A Day in Beaumont
In the year of 1955, somewhere outside the desert town of Beaumont, our brave and intrepid hero, university astronomer Kevin Carlson (Victor Garber) and his devoted wife Faith (Stacy Nelkin) experience car trouble. All of the sudden, the pair witness a flying saucer from outer space crash landing in the desert. Dr. Carlson and Faith investigate the crash site, only to find that the spaceship houses a crew of hideous insect-headed space aliens! After narrowly dodging laser blasts from the extraterrestrials' ray guns, Faith and Dr. Carlson arrive in Beaumont to share their story with diner owner Pop, military captain Major Whitmore, telegraphist H.G. Orson, and Sheriff Haskin (John Agar, Warren Stevens, Jeff Morrow, and Kenneth Tobey), but their evidence seemingly disappears when they take the Major to the crash site. It slowly dawns on the astronomer and his beloved sweetheart that the aliens are assimilating the citizens of Beaumont as means of a plot of global domination! Will our brave heroes manage to stop the interstellar fiends before their plan succeeds?
Tropes
- Actor Allusion: Three noticeable examples are present in the episode, as it's a parody of 50s science fiction films:
- Dr. Carlson pointedly describes the spaceship that he and Faith saw crashing in the desert as "a thing" to Sheriff Haskin. Haskin is played by Kenneth Tobey, who is best known for playing Captain Hendry in The Thing from Another World.
- H.G. Orson sarcastically asks Carlson if he has also seen "tarantulas as big as houses." Pop is played by John Agar, who played Dr. Hastings in Tarantula!.
- Orson also refers to the planet he and the aliens live on as Altair IV. Major Whitmore is played by Warren Stevens, who starred as Doc Ostrow in Forbidden Planet, from which the planet gets its name.
- Affectionate Parody: The entire episode is an intentionally campy and melodramatic parody of 1950s sci-fi movies.
- Alien Invasion: Kevin and Faith see a UFO crash in the desert, and immediately assume that its insectoid crew are planning to invade Earth. It turns out that they're correct, but not in the way that they think. The crash landing and the assimilations are part of a training simulation on a distant planet to prepare its troops for a future invasion. Kevin and Faith are themselves aliens who suffered memory loss and came to believe that they genuinely were humans.
- Big "NO!": Kevin gives one when Faith peels off her latex human mask to reveal the insect head underneath.
- Dutch Angle: These occur frequently thanks to the episode's nature, specifically when Kevin and Faith discover that someone is a disguised alien.
- EMP: Dr. Carlson discovers that his watch stopped functioning as soon as the flying saucer crashed in the vicinity, which he immediately attributes to magnetic interference.
- The Ending Changes Everything: Kevin and Faith are actually members of the ant-headed alien race they spotted, who forgot their true identities when they sustained memory loss. Beaumont is actually located on the aliens' home planet, and the invasion was part of a training simulation for an actual invasion of Earth.
- Fake Town: The titular town of Beaumont turns out to be a training facility for the aliens, meant to prepare them for the eventual invasion of Earth.
- Flying Saucer: Dr. Carlson and Faith witness one of them crash in the nearby town of Willoughby, five miles outside Beaumont. Upon investigating, they discover that it belongs to a race of insectoid extraterrestrials who seemingly intend to conquer the planet by assimilating humankind.
- Glamour Failure: Kevin determines that Sheriff Haskin and Major Whitmore are aliens in disguise when someone takes their photograph with a flash camera, allowing for their true appearances to be briefly superimposed over their human disguises. The aliens are also unable to bend their little fingers when they are in human form.
- Here We Go Again!: In the final scene, another man approaches the sheriff and tells him that he witnessed a flying saucer crash land in a nearby town, exactly as Kevin and Faith did. This time, however, the sheriff is Kevin himself, having since been reprogrammed by his superiors.
- Insectoid Aliens: Kevin and Faith frantically try to warn the authorities that a race of ant-headed aliens, whose spaceship they saw crash land, are planning to invade Earth. Kevin and Faith later discover that they are members of the alien race themselves, and what they think is Earth is really their homeworld of Altair IV. H.G. Orson explains to them that they are taking part in a training simulation for their race's planned invasion of Earth, and that they are experiencing memory loss.
- Latex Perfection: Parodied. The aliens are able to perfectly disguise themselves as humans simply by using rubber face masks.
- Lighter and Softer: As the episode is an homage to 1950s science fiction movies, everyone in the episode is intentionally overly-dramatic, the plot is notably tired and overdone, and the score is lighthearted and adventurous to set the mood.
- Mythology Gag: Dr. Carlson reports that the aliens' spaceship crashed near the town of Willoughby. There's also a sign in the diner that reads "It's been a pleasure... serving you."
- Neutral Female: As part of the 1950s science fiction motif, Faith has very little characterization outside of being Kevin's wife.
- Parody Assistance: Given that the episode is an homage to science fiction films of the 1950s, the locals of Beaumont are all played by actors who appeared in several such films.
- The Power of Love: Parodied. Kevin makes two separate overly-dramatic declarations of love to Faith, assuring her that it can defeat the aliens, and they can never take that away from them.
- Right for the Wrong Reasons: Kevin and Faith assume that the aliens intend to conquer Earth and are assimilating humans to do so. They turn out to be partially correct, as Beaumont is a training ground for the aliens to practice for their eventual, actual invasion of Earth. The astronomer and his wife are themselves aliens who suffered from memory loss.
- Shout-Out: As an Affectionate Parody of 1950s science fiction films, the episode is filled with references to such films:
- Kevin and Faith witness a Flying Saucer crash in the desert, just as John Putnam and Ellen Fields did in It Came from Outer Space.
- As a result of the EMP released by the crashing spaceship, Kevin's watch stops working. The same thing happened to Dr. Clayton Forrester in The War of the Worlds (1953).
- Kevin and Faith see the aliens removing large green pods from their ship, which is said to have crashed near the Santa Mira Mountains. In Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), Santa Mira is the name of the town invaded by aliens who grow copies of humans in pods.
- At one point, Faith mentions having an Uncle Ira who is assimilated by the aliens. Becky Driscoll from the above film also had an Uncle Ira who is among the Pod Peoples' first victims.
- H.G. Orson sarcastically asks Kevin if he has seen any giant ants, and there is also a hardware store in Beaumont known as Johnson's. In Them!, Grampa Johnson is one of the first people killed by the giant ants.
- The aliens are unable to bend their little fingers while disguised as humans, much like the aliens in The Invaders (1967).
- The planet the episode is revealed to be set on is named Altair IV, the same planet from Forbidden Planet.
- Tomato in the Mirror: Astronomer Kevin Carlson and his wife Faith witness a UFO crash landing, apparently as the start of an alien invasion. In the end, they discover that they themselves are aliens who experienced memory loss, and everything that happened is part of a training exercise to assist the aliens in infiltrating Earth society.
- Tuckerization: The episode's tongue-in-cheek nature means that there are numerous references to actors, writers, and directors who worked on science fiction projects:
- Dr. Kevin Carlson and Faith are named after Richard Carlson and Faith Domergue, who each starred in several 1950s sci-fi films.
- The town of Beaumont is named after Charles Beaumont, who wrote many episodes of the original Twilight Zone.
- Sheriff Haskin is named after Byron Haskin, who directed The War of the Worlds (1953).
- H.G. Orson is named after H. G. Wells, who wrote the original War of the Worlds, and Orson Welles, who produced the infamous 1938 radio adaptation.
- Major Whitmore is named after James Whitmore, who played Sgt. Peterson in Them!. He also played Captain William Benteen in the original series episode "On Thursday We Leave for Home".
- The aliens fire what are said to be "Bradbury Rays" at Kevin and Faith as they escape the crash site. Seminal writer Ray Bradbury wrote for both versions of the series.
- In the final scene, a young man reports that he saw a UFO crash land in the town of Matheson, a reference to prolific author and Twilight Zone writer Richard Matheson.
- World of Ham: As part of its parodying of 1950s sci-fi movies, every single character is ludicrously over the top.
The Last Defender of Camelot
In 20th century London, an old man is nearly mugged by a trio of punks, but is able to fight them off with surprising strength and agility. One of the punks, Tom (John Cameron Mitchell), takes the old man to see the woman who hired them to find him, who he instantly recognizes as none other than Morgan le Fay (Jenny Agutter). Similarly recognizing the old man as Sir Lancelot of the Round Table (Richard Kiley), Morgan shares with the Knight that his ally Merlin the Magician (Norman Lloyd), who had compelled him to vacation in London, has ulterior motives. With some of Morgan's magic, Lancelot and Tom are brought before Merlin in a secret cave, whom the Knight revives with a special elixir. Morgan's predictions turn out to unfortunately be correct, as Merlin intends to sacrifice Tom as a means to regain his magic, and forcefully place a new king who will meet up to the old magician's standards on the throne, regardless of how much the world has changed.
Tropes
- Alas, Poor Villain: After Merlin dies, Lancelot still shows pity on his former friend, calling him an old man who slept too long and dreamt too hard.
- All Myths Are True: Tom learns that the figures from Arthurian legend, such as Merlin, Lancelot, and Morgan le Fay, really existed, as he and two other punks are hired by le Fay to bring Lancelot to her.
- Animated Armor: Merlin enchanted a suit of armor to protect him during his 1,000 year slumber, having dubbed it "the Hollow Knight". After he awakens, Merlin has the knight fight Lancelot so that he can sacrifice Tom and regain his magic. Lancelot handily defeats it before he goes after Merlin.
- Animorphism: Finding Tom disrespectful, Merlin threatens to turn him into a goose, but Lancelot stays his hand.
- Big Bad: Merlin the Magician. Contrary to how he is depicted in popular culture, he's actually a malevolent, if not misguided, sorcerer who seeks to rule the world and remake it in his own image, even implying that he used Arthur as a puppet king to rule Camelot from behind the scenes.
- Black-and-White Morality: In Merlin's eyes, there's only good and evil, no in-between. He ignores Lancelot's warnings that weaponry capable of obliterating entire cities has been developed and that people elect their own leaders now, kings being figureheads in the 20th century. Merlin pays this no mind, deciding that "peasants" don't know what's truly good for them, and desires over all else to rule by his brand of "justice" alone.
- Canon Foreigner: Tom is a punk hired by Morgan le Fay to bring Lancelot to her, who doesn't appear in the short story by Roger Zelazny. Lancelot later dubs Tom as his squire, and brings him to a secret cave in Cornwall to meet the newly-awakened Merlin.
- Cool Old Guy: Sir Lancelot, the last living Knight of the Round Table. While he looks to be in his 60s, he's actually remained alive for 1,000 years after Camelot fell, and as shown when the punks harass him, he hasn't lost an ounce of his renowned fighting skills, easily mopping the floor with them.
- Deadpan Snarker: Morgan le Fay has a notably sharp tongue, largely in part due to being presented as a villain for centuries.
- Didn't Want an Adventure: Tom was merely assigned to bring Lancelot to Morgan le Fay for profit. He's dragged into the events of the episode against his will when Lancelot dubs him his new squire, and Merlin intends to make him a human sacrifice so he can regain his magic.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: After Merlin is defeated, Lancelot spies what appears to be Camelot in the distance and boldly walks to it, with Tom, his new squire, soon following him.
- Eiffel Tower Effect: The episode opens with a shot of Big Ben signaling the hour.
- Elixir of Life: Merlin has Lancelot give him a special elixir after he awakens from his 1,000 years of hibernation so he can regain his strength. After Merlin removes the enchantment that granted Lancelot immortality, the Knight drinks the rest of the elixir, as he has learned caution in his extremely long life and suspected that Merlin might betray him.
- Establishing Character Moment: Lancelot is first seen being approached by Tom and the other punks who intend to take him to Morgan le Fay. As Lancelot appears to be in his early 60s, the trio don't think that he'll put up a decent fight. Being a Knight of the Round Table, Lancelot proves to be extremely strong, agile, and tactical, effortlessly pummeling all three punks in less than a minute with only his cane.
- Evil Sorcerer: Merlin is revealed to be an evil individual who insists on placing a new king on Camelot's throne so he can influence their every move. He also intends to make Tom a human sacrifice to regain the full scope of his magic powers.
- Finger-Snap Lighter: Morgan le Fay snaps her fingers to light her cigarette when Lancelot refuses to do so, the Knight telling her that chivalry is dead.
- Heel–Face Turn: Tom was originally a two-bit delinquent who was hired to bring Lancelot to Morgan le Fay. When he's dragged into Lancelot's adventure against his will and nearly sacrificed by Merlin, he has a change of heart and gradually embraces his role as Lancelot's squire, following after the Knight to Camelot.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Morgan le Fay engages in a magical battle with Merlin at the last possible minute, even though she knows he is far more powerful and she has little prospect of victory. She does so in order to save the lives of Lancelot and Tom, as well as to prevent Merlin from taking over the world. Merlin manages to defeat her and she dies shortly afterwards, but her diversion allows for Lancelot to destroy Merlin's staff, gradually killing him.
- Hero with Bad Publicity: While popularized as a wicked sorceress, Morgan le Fay is actually an honorable individual, as she warns Lancelot that Merlin can't be trusted and later sacrifices herself fighting the sorcerer to save him and Tom. She lampshades her villainous depictions in the distant past as the result of "some very bad press".
- Historical Domain Character: Sir Lancelot, Morgan le Fay, and Merlin the Magician are all major characters.
- Human Sacrifice: Merlin subliminally compelled Lancelot to bring Tom to his cavernous hideout in Cornwall, and did this so he could restore his full powers by sacrificing Tom in Stonehenge, which actually exists between worlds.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Tom is a punk who was assigned to bring Lancelot to Morgan le Fay for money and tries to rough him up when he refuses to come quietly. Despite this, his adventure with the Knight proves that he's pretty decent underneath the leather and switchblades, gradually accepting his role as Lancelot's squire and chasing after him into Camelot. Even when he and Lancelot first met, he tried to keep one of his fellow punks from hurting the old man.
- Just Following Orders: Tom has nothing personal against Lancelot, but he threatens him to come meet Morgan le Fay because she promised to pay him.
- Lady of Black Magic: Subverted with Morgan le Fay. Lancelot believes her to be a wicked sorceress, but she tells him that her evil reputation has actually been greatly exaggerated, claiming that she got a lot of bad press between Merlin and Thomas Malory. Morgan fully proves herself honorable when she fights off Merlin in order to protect Lancelot and Tom from his magic. She is mortally wounded in the process, and shortly before she dies, she jokes that she hopes to finally get some good press out of her sacrifice.
- Locked Out of the Loop: For most of the episode, Tom has no idea about what he's gotten himself into, having only been paid to bring Lancelot to Morgan.
- My Greatest Failure: Lancelot declares his affair with Guinevere behind his Liege's back to be his greatest mistake, and he would gladly welcome death to ease the guilt.
- Puppet King: Merlin's master plan is to select a new king to rule the world, largely so he can influence their decision making and rule the world behind the scenes. He's even hinted to have pulled the exact same scheme on Arthur to rule Camelot.
- Really 700 Years Old: Lancelot appears to be in his 60s, but has actually lived for 1,000 years as a result of a spell cast upon him by Merlin. Morgan le Fay is much the same age, but she only looks to be in her early 30s.
- Sole Survivor: Lancelot is the last surviving Knight of the Round Table, kept alive for 1,000 years after Camelot fell by a spell cast on him by Merlin.
- Villain with Good Publicity: Merlin, the trusted advisor and right-hand man of King Arthur, is actually a power-hungry tyrant who used Arthur as a puppet king to shape the world in his image.
- War Is Hell: After Camelot fell, Lancelot became a mercenary-for-hire who traveled the world fighting for India and China, as well as fighting in the Crusades. Centuries of fighting later, the Knight eventually grew weary of all the death and destruction, and refused to battle anymore. When Merlin awakens, Lancelot asks the old wizard if even Camelot was worth all the blood and tears that it cost to build.
- Weaksauce Weakness: Before he sacrifices Tom, Merlin's magic lies solely in his wooden staff. Lancelot destroying the staff causes Merlin to undergo rapid aging and gradually die.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Merlin seeks to place a king on the throne who will rule the world according to the principles of honor, integrity, morality, and chivalry he created. Despite his noble goals, he is willing to sacrifice Tom in order to fully restore his powers. Lancelot warns him that the art of war has changed in the 1,000 years he slept, and there are now weapons capable of destroying the entire world. Merlin ignores him, intending to do whatever is necessary to fulfil his grand design. After he kills Morgan le Fay and Lancelot kills him by destroying his staff, Lancelot tells Tom not to hate Merlin for all that he's done, including trying to sacrifice him to regain his magic, calling his former companion "an old man who slept too long and dreamt too hard."
- Who Wants to Live Forever?: Lancelot has grown weary of immortality after 1,000 years of fighting and bloodshed, and tells Morgan le Fay that he would welcome death to put an end to the pain and guilt he brought upon himself by betraying Arthur through his affair with Guinevere.
- With Friends Like These...: Lancelot considers Merlin to be a good friend, ever since their days in Camelot 1,000 years earlier. However, Merlin proves himself to be an evil and untrustworthy adversary as soon as he awakens from his long sleep, as he plans to sacrifice Tom to restore his magic and shape the world to his vision by putting a Puppet King on the throne.
- Written by the Winners: Merlin had a great amount of influence over Arthurian legend and the characters within. Morgan le Fay is a notable example, as the "bad press" she got for being a wicked and vile sorceress distracted the world from the honorable woman she truly is.
"Once upon a time, there was a realm of myth and magic. A high, bright dream that shimmered briefly, and then was gone, leaving only memories and one ageless, weary, slightly tarnished hero, who proved at last that wisdom and valor go hand in hand. On Earth, in Camelot, and — in the Twilight Zone."
