Valley of the Shadow

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This page is about the episode of The Twilight Zone. For the American Civil War project, see The Valley of the Shadow.

The Twilight Zone Original series Season four (1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5) January 1963 – June 1963 List of The Twilight Zone episodes
Episodes: In His Image The Thirty-Fathom Grave Valley of the Shadow He's Alive Mute Death Ship Jess-Belle Miniature Printer's Devil No Time Like the Past The Parallel I Dream of Genie The New Exhibit Of Late I Think of Cliffordville The Incredible World of Horace Ford On Thursday We Leave for Home Passage on the Lady Anne The Bard

“Valley of the Shadow” is an episode of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone.

[edit] Details

Episode number: 105
Season: 4
Original air date: January 17, 1963
Writer: Charles Beaumont
Director: Perry Lafferty
Producer: Herbert Hirschman
Director of photography: Robert W. Pittack

[edit] Cast

Philip Redfield: Ed Nelson
Ellen Marshall: Natalie Trundy
Dorn: David Opatoshu
Evans: Dabbs Greer
Connelly: Jacques Aubuchon
Johnson: James Doohan

[edit] Synopsis

Small-town dwellers have an amazing device which literally gives them what they want, by means of insterting a card into the machine of what they want. A reporter named Philip Redfield (Ed Nelson) finds himself unable to leave a small town when he learns too much about a secret mechanical device which can control and rearrange atoms, making things appear and disappear, assemble and reassemble.

[edit] Memorable quotes

Dorn: "What do you do with Professor Einstein's primitive equation, E=mc²? It could have been used to bring water to deserts, to feed starving millions. Was it? (pause) It was used to destroy countless thousands of human beings."

Phillip: "So you're just gonna sit on your secrets. Use 'em to make ham sandwiches and roadblocks."

Dorn: "Ham sandwiches and roadblocks are a bit better than total destruction, wouldn't you say Mr. Redfield?"

Evans: "Let's get this over with!"

Phillip: "You're a bunch of hypocrites! You talk about us, but what do you do when you want someone out of the way? What do you do? The same as us: you eliminate him!"

Evans: "Be quiet!"

Dorn: "No. He has a point, Mr. Evans. It's just what I've been pondering. If we kill this man, in what way do we differ from the outsiders?"

Evans: "We do it out of necessity, not out of joy."

Phillip: "Thank you, Adolf Hitler."

Phillip: "Looks like we have the same problem. I'm locked in the house, you're locked in the town - what's the difference?"

Ellen: "I can leave any time I want to."

Phillip: "Well then why don't you?"

Ellen: "Why should I? We have everything we need."

Phillip: "Except freedom. Face it: if you were to go even a couple of steps outside of this town, why, they'd nail you. Have you ever tried?"

Ellen: "No, but why should I want to try? What could the outside world have to offer that we don't have?"

Phillip: "That's not the point! It's what you have to offer that they don't have."

Evans: "She cooperated because she thought you would prove your good intentions. As I did. But my colleagues were right; you were just like the others. If the end is just, so are the means, whatever they may be. Pity. You have just lost paradise, and don't even know why."