THIS HAS TO BE MY FAVOURITE TWILIGHT ZONE EPISODE OF ALL FIVE SEASONS.
After all these years it still carries such a profound and strong message to the viewer. It has an extremely simple and yet so powerful and solid plot and superb acting by Earl Holliman. It was written by Rod Serling and the quality is truly evident. This first episode also strikes a blazing similarity with current events and the whole media driven (mostly), dystopian, draconian and mind harvesting monster of a police state madness about this whole world wide pandemic that they want us to believe is real. So sit back, relax and enjoy this spectacular piece of cinema!
"There is a sixth dimension beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, and it lies between the pit of man's fears and the sunlight of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area that might be called the Twilight Zone."
The place is here, the time is now, and the journey into the shadows that we're about to watch could be our journey.
The barrier of loneliness: the palpable, desperate need of the human animal to be with his fellow man. Up there, up there in the vastness of space, in the void that is sky, up there is an enemy known as isolation. It sits there in the stars waiting, waiting with the patience of eons, forever waiting... in the Twilight Zone.
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The main theme in this episode, as the title suggests, is the difference between aloneness and loneliness and its effect on humans. The commanding officer in the final scene sums this up, observing, "The barrier of loneliness — that's the one thing we haven't licked yet."
As with the subject of age, isolation would be a theme often revisited by Serling in various episodes throughout the series, most prominently Season 2's "The Mind and the Matter", in which a man finds he can eliminate outside influences and uses the power to rid himself of all humanity, only to realize the extreme loneliness that comes with deprivation of human interaction. Other notable episodes with the theme include Season 1's "The Lonely" and "Time Enough at Last", Season 3's "Nothing in the Dark", and Season 5's "A Kind of a Stopwatch".
As part of the Sci Fi Channel's participation in Cable in the Classroom, "Where is Everybody?" may be recorded and retained indefinitely for educational exhibition. A suggested lesson plan expands on the concept of aloneness vs. loneliness by shifting the focus to "using a gift for personal gain or for the benefit of others" and how students might help those who are most affected by isolation and the effects of social deprivation.
Season 5's "The Long Morrow" also features an astronaut about to embark on a long solitary expedition into space.
