A Day in Beaumont
"A Day in Beaumont" is the first segment of the twenty-fourth episode of the first season (1985–86) of the television series The Twilight Zone.
| "A Day In Beaumont" | |
|---|---|
| The Twilight Zone episode | |
| Episode no. | Season 1 Episode 24a |
| Directed by | Jeannot Zwarc |
| Written by | David Gerrold |
| Production code | 57 |
| Original air date | April 11, 1986 |
| Guest appearance(s) | |
Victor Garber: Dr Kevin Carlson | |
Plot
In 1950s, Dr. Kevin Carlson and his girlfriend Faith are busy fixing their car in the desert outside the hamlet of Beaumont, when they spot a meteor crash behind a nearby hill. Investigating the scene, Kevin and Faith are amazed to find out that this isn't a meteor, but a flying saucer from outer space, crewed by ant-headed aliens with hostile intentions. Avoiding their laser beams, the couple flees to Beaumont, intending to notify the authorities. Once there, Dr. Carlson alerts the local sheriff, who calmly convinces him it's an army jet which crashed and lets Dr. Carlson accompany him to the crash scene, where a group of military personnel is overseeing the crash site. The sheriff introduces Dr. Carlson to the army officer in charge of this operation, an ordinarily looking fellow, except for the odd handshake method (done extending the pinky finger) which unsettles Dr. Carlson. At this point, a photo camera flash accidentally reveals that those aren't humans but aliens, making Dr. Carlson carefully withdraw to his car and drive back to Beaumont.
Dr. Carlson tries to convince the local telegraphist H.G. Orson to alert the press, but Orson refuses, claiming the story is insane and that nobody would believe him. When Dr. Carlson realizes that both Orson and the owner of the local diner are aliens, due to the fact that they both have their pinky finger similarly extended, he bolts the diner and escapes the town with Faith, decided to warn the world himself.
The aliens chase them with their flying saucer, and eventually tractor-beam their car to their ship. There, Kevin and Faith learn the truth: they are all aliens who are only simulating an invasion scenario. They are both reprogrammed.
The story cuts to the diner from the beginning, where a young man frantically runs inside it to warn the sheriff of a meteor which crash landed nearby, only that the sheriff is now Dr. Carlson.[1]
Note
The name of the town is an homage to Charles Beaumont, writer of many of the original Twilight Zone episodes. There are also other references scattered throughout the episode, such as saying the meteor was near Willoughby, which is a reference to an original Twilight Zone episode. There's another reference to a town named Matheson, for Richard Matheson, a noted science fiction author and frequent contributor to the original Twilight Zone.
The term "Bradbury rays" honors sci-fi author Ray Bradbury, and a line about "giant ants and tarantulas" brings to mind the movies Them!, Tarantula and Earth vs. the Spider. Them! is referenced again in the name of the general store: Johnson's; in Them!, Gramps Johnson was an early victim of the giant ants. Other classic alien-invasion movie tropes abound: as they depart their saucer, the aliens are carrying large seed pods, an obvious reference to Invasion of the Body Snatchers. An additional connection to the film is a reference to the Santa Mira mountains; "Santa Mira" was the name of the fictitious town in which the action takes place in that film.
As the couple enter the diner, the sign reads "It's been a pleasure...serving you," a reference to the classic Twilight Zone episode "To Serve Man." When in human form, their inability to bend their pinky finger is reminiscent of the 1960s television series The Invaders. Even the character of the astronomer Dr. Carlson could be taken to refer to the astronomer John Putnam played by Richard Carlson in It Came from Outer Space (who also witnessed a UFO crash-landing in the desert). It may also be an homage to the character, Dr. Carlson, played by Russell Johnson in This Island Earth. Additional connections to that latter film include the Woody driven by Faith and Carlson, the green tractor beam, the transference tubes onboard the space ship, and the name Faith itself, in honor of Faith Domergue, who starred in that film.
The character H.G. Orson is a reference to H.G. Wells and Orson Welles, who wrote the novel and created the radio broadcast The War of the Worlds, respectively. The part is played by Jeff Morrow who starred in This Island Earth; this was Morrow's final acting role.