The Apocalyptic Zone

If you’re reading this, the world didn’t end today. Perhaps you knew that, but I thought I’d make sure. Some people might be surprised.

But if it had ended, I’d like to think we all went out doing something we really enjoy. And what would your last day on earth be without a chance to “Zone” out? So I tweeted this question:

Let’s say the Mayan prophecy was right. What Twilight Zone would you watch before the world ended? #TZWorldsEnd

Guess I wasn’t the only one who thought the apocalypse deserved a little TLZ. The responses poured in. So I thought I’d list the episodes that everybody mentioned.

Surprisingly, no fewer than 22 separate episodes were cited, and the votes were really spread out. Here they are in order of popularity, starting with the episode that got the most votes:

1. Time Enough At Last
2. The Midnight Sun
3. The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street
4. Perchance To Dream
5. A Stop at Willoughby
6. The Obsolete Man
7. The Shelter
8. Nothing in the Dark
9. The Howling Man
10. The Hitchhiker
11. Two
12. Walking Distance
13. It’s a Good Life
14. The Invaders
15. Eye of the Beholder
16. Where Is Everybody?
17. A World of His Own
18. Number 12 Looks Just Like You
19. The Masks
20. One For The Angels
21. Nick of Time
22. To Serve Man

Although there was no wrong answer, I was glad to see some people get into the spirit of things by picking an episode with end-of-the-world overtones.

Not that it’s easy to pick just one. Some people gave two or three answers. And then there was this: “I’d make it a Twilight Zone marathon. All the episodes.”

Great idea. And since the world’s still here, well … there’s time now. Time enough at last.

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Photos courtesy of Wendy Brydge. For a daily dose of Serling, you can follow me on Twitter, Facebook or Pinterest. You can also get email notifications of future posts by entering your address under “Follow S&S Via Email” on the upper left-hand side of this post. Hope to see you in some corner of the fifth dimension soon!