Shatner's best moment of the episode two, when he's like, oh, yeah,
yeah, of course the oh you guys are just screwing with me.
Tell me what I want to hear. I see how it is. It's
like I understand. It's like, look, just sup, just what is
it? What is it's a grimlin on the I told you what it was.
It's an odd thing to say, but I do think it adds so
much to have his wife there, you know, like it's interesting, like
the original story doesn't have it, the movie doesn't have it. It's a
totally different character, doesn't have the mental breakdown backstory, so he has he
does no one to like interplay with, you know, but the having the
shades of like I got my wife here, I got a pilot over here,
Like having those different kinds of interactions or what make it more interesting?
You know? Uh huh. So, I mean we are getting to the
end here, but do you do you take more meaning from this than this
is just a great little sort of tense story. Is it, you know,
saying anything to you? It's the blurryman question you're asking me now,
right, Yeah, I mean it's I think it works as like obviously just
works as like a horror story. Just imagine yourself in a situation just insanity
that only you can see in a very much dane setting. Like you know,
airplanes, people take them all the time, but some crazy things happening
there. We go look at that. That's so weird, But you can
if you want to look at a deeper level. It's like overcoming your fear
right having confidence, self doubt, and overcoming that even the world tells you
crazy, you know, knowing that you're not kind of like you like anything
of substance. You can really like reading this. I'm sure there have been
essays about this and all kinds of stuff that probably reads way too far into
it, but I think it's so well told. There is enough here that
there's something to be said for that. I mean, what did you take
a deeper meeting on this on any level? Tome? I don't know.
I'm not sure I've come up with anything, or I've probably more seen things
and maybe thoughts Okay, you know, I'll go with I guess because that
is this aspect of you know, breakdown or mental illness or whatever you want
to call it, which is really a battle within yourself. You know,
no one else can really see what you're going through, and it's that kind
of thing. But so many Twilight zones are like that anyway, you know,
people are battling with something that no one else is really aware of.
Well, I think especially that one, So maybe that, but you know,
I'm happy to just take it for what it is as well. Yeah,
and it's okay if there's not a deeper meaning either. It's just like
regardless, it sticks with people, like people, remember this is an iconic
episode. There's been so many parodies and references and all kinds of stuff,
and it it just it just sticks. It just it's a it's a great
elevator pitch an episode. It's like, oh, yeah, I was on
airplane. There's a guy ripping apart the wing and I'm the only one that
can see it, Like, oh, tell me that story. So I
just think it sticks with people. Now, I mean we're coming up to
the whatever this guy is an air marshall or something like that. Just falls
asleep with us. I love that zoom in on the gun, And again
radio play arguably made the smart choice where like the cabin crew are getting so
nervous, they're like, we're just going to sit this guy next to you.
You know, your wife's going over there. So like the am Marshall
sits next to him because he's freaking everyone out, and that's why the gun
is so close to him. This is the most not smooth move ever he's
about to do. Yeah, no one's taking onion o aside. Well,
and that's the thing about I've noticed about the radio plays, like they fill
in a lot of gaps, like you know, potential plot holes because they
have you know, sometimes due to necessity because they got to fill in time,
but otherwise like, oh that's a very good solution. Like this is
ridiculous. Yeah, I love this episode, it's my favorite one. But
this is a ridiculous exchange here where he just like sneaks this gun off this
guy and like to your point, like the radio plays like, well that
we can't do that again. We'll have an air marshal sit next to him.
And then they get in a grappling match and he takes the gun from
him there, or even in the movie there's like a private investigator or some
kind of undercover cop or something has like a gun and his like in his
uh, concealed carry or something that he takes it off of. That's like,
it's a lot more sense than this. But it was different time.
It was the sixties, okay, so different time. It's funny because I
think Matheson said when he wrote the story, you probably could have took a
gun onto a plane, right, and then there was you know, time
passed and by the time they made the episodes, you probably couldn't do that
anymore. You know, water is because water. I'd love to know the
science behind this, though, you know, I don't want to ruin the
magic of the story. But if you push the door open like this,
and would you be torn in. I don't care how tight your seatbelt is.
I don't think that's going to hold you in. And maybe don't put
the guy who just got over a mental breakdown at a you know, mental
hospital next to the emergency exit. There's a thought, here we go,
Grandma's really getting in there. Yeah, he'd be totally sucked out. A
plate fighter that also messed up the entire pressure of the cabin potter on their
Gremon's face will power right there. He's fighting thirty thousand mile an hour wins.
It's a good shot too. Yeah, got him, man, that
must have been a good day. Imagine just hanging out there off the day.
All right, Bill, we're getting another take. But see, that's
what people remember him for, like yelling. It's like, I have caf
tick all these ridiculous one of the top things. But the reason those are
so good is because he has range. He's not all that all the time,
right, It's like the parodies of Kirk and Chattan are both like are
just like, come on, y'all, there's there's more two of them than
that. But I enjoy it. When he turns it up to eleven,
it's it's great. So in fact, he he's an hour Limbs episode that
he also does he sees an alien out the window his episode of the Outer
Limits. He's an astronaut. Okay, it's interesting, So it's interesting parallels.
So that would have been after this, I guess, because Outer Limits
was after Twilight Zone or around the same time, so there's all pre Star
Trek, though I think they might have crossed over a little bit, but
I'm not too sure. I've always said I'll watch the Outer Limits once I've
done this podcast, probably, but I ain't podcasting about it, no chance.
I know. I'm the only one who does know. So Rod seems
to right now. Yeah, Rod seems to think he's going to get vindicated
as well. They're going to cover this up, right. Yeah, even
if you saw this, you're not going to be like, oh, it
was a gremlin after all. You would just think it was, like,
you know, this is one of the most sterling esques autros isolated. There's
so many multiple civil words, tangible, manifestation of trespass, tangible quarter.
It's brilliant though. We laugh about it because it brings us joy because it's
like, man, this is poetry right here. So what's coming up next?
Okay? So, I mean I I really enjoyed that, even though
we talked all the way through it. So what the people want, so
they're here to hear us talking through it, exactly want to listen to us
being silent throughout. Wow, let's just run quickly through the other version.
So we spoke about the short story a little bit through that, but anything,
anything, you want to mention about that now, I guess mainly the
fact that he was by himself and uh and like he had he had a
gun on him, you know, as you said, like he brought that
on himself, which they kind of had to change because of rules and stuff.
But h and that was that, and and then he was already suicidal,
I guess was another part of the short story, right, like he
brought it on to Like it's implied that, like, yeah, I carried
it to protect myself but also to maybe kill myself because I don't like my
life. I'm like, oh, that's that's super dark, you know,
yeah, definitely. And I don't think Craig if I'm wrong. In the
short story there there's not any kind of like reveal that there was real and
it just kind of ends with him like oh they'll they'll, they'll see.
And then it's like, well, well they maybe he were crazy. I
don't know, so I don't remember now, Yeah, I don't remember.
I'm not too sure. But I really enjoyed it, to be honest.
It's just all those little differences are fascinating to me. Yeah, you know,
all those little choices that they make and how one leads into the other
like the fact that, well, we can't really say he's going going on
the plane now, so what are we going to do? And how the
fact that he hasn't got to go on how can we now portray his mental
states? We can't just say he's a suicidal guy you've got on a plane
anymore, So what are we going to do with that? It's all very
interesting. And I think in the list Go version, wasn't he just afraid
to fly? And it's been a while since I watched that one. Yeah,
he's just really afraid of flying, and he's a complete wreck the whole
time. Uh And and I mean I like that version, right, George
Miller another great director to that version. It's probably the best segment of the
towads on the movie. But when you lose the backstory of like the whole
you know, battling his own you know, mental struggles, you lose something
there, you know, and then it's just it's more of a horror show.
And it's a very impressive horror show. But he's just yelling and screaming
like children and just flight it tenn its and stuff. It's just so but
it's it's it's John look Out a great so he's a good successor, I
think, and that's a great version, and they definitely stepped off the special
effects, so so that alone justifies that one's existence. You know, I
do enjoy that one. I'm obviously going to have to watch it again for
the main show, for that Deep Dive show. But it's been said by
more people than me, so I'm not observing anything that no one else has
said. But how you know, Shatner starts off as a slightly nervous guy
and you know, then takes it right the way up there, whereas Lift
Gow is right up there from the beginning, and just you know, I
think that's the main thing about it, and I think that's why Shatner's is
more interesting to me, where there's you know, Liftgals is just that the
horror show, you know, which is fine right well, and then Lift
Goals though they actually have that the crew discovering the damage to the plane,
and hey there also up there, and then the in the radio play,
they literally take that ending like it's almost line for line the ending from the
movie, and they kind of mix them together. But I still think I
think Rod's being optimistic we're thinking that, oh he's gonna okay, you don't,
We're gonna you get out of your street checket now, sir, there
was no You just opened an ec air lock on a airplangers. You're still
gonna be in trouble. All is forgiven? Yeah, forgiven? You see
I saw us on the radio play because the two guys are fixing the plane,
aren't they, And they're like, oh, what what happened to you?
You know? And they just kind of go, oh, well,
let's get to way. So it looked it seems as if they're just going
to fix it and not say anything to anyone about it. But then the
closing narration says that it's going to be discovered and he's going to be vindicated.
And see that's you can't mix those two together, right Like the kids
the movies don't have ending narrations, do they. They just have the opening
narrations with Burgess, Meredith and uh, which which I always like, I
feel like you always need a closing narration, like you know, I feel
like you set it up, you take it down. It's something for the
night goal, right, like you you have intros but no outros, and
it feels so incompletely No, you just left us with this horrible like I
need some reassurance. Rod helped me out here. Man, what am I
supposed to think? But you're yeah, that's a good one. You're right,
because the guys are like, well, it's good to work. They're
never gonna know. John Schnyder's gonna be back of this mental setation forever,
thinks a lot y'all. Yeah, either that or prison, Yeah, one
or the other. But and then you know you and I, like I
said before, we spoke on the main show about Nightmare A thirty thousand feet,
which isn't really a remake to be honest, but I don't think I
could do the deep dive on the main show without at least mentioning it.
We watched it when it first came out. You know, our thoughts were
all over the place. It was like we were like kids at Christmas at
that point. We kind of missed what that episode was really about. And
I'm not going to get into that too much. You know, have you
watched it since, have you reevaluated it or do you sell? You know?
I like it, I I feel like it invited too many comparisons to
the original because of the title. Mm hmm. Because even like like we
we even like a special episode about like you know, remakes, like when
they just announced it, right and we're like, oh, what's it gonna
be, right, and all these sorts of things, and and that's it
because even the press release for like Adam Scott will be playing William Shatner's character,
like, well, no, not not at all. You know,
it's about something totally different, right, It's about your own Like you could
they could have titled something else and you'd be like, oh, wow,
it's kind of like the one with a guy on a plane. But how
many Twilight Zones are about guys on planes or with planes? That could be
its own category, right, I mean planes are just the aircraft in general,
spacecraft, I don't. I like a lot of other of other ones
a lot more, you know. So it's really good, and when we
first saw I'm like, okay, cool, Yeah, we're back twilet Zone,
right, But I mean it's kind of gone down on my list,
not that it's like I think it's worse than anything, but just ultimately,
you know, as if everybody go back into star episode about that, it
was ultimately kind of confusing I think they put too much in that. I
was still confused. I still don't know what happened in it, you know,
you talking about revivation, like was that other guy real? Are they
impurgatory? Did they all die? I don't know, and I don't know
if they know, And it was just that that to me, that still
throws the whole thing off, the confusion, right, So that's ultimately where
I land on. It was it was entertaining. Adam Scott's great. You
know, you feel just as awkward of him like accusing people of being terrorists
or something, right, as as you would have seeing a monster on the
plane. Right, it's a whole different kind of like horror and uncomfortableness.
But that's very relevant to today, right, So all that stuff still tracks,
but just the end just totally throws me off. So at the time,
I think you and Brandon said they maybe go a step too far.
I think if time was no object, we would have probably done the trilogy
just commentate, and I think that would have been quite fun to do.
But I think you and Brandon said they went a step too far with Oh,
they all survived and they're on the beach, but they never found and
I wasn't too short at the time, but now I think I agree with
you that, you know, they should have just finished with good Night New
York or whatever he said as the plane was going down, and that would
have been a good ending for it. I still really like it. I
still really enjoy it. I think it's well directed, pretty tense or you
know, as with quite a few of those new Twilight Zones, I would
sulder to go back and listen to some of the recordings because I think I
missed the point of a lot of the time, you know what I mean.
And when I've gone back to them, I think, oh, is
that what it's about? Okay? And I don't know whether that's a fault
with the show or they have to try and be a bit more cryptic because
we're just a different audience now. I don't know, but but yeah,
I still dig it. I still dig it timeless story, Tom, regardless
of the iteration, you know. And that's what's so funny you talk about
these minor changes. That's what makes it so it's fund that they're all so
different, right, because they're all the same, than what is the point?
You got your your Gus Van Sant remake a psycho, right, It's
like, what's the point of this? So I'm glad it's like King Kong
right, right, the multiple versions of that, right, they're all very
different. That's I'm glad they're different, right, because they're exactly the same.
What is the point. So so yeah, thanks for having me on
to talk about this my favorite episode, and I'm looking forward to hearing the
big deep dive on the on the main show. Thank you, min It's
it's coming together slowly but surely it's it's coming together. But those things take
time. Thank you, Zac, Thank you. There's there's no one else
I would have had on for this. I know it's your favorite and I
think you you did it justice. So even in the small time we had
to talk through it. But you know, we've been through this. I
think people know where they can find you. But just in case, well
you can find me on on Twitter at Moron Zach that's in or e O
n Z s each. I'm asco host on my own podcast, Always Solo
on a Smallville, where we talk about each and every episode of that Young
Superman show. Find us on Twitter at always malevel with one S. And
of course I do Franchise Fatigue Show with our friend Brandon Shay Mattel, which
you've been a guest on a few times. Tom, and we talked about
movies, remake sequels and when franchises get fatigued, and you can find us
on Twitter at Franchise Fatigue. Great stuff. Well thanks again, Mane.
Always a pleasure, absolutely, And I'm just gonna go jump on a plane
here and sit next to the window seat and have a good time. So
take a couple of those sleeping pills. With your sleeping pills. Okay,
so that is enough from us. I'm gonna maybe I'm gonna take the boss.
I'm gonna take the boss. Zach. I'll see you when we get
there, Okay, all right, I'll see that. All right. So
that's enough for us. We'll speak to you soon and bye for now.
Hey, Tom, Josh Chambers here, fantastic job on this episode. I
know all of us Podcast Diehard has been waiting for this for quite some time
and you really did deliver. So thank you. Thoughts on Nightmare twenty thousand
Feet I guess in some respects it's like Beethoven's fifth of the Twilight Zone episodes,
it's iconic, it's incredibly memorable. I'd like to think that most people
our age and younger probably were introduced to it, either directly, you know,
through marathons, or indirectly through parodies or homages. I'd hate to think
that people learned about it first through the third iteration on the Most Reason Jordan
Peele reboot. But no matter what way someone found their way to Nightmare twenty
thousand feet, you know, it's just it's just a wonderful thing to have
and to appreciate. Over the years, I taught it in the classroom,
and for a while, though I don't know why I haven't recently, I
would teach it after reading the original short story, and we would toy with
the idea that the short story was, in some ways the story before the
story, the prequel, or you know, the events that happened on the
plane when he is by himself and he has a gun in his in his
satchel, that's that's what led to, you know, his breakdown and then
his wife coming to bring him home, so sort of a sick loop that
you know, he's forever going to be getting on planes and forever seeing something
on the wing. So once again, Tom, thank you again so much.
It was a joy to hear the episode in your breakdown, and that
little stinger at the end was from thirty Rock was fantastic, So again,
thank you and cheers. Hello Tom and listeners. Roger Moore here from Browwood,
Texas. Ready to leave my thoughts about a Nightmare at twenty thousand feet.
I'll just start off by saying, out of Shatner's both performances in the
Twilight Zone, I prefer Nicked Time over Nightmare. Now that doesn't mean that
I think Nicked Time is a more superior episode than Nightmare at twenty thousand feet.
So with that said, what do I think about Nightmare at twenty thousand
feet? Not only do I think that this episode is a classic Twilight Zone
episode, but it's also an iconic Twilight Zone episode. Uh. It's been
referenced and parodied m uh quite possibly more than any other episode in the entire
series. SNL has done it, The Simpsons did it. Third Rock from
the Sun had uh lyft Cow and Shatner in that one scene at the airport.
Uh. I think I'm gonna stop right there, cause I I feel
like I'm talking more trivia than I am. My own personal thoughts on this
episode, So let me get back to it. I used to kind of
always imagine that Nightmare at twenty thousand Feet was like a continuation to nick a
Tom. You know, Don and Pat, they're newlyweds. Everything's fresh,
new and exciting for the both of them. Don gets that promotion, and
then later on throughout the episode, with the help of Pat, they finally
muster up the courage to leave the diner and the mystic Seer behind and venture
back out into the world, and it's full of uncertainty and unanswered questions.
And then years later we see Shatner playing Robert, and I always imagine that
it's Don and that promotion that he got turned out to be a whole bunch
of push push push business. But unlike gart Williams, he reached out and
he got help. Now he's ready to pick up the pieces after his recovery,
and little does he know that he actually just stepped foot into the twilight
zone for a second time. I did find it fascinating that Mattheson thought that
it was a real shame that Patricia Breslin wasn't cast to play the part of
Julia. But I think Christine White does an awesome job. There's one scene
in Nightmare at twenty thousand Feet that really sticks out to me, and it's
the scene where the flight engineer goes and talks to Shatner, and Shatner,
for that brief moment, has someone believe in him and he's not crazy,
and he starts to get a little bit of relief and his anxiety subsides for
a minute, and then he just goes completely stone face and he gets real
serious and he realizes that they're pretty much just trying to keep him calm until
they can figure out what to do with them. I always thought that that
split second change was really brilliant on Chatner's part. I don't know why.
It's just he goes from one character to almost a completely different character. Anyway,
Tom, that's pretty much it. I'm gonna go ahead and cut it
a little short and give somebody else a chance until next time. Hey there,
Tom. Harold Clark reporting in from be to Texas talking about Nightmare at
twenty thousand Feet. So I have used dozens of Twilight Zone episodes as material
for Bible studies for the youth at church, and this particular episode was one
that went over very well. If anybody wants to know the deep dive from
a spiritual angle, hit me up on the telegram app for Twilight Zone.
However, in general, the great thing about this episode is there's so many
things that you can pull out of it. Just questions to spark discussions.
And again, you know who knows what Mattheson had in store and mind for
this, But this again, it's one of the favorites, and it's just
unbelievable how much you can get out of this episode. So I preface all
this by saying, the grimlin in this episode can equal any problem that you're
going through. It could be like it is in the episode where it's a
nervous breakdown, but it could also be relationship problems, could be depression,
alcoholism, issues at work, money woes, fill in the blank, whatever
issue you're going through. Let's look at it through this lens and see what
this episode can tell us about how to maybe approach tackling that episode at that
problem. So the first thing that pops up is the wife takes a sleeping
pill to basically remove herself from the situation. Interesting idea. We will come
back to that in a minute. But it's I think it's interesting at the
very beginning, you know, we have to set him up to basically try
and tackle this problem alone. He does see the grimlin, so he sees
the problem. He acknowledges the problem, whatever that problem is, and he
does call for help, so he doesn't deny that the problem exists. He
actually calls for help. He does indeed take a sleeping pill. We'll come
back to that. The key scene for me is when he has the curtain
closed and he has to decide do I pull the curtain open or not?
Should I keep the curtain closed? Meaning should I just have faith? Should
I have trust that the problem is going to take care of itself? Or
you know what, there there isn't even a problem. I'm just making,
you know, making a bigger deal out of it than it is. Or
should I actually pull the curtain open? You know? Should should I face
the problem head on? Should I not you know, bury my head in
the sand, so to speak, don't know, you know, again,
feel free to discuss. And again the wife, because she's taken the singer
pill. Not there for him, he asked her twice. Not there?
Uh? And then when he describes the problem he says, Julia, don't
look at me like that, And it makes me wonder how how should we
react, you know, when when somebody is going through an absolutely unbelievable situation.
I mean, it's nature for us to question something that's fantastical or unusual
or or weird, right, or even just something that just comes at us
out of the blue, and we're just not really prepared to respond. You
know, how do we how do we do that? Not sure he actually
recognizes the solution to his problem. He says, he the gremlin jumps away
when anybody else might see him accept me. He realizes that that this needs
to be a group effort in order to tackle x problem. Whatever the problem
is, he's going to need support from his family and from professionals, from
the flight attendants, from the pilots, et cetera. Like that. He
does eventually say, hey, you know, get the pilots to actually,
you know, watch the wings. But the problem with that is he's still
going through the problem alone, even though quote unquote the pilots are going to
be looking for the wings unless unless he can see that that doesn't that's not
really gonna going to help him, you know, is there another solution to
the problem, another way to tackle this situation. Maybe a different seat on
the plane, maybe a different you know, an area where he can't see
that there is a problem. Is that a good thing or a bad thing?
A different mode of travel? You know? Does it have to fly
on a plane? Can it be on a car? Can it be on
a boat? Train? I e? Do you need to put yourself in
a situation that you know you're weak in, even though maybe a medical professional
has told you you're okay, but you know you know yourself better. And
should you put yourself again in a situation where you're not mentally, physically,
spiritually strong enough to handle that situation? So, you know what, Let's
let's go somewhere else. Let's do something else, and maybe three months,
six months, a year, ten years down the line, I'll finally be
able to face, you know, take on this problem. So is this
about pride? Think about that? Is this about his pride? Is his
wife have pride? The pilot? Was that pride that he had? Was
it pity? Was it just indifference? You know? Who knows? Again?
Good things for discussion. Finally, the whole reliance on pills. You
know, the pilot solution, just give him another pill? Well is that
right or wrong? I mean, some medication is literally life saving. Other
medication is literally life destroying and addictive. So, uh, you know,
pros and cons of that use of a gun, especially in especially in this
time, you know, is it good or bad? How about the ease
of which how he got a gun? Is that good or bad? You
know? Is violence the answer to the problem? You know, was it
self defense? Was it done selfishly or was it done to help other people?
Just you know, I got five pages of notes and I've already run
long. But I hope you, I hope you can see that there's just
so much stuff that even though this is about a funky looking grimlin on a
wing, that it's actually about any problem that you're going through and what are
some things we can do to tackle it. So again, that's just my
two cents. Again, hopefully this is some good food for thought for you.
I'm gonna I got to cut off so again, looking forward to hearing
everybody else's thoughts and we'll talk at you later. Back. Hey, Tom
Chad here checking in on Nightmare at twenty thousand feet. I don't have a
whole lot of substance to say other than this is definitely a top tier Twilight
Zone episode, and I also will proffer that this is a top tier Twilight
Zone podcast episode. Clocking in at two and a half hours. We get
a great setup of the host being on the flight, we get the great
interview with the expert, we get to cover all the ground the backstory,
we get the little twist ending. This is just a fantastic episode, well
worth the weight. And the only sort of thought I have is that,
you know, late fifties, early sixties, I imagine a lot of people
watching the episode probably hadn't flown very much, or you know, maybe they
had taken one flight. I mean, commercial airlines have been around, you
know, probably since what nineteen fifteen, nineteen twenty, and we're only talking
about thirty years by the time this episode comes on. So I think,
putting ourselves in the position of the viewer, you know, for whom flying
in an airplane probably as relatively new as far as you know, most of
the population goes at that time, I imagine this was all the more terrifying.
And as far as the gremlin on the wing man, I thought that
was a cool suit. I love those old, old style effects, and
it was We can look back at it today and maybe laugh at it because
we've seen so much more, but you know, putting ourselves in the shoes
of viewers at the time, that thing was pretty creepy and weird and it's
definitely an iconic part of the Twilight Zone. So yeah, great episode,
both of the show and of the podcast. I hope everybody enjoyed it. Cheers,