Almost done… almost done. Season Four of “The Twilight Zone” is interesting, but there are far more misses here than hits. Image has still retained the perfect video and audio presentation, and special features are a wee bit slimmer this time (due to fewer episodes). Still this a great set worth owning for any fan of the series.
The Twilight Zone: Season Four (1963)
REVIEW NAVIGATION
The Movie | Special Features | Video Quality | Audio Quality | Overall
Genre(s): Science-Fiction, Fantasy
Image Entertainment | NR – 930 min. – $99.98 | May 17, 2011
MOVIE INFO:
Directed by: Various
Writer(s): Rod Sterling (created by)
Cast: Various
DISC INFO:
Features: Episode Commentaries, Featurettes, Radio Dramas, Isolated Scores
Number of Discs: 5
Audio: English (PCM 1.0)
Video: 1080p/1.33 Full Frame
Subtitles: English SDH
Codec: VC-1
Region(s): A
THE MOVIE – 4/5
We’re almost done with “Twilight Zone” (no more “The”) on Blu-ray. With this Fourth Season, we only have one more left before it’s all over. And Season Four is the weirdest of them yet.
Gone are the half-hour versions of the show replaced with hour-long ones to help fill time on CBS’ schedule. After watching so many of the 30 minute episodes, it’s tough for viewers to adapt to the new hour long segments which often feel padded and slow. But surprising, Season Four offers up several decent episodes.
Since I find it nearly impossible that someone has never seen an episode of “Twilight Zone,” I’ll go ahead and discuss a few of my favorites from this season:
“In His Image” – The first episode of the season is an interesting tale of robot who figures how he isn’t who he thinks he is and eventually meets his true counterpart.
“Valley of the Shadow” – A reporter trapped in a town that won’t let him leave. Personally I feel this story could easily be remade in some way on “Fringe”.
“On Thursday We Leave for Home” – Many regard this as the best of the Season. A group of people survive on a planet far away and live in fear of what happened on Earth. But when a space ship comes by and offers to take them to Earth, their leader tries to stop them.
SPECIAL FEATURES – 4.5/5
“Twilight Zone” Season Three is packaged in a slightly thick Bu-ray case housed in an attractive, shiny Slip Cover with an Episode Guide!
13 New Audio Commentaries:
Featuring The Twilight Zone Companion author Marc Scott Zicree, author/film historian Gary Gerani (Fantastic Television), Writer Earl Hamner, William F. Nolan, Author Bill Warren, Writer/Producer Jeff Vlaming, Joseph Doughherty, Author/Historians Scott Skelton and Jim Benson
Older Special Features include:
Audio Commentaries for “Death Ship” with Marc Scott Sicree and “Miniature” with William Windom
7 Radio Dramas featuring Blair Underwood, Jason Alexander, Lou Diamond Phillips and more! ** Blu-ray Exclusive **
Isolated Scores for all 18 episodes featuring the legendary Bernard Herrmann, Van Cleave, Fred Steiner and others
There are Video Interviews with Morgan Brittany, Anne Francis, Paul Comi and John Furia Jr.
Also includes… Sponsor Billboards, Genesee Beer Spot, Famous Writers Promo with Rod Serling, a single Saturday Night Live Clip (odd since the show was on CBS…) & Promo’s for ‘Next Weeks’ show.
VIDEO – 5/5
“Twilight Zone” Season Four is presented in 4:3 (1080p; VC1) on five 50GB Discs. ALL 18 Episodes are Present plus the bonus ones mentioned above. Blu-ray has only seen a few shows/movies that were in Black and White, and “Twilight Zone” is now one of the best looking. Even though we got the definitive version on DVD a few years back, Image has once again restored and cleaned up the show for Blu-ray and it looks fantastic. Blacks are very sharp and the detail being shown rivals even some newer films hitting Blu-ray. That’s not to say it’s perfect — there is still some marks/dirt/hair that shows up on occasion, but now in its third season… things are looking even better!
AUDIO – 4.75/5
Image has included the original 2.0 Mono tracks and well as lossless 2.0 PCM tracks for this release. Purists will be thrilled by the inclusion of the ‘original’ tracks, but swapping back and forth between the two I only really noticed a little bit more ‘oomph’ with the lossless versions. Dialog is well placed with only an occasional hiccup, but much like the picture quality, I doubt it’ll ever sound as good as it does here.
OVERALL – 4.5/5
Almost done… almost done. Season Four of “The Twilight Zone” is interesting, but there are far more misses here than hits. Image has still retained the perfect video and audio presentation, and special features are a wee bit slimmer this time (due to fewer episodes). Still this a great set worth owning for any fan of the series.
Brad Lowenberg
Published: 05/20/2011
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