Today, I took a break from editing my radio piece, and I discovered that The Twilight Zone is available on Netflix’s instant view. How cool! Do you guys ever watch the marathon that the SciFi Channel (I refuse to use its official spelling; there are no y’s in “science fiction”) airs on the days leading up to and immediately following New Year’s? I watch every year.

Because it’s a throwback of sorts. Besides being a connection to my younger years (nostalgia = a treasure greater than gold), it is also an artifact of the times. It was pretty easy to disarm, scare, or rattle people’s nerves. Living in an era when even the brutalest of horror scenes rarely affect audiences, it’s nice to watch Rod Serling’s simple little spook stories/morality tales.

I’ve always found it interesting how heavily Serling played with the alien theme, often using them to represent The Other during the days when everyone was terrified of The Other. I suppose these aliens were typically a stand-in for communists. I guess now they would represent terrorists. Ah, the good old days.

Anyway.

Two of my favorite episodes have always been “The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street” and “Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up?” The former may be the most relevant TwiZo episode today. The latter is a damn fun locked-room whodunit, but carries the same themes: paranoia and group think.

In “Monsters,” someone on the street is assumed to be, with no real reason, an alien. Fingers are pointed, accusations made. By the end of the episode, one character murders his neighbor out of suspicion, and chaos erupts on Maple Street. A delightful morality tale. Paranoia breeds paranoia breeds fear breeds mob mentality. Kill The Other so The Other doesn’t kill you first. There are no aliens on Maple Street. But its scared residents create one, only to destroy themselves.

How delightfully simple.

“Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up?” is a little different. This time, there really is an alien among us. One of seven people in a diner is a stranded alien, but which one? The crazy-eyed old man? The stripper? The pompous businessman on his way to Boston? Once again, everyone has such pointy little fingers. And even when the mystery is solved, there’s still a surprise ending. 

How fun!

I guess what strikes me most is how little has changed in 50 years. We’re still chasing aliens. Pop culture certainly has a hand in keeping the theme alive: The X-Files, V, War of the Worlds, etc. (the aliens almost always representing something non-fictional). But haven’t we always had some kind of enemy? Someone whose appearance makes us uncomfortable? Someone whose behavior ventures away from the realm of “normal” behavior?

Maybe it’s human nature to create a foe, I don’t know. I’m no psychologist (though, I do own a monocle).

But it’s cool to look back at these old TV shows, laugh at their fashions and speech, slap our foreheads at the sight of gender roles, and realize just how silly the stories are. Interesting, though, how some of those episodes still hold a lot of weight these days.

And how the titles remain regrettably poignant. Because it seems the monsters have been, and always will be, due on Maple Street, USA.