To See the Invisible Man

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“To See the Invisible Man”
The Twilight Zone episode
Episode no. Season 1
Episode 16, Segment 2
Written by Steven Barnes
Directed by Noel Black
Guest stars Cotter Smith : Mitchell Chaplin
Whit Hertford : Boy
Peter Hobbs : Blind man
Jack Gallagher : Comic
Dean Fortunato : Tough guy
Karlene Crockett : Invisible woman
Chris McCarty : Businessman
Bonnie Campbell-Britton : Woman
Steve Peterson : Server
Mary-Robin Redd : Margaret
Richard Jamison : Guard #1
Kenneth Danziger : Maitre d'
Terri Lynn Wood : Crying girl
Production no. 45
Original airdate January 31, 1986
Episode chronology
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"The Elevator" "Tooth and Consequences"
List of Twilight Zone episodes

"To See the Invisible Man" is the second segment of the sixteenth episoded from the television series The New Twilight Zone. It is based on the short story by Robert Silverberg first published in Worlds of Tomorrow April 1963. The script for the episode was written by Steven Barnes.

In the original short story, the criminal is never named, and his one-year sentence was noted to begin on May 11, 2104. In addition, the gender of the criminal's friend was changed from a man in the original story to a woman in the televised version.

Contents

[edit] Opening Narration

“ It's a world much like our own, yet much unlike it. A twisted mirror of reality, in which a man can find himself cast out, made invisible by public acclamation, belonging no longer to society, but only to the gray reaches... of the Twilight Zone. ”

[edit] Synopsis

Cotter Smith is Mitchell Chaplin, a man living in a futuristic parallel world to ours, who has been found guilty of the crime of "coldness". According to the State, his punishment is to be rendered "invisible", a social outcast, for one year as signified by a scarring implant placed on his forehead.

What seems like a welcome chance to be left alone becomes a lesson in humility, compassion, and empathy. Misfortune after misfortune befalls him, and he can't even get medical care. Despite his attempts to conceal it, the implant warns others to ignore him; lest the hovering spy drones that monitor their society find out and sentence them to invisibility as well.

Shortly after the end of his sentence, Chaplin is accosted in public by a young woman with the mark. Knowing the law, he starts to ignore her, but her cries get through to him and he refuses to do so any longer, even under penalty of another year of invisibility as the drones discover them.

[edit] Closing Narration

“ A small footnote found in the court records of some parallel world. The name of Mitchell Chaplin, who served his sentence of invisibility and learned his lesson well. Too well. This time, however, he will wear his invisibility like a shield of glory. A shield forged in the very heart... of the Twilight Zone. ”

[edit] External links