The Twilight Zone is one of the most influential TV shows of all time, and over six decades ago, it changed a popular sci-fi trope forever. Back in 1959, CBS saw the debut of The Twilight Zone, created by Rod Serling, who also served as host and writer of various episodes. As an anthology series, each episode of The Twilight Zone presented a different story.

The Twilight Zone is a perfect combination of horror, sci-fi, fantasy, and drama, though it does have much lighter episodes, comedic ones, and some with a rare happy ending. The Twilight Zone is also known for its twists and endings with a moral, and many of its episodes became part of pop culture and made TV history.

Among the best episodes of The Twilight Zone are some that changed the world of sci-fi completely, including one unsettling episode that uses a well-known trope in its twist and makes it heartbreaking, changing the trope forever.

“The Midnight Sun” Gave A Tragic Twist To The “It Was All A Dream” Trope

In 1961, The Twilight Zone’s episode “The Midnight Sun” aired for the first time. Directed by Anton Leader and written by Serling, “The Midnight Sun” takes the audience into a reality where, a month before the events of the episode, the Earth changed its elliptical orbit and began to gradually get closer to the Sun.

With the streets deserted, water usage limited, lack of food, and electricity gradually being turned off, the survivors either move to places with cooler climate or prepare themselves for more tragedy. The episode follows Norma (Lois Nettleton), who, along with her landlady, Mrs. Bronson (Betty Garde), does what she can to survive as the temperature keeps rising.

After Mrs. Bronson dies from heat stroke, Norma watches in shock as the thermometer surpasses its limit and shatters and her paintings melt, meaning that her end is also close. However, The Twilight Zone gives her story a twist by revealing it was all a dream, but reality is no better.

Instead of moving closer to the Sun, the Earth is moving away from it, so instead of facing increasingly high temperatures, the world’s inhabitants are gradually freezing to death. Norma is being cared for by a doctor and Mrs. Bronson as she has a high fever, so the episode was a fever dream.

The “it was all a dream” trope is often used with optimistic results, as the reality turns out to be a lot better – however, that isn’t fitting with The Twilight Zone. The show proved that everything can have tragic and unsettling twists, even more so if the story has realistic elements, as does “The Midnight Sun.”

“The Midnight Sun” Perfectly Represents What The Twilight Zone Was About

With its twist on a well-known trope, “The Midnight Sun” is one of the best examples of what The Twilight Zone is about. Although it’s all about sci-fi, the most popular and scariest Twilight Zone episodes are rooted in reality and/or appeal to real fears (rational or not), and “The Midnight Sun” does all that.

Surely, the Earth gradually getting closer to or moving away from the Sun isn’t a realistic scenario, but what makes it feel like it is the production value of the episode, the story, and the characters. The exploding thermometers, the melting paintings, and more make the story feel real, as well as their efforts to survive.

This, along with the horrors of what would happen in those situations, the struggles of the survivors, and the many tragedies they go through make the episode suspenseful, dramatic, and horrifying, as The Twilight Zone should be.

Release Date

1959 – 1964

Showrunner

Rod Serling

Directors

John Brahm, Buzz Kulik, Douglas Heyes, Lamont Johnson, Richard L. Bare, James Sheldon, Richard Donner, Don Medford, Montgomery Pittman, Abner Biberman, Alan Crosland, Jr., Alvin Ganzer, Elliot Silverstein, Jack Smight, Joseph M. Newman, Ted Post, William Claxton, Jus Addiss, Mitchell Leisen, Perry Lafferty, Robert Florey, Robert Parrish, Ron Winston, Stuart Rosenberg

Writers

Charles Beaumont, Richard Matheson, Earl Hamner, Jr., George Clayton Johnson, Jerry Sohl, Henry Slesar, Martin Goldsmith, Anthony Wilson, Bernard C. Schoenfeld, Bill Idelson, E. Jack Neuman, Jerome Bixby, Jerry McNeely, John Collier, John Furia, Jr., John Tomerlin, Lucille Fletcher, Ray Bradbury, Reginald Rose, Sam Rolfe, Adele T. Strassfield

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