| "A Small Talent for War" | |||
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| The Twilight Zone episode | |||
Scene from A Small Talent for War |
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| Episode no. | Season 1 Episode 15b |
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| Directed by | Claudia Weill | ||
| Written by | Alan Brennert Carter Scholz |
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| Original air date | January 24, 1986 | ||
| Guest stars | |||
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John Glover : Alien Ambassador |
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| Episode chronology | |||
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| List of Twilight Zone episodes | |||
"A Small Talent for War" is the second segment of the fifteenth episode from the first season (1985-1986) from the television series The New Twilight Zone.
The episode menu on the Region 4 DVD release erroneously displays the segment name as "A Small Talent of War".[1]
Contents |
An emissary (John Glover) from an alien race arrives to claim to have genetically engineered Humanity. He directly challenges the United Nations to prove Humanity's worth, displeased over their "small talent for war". He then tells them that Mankind has failed to produce the potential that the aliens nurtured in them thousands of years ago, and as a result, all life on Earth will be destroyed in 24 hours. With the survival of Humanity at stake, the UN hurriedly establishes an accord for lasting global peace and presents it to the emissary.
However, the emissary was, in fact, seeking a greater talent for war, as the aliens routinely breed warriors to fight for them across the galaxy. Humanity's "small talent" for war (crude weapons, petty bickering over borders) is not significant enough to be of any use to them, and worst of all, the ultimate goal of Humanity is peace. As the ambassador calls down a fleet of spaceships to destroy the Earth, he praises the humans for their "delightful sense of the absurd", and his parting comment repeats the dying words attributed to several English-language actors: "Dying is easy, comedy is hard".
| “ | If we are pawns of dark powers, then even our highest aspirations become a grim joke. But if not, then no one will goad us toward world peace or take it away once we have achieved it. Doubters please note, you've just seen it achieved once, however briefly, in The Twilight Zone. | ” |
This episode is based loosely on the original series episode To Serve Man, starring Lloyd Bochner about a seemingly benevolent race that helps man turn earth into a paradise and whose climatic line is "The book... To Serve Man. It ... it's a cookbook!"