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Twilight Zone Rips Off Star Trek Rips Off Twilight Zone

DU — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 08:41:13 -0800

Does the Star Trek episode Charlie X rip off the Twilight Zone episode It's A Good Life (or vice versa, wrt to the TZ movie)? First a few housekeeping matters:

1) I know about the original short story. I'm going to assume that everything is kosher with both ST and TZ having their bases covered wrt to that. The particular elements that struck me (see below) aren't present in the original story (that I remember), so the story is probably irrelevant.

2) With Star Trek in particular being endlessly dissected online, you'd think this would already be well documented. But while I can find a lot of acknowledgement of similarity, I haven't found a single reference to the scene I remember or any legal ramifications.

3) While I've used some legaloid language, I'm not really interested in the legalities. I'm just wondering what's going on, because something clearly is.

Now, on to the question.

In the TZ episode, I remember seeing a shot of an aunt who had displeased Anthony and had her mouth removed. Instead, she had just skin there. She was sitting and rocking, I guess driven insane. (It's possible this scene isn't in the episode and that I'm remembering the movie, which reprises the basic concept. Reading over the entry, I think this is likely.) Another classic scene in the episode is seeing the result of one of Anthony's actions only via a shadow. This action happened at a party.

In the ST episode, Charlie is seen walking past a recreation room. Revelry sounds inside but you can't see in the room. All that's seen are shadows cast on the wall. Charlie pauses and all sound inside ceases and he walks on. A woman fumbles her way out and her face is gone, replaced by just skin.

The general commonality is the obvious "child with god-like powers". However, that could be explained away as being an idea that was "in the air" or even as a copy-with-changes to get a different story. But these specific elements make it seem like something was going on:

1) Party is ruined
2) Shadows on wall
3) Face removed

The ST and TZ episodes and the story are all written by separate people. The TZ ep predates the ST one by 5 years while movie comes 15 years after ST.

One hypothesis is this reach: The TZ ep is made (without the face removal). 5 years later, ST makes a similar episode and copies the party + shadow aspect and invents the face removal. 15 years after that, the TZ Movie writers, knowing about this copy, playfully "steal back" the face removal.

Twilight Zone Episode...

maya — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 22:33:49 -0800

I'm trying to identify an episode of The Twilight Zone (B&W original series, though I suppose it could have been an Alfred Hitchcock Presents ep?)... This is what I (think I) remember: A boy (8-12) and his father board a train. His father begins a conversation with one or two men and hands the boy a half-dollar/shiny quarter/silver dime and tells him that he can keep it if he stays quiet for a certain amount of time. The boy is happy and wants the gift, but he sees a man struggling (homeless? being beaten?) outside a window. When he tries to alert them he is shushed and told if he does indeed speak he will not keep his prize...

Are my memories real? Does it matter if they aren't?

Avenger — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 01:59:03 -0800

How can I be sure that my childhood actually happened? Before I begin, let me say:

1) No, this is not a joke

and

2) No, despite my wishes to the contrary, I'm not stoned out of my mind.

Basically, I have a number of memories from my childhood that are completely surreal and more or less physically impossible -- which would rationally suggest that I'm remembering dreams -- yet these "memories" are just as real and perfectly vivid as any other memory of my childhood. I'm disturbed by the implications of this.

Example 1: I have a vivid, utterly real "memory", from when I was 6 or 7 I guess, of my dad and I standing together, naked, in a toilet bowl. We weren't shrunk or anything, just sort of standing there, full sized. I know, it's classic Freudian dream material. Yet, it's just as "real" to me as one of my birthday parties from those years.

Example 2: I remember, very distinctly and strongly, of visiting my grandmother's house for a family reunion when I was about 9 or 10. Part of the "ritual" of the family reunion involved everyone (except myself, because I chickened out) walking over a bed of hot, smoldering coals.

Yes, I know it's all completely insane. I asked my grandma about it last year and she agreed that it's insane as well, yet I remember it as well as I remember Christmas from around that time. Perfect clarity.

Example 3: Some kids have "imaginary friends". I had an "imaginary enemy". It was the telephone pole who lived out back. The nodes on top were his eyes, the "V" shape crossbars was his perpetually grinning mouth. The strange part is that I remember him speaking. Like, really remember him speaking. He spoke a terrible monster-language (sounded like "Gonk-gonk-gonk") but I could understand what he was saying. He always wanted to eat me and my family. I remember him threatening my family, as much as I remember my dad talking to me as a child. Its that real to me.

The rational part of my mind (which I like to think is very strong) realizes that these and other "memories" are obviously products of my own mind -- yet I'm unable to distinguish them in any way from "reality", except, perhaps, by their seemingly ludicrous nature.

So, some questions:

Is this normal? Does anyone else have these experiences? Or am I completely insane?

Is there any truth to the idea of "false memories" that could have been implanted by someone else? Or even by myself, unknowingly?

And finally, (on a more philosophical note) If I can't reliably tell the difference between dreams and reality from such a young age, how can I be sure that anything from back then is real? Obviously I can ask others who were supposedly there (like grandma) but if they don't remember, what does it say about my personal integrity that many of my earliest, most formative memories could be fake? Or even mostly fake? Obviously I've given some extreme and very surreal examples, but what can I trust if I can't trust my own memory?