Valley of the Shadow

You've seen them. Little towns, tucked away far from the main roads. You've seen them, but have you thought about them? What do the people in these places do? Why do they stay? Philip Redfield never thought about them. If his dog hadn't gone after that cat, he would have driven through Peaceful Valley and put it out of his mind forever. But he can't do that now, because whether he knows it or not his friend's shortcut has led him right into the capital of the Twilight Zone.

Reporter Philip Redfield gets lost while driving with his dog, Rollie on unfamiliar back roads, and stops in Peaceful Valley, New Mexico, to get food, directions, and gasoline. The gas station attendant fills his tank but is curt and claims the only restaurant in town is closed. Rollie leaps out of the car to chase a little girl's cat up a tree. The girl uses a strange device to make the dog disappear. When Philip confronts the girl's father, he pretends to go looking for Rollie, then secretly uses the device to make the dog re-materialize.

Philip and his dog seek food at the town's hotel. Ellen, the proprietor, is as curt as the gas station attendant and insists they have no rooms available even though the keys to all the rooms are still on display at the check-in desk. Philip's suspicions are fully aroused by this time, but questioning Ellen about the residents' strange behavior gets him nowhere. He drives out of town only to run into an invisible wall which totals his car and kills Rollie. A band of Peaceful Valley residents are waiting at the scene and take him to the town elders while another resident brings Rollie back to life.

The town elders question Philip on why he came to Peaceful Valley and whether anyone knows where he is. They show him some of the technology they have, including a replicator which can produce any object given its molecular formula and a ray which can reverse any injury, including death. The elders refuse to share this technology, given to the town 104 years earlier by a scientist from an unknown planet, until "men learn the ways of peace." Philip rebukes them for decreeing themselves the sole people capable of using these extraterrestrial gifts responsibly, and for squandering technology that could be used to cure all illness and end hunger. The town elders insist that if they shared the technology it would be used for weapons, and tell Philip that due to his chance witnessing of the device used to make his dog disappear, he must either stay forever in Peaceful Valley or be executed to preserve the town's secrets.

Philip is a complete prisoner in his new home, with the invisible wall placed to keep him from even leaving his yard. He becomes romantically involved with Ellen, and tries to make her realize her own lack of freedom, knowing that the town elders will not let any of Peaceful Valley's residents leave for fear that they would reveal the town's secrets. Seemingly persuaded that he cannot reciprocate her love unless she sets him free, Ellen disables the invisible wall and offers to drive Phillip out of town. He first stops to retrieve the "book of formulas" containing the equations explaining the town's technology. There, he uses the replicator to make a revolver. Opening the door of the safe that holds the book of formulas sets off an alarm, and the three town elders attack him. He shoots them.

Once Philip and Ellen are outside the town limits, she shows him that the book of formulas is blank, then uses a device to de-materialize him. Ellen was a plant, Philip's entire escape a test. The elders, revived by the technology, claim his decision to create and use a gun confirms their belief that the people of Peaceful Valley are the only ones fit to use the alien technology. Ellen confesses her involvement wasn't all a lie, implying that her feelings for him were real. The elders then use a device to 'execute' Philip by erasing all Philip's memories of Peaceful Valley.

When Philip awakens, he has just finished filling up his car at the Peaceful Valley station. He asks for directions and drives out of town, after having a strange déjà vu experience when he sees Ellen, who has tears in her eyes.

You've seen them. Little towns, tucked away far from the main roads. You've seen them, but have you thought about them? Have you wondered what the people do in such places, why they stay? Philip Redfield thinks about them now and he wonders, but only very late at night, when he's between wakefulness and sleep in the Twilight Zone.

This is one of many Twilight Zone episodes that re-used props from MGM's 1956 film Forbidden Planet. In this case the matter-transporting "dissemblers" used by the Peaceful Valley inhabitants originated as the C57-D crew communicators in Forbidden Planet.

The episode includes what are effectively mini-transporters (disassembling people's atoms and reassembling them elsewhere), replicators (creating a meal, for instance, out of a pattern) and a force field. One character uses a device which could equally well be a communicator or a cell phone. All this three years before the original "Star Trek". James Doohan, quite coincidentally, plays a minor role in the episode.

• DeVoe, Bill. (2008). Trivia from The Twilight Zone. Albany, GA: Bear Manor Media.
• Grams, Martin. (2008). The Twilight Zone: Unlocking the Door to a Television Classic. Churchville, MD: OTR Publishing.

• "Valley of the Shadow" at IMDb
• "Valley of the Shadow" at TV.com