Experiment: The Twilight Zone
Introduction
While my fellow high school classmates would utilize a Twilight Zone screening in class as an opportunity to go on their cell phones, my eyes would stay consistently glued to the screen. I’ve always been infatuated with dystopian literature and film—particularly, the work of Ray Bradbury. For my second experiment, I wanted to take a crack at this genre myself by writing my own script for a Twilight Zone episode. The episode involves two women in a seemingly normal situation, and one of these women eventually learns an important lesson about humanity’s innate desire for approval. This lesson closely aligns with the message conveyed in my artifact of origin essay about Panhellenic recruitment. While I believe dystopian and sci-fi fans will enjoy my episode the most, I am, nonetheless, writing it with everyone in mind as my intended audience. On surface level this seems very broad. However, from my own experience with these genres, every single person has their own unique takeaway from an episode or story. Based on my episode’s underlying message, all viewers will be forced to introspect on how insecurity manifests within themselves and just how far they’d go to rid themselves of these insecurities. Ultimately, I loved working with this experiment so much that I decided to turn it into my final project. The script in full can be accessed under the "Spec Scripts" section of my website.
More About The Twilight Zone...
Before creating The Twilight Zone, Rod Serling was no more than an average citizen with a deep concern for moral society. In 1924, Serling was born into a working-class family in Syracuse, New York (“Rod Serling.”). This upbringing, paired with his service in the army during World War II, is what prompted him to think more deeply about humanity and morality (“Rod Serling.”). After his service, he attended college where he majored in English Literature and Drama; it is here where Serling first discovered his passion for writing and his immense talent (“Rod Serling.”).
Early on in his writing career, Serling honed his unique style of realistic psychological dramas. After the success of his first television show, he started to get hounded by conservative media censors throughout the 1950s (“Rod Serling.”). His explicit references to political issues like lynching, union organizations, and racism didn’t bode well for the conservative networks, and eventually, Serling himself grew tired of dealing with them. However, Serling realized he could still address these controversial issues through his work if he wasn’t explicit about them, but rather masked them in science fiction and fantasy (“Rod Serling.”). And thus, The Twilight Zone was born.
Having written 92 of the 156 total episodes in the original series, Serling was able to perfect his own formula. Several internet users—who appear to be avid watchers of The Twilight Zone—typed their interpretations of this formula into a condensed version. This version is understandable even to those who haven’t seen the show much. At the beginning of every episode, an average character finds himself in a brand new situation (“How to Write an Episode of The Twilight Zone.”). This character always possesses some sort of insecurity or fear, or may have selfish motives. Regardless, one thing for certain is this character is “never someone doing the right thing” (“How to Write an Episode of The Twilight Zone.”). In every episode, the setting is limited to one major area, like a bar, small town, airplane, or a single street (“How to Write an Episode of The Twilight Zone.”).
​
Then, the character reacts as strange circumstances begin to unfold. These situations always involve a sci-fi theme, whether it be aliens, robots, nuclear holocaust, time travel, or many others (“How to Write an Episode of The Twilight Zone.”). The situations—and most importantly, the series’ recognizable plot twist endings—always unveil an important lesson about an innate psychological human trait.
​
My Initial Plan...
Below you can find my initial outline for the episode. I broke it up down into five separate parts based on turning points in the story, which can simultaneously serve as commercial breaks if my episode were to air on television.
​​
I. Beverly and Margie are relaxing at the beach
Beverly and Margie are two friends in their mid 20’s who have been close for most of their lives. On this particular day, they went to the beach for a relaxing outing. This is a typical ‘50’s beach scene with the colorful umbrellas, stripe and polka dot designs, etc. As the scene begins, there will be a voiceover explaining how this is “no typical beach.” The scene will also convey that Beverly, in social situations, is clearly the more timid of the two while Margie craves attention. All will be normal for them at this point.
II. Mark arrives, he and Margie continue with their flirtatious exchanges
All of a sudden, a good-looking man named Mark will approach the two girls. He’s soaking wet, so it’s apparent that he just came from the water. He lays down next to them in the sand and starts talking. Margie overpowers Beverly in conversation, and Beverly’s annoyance is quite apparent. She continues to try and chime in with comments she believes will win over his attention, but all her attempts are unsuccessful. After several flirtatious exchanges between Mark and Margie, they team up and start playfully flicking sand on Beverly. Beverly then gets up and goes to wash herself off in the ocean.
III. Beverly has her first encounter with the monster in the ocean
Beverly, jealous as ever, trudges over to the ocean and begins to wade in. She enters the ocean at a very crowded area of the shoreline—so crowded that no one is paying attention to her. After she takes a few scoops of water with her hands and begins to wash herself, she notices a faint outline of a face in the water. She looks more closely, and notices it’s the face of a horrifying monster. After staring for a few seconds, this monster’s face morphs into a more beautiful outline of her own face: her smile is much more genuine, her skin is clearer, etc. Beverly is perplexed...and even more so when she hears a voice tell her, “If it is happiness you seek, you must free yourself from the root of your suffering.” After she washes all of the sand off, she shakes her head and walks back towards Margie and Mark.
IV. Beverly brings Margie to the oceanside and drowns her, following the monster’s advice
As soon as Beverly heads back and sits down, she’s blatantly ignored. Margie and Mark continue to giggle and are now sitting closer together. Beverly’s jealousy begins to grow exponentially. She has flashbacks to powerful events throughout her and Margie’s friendship where Margie stole the show in a similar fashion. These various flashbacks are from different points in their life spanning from childhood to recently, to indicate all the buildup of anger Beverly has developed throughout the duration of their friendship. Beverly is fed up with being overlooked; this encounter with Mark was the final straw for her. So, Beverly pretends to feel very faint, and asks Margie to head over to the oceanside and get some water with her. Margie reluctantly agrees and gets up.
As they arrive at the same crowded part of the shoreline where Beverly went the first time, Margie begins to complain about how Beverly is standing in the way of her happiness with Mark. As she says this, the reflection of Beverly’s monster reappears in the water—which can only be seen by Beverly. She recalls the monster’s advice, and interprets this to mean Margie is the root of her suffering. So, with no hesitation upon seeing the monster, Beverly forces Margie deeper into the ocean and holds her underwater to drown her. The area is so crowded, that Beverly simply turns around and walks away as though nothing had happened. She returns back to where Mark is sitting.
V. Mark brings Beverly to the oceanside to go play in the water and...
Beverly goes back to Mark, and improvises as she tells him Margie decided to head home for the day. Mark sighs and suggests they may as well take a walk together along the oceanside. After a few minutes of strolling, they end up in the same area of the shoreline where Beverly and Margie just were. With no warning, Mark forces Beverly deeper into the ocean and begins to drown her. He’ll say some sort of line that indicates his own version of the monster that Beverly saw persuaded him to do this. Beverly shrieks as she understands what’s going on...but it’s no use.
Reflection
This piece has been more difficult for me to complete than most—but at the same time, has been far more rewarding. Brainstorming for a sci-fi story is quite difficult, especially when it involves weaving in a psychological lesson. Initially, I was inspired by Lowis Lowry’s novel The Giver and her notion of “sameness” throughout The Community. I thought this concept tied very well to my artifact of origin, but as I experimented with the idea more and more, my own ideas kept aligning too closely with her story. In order to feel more unconstrained, I decided to change my plan and develop my own episode of The Twilight Zone.
There is no better feeling for a writer than the “aha” moment when all of his or her ideas finally come together. One day while I was sketching out phrases in my writer’s notebook, this aha moment struck and I was ecstatic. This experiment has really taught me that writing (particularly scripts) is a dynamic process. One faint idea can emerge at any random moment. As you begin to explore this new idea, your story may shift in an entirely different direction—which is exactly what happened to me while initially working on this experiment.
What made this experiment all the more exciting was the fact I faced my fear of volunteering for workshop. I’m very reluctant to have others read my writing, so I was admittedly dreading the day itself. As soon as it ended I questioned why I was so nervous in the first place; not only did I receive compliments and reassurance on my initial ideas, but I was also given very thoughtful constructive criticism that helped me to further improve my writing. This workshop reiterated my gratitude in being part of a community as special as this class.
Overall, this process was so much fun and I cannot wait to write more scripts in the future.
Works Cited:
“Defining The Zone.” Shadow & Substance, 3 June 2016, thenightgallery.wordpress.com/2012/08/26/defining-the-twilight-zone/.
Hellerman, Jason. “50+ Camera Angles, Shots, and Movements: A Complete Guide.” No Film School, No Film School, 23 Oct. 2019,
nofilmschool.com/camera-angles-and-shots-movements.
“How to Write an Episode of The Twilight Zone.” Everything2, 15 Oct. 2002,
everything2.com/title/How+to+write+an+episode+of+The+Twilight+Zone.
“Rod Serling.” PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, 29 Dec. 2003, www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/rod-serling-about-rod-serling/702/.
“Style Guide for SAC210 Screenplays.”
“The Twilight Zone.” TV Writing, sites.google.com/site/tvwriting/us-drama/show-collections/the-twilight-zone.