The Five Best Twilight Zone Episodes of All Time

With some TV shows, you have to start at the beginning. If you have never watched Breaking Bad, tuning randomly into the season 4 episode “End Times” is a terrible idea. You will have a lot of questions, not the least of which is why everyone seems to love the man who just poisoned a young child.

When it comes to anthology series, you are free to skip around. This approach is a perfect way to watch the influential 1960s sci-fi program The Twilight Zone, which is currently free to stream on Tubi. The Twilight Zone has no continuity, so the order in which you watch the episodes does not matter.

If you are entirely new to The Twilight Zone and only know it by its reputation as a landmark television show, a totally random selection is unwise. There are plenty of mediocre episodes of The Twilight Zone and even some outright clunkers, such as “The Bard,” which was an unfunny attempt at comedy. Hit a few bad ones in a row and you might give up on the series entirely without giving it a fair shot.

My suggestion is to stack the deck with a handful of episodes across different genres that are widely recognized as some of the best of the series. From there, you should be hooked and you can feel free to bounce around as you please. That way, you can put up with the occasional bad installment because you will know just how good the show can be.

Here are what I consider to be the five best episodes of the whole series.

5 “The Dummy”

I am a sucker for stories where dolls come to life. While “Living Doll,” which is about a living baby doll, is scarier, “The Dummy” is slightly better.

The episode follows an alcoholic ventriloquist named Jerry Etherson, played by Cliff Robertson, who is convinced his ventriloquist dummy named Willie is alive. While onstage, Willie does not comply with the act and even bites Jerry. When they are alone in the dressing room, Willie mocks Jerry. But when Jerry’s manager enters, Willie remains silent, leading the manager to think Jerry is delusional and drinking too much.

Ventriloquist dummies are naturally creepy, a trait used to great effect in “The Dummy.” There is more to this spooky doll tale. It is really a story about a man struggling with his own failings. For most of the runtime, you are not sure if Jerry is delusional or not, until the surprise ending makes it conclusive.

4 “He’s Alive”

While right-wing extremism is on the rise across the world, including America, the season 4 episode “He’s Alive” is the most relevant it has been since it debuted in 1963. In it, Dennis Hopper plays Peter Vollmer, an American neo-Nazi visited by the ghost of Adolf Hitler, played by Curt Conway, who teaches Vollmer how to spread a more effective message of hate. This propels the struggling Vollmer to new heights as the leader of a real movement.

“He’s Alive” works because it focuses on the complexities of both hate and compassion. Aside from his relationship with Hitler’s ghost, which is creepy and interesting on its own, Vollmer maintains a friendship with a Jewish man named Ernst, played by Ludwig Donath. Vollmer views Ernst as a father figure thanks to the care Ernst has shown him for years. While many people associate The Twilight Zone with aliens and otherworldly concepts, some of its best episodes feature a minor supernatural element to complement a layered human drama.

3 “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet”

This might be the most famous episode of The Twilight Zone, and for good reason. “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet” stars William Shatner as Robert Wilson, a man who recently experienced a nervous breakdown and is taking his first flight since leaving a sanatorium. He boards the plane with his wife Julia, played by Christine White, who assures him he is better now. Once the flight is underway, Wilson looks out the window and sees a gremlin on the wing tearing apart the plane’s mechanics.

By modern standards, the gremlin itself is not an effectively scary creature, though viewers might enjoy it from a so-bad-it-is-good perspective. Regardless, “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet” remains a tight, intense story about paranoia.

2 “To Serve Man”

“To Serve Man” is widely considered to have one of the greatest twist endings in television history, which makes it difficult to write about without spoiling anything. To avoid saying too much, this is the show’s best-ever episode about aliens. Like “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet,” it was good enough to warrant a fantastic parody in the early days of The Simpsons “Treehouse of Horror” episodes.

1 “Time Enough at Last”

“Time Enough at Last” tells the story of a bookish bank teller named Henry Bemis, played by Burgess Meredith, who is constantly interrupted while reading. All he wants is to be alone with his books, and he eventually gets his wish. During his lunch break one day, he goes to his normal quiet spot to read inside the bank vault. While he is inside, a nuclear bomb detonates and kills everyone except him.

There is more to the story than that ironic twist, as most of the episode takes place after the destruction. The narrative deals with questions of loneliness and solitude, alongside a heavy dose of being careful what you wish for. The story is deep and engrossing. Meredith, who played the Penguin on the old Batman television show, delivers an entertaining performance, which is vital when there is only one person on screen. The Twilight Zone creator, host, and writer Rod Serling once said “Time Enough at Last” was his favorite episode. It is also a favorite among fans of the series, making it a strong contender for the show’s finest installment.

Source: Polygon