I of Newton

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“I of Newton”

The Twilight Zone episode

Episode no.

Season 1
Episode 12, Segment 2

Written by

Joe Haldeman

Directed by

Kenneth Gilbert

Guest stars

Sherman Hemsley : Sam
Ron Glass : Demon

Original airdate

December 13, 1985

Episode chronology
← Previous	Next →
"Her Pilgrim Soul"	"Night of the Meek"

List of Twilight Zone episodes

I of Newton is the second segment of the twelfth episode from the television series The New Twilight Zone. It was based on a 1970 short story by Joe Haldeman which first appeared in Fantastic Stories magazine.

[edit] Synopsis

A professor named Max (played on TV by Sherman Hemsley), trying to figure out a difficult math problem, angrily yells out, "I'd sell my soul to get this thing right!" Instantly, the (or possibly "a") Devil appears (Ron Glass). The Devil announces that Max's math problem "was the phonetic equivalent of a demonic invocation", and plots to steal his soul, which would be sold to bidders from other worlds. There is a catch, though. Max is allowed to ask three questions in regard to the Devil's powers, and then pose either a question or a task; if the Devil cannot answer said question or perform said task, Max's soul is spared. Max asks, "Really?", which the Devil counts as a question. "Hey, evil. Unfair." Max's next question is more carefully planned. He asks if there are any physical limitations to the Devil's powers; the demon gleefully replies in the negative, claiming that he is able to travel faster than the speed of light or make two electrons occupy the same quantum state. The third question forms a corollary to the second. Max queries if there is any place the Devil cannot find his way back from. The Devil, with malicious joy, informs Max that he can move through galaxies in a microsecond, and even go to places that don't exist, such as "Berlin if the Nazis had won the war", or Rome had Alexander the Great not died. The Devil, confident of his victory, demands that Max pose his final question or task. Max, armed with his new knowledge, provides the perfect command: "Get lost." Defeated, the Devil screams and melts away, leaving only his sunglasses. Max picks them up and throws them away, turning back to his problem with a rueful smile on his face, noting out loud, "Well. That guy wasn't any help at all."

About the original short story: The exclamation that is tacked onto a string of math gibberish to summon the demon is "no, goddammit", which was probably censored for television. The demon plans not to sell Max's soul but to eat it, proclaiming "Unfortunately the loss of your soul will drop your intelligence to that of a vegetable - I am also a vegetarian". When the demon has been banished Max ends up playing with the Fermat's Theorem disproof fragment the daemon left behind (unfortunately overtaken by later events) and thinking about summoning the demon and tricking him again. The final sentence is an Aesop-style after-the-fact "moral of the story" about swearing, of all things.

[edit] Trivia

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The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.

In the TV version the Devil's t-shirt displays a different slogan in each shot.

Slogans are as follows :