star trek actors in twilight zone

Screen Rant

Every star trek tos actor who appeared on the twilight zone.

Star Trek and The Twilight Zone were two iconic TV shows of the 1960s, and they also shared a wealth of cast members, including William Shatner.

Star Trek and The Twilight Zone are remembered as two of the most iconic TV series of the 1960s, and they also featured many actors who appeared in both. The Twilight Zone began airing in 1959, and it immediately made waves with its anthology-style stories that often included surprise twist endings and strong moral lessons. Like Star Trek , The Twilight Zone was an incredibly progressive sci-fi show, and many of the lessons imparted by the episodes reflected real-world problems. Both series were groundbreaking in their own way and launched ongoing franchises that persisted through the decades including movies and additional TV series.

The anthology style of The Twilight Zone necessitated a slew of actors, and each episode featured an entirely different cast. As such, the best episodes of The Twilight Zone often included guest stars who were some of the greatest 1960s TV actors. The Twilight Zone ended in 1964 and Star Trek began just a few years later in 1966, and many of the roles played by Star Trek actors were some of the earliest in their careers. Even if they only played bit parts on The Twilight Zone , it wasn't hard to see the star power that would eventually land them starring roles in Gene Roddenberry's vision of the future.

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William Shatner - "Nick Of Time" (S2, E7) & "Nightmare At 20,000 Feet" (S5, E3)

By the time William Shatner stepped into The Twilight Zone , he was established as a film actor and had also made frequent guest spots in TV shows. His first appearance came in The Twilight Zone , season 2, episode 7, "Nick of Time", where he played Don Carter, a newlywed who was infatuated with a machine at a diner that seemingly predicted his fate. The Captain Kirk actor was understated in the role, and he took a back seat to his co-star, Patricia Breslin, who really sold just how creepy the devilish mystic seer was. Interestingly, the episode had no twist, but instead imparted a lesson about making one's own fate.

A few years later, Shatner starred in The Twilight Zone , season 5, episode 3, "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet", where he played Robert Wilson, an airplane passenger who was the only witness of a gremlin on the ship's wing. Shatner was his hammy best in the role, and the episode itself went on to become iconic. Even if the gremlin was cheesy, Shatner's performance perfectly matched the overall energy of the story. Far from the heroics he would later display as Kirk in Star Trek , Shatner showed another side of himself as the cagey and paranoid passenger in the truly scary Twilight Zone episode .

Leonard Nimoy - "A Quality Of Mercy" (S3, E15)

Like a plot ripped straight from the adventures of the Enterprise on Star Trek , The Twilight Zone , season 3, episode 15, "A Quality of Mercy" explored deep themes of pacifism and, as its title suggested, mercy. Spock actor Leonard Nimoy had a bit part in the episode that told the story of an upstart officer during WWII who ordered his men to advance on a helpless squadron of Japanese soldiers during the dying days of the war. Nimoy played Hansen, one of the American soldiers, but the episode's true star was Dean Stockwell, who played Lt. Katell.

The episode had problematic elements by today's standards, but its message of clemency was brilliantly embodied through Katell's mysterious trading of places with the Japanese squadron leader. The best episodes of Star Trek often featured similar moralistic themes, though Rod Serling's Twilight Zone approached them through the supernatural as opposed to hard-line science fiction. Unlike other episodes, the twist came in the middle of the story, but its message was as clear as any other classic Twilight Zone outing. Nimoy's role in the episode was somewhat perfunctory, but he was still able to show flashes of charisma that were eventually suppressed when he played the Vulcan science officer, Spock.

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James Doohan - "Valley Of The Shadow" (S4, E3)

Ironically, Star Trek 's James Doohan appeared in one of The Twilight Zone 's most science-fiction-centric episodes, just a few years before he would be Chief Engineer Montgomery Scott on the Enterprise . The Twilight Zone , season 4, episode 3, "Valley of the Shadow" saw a reporter get trapped in a mysterious small town that possessed extraterrestrial technology they kept from the outside world. Doohan played a small role as Johnson in the underrated Twilight Zone episode , and his naturalistic performance hid the town's darker side. While Star Trek showed the positive side of technology, "Valley of the Shadow" was quite the opposite.

Often overlooked because of its bloated length, "Valley of the Shadow" was one of the many Twilight Zone season 4 episodes that were nearly an hour long, but that didn't detract from the brilliant storytelling. The episode's strong moral point about the dangers of technology when not used for peaceful purposes shined through, but it also had emotional depth as seen in the romantic story between Phillip and Ellen. Though Doohan didn't have the Scottish brogue that would exemplify Scotty on Star Trek , he did get to show off a layered and nuanced performance that was both creepy and familiar at the same time.

George Takei - "The Encounter" (S5, E31)

The Twilight Zone 's themes continued to resonate years later, and the controversial season 5, episode 31, "The Encounter", tackled the complicated issue of race. The story centered around two men in an attic, one a young Japanese American, the other a white man who had fought in WWII, and a strange sword that seemed to possess them. George Takei played Arthur Takamori and gave one of the best performances of his entire career that saw him largely carry the episode alongside his co-star Neville Brand. Though it approached its subject through the supernatural with a surreal twist, the lesson that the episode was imparting had crystal clarity.

The episode's racial themes kept it out of syndication for years, and even decades later it hadn't lost any of its power to shock. Every Star Trek actor's best role outside the franchise allowed them to show off more of their talents, and The Twilight Zone essentially gave the entire stage to Takei to perform. The two-person episode was staged very much like a play, and there was very little action to detract from the riveting back and forth between Takei and Brand. Though Star Trek featured a more subdued George Takei as Hikaru Sulu, his turn in The Twilight Zone showed off every bit of his dramatic talents.

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Twilight Zone Actors Who Appeared In Starfleet:

• Sally Kellerman as Dr. Elizabeth Dehner in ST (S1 E3) "Where No Man Has Gone Before" and as Office Worker in TZ (S4 E8) "Miniature"
• Anthony D. Call as Dave Bailey in ST (S1 E10) "The Corbomite Maneuver" and as Lee Helmsman in TZ (S4 E2) "The Thirty-Fathom Grave"
• Paul Comi as Stiles in ST (S1 E14) "Balance of Terror" and as Marcusson in TZ (S1 E25) "People Are Alike All Over", 1st Officer John Craig in (S2 E18) "The Odyssey of Flight, and Psychiatrist in (S4 E11) "The Parallel"
• Garry Walberg as Hansen in ST (S1 E14) "Balance of Terror" and as Reporter #3 in TZ (S1 E1) "Where is Everybody?"
• Joan Marshall as Areel Shaw in ST (S1 E20) "Court Martial" and as Wilma in TZ (S3 E18) "Dead Man's Shoes"
• William Meader as Board Officer in ST (S1 E20) "Court Martial" and as Brawling Townsman in TZ (S4 E4) "He's Alive"
• Byron Morrow as Admiral Komack in ST (S2 E1) "Amok Time", Admiral Westervliet (S3 E8) and as Martian in TZ (S1 E25) "People Are Alike All Over"
• Jerry Catron as Second Denevan in ST (S1 E29) "Operation - Annihilate!", Montgomery in (S2 E6) "The Doomsday Machine" and (S2 E10) "Journey to Babel" (uncredited) and as Guard in TZ (S1 E18) "The Last Flight"
• William Windom as Commodore Decker in ST (S2 E6) "The Doomsday Machine" and as The Major in TZ (S3 E14) and Dr. Wallman in (S4 E8) "Miniature"
• Felix Locher as Mr. Johnson in ST (S2 E12) "The Deadly Years" and as Club Member in TZ (S2 E25) "The Silence"
• Louie Elias as Inmate Guard in ST (S1 E9) "Dagger of the Mind" (uncredited), 1st Technician in (S3 E4) "And The Children Shall Lead", Engineer in (S3 E5) "Is There in Truth No Beauty?" (uncredited), Crazed Crewman in (S3 E9) "The Tholian Web" (uncredited), Troglyte #1 in (S3 E21) "The Cloud Minders", and as Sailor in TZ (S4 E2) "The Thirty-Fathom Grave"
• Dick Geary as Security Guard in ST (S3 E5) "Is There In Truth No Beauty?", (S3 E7) "Day of the Dove", (S3 E11) "Wink of an Eye", (S3 E12) "The Empath" (uncredited), Scalosian (S3 E11 "Wink of an Eye", Andorian in (S3 E14) "Whom Gods Destroy), Cloud City Sentinel #1 (S3 E21) "The Cloud Minders", and as Pinto Sykes in TZ (S3 E7) "The Grave"
• Arthur Batanides as D'Amato in ST (S3 E17) "That Which Survives" and as Leader as TZ (S1 E3) "Mr. Denton On Doomsday" and Tabal in (S3 E6) "The Mirror"
• John Hoyt as Dr. Phillip Boyce in ST "The Cage" and as Dr. Loren in TZ (S2 E8) "The Lateness of the Hour" and Ross in (S2 E28) "Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up?"

Twilight Zone Actors Who Appeared As Civilians:

• James Gregory as Dr. Tristan Adams in ST (S1 E9) "Dagger of the Mind" and as Air Force General in TZ (S1 E1) "Where Is Everybody?" and Confederate Sergeant in (S3 E4) "The Passerby"
• William Sargent as Dr. Thomas Leighton in ST (S1 E13) “The Conscience of the King" and as The Project Manager in TZ (S4 E11) “The Parallel” and Dr. Mel Avery in (S5 E12) "Ninety Years Without Slumbering"
• John Crawford as Commissioner Ferris in ST (S1 E16) "Galileo Seven" and as Joe in TZ (S2 E23) "One Hundred Yards Over The Rim"
• Gene Lyons as Ambassador Fox in ST (S1 E23) "A Taste of Armageddon" and as Psychiatrist in TZ (S2 E1) "King Nine Will Not Return"
• Frank Overton as Elias Sandoval in ST (S1 E24) "This Side of Paradise" and as Robert Sloan in TZ (S1 E5) "Walking Distance" and Harry Wheeler in (S4 E5) "Mute"
• Ken Lynch in Vanderberg in ST (S1 E25) "Devil in the Dark" and as Charlie in TZ (S1 E3) "Mr. Denton On Doomsday"
• John Harmon as Rodent in ST (S1 E28) "City on the Edge of Forever", Tepo in (S2 E17) "A Piece of the Action" and as Georgie in TZ (S3 E33) "The Dummy" and Clark in (S4 E14) "Of Late I Think of Cliffordville"
• Sarah Marshall as Janet Wallace in ST (S2 E12) "The Deadly Years" and as Ruth Miller in TZ (S3 E26) "Little Girl Lost"
• John Fiedler as Hengist in ST (S2 E14) "Wolf in the Fold" and as Mr. Dundee in TZ (S2 E11) "Night of the Meek" and Field Rep #3 in (S3 E6) "Cavender is Coming"
• Stanley Adams as Cyrano Jones in ST (S2 E15) “The Trouble with Tribbles" (uncredited) and as Rollo in TZ (S3 E13) “Once Upon a Time” and Jensen (S5 E32) "Mr. Garrity and the Graves"
• William Schallert as Nilz Baris ST (S2 E15) “The Trouble with Tribbles” and as Policeman at Accident in TZ (S1 E33) “Mr. Bevis”
• Morgan Jones as Colonel Nesvig ST (S2 E26) “Assignment: Earth” and as Trooper Dan Perry TZ (S2 E28) “Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up?” and Captain in (S4 E11) "The Parallel"
• Don Keefer as Cromwell in ST (S2 E26) “Assignment: Earth” and as Dan Hollis in TZ (S3 E8) “It’s A Good Life”, Spierto in (S4. E17) "Passage on the Lady Anne", and Fred Danziger in (S5. E20) "From Agnes - with Love"
• James Wellman as Professor Starnes in ST (S3 E4) “And The Children Shall Lead” and as 2nd Man in Line in TZ (S3 E24) “To Serve Man” (uncredited)
• Jason Wingreen as Dr. Linke in ST (S3 E12) “The Empath” and as 1960 Conductor in TZ (S1 E30) “A Stop at Willoughby”, Mr. Shuster in (S3 E10) "The Midnight Sun", and Director in (S4 E18) "The Bard" (uncredited)
• James Daly as Flint in ST (S3 E19) “Requiem For Methuselah” and as Gart Williams in TZ (S1 E30) “A Stop At Willoughby”
• Phillip Pine as Col. Green in ST (S3 E22) “The Savage Curtain” and as Virge Sterig in TZ (S1 E13) “The Four of Us Are Dying” and Leonard O'Brien in (S4 E15) "The Incredible World of Horace Ford"
• Joseph Mell as Earth Trader in ST "The Cage" (uncredited) and as Jimmy in TZ (S3 E18) "Dead Man's Shoes"

Twilight Zone Actors Who Appeared As Aliens, Robots, Etc.:

• Abraham Sofaer as The Thasian in ST (S1 E2) “Charlie X” and Melkotian (S3 E6) "Spectre of the Gun" and Dr. Stillman in TZ (S1 E35) “The Mighty Casey”
• Sherry Jackson as Andrea in ST (S1 E7) “What Are Little Girls Made Of?” and as Comfort Gatewood TZ (S3 E23) “The Last Rites of Jeff Myrtlebank”
• John Astin as Capt. John Daley in ST (S1 E13) “Conscience of the King” (uncredited) and as Charlie in TZ (S2 E23) “A Hundred Yards Over the Rim”
• Oliver McGowan as Caretaker in ST (S1 E15) “Shore Leave” and as Officer in TZ (S1 E11) “And When the Sky Was Opened” (uncredited)
• Jon Lormer as Dr. Theordore Hoskins in ST "The Cage", Tamar in (S1 E21) “The Return of the Archons” and Old Man in (S3 E8) "For the World Is Hollow and I Have Touched The Sky" and as Minister in TZ (S1 E26) “Execution”, Man in (S2 E12) "Dust, Strauss in (S3 E23) "The Last Rites of Jeff Myrtlebank", and Minister in (S4 E7) "Jess-Belle"
• Harry Townes as Reger in ST (S1 E21) “The Return of the Archons” and as Arch Hammer in TZ (S1 E13) “The Four of Us Are Dying” and Henry Ritchie in (S2 E26) "Shadow Play"
• Monty O’Grady as Council Member in ST (S1 E23) “A Taste of Armageddon” (uncredited) and Miner in (S1 E25) "The Devil in the Dark" and as Crowd Member in TZ (S2 E9) “The Trouble with Templeton” and Cameraman (S3 E24) "To Serve Man" (uncredited)
• David Armstrong as Eminiar Guard in ST (S1 E23) “A Taste of Armageddon” and Kartan in (S1 E29) "Operation: Annihilate!" (uncredited) and as Worker in TZ (S2 E27) “The Mind and the Matter” and Security Guard in (S3 E24) "To Serve Man" (uncredited) and Surgeon in (S3 E31) "The Trade-ins" and Van Driver in (S3 E35) "I Sing The Body Electric" and Passenger in (S5 E3) "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" (uncredited)
• David Opatoshu as Anan 7 in ST (S1 E23) “A Taste of Armageddon” and as Dorn in TZ (S4 E3) “Valley of the Shadow”
• Robert Sampson as Sar 6 in ST (S1 E23) “A Taste of Armageddon” and as Chris Miller in TZ (S3 E26) “Little Girl Lost”
• John Burnside as Eminiar Guard in ST (S1 E23) “A Taste of Armageddon” (uncredited) and as Soldier in TZ (S1 E19) “The Purple Testament” and Cameraman in (S3 E24) "To Serve Man" (uncredited)
• Peter Brocco as Claymare in ST (S1 E26) “Errand of Mercy” and as Mr. Marshak in TZ (S1 E13) “The Four of Us Are Dying” and Alien in (S3 E30) "Hocus-Pocus and Frisby" (uncredited)
• Arlene Martel as T’Pring in ST (S2 E1) “Amok Time” and as Girl in Bar in TZ (S1 E12) “What You Need” and Nurse in Morgue in (S2 E17) "Twenty Two"
• Celia Lovsky as T’Pau in ST (S2 E1) “Amok Time” and as Viola Draper in TZ (S5 E23) “Queen of the Nile”
• Michael Forest as Apollo in ST (S2 E2) “Who Mourns For Adonis?” and as Steve in TZ (S5 E18) “Black Leather Jackets”
• Vic Perrin as The Keeper in ST (S1 E12) "The Menagerie", Metron in (S1 E18) "Arena" (uncredited), Nomad in (S2 E3) “The Changeling” and Tharn in (S2 E4) "Mirror, Mirror" and as Martian in TZ (S1 E25) “People Are Alike All Over” and Jim - Trooper in (S5 E13) "Ring-A-Ding Girl"
• Theodore Marcuse as Korob in ST (S2 E7) “Catspaw” and as Citizen Gregory in TZ (S3 E24) “To Serve Man” and Farraday in (S3 E31) "The Trade-Ins"
• Antoinette Bower as Sylvia in ST (S2 E7) “Catspaw” and as Eve Norda in TZ (S5 E9) “Probe 7 - Over and Out”
• William O’Connell as Thelev in ST (S2 E10) “Journey to Babel” and as Field Rep 1 in TZ (S3 E36) “Cavender Is Coming”
• Julie Newmar as Eleen in ST (S2 E11) “Friday’s Child” and as Miss Devlin in TZ (S4 E14) “Of Late I Think of Cliffordville”
• Joseph Bernard as Tark in ST (S2 E14) “Wolf in the Fold” and as Marty Weiss in TZ (S3 E3) “The Shelter”
• Michael Pataki as Korax in ST (S2 E15) “The Trouble with Tribbles” and as Jeep Driver (uncredited) in TZ (S3 E15) “A Quality of Mercy”
• Joseph Ruskin as Galt in ST (S2 E16) “The Gamesters of Triskelion” and as Genie in TZ (S2 E2) “The Man in the Bottle” and Kanamit in (S3 E24) "To Serve Man" (uncredited)
• Nick Borgani as Hood in ST (S2 E17) “A Piece of the Action” (uncredited) and as Townsman in TZ (S2 E12) “Dust” (uncredited)
• Roy N. Sickner as Villager in ST (S2 E19) “A Private Little War” (uncredited) and as Bus Driver in TZ (S3 E36) “Cavender is Coming” (uncredited)
• Warren Stevens as Rojan in ST (S2 E22) “By Any Other Name” and as Nathan Bledsoe in TZ (S3 E18) “Dead Man’s Shoes”
• Jack Perkins as Master of Games in ST (S2 E25) “Bread and Circuses” and as Ground Crewman (uncredited) in TZ (S1 E18) “The Last Flight”
• Ian Wolfe as Septimus in ST (S2 E25) “Bread And Circuses” and Mr. Atoz in (S3 E23) "All Our Yesterdays" and as Schwimmer in TZ (S5 E8) “Uncle Simon”
• Robert Lansing as Gary Seven in ST (S2 E26) “Assignment: Earth” and as Commander Douglas Stansfield in TZ (S5 E5) “The Long Morrow”
• Joanne Linville as Romulan Commander ST (S3 E2) “The Enterprise Incident” and as Lavinia Godwin in TZ (S3 E4) “The Passerby”
• Bonnie Beecher as Sylvia in ST (S3 E6) “Spectre of the Gun” and as Mary Rachel in TZ (S5 E34) “Come Wander With Me”
• Rex Holman as Morgan Earp in ST (S3 E6) “Spectre of the Gun” and as Charlie Constable in TZ (S3 E4) “The Passerby”
• Charles Seel as Ed in ST (S3 E6) “Spectre of the Gun” and as Reverend Wood in TZ (S3 E19) “The Hunt”
• Liam Sullivan as Parmen in ST (S3 E10) “Plato’s Stepchildren” and as Jamie Tennyson in TZ (S2 E25) “The Silence” and Headmaster in (S3 E37) "The Changing of the Guard"
• Barry Atwater as Surak in ST (S3 E22) “The Savage Curtain” and as Les Goodman in TZ (S1 E22) “The Monster Are Due on Maple Street”
• Mariette Hartley as Zarabeth in ST (S3 E23) “All Our Yesterdays” and as Sandra Horn in TZ (S5 E15) “The Long Morrow”
• Susan Oliver as Vina in ST “The Cage” and as Teenya in TZ (S1 E25) “People Are Alike All Over The Place”

MORE: Every Twilight Zone Movie & TV Show Ranked From Worst To Best

Old School Americana & Nostalgia

‘The Twilight Zone’: Every ‘Star Trek’ Actor Who Guest Starred

Craig Garrett

The Twilight Zone and Star Trek are cornerstones of classic TV, entertaining generations of viewers and still influencing popular culture. However, even die-hard fans of both shows may not realize that four original cast members of Star Trek took a pit stop at Rod Serling’s fantasy series before Gene Roddenberry’s space saga even began production.

William Shatner starred in two iconic episodes of ‘The Twilight Zone’

Of course, Captain Kirk himself, William Shatner, made two famous starring appearances on The Twilight Zone . Shatner’s second guest spot on the series is perhaps his most iconic and often referenced. Season five’s “Nightmare at 30,000 Feet” finds the future Starfleet captain tormented by a furry gremlin hanging out on the wing of an airplane he’s flying in.

The episode, penned by prolific writer Richard Matheson ( I Am Legend ), is so memorable that it was remade as a segment in The Twilight Zone: The Movie . However, Shatner made an earlier appearance on a fan favorite of the legendary series. In season two’s “Nick of Time”, he plays a man obsessed with a small fortune-telling machine in a diner. The little devil-headed device has become a symbol of the series.

Leonard Nimoy

That’s right, the legendary Mr. Spock, Leonard Nimoy, also made a stop over at The Twilight Zone . “A Quality of Mercy” is a season three episode of the series, and Nimoy has a small part in the proceedings. Nimoy portrayed Hansen, an American soldier, while Dean Stockwell played the lead, an officer who led a charge on Japanese soldiers during WWII.

Of course, supernatural shenanigans are afoot, and Stockwell’s character trades places with a Japanese officer, allowing him to earn true empathy for his enemy. Again, the future Vulcan’s part is small, but Nimoy still manages to stick out with his trademark charm and deep voice.

George Takei starred in a controversial episode of ‘The Twilight Zone’

Sulu himself, George Takei appeared in an episode tackling racial prejudice. In “ The Encounter” from season five , Takei plays Arthur Takamori, a man in search of work who visits the home of Fenton, a World War II veteran. A samurai sword that Fenton took home from the war seems to possess both men, leading to a tense showdown in an attic. The acting between Takei and his co-lead, Neville Brand is electric and tense. Though the lesson about racial intolerance may seem heavy-handed by today’s standards, it likely packed quite a punch in the 1960s.

James Doohan

Chief Engineer Montgomery “Scotty” Scott appeared in season four’s “Valley of the Shadow.” James Doohan manages to cut his sci-fi chops in this episode, which unfolds as a journalist finds themselves ensnared within the enigmatic confines of a secluded town, concealed from the world, brimming with extraterrestrial advancements beyond imagination.

Like Leonard Nimoy’s appearance in The Twilight Zone , Doohan’s role is fleeting. He plays an inhabitant of the town (and without his iconic Scottish accent he put on for Star Trek ). Though over-stuffed as an hour-long episode, the twist and moral dilemma still are effective.

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Ranking The Twilight Zone episodes that featured main Star Trek actors

By chad porto | jun 5, 2022.

We rank The Twilight Zone episodes that featured future Star Trek stars.

Star Trek and Twilight Zone defined science fiction television in the 1960s. Both portrayed scenarios where the characters were forced to decide how they would handle a specific problem. Like with Star Trek, Twilight Zone never really showed what the correct way forward was, often times pulling a bait and switch where the hero does the “right” thing, only to have a less-than-optimal resolution.

This was later expanded upon in Star Trek , where many episodes tackled problems within society by showing all relevant points. So the shows did have a lot in common, but they also, at times, shared a cast.

Fans may not realize this, but four of the core Star Trek: The Original Series actors appeared on The Twilight Zone before Star Trek ever went into production. Trek stars who made their bones on Twilight Zone included the obvious one, William Shatner, who was the only member of Trek to star in two different episodes. Then you had Leonardy Nimoy and James Doohan, who many remember. Lastly was George Takei, who most may not realize, as his episode wasn’t officially aired until 2004 due to the content of the episode.

So which of the five episodes that Trek actors featured in is truly the best?

10 Famous Actors Fans Didn't Know Were in The Twilight Zone

The Twilight Zone was a revolving door of amazing talent, so it's easy to forget the famous faces that graced the anthology TV show over the years.

Among the anthology television series of the 1960s, none are better known than The Twilight Zone . A mix of science fiction, fantasy and horror, The Twilight Zone was conceived by Rod Serling as a weekly allegory and modern-day morality play. As an anthology, the series was a revolving door of existing stars and up-and-coming actors over its five-season run.

Premiering on Oct. 2, 1959, The Twilight Zone aired for over five years and featured numerous actors at various stages of their careers. With 156 episodes, multiple reboots and 1983 movie , it's easy to forget some of the famous faces that graced the original series over the years, including Robert Redford and Elizabeth Montgomery. Most of them appeared on the show before they became famous, and because The Twilight Zone has stood the test of time, those early performances become delightful Easter eggs for fans to discover.

Updated on March 12, 2024 by Robert Vaux: The Twilight Zone remains one of TV's true evergreens, and its clever storytelling continues to earn it new fans with each generation. Most fans already know some of the show's stars from other projects, providing an easy gateway to some of their early work here. The article has been updated with new information on each entry. The formatting has been adjusted to match current CBR guidelines.

10 William Shatner Stars in a Pair of Classic Episodes

Why one twilight zone episode was banned for decades.

William Shatner has been a household name since he starred as Captain Kirk on the original Star Trek . He appeared in "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" is one of The Twilight Zone 's most iconic episodes , but over the years -- and due in no small part to John Lithgow's performance in Twilight Zone: The Movie -- a few fans have forgotten Shatner's performance. He played Bob Wilson, an airline passenger recovering from a nervous breakdown who was tormented by visions of a strange creature on the wing of his plane. Even he can't be sure if it's real or not, but if he's right, the plane will go down unless someone takes action.

Many may have also forgotten that "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" wasn't Shatner's first Twilight Zone role. In "Nick of Time," the Star Trek veteran played Don Carter , a man who nearly allowed a fortune-telling novelty to control his life until his wife Pat snapped him out of it. Both episodes were written by legendary horror author Richard Matheson, and both have the ironic twists for which The Twilight Zone became known. Shatner is equally compelling in both episodes, and demonstrates not only why he was so dynamic as Captain Kirk, but why he went on to a long and successful career afterwards.

9 Donald Pleasence Plays a Teacher with a Life Well-Lived

Many know Donald Pleasence as the James Bond antagonist Ernst Blofeld in You Only Live Twice : still considered the definitive take on the character. He made a splash a few years earlier in The Great Escape , playing the camp's meek forgery expert. And he had a strong working relationship with director John Carpenter late in his career, appearing most famously in the original Halloween as well as Escape from New York and They Live.

However, the English actor already had a lengthy film and television resume before those iconic roles. As such, it's easy to forget that he appeared in The Twilight Zone in 1962. In "The Changing of the Guard," Pleasence played Professor Ellis Fowler , an English teacher who was being forced into retirement. Convinced that he'd wasted his life, Fowler had given in to despair until he was visited by the ghosts of some of his former students, who died heroes because they were inspired by him. It's an unusually warm-hearted episode considering the series' penchant for detached irony, and Pleasence's understated performance makes it sweet without becoming saccharine.

8 Leonard Nimoy Plays an Exhausted Soldier to Perfection

How a classic twilight zone story inspired a great justice league episode.

Most genre fans know Leonard Nimoy as Star Trek 's Mr. Spock . While Spock remains his signature role , the actor sported a slew of television appearances in the 1960s and 70s, including Mission: Impossible, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Columbo and Night Gallery . Five years before he portrayed the Enterprise's science officer, Nimoy played Hansen, a battle-weary WWII soldier in "A Quality of Mercy." As his unit's radio operator, Nimoy had very few lines in the episode. While that makes it easy to forget about his role, his facial expressions spoke volumes.

As his unit was waiting for orders, Hansen's exhaustion and combat fatigue were wholly evident on his face. Though his part was small, Nimoy's acting chops were fully on display whenever he was in frame. It's no wonder he would go on to play one of the most beloved characters in television history.

7 Elizabeth Montgomery Is the Last Woman on Earth

Long before she was Samantha Stephens on the beloved sitcom Bewitched for eight seasons , Elizabeth Montgomery's career consisted largely of guest roles on long-running series. Her other performances include various roles in her father's Robert Montgomery Presents, Ellen Harrod in A Case of Rape, Lizzie Borden in The Legend of Lizzie Borden, and Darien Guinness in Johnny Cool. In 1961, her acting journey led her to The Twilight Zone, where she paired with another star-to-be.

In "Two," Montgomery and Charles Bronson starred as two soldiers on opposite ends of a devastating war who encountered each other in an abandoned city. Fittingly, their relationship was combative at first, but with no war left to fight and no clear winner, their war weariness, loneliness and attraction to each other brought them together in the end. As her character spoke no English, Montgomery conveyed everything through the expressive eyes that would bewitch audiences for years to come.

6 Julie Newmar Plays a Devil of a Travel Agent

Was tim burton's catwoman film doomed from the start.

While many fans remember Burgess Meredith's memorable Twilight Zone roles -- particularly "Time Enough at Last," which ranks among the series' best entries -- few are acquainted with fellow Batman alum Julie Newmar's work on the series. The actor will always be remembered as the original Catwoman , a role she revised in the recent animated movies based on the Adam West show. A good deal of her early work was in theater, including a notable stint as Lola in a production of Damn Yankees i 1961. The Twilight Zone knew just what to do with the infernal energy she exhibited.

In "Of Late I Think of Cliffordville," Newmar played Ms. Devlin, the devil disguised as a very unusual travel agent who strikes a deal with a greedy, unscrupulous millionaire. William J. Featherstone paid most of his fortune to Ms. Devlin to send him back in time so that he could conquer the world all over again. Of course, in true devilish fashion, she only stuck to the letter of their agreement, and Featherstone wound up ruined after misremembering a few key details. Newmar was at her Catwoman best as she convinced her prey to give up everything for the thrill of making his millions all over again. Her Selina Kyle exhibited the same tone , particularly when offering her caped paramour a similar devil's choice.

5 George Takei Tackles a Problematic Script

With a similar take on science fiction as an allegory, it's not surprising that actors who appeared on The Twilight Zone eventually became series regulars on Star Trek . Before he became the helmsman of the U.S.S. Enterprise, George Takei took a nearly forgotten trip to The Twilight Zone . In "The Encounter," Takei portrayed a young Japanese-American who was hired to help a WWII veteran named Fenton clean out his cluttered attic. Soon, Takei's Arthur fell under the influence of a katana, which Fenton had taken from a Japanese officer during the war, and was compelled to avenge the officer's death.

"The Encounter" is problematic and was therefore left out of syndicated reruns for years. The dialogue is peppered with racial slurs and the plot hinges on a now-debunked lie that Japanese fifth columnists helped coordinate the attack on Pearl Harbor. As such, it's easy to not know about Takei's mesmerizing performance . While it doesn't excuse the episode's other elements, it's a testament to the actor's screen presence and delivery. He would use both to even greater effect as Mr. Sulu.

4 Peter Falk Is a Problematic Dictator

The most famous celebrities to guest star in columbo.

Legendary character actor Peter Falk will forever be Columbo to legions of fans, and his narrating grandfather in The Princess Bride earned him admiration and praise from a new generation. But before he ever put on his rumpled raincoat, Falk's television roles were numerous and varied. In fact, in his Twilight Zone episode, Falk was almost unrecognizable. Besides Columbo, the actor is well known for light comedy, when he evinced in the likes of The Great Race and Murder by Death . Here, he plays it fully dramatic, but can't escape some of the nastier stereotypes of the era.

In "The Mirror," Peter Falk played Ramos Clemente, a dictator with a special mirror that revealed his enemies to him. In the end, the mirror showed Clemente that his greatest enemy was himself. Not even trying to hide the resemblance to Cuba's Fidel Castro, Falk virtually disappeared behind his makeup and costuming in a role that -- though well performed -- is problematic.

3 Mickey Rooney's Long Career Includes a Trip to The Twilight Zone

Mickey Rooney was already a major movie star decades before he appeared in the anthology series. He began at a very young age before achieving renown as Puck in the 1935 film version of A Midsummer Night's Dream. From the Andy Hardy movies to Night at the Museum and beyond, Rooney was one of the biggest and most respected stars in Hollywood for most of his life, so it can be easy to forget about his one-episode appearance in The Twilight Zone . Rooney's Twilight Zone appearance was the perfect opposite of his reality.

In "The Last Night of a Jockey," Rooney played a jockey named Grady , who would do anything to be respected -- even cheat at horse racing. At rock bottom, Grady was granted a wish by his alter-ego, but his petty desires caused him even more ruin. Rooney had played dark characters before, in noir films like Quicksand and Requiem for a Heavyweight among others, but rarely quite so compelling as he does here.

2 Ron Howard as Wilcox Boy

The '80s twilight zone series deserves more credit than it gets.

As he wasn't the central character in the episode, fans can be forgiven for not knowing writer/director Ron Howard was on The Twilight Zone in 1959 . At only the age of 5 when he appeared in the episode, "Walking Distance," Howard was still years away from playing Opie Taylor on The Andy Griffith Show , never mind Richie Cunningham on Happy Days . And all of that came before his career behind the camera: directing such classics as Splash , Cocoon , Apollo 13 , A Beautiful Mind, The Da Vinci Code, and Solo: A Star Wars Story .

In the episode, the young newcomer, credited then as Ronnie Howard , played the part of "Wilcox Boy." When the main protagonist, a man who has traveled back in time without realizing it, tells him his name, the boy runs off screaming because he thinks the man is dangerous. Though a fine performance for a kindergartner, Howard's part definitely falls in the "blink, and you'll miss it" category of Twilight Zone appearances. (Ironically, he's sometimes mistaken for another successful child actor -- Bill Mumy -- who played the central part in the classic Twilight Zone eipisode "It's a Good Life.")

1 Robert Redford as Harold Beldon

Fans of award-winning actor Robert Redford may only be cognizant of his impressive body of film work, including his pivotal role in the superhero/spy-thriller Captain America: The Winter Soldier , as well as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, All the President's Men, The Sting and Three Days of the Condor. He's become equally well-known as a director, winning an Oscar for helming Ordinary People in 1980. Before all of that, however, Redford was a working actor with many single-episode TV credits. Among these credits was The Twilight Zone.

In "Nothing in the Dark," Redford played a wounded police officer aided by an elderly woman who was so afraid of Death that she'd locked her door to him. After gaining her trust, the young officer, Beldon, reveals that he was Death all along and that he'd deceived her because her time had come. Needing an actor with no small amount of charm, Redford was the perfect choice to help the elderly woman overcome her thanatophobia.

The Twilight Zone is currently streaming on Paramount+.

The Twilight Zone (1959)

Ordinary people find themselves in extraordinarily astounding situations, which they each try to solve in a remarkable manner.

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Star Trek and Twilight Zone actors

Discussion in ' Star Trek - The Original & Animated Series ' started by evangelist6589 , Mar 18, 2014 .

evangelist6589 Lieutenant Commander Red Shirt

There are at least 2 actors that show up in both series (William Windom & Frank Overton) but are there more I am not aware of?  

Harvey Admiral Admiral

There are tons of actors that show up in both series. Chief among them, of course, is William Shatner, but I'd wager there are at least three dozen others.  

Harvey said: ↑ There are tons of actors that show up in both series. Chief among them, of course, is William Shatner, but I'd wager there are at least three dozen others. Click to expand...

Christopher Writer Admiral

James Doohan was in "Valley of the Shadow." Arlene Martel (as Arline Sax) was in "Twenty-Two." Sherry Jackson was in "The Last Rites of Jeff Myrtlebank." And that's just off the top of my head.  

Christopher said: ↑ James Doohan was in "Valley of the Shadow." Arlene Martel (as Arline Sax) was in "Twenty-Two." Sherry Jackson was in "The Last Rites of Jeff Myrtlebank." And that's just off the top of my head. Click to expand...

evangelist6589 said: ↑ Harvey said: ↑ There are tons of actors that show up in both series. Chief among them, of course, is William Shatner, but I'd wager there are at least three dozen others. Click to expand...

Melakon Admiral In Memoriam

Julie Newmar. Though she's not exactly no name. David Opatoshu. Joseph Ruskin.  

Tosk Admiral Admiral

William Schallert. Not only in TOS and TZ, but he was also in DS9 and the '80s TZ and the TZ movie.  

If we want to bring in the '80s revival, I recall that Terry Farrell was in that (in the Anne Francis role in its remake of "The After Hours") several years before she was cast in DS9.  

The '80s version had heaps of Trek people in it. Close to 40, if not more.  

Grant Commodore Commodore

The original Twilgith Zone has 70 actors who appered on TOS and another 21 actors from the original Twilight Zone appear in the movies/spin-offs. Some from TLZ/TOS Shatner Nimoy Doohan Takei Oliver Comi Baxley Catron schallert Fiedler J Bernard Atwater Martel Morgan jones Byron Morrow Ruskin Lou Elias James Gregory James daly Pataki Crawford Windom Bower Forest Sickner W O'Connell Zuckert W Stevens S Marshall Opatasho Clegg Hoyt John Hoyt A Soafer Wellman Lormer I Wolfe V Perrin W Sargent Joan Marshall J Mell C Seel P Fix M Wyllie F Locher etc. etc. etc  

R Sampson J Newmar A Call Don Keefer --oldest living TOS actor O McGowan J wingreen G Walberg J Linville---oldest living female TOS actor? T Marcuse---fourth TOS actor to die ever F Overton---second TOS actor to die C Lovsky Guy Raymond B Beecher Rex Holman S Jackson John Harmon M Hartley A Batanides P Lynch P Brocco H Townes P Pine and the ones I couldn't pull from my memory........ G Lansing G Lyons S Adams Perkins L Sullivan So 71 and 21 from the spin-offs making 92 Trivia: every Trek series has featured TLZ actors the first trek project to use a TLZ actor was the Cage the last to use a "new" TLZ actor was 2009 Trek movie--where a middle age actor in the simulator scene was a child actor in the last filmed episode TLZ "The Bewitching Pool"  

Grant said: ↑ R Sampson J Newmar A Call Don Keefer --oldest living TOS actor O McGowan J wingreen G Walberg J Linville---oldest living female TOS actor? T Marcuse---fourth TOS actor to die ever F Overton---second TOS actor to die C Lovsky Guy Raymond B Beecher Rex Holman S Jackson John Harmon M Hartley A Batanides P Lynch P Brocco H Townes P Pine and the ones I couldn't pull from my memory........ G Lansing G Lyons S Adams Perkins L Sullivan So 71 and that likely means it's 20 from the spin-offs making 91 Trivia: every Trek series has featured TLZ actors the first trek project to use a TLZ actor was the Cage the last to use a "new" TLZ actor was 2009 Trek movie--where a middle age actor in the simulator scene was a child actor in the last filmed episode TLZ "The Bewitching Pool" Click to expand...

Myko Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

Susan Oliver  

evangelist6589 said: ↑ Grant said: ↑ R Sampson J Newmar A Call Don Keefer --oldest living TOS actor O McGowan J wingreen G Walberg J Linville---oldest living female TOS actor? T Marcuse---fourth TOS actor to die ever F Overton---second TOS actor to die C Lovsky Guy Raymond B Beecher Rex Holman S Jackson John Harmon M Hartley A Batanides P Lynch P Brocco H Townes P Pine and the ones I couldn't pull from my memory........ G Lansing G Lyons S Adams Perkins L Sullivan So 71 and that likely means it's 20 from the spin-offs making 91 Trivia: every Trek series has featured TLZ actors the first trek project to use a TLZ actor was the Cage the last to use a "new" TLZ actor was 2009 Trek movie--where a middle age actor in the simulator scene was a child actor in the last filmed episode TLZ "The Bewitching Pool" Click to expand...

T'Bonz Romulan Curmudgeon Administrator

Evangelist6589, please don't double or triple post. Thank you.  

ToddPence Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

http://www.imdb.com/search/name?roles=tt0052520,tt0060028  

Alright an incomplete and inaccurate list from IMDB!! Actually the article includes writers and therefore even more of the 71 crossover actors are not on the list. It does contain most of the more famous actors though.  

M'Sharak Definitely Herbert. Maybe. Moderator

The Wild Wild West also had a number of actors familiar from Star Trek roles. The page which had them listed seems to have disappeared from the internet, but "actors in common with Star Trek" lists for that and several other series can be found here . .SpoilerTarget"> Spoiler: The Wild Wild West / Star Trek crossovers HTML: The Wild Wild West <-- --> Trek Crossovers Actor/Actress Wild Wild West episode(s) Trek episode(s) ---------------- ------------------------- -------------------- John Abbott The Night of the Simian Terror TOS: Errand of Mercy Sharon Acker The Night of the Sedgewick Curse TOS: The Mark of Gideon Barry Atwater The Night of the Camera TOS: The Savage Curtain Rene Auberjonois The Wild Wild West Revisited (2-hour movie) More Wild Wild West (2-hour movie) TOS: STVI: TUC DSN regular Jan. 93-?? Emily Banks The Night of the Avaricious Actuary TOS: Shore Leave Arthur Batanides The Night of the Dancing Death The Night of the Gypsy Peril TOS: That Which Survives The Night of the Death-Maker The Night of Miguelito's Revenge Lee Bergere The Night of the Colonel's Ghost TOS: The Savage Curtain Alan Bergman The Night of the Ready-Made Corpse TOS: The Empath Antoinette Bower The Night of Sudden Death TOS: Catspaw Kathie Browne The Night of the Human TriggerTOS: Wink of an Eye The Night of the Colonel's Ghost William Campbell The Night of the Freebooters TOS: The Squire of Gothos TOS: The Trouble With Tribbles Anthony Caruso The Night of the Green Terror TOS: A Piece of the Action The Night Dr. Loveless Died The Night of the Krakan Paul Comi The Night of the Two-Legged Buffalo TOS: Balance of Terror Elisha Cook The Night of the Double Edged Knife The Night of the Bars of Hell TOS: Court Martial Jeff Corey The Night of a Thousand Eyes TOS: The Cloud Minders The Night of the Underground Terror Yvonne Craig The Night of the Grand Emir TOS: Whom Gods Destroy John Crawford The Night of Fire and Brimstone TOS: The Galileo Seven Henry Darrow The Night of the Tottering Tontine TNG: Conspiracy Lee Duncan The Night of the Tycoons TOS: Elaan of Troyius Michael Dunn Recurring role TOS: Plato's Stepchildren Marj Dusay The Night of the Turncoat TOS: Spock's Brain The Night of the Krakan Robert Ellenstein The Night Dr. Loveless Died TOS: STIV: The Voyage Home TNG: Haven The Night of the Gruesome Games The Night of the Winged Terror, Part I The Night of the Winged Terror, Part II Morgan Farley The Night of the Circus of Death TOS: The Return of the Archons The Night of the Golden Cobra TOS: The Omega Glory Brioni Farrell TNot Brain TOS: Return of the Archons Paul Fix The Night of the Green Terror TOS: Where No One Has The Night of the Hangman Gone Before James Gregory The Night of the Inferno TOS: Dagger of the Mind John Harmon The Night of the Infernal Machine TOS: The City on the Edge of Forever TOS: A Piece of the Action Robert Herron The Night of the Deadly Bed TOS: The Savage Curtain The Night of the Skulls TOS: The Menagerie Marianna Hill The Night of the Bogus Bandits TOS: Dagger of the Mind Patrick Horgan The Night of the Diva TOS: Patterns of Force Vince Howard The Night of the Cadre TOS: The Man Trap John Hoyt The Night of the Puppeteer TOS: The Cage The Night of the Plague The Menagerie Sherry Jackson The Night of the Vicious Valentine The Night of the Gruesome Games TOS: What Are Little Girls Made Of? Bart LaRue The Night of the Juggernaut TOS: Patterns of Force TOS: Bread and Circuses TOS: The Savage Curtain Mark Lenard The Night of the Iron Fist TOS: Balance of Terror Journey to Babel ST:TMP; STIII:TSfS STIV:TVH TNG: Sarek; Unification I Perry Lopez The Night of the Feathered Fury The Night of the Pistoleros TOS: Shore Leave Jon Lormer The Night of the Infernal Machine The Night of the Spanish Curse The Night of the Bleak Island TOS: The Menagerie TOS: Return of the Archons TOS: For the World Is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky Barbara Luna The Night of the Deadly Bed TOS: Mirror, Mirror The Night of the Flaming Ghost Hal Lynch The Night of the Poisonous Posey TOS: Tomorrow is Yesterday Ken Lynch The Night of the Returning Dead TOS: Devil in the Dark Judy McConnell The Night of the Death Masks TOS: Wolf in the Fold John McLiam The Night of the Headless Woman TNG: Who Watches the Watchers Charles Macauley The Night of Fire and Brimstone TOS: Return of the Archons Theo Marcuse The Night of the Sudden Plague TOS: Catspaw The Night of the Bottomless Pit The Night of the Headless Woman Sarah Marshall The Night of the Hangman TOS: The Deadly Years William Marshall The Night of the Egyptian Queen TOS: The Ultimate Computer Arlene Martel The Night of the Circus of Death TOS: Amok Time Ricardo Montalban The Night of the Lord of Limbo TOS: Space Seed Star Trek II: TWoK Byron Morrow The Night of Miguelito's Revenge TOS: Amok Time For the World Is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky George Murdock The Night of the Feathered Fury TNG: Best of Both Worlds I Best of Both Worlds II Reggie Nalder The Night of the Gruesome Games TOS: Journey to Babel William O'Connell The Night of the Pistoleros TOS: Journey to Babel Susan Oliver The Night Dr. Loveless Died TOS: The Cage The Menagerie Gregg Palmer The Night of the Human Trigger The Night of the Gruesome Games The Night of the Hangman TOS: Spectre of the Gun Leslie Parrish The Night the Wizard Shook the Earth The Night of the Flying Pie Plate TOS: Who Mourns for Adonais? Ed Peck The Night of the Double Edged Knife TOS: Tomorrow is Yesterday Jack Perkins The Night of the Ready-Made Corpse TOS: Bread and Circuses Vic Perrin The Night of the Winged Terror TOS: The Changeling TOS: Mirror, Mirror Nehemiah Persoff The Night of the Inferno TNG: The Most Toys The Night of the Deadly Blossom The Night of the Underground Terror Phillip Pine The Night of the Glowing Corpse TOS: The Savage Curtain Madlyn Rhue The Night of the Bubbling Death TOS: Space Seed Peter Mark Richman The Night of the Dancing Death TNG: The Neutral Zone Jay Robinson The Night of the Sedgewick Curse TOS: Elaan of Troyius Percy Rodriguez The Night of the Poisonous Posey TOS: Court Martial Joseph Ruskin The Night of the Fatal Trap TOS: The Gamesters of The Night of the Falcon Triskelion DSN: The House of Quark Improbable Cause Alfred Ryder The Night of the Torture Chamber TOS: The Man Trap The Night of the Deadly Bubble William Schallert The Night of the Bubbling Death The Night of the Gruesome Games The Night of the Winged Terror, Part I The Night of the Winged Terror, Part II TOS: The Trouble with Tribbles DSN: Sanctuary Sabrina Scharf The Night of the Underground Terror TOS: The Paradise Syndrome Tom Sebastion The Night of the Amnesiac TOS: Shore Leave The Night of the Skulls Pilar Seurat The Night the Dragon Screamed TOS: Wolf in the Fold Judi Sherven The Night of the Avaricious Actuary TOS: Wolf in the Fold Sandra Smith The Night of the Vipers TOS: Turnabout Intruder Malachi Throne The Night of the Tartar TOS: The Menagerie TNG: Unification I Unification II Harry Townes The Night of the Double Edged Knife TOS: Return of the Archons The Night of the Tottering Tontine Tom Troupe The Night of the Egyptian Queen TOS: Arena John Warburton The Night of the Brain TOS: Balance of Terror Ray Walston The Night of Montezuma's Hordes TNG: The First Duty William Windom The Night of the Flying Pie Plate TOS: The Doomsday Machine William Wintersole The Night of the Tottering Tontine TOS: Patterns of Force Venita Wolf The Night of the Arrow TOS: The Squire of Gothos Just found this today, so I haven't checked it for completeness, but it does seem to be pretty thorough.  

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The Twilight Zone

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The Twilight Zone was an Earth science fiction , fantasy and horror television program .

Trip Tucker said T'Pol 's story about her second foremother , T'Mir , sounded like an episode of The Twilight Zone . ( ENT : " Carbon Creek ")

Appendices [ ]

Background information [ ], relevance [ ].

The Twilight Zone was created by Rod Serling and ran on CBS from 1959 though 1964. Using the framework of science fiction and fantasy, Serling hosted every episode himself, telling speculative stories that explored the Human condition and topics too sensitive for open public discourse. It won three Emmy Awards as well as three Hugo Awards.

The series was important for Star Trek in several ways. Many Star Trek: The Original Series actors got their start with the series, demonstrating their ability to work in the science fiction genre. Also, four of the writers and directors were contributors to the series. The series also exposed the general public to science fiction as a prime-time genre, whereas previously it had been aimed at juveniles (the Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers serials, and the Steve Holland Flash Gordon TV series, and the later Lost In Space series, for instance).

The Twilight Zone wasn't just important for the actors. The then-recently founded Westheimer Company also profited from the work they did as the main supplier of the series' visual effects , as they were brought in early to work on The Original Series based mainly on the strength of their work on The Twilight Zone . ( These Are the Voyages: TOS Season One , 1st. ed. , p. 143)

Thematically, The Twilight Zone also set the tone for Star Trek by discussing sensitive issues in an "other-worldly" setting. Essentially, both Serling and Gene Roddenberry were sneaking the touchy issues past the studio censors under the pretext that the episodes were not about the issues, but were just science fiction stories of the far future.

Rod Serling gave a mixed review of Star Trek in 1970. He stated, "Star Trek was again a very inconsistent show which at times sparkled with true ingenuity and pure science fiction approaches. At other times it was more carnival-like, and very much more the creature of television than the creature of a legitimate literary form. " ( Pioneers of Television: Science Fiction ) On another occasion, Serling gave a positive opinion on the show, stating " The day Star Trek was cancelled, I could have cut off heads at the network. It was a marvelous show. " ( Starlog 2. (August, 1976), p. 15)

Additionally, several TOS episodes bear a strong resemblance to earlier Twilight Zone episodes:

• " People Are Alike All Over " and " The Cage ": Both involve Humans being put in an extraterrestrial zoo. Interestingly enough, Susan Oliver appears in both. The former episode also featured Byron Morrow and Vic Perrin .
• " The Parallel " and " Mirror, Mirror ": Both have space travelers who spend some time in a parallel, but altered universe. Paul Comi and Morgan Jones appeared in the former.
• " It's a Good Life " and " Charlie X ": Both involve a young boy terrorizing people with his god-like powers. Bill Mumy and Don Keefer starred in the Twilight Zone episode.
• " Mute " and " The Empath ": Both episodes involve a mute female with ESP . The former co-starred Frank Overton .
• " The Lateness of the Hour " and " Requiem for Methuselah ". Both involve a young woman who is really an android , created by an old scientist and kept within the closed world of his home. The scientist in the Twilight Zone episode was played by John Hoyt . This premise is also similar to The Twilight Zone episode " In His Image " and the TOS episodes " I, Mudd " and " What Are Little Girls Made Of? ", where androids pass themselves off as humans.

The original Twilight Zone series was followed by a movie in 1983, a television film in 1994, and three revival shows from 1985-89, 2002-03, and 2019-20, respectively. The second revival series ran on UPN , while the latest incarnation was streamed on CBS All Access . The UPN incarnation debuted one week before "Carbon Creek" aired and was scheduled to air immediately after Enterprise , giving Tucker's dialogue reference, made only five minutes before the second episode of Twilight Zone aired, a metafictional context.

Crossover performers, writers, and directors [ ]

• Four main TOS actors appeared in The Twilight Zone : William Shatner starred in two episodes: " Nick of Time " in 1960 and " Nightmare at 20,000 Feet " in 1963. Leonard Nimoy was part of the cast in " A Quality of Mercy " in 1961. James Doohan appeared in the episode "Valley of the Shadow" (1963) and George Takei in "The Encounter" (1964).
• Frank Overton was in "Walking Distance" (1959). Barry Atwater was in "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street" (1960). William Windom was in two episodes: "Five Characters in Search of an Exit" (1961) and "Miniature" (1963). John Hoyt was in "The Lateness of the Hour" (1960) and "Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up?" (1961). Robert Lansing was in "The Long Morrow". Stanley Adams was in two episodes: "Once Upon a Time" and "Mr. Garrity and the Graves". John Fiedler was in "Cavender Is Coming" and "Night Of The Meek". Bill Mumy was in "Long Distance Call", "It's a Good Life", "In Praise of Pip", Twilight Zone: The Movie , and "It's Still a Good Life" from the 2002-2003 revival series. He also co-wrote the 2002 series episode "Found and Lost".
• " The Cage " actors Sam Bagley , Joe Evans , and William H. O'Brien all appear as spectators in "He's Alive" (1963).
• " The Doomsday Machine " has five Twilight Zone alumni: Shatner, Nimoy, Doohan, Takei, and Windom.
• " Assignment: Earth " has six Twilight Zone alumni: Shatner, Nimoy, Doohan, Takei, Lansing, and Keefer.
• TOS writers Richard Matheson and George Clayton Johnson were regular contributors, as were directors Robert Butler and Robert Gist . Ralph Senensky also directed the episode "Printer's Devil". Jerry Sohl wrote three episodes uncredited, helping out his illness-stricken friend, Charles Beaumont .
• The made-for-TV movie that preceded the 1980s series included an adaptation of the Harlan Ellison short story, "Shatterday". Ellison would briefly serve as creative consultant on the series and also write another episode, "Paladin of the Lost Hour." However, production of another episode, "Nackles", with Ellison adapting a story by Donald E. Westlake and also directing, was halted, leading to his departure from the series.
• In the 1980s series, Terry Farrell starred in a remake of "The After Hours" (1986), an episode that was also in the 1960s series (although, it had no Star Trek actors in it).
• Jonathan Frakes appeared as "Single Guy" in the episode "But Can She Type?" (1985) in the 1980s series and directed the 2002 revival series episode "The Lineman".
• Brent Spiner played a draft dodger and John de Lancie played a dispatcher in "Dead Run" (1985) in the 1980s series.
• Nana Visitor played Lori in "Dead Woman's Shoes" (1985) in the 1980s series, a remake of the original Twilight Zone episode "Dead Man's Shoes" which starred Warren Stevens .
• Robert Duncan McNeill played Peter Wood and James Cromwell played Obadiah Payne in "A Message from Charity" (1985) in the 1980s series.
• Tim Russ played a police officer in "Kentucky Rye" (1985) and Archer in "Voices in the Earth" (1987) in the 1980s series.
• Ethan Phillips played Deaver in "Devil's Alphabet" (1986) in the 1980s series.
• After production of the 1980s series relocated to Canada, Trek comics writer J. Michael Straczynski wrote numerous episodes.
• Allan Kroeker directed the 1980s series episode "Something in the Walls" and three episodes of the 2002 series.
• Ira Steven Behr was an executive producer on the 2002 series of the The Twilight Zone .
• John Cho starred in the episode "Wunderkind" in the 2019 Twilight Zone series.
• James Frain starred in the episode "Point of Origin" in the 2019 Twilight Zone series.
• Tawny Newsome and Paul F. Tompkins starred in the episode "Ovation" of the season season of the 2019 series.

External link [ ]

• The Twilight Zone at Wikipedia
• 3 Ancient humanoid

• April 12, 2024 | Interview: Wilson Cruz On How “Jinaal” Sets Up The Rest Of The Season For Culber On ‘Star Trek: Discovery’
• April 12, 2024 | ‘Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ Renewed For Season 4; ‘Lower Decks’ To End With Season 5
• April 12, 2024 | Podcast: All Access Goes To Trill With ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ For “Jinaal”
• April 11, 2024 | Paramount Pictures Officially Confirms Star Trek Origin Movie For Its Upcoming Film Slate
• April 11, 2024 | Recap/Review: ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Tries Too Many Connections In “Jinaal”

Top 10 Twilight Zone Episodes For Star Trek Fans

| June 14, 2016 | By: Jared Whitley 18 comments so far

The Twilight Zone and Star Trek both occupy a special place in science fiction history. But, perhaps more interesting is the surprising amount of crossover between the two shows (and I’m not just talking about the more well-known instances a la Captain Kirk screaming on an airplane). Hit the jump to read my top 10 Twilight Zone episodes that every Trekkie should see.

CNN is currently running a series covering the last few decades of American history . Some of you may have been watching it. I was particularly eager for the episode profiling television in the 60s, to see what words they might have about Star Trek.

They mention it, but only really Plato’s Stepchildren, which featured the first televised interracial kiss ( on American TV at least ).

They do talk about the larger subject of using science fiction to discuss cultural issues of the day, but primarily focusing on The Twilight Zone. The two shows experienced a lot of crossover with cast and crew who worked on both shows, and of course fans who enjoyed both. There’s even an Enterprise where Trip hangs a lantern on the issue when he says T’Pol’s story sounds like an old Twilight Zone episode!

So I thought it would behoove me to write an article of my Top 10 Twilight Zone episodes for Star Trek fans. Note that this doesn’t include any of the famous ones that you probably already know (Eye of the Beholder, It’s a Good Life) or the ones famous for starring Trek actors (Nick of Time, Nightmare at 20,000 Feet, Quality of Mercy). I’ve also included some from the two subsequent TZ series to spice things up for those who may only know the 1960s show.

10 – The Encounter

So controversial at the time, this episode only aired once on broadcast television. It features a (very) young George Takei and lingering Japanese/American hostilities after World War 2.

Bonus GIF of George Takei jumping out a window with a katana

9 – The After Hours (1986)

So this episode is a remake of one from the original series, where a woman encounters mystery at a department store, but more remarkable to Trek fans because the lead is played by one Terry Farrell. (No spots, alas.)

8 – Mute

The TOS episode The Empath is extremely similar to this little-known TZ classic.

7 – But Can She Type?

Have you always been a fan of 1980s Jonathan Frakes but you wanted him as less of an executive officer and more of a pick-up artist? Well you’ll find that … in the Twilight Zone.

6 – The Passerby

This Civil War-era episode stars Joanne Linville, who plays the Romulan Commander from The Enterprise Incident (my favorite TOS episode). Luckily, this time she at least gets a name. Passerby also features a character from another Star Trek episode, whom I’ll let surprise you …

5 – One Night at Mercy

This is the only episode on my list from the UPN series (which Trip was helping promote to fans when he name-dropped the show on Enterprise). It features Star Trek fan and Voyager alum Jason Alexander (better known as George from Seinfeld) who plays Death and yadda yadda yadda there’s a twist at the end.

4 – Of Late I Think of Cliffordville

This episode does some clever pre-Trek things with time travel, while also featuring two future Trek guest stars: Julie Newmar ( Eleen from Friday’s Child) and John Anderson ( Kevin Uxbridge from The Survivors).

3 – The Hunters

OK this one I confess that I haven’t seen – it’s from the 1980s series and it stars Louise Fletcher , the Oscar-winning actress who DS9 fans know better as Kai Winn, so I had to put it on my list. And it’s in my queue to watch as soon as possible!

2 – Valley of the Shadow

This one explores some pre-Trek ideas that seem like the building blocks of the Prime Directive, and features a supporting role from James Doohan, speaking in his rarely heard native American (well, technically Canadian) accent.

1 – Will The Real Martian Please Stand Up?

OK I’m cheating on my rule about no episodes that appear on top 10 best Twilight Zones. This one appears on many lists, and is my personal favorite. Notable to Star Trek fans, though, is the appearance of John Hoyt, who played Dr. Boyce in the first TOS pilot. Is he the real Martian? You’ll have to watch to find out.

Also honorable mention to “Walking Distance”, although – again – that’s probably on a lot of top 10 lists for the whole franchise. It’s JJ Abrams favorite episode, which he references in the movie Super 8 . Enjoy watching! And I’ll see you … in the Twilight Zone.

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“You’re entering a world beyond imagination and…..”

You left out a couple of episodes with Stanley Adams (Cyranno Jones).

Yes, Yes….. It was a TOP 10 list….. sue me. ;)

I love “will the real Martian please stand up”! It’s a classic!

In November 2014, the website “The Agony Booth” posted a well-researched article debunking the assumption about “Star Trek” having TV’s first interracial kiss.

http://www.agonybooth.com/agonizer/TVs_First_Interracial_Kiss_Star_Trek.aspx

A lot of younger people don’t remember the original “Twilight Zone” anymore. I was being wheeled into surgery in 2009. I joked to the nurse “I hope someone doesn’t say to me ‘Room for one more, honey.'” The nurse didn’t get it.

And, “Trek”‘s own Arlene Martel was the actress who said that classic line, in the episode “Twenty Two”. I think she was billed under her birth name “Arline Sax” there.

You guys need to one with Outerlimits Trek crossovers. Tons on that show.

There’s a good one called “Expanding Human” with Steve Inhat, Keith Andes, Skip Homier and….James Doohan. I couldn’t believe the first time I saw it. It’s a feast to watch. (Inhat died too young)

There’s one called “Cold Hands, Warm Heart” with William Shatner, Malachi Throne, and Lawrence Montaigne. In it Shatner is an astronaut who visits the planet Venus on a mission called Project: Vulcan. No one ever talks about that. Strange, Fun coincidence.

There’s the classic, written by Harlan Ellison, “Demon with a Glasshand” that stars Arlene Martel.

There’s tons more in that series. Outta check ’em out. Too much fun.

Andy Patterson,

The most obscure preTrek appearance in THE OUTER LIMITS is the moving starfield in SECOND CHANCE (aka JOY RIDE) which was later adopted for the moving through space at warp effect in Trek.

Now that’s a cool fact. And I thought I knew obscure Trek stuff. Thanks.

Great article,, Jared.

Interesting choices – I would like to hear fans top 10 episodes of the original and 90’s Outer Limits

Usually when I steer people to TZ episodes that have Trek connections, I just go for the big ones (the two with Shatner, etc.) I’ve noticed that if I’m mentioning another one that has a person who played a character in one episode of Trek at some point, then I get stares that start to glaze over!

Well, but this article IS on a site for serious Trek fans, so the writer can probably assume that most of his readers remember such things as the Romulan Commander from “The Enterprise Incident.” I thought she was quite impressive and very memorable, for example. ;-)

Excellent article.

Unfortunately in going out of your way to avoid the Shatner cliche you glossed over NIGHTMARE AT 20,000 FEET’s very strong connection to STAR TREK beyond merely that. Both that episode and STAR TREK’s THE ENEMY WITHIN were written by Richard Matheson, who also penned 15 other TZ episodes.

In another TZ connection, Matheson’s script was adapted for THE TWILIGHT ZONE MOVIE.

He also wrote TZ’s LITTLE GIRL LOST, based on an actual event in his life, which featured Trek alumni, Sarah Marshall (Janet Wallace in THE DEADLY YEARS) and Robert Sampson (Sar 6 in A TASTE OF ARMAGEDON)

“Death Ship” — Star Trek chooses the wrong genre (horror) and starts and ends in one episode, with Jack Klugman as Kirk and Ross Martin as McCoy. The dangers of boldly going Spockless.

I know I’m Grumpy, but even I enjoy one good, fall out of the chair belly-laugh like I did while watching “Third Rock from The Sun” when Shatner and Lithgow, who both did the same TZ episode (Lithgow’s was the movie version) and they both mentioned something out on the wing to each other. . . LOL stuff there!

NIGHTMARE was directed by the same guy who did THE EMPATH and they both have that stark no-set-decoration look. Since EMPATH (along with BALANCE OF TERROR and DOOMSDAY MACHINE) is my fave Trek, it only made sense that I loved NIGHTMARE as well.

I really liked some of the 1985 TWILIGHT ZONEs, though the budget really hurts the look of the thing with all those video fx.

NIGHTMARE AT 20,000 has never worked for me, because I thought I figured out the twist in advance … but then they didn’t use it (I thought the pilot was going to tell Shatner, ‘why did you shoot him? HOW DO YOU THINK WE KEEP THESE THINGS IN THE AIR! Then again the FAA would have frowned on that, wouldn’t they?)

Concerning the ’85 Twilight Zone – – my favorite episode is “Word Play” with Robert Klein. The whole world has started speaking another warped form of the English language. He’s the only one left speaking correctly. I think of that episode a lot these days. It’s on line. Check it out.

Twilight Zone Museum

They started on the twilight zone, published august 2003 in jigsaw magazine by andrew ramage, jonathan harris and arlene martel, who starred in the episode "twenty-two," met again 42 years later in an actor panel discussion at the stars of the zone convention in hollywood in 2002..

Before they took to the stars, they were residents of the middle ground, the land of shadow and substance known as The Twilight Zone . Before Irwin Allen created the illustrious stowaway Dr. Zachary Smith and the brilliant boy astronaut Will Robinson for Lost in Space and before Gene Roddenberry invented Captain Kirk and Dr. Spock for the fandemoniacal Star Trek , the actors who later played Dr. Smith, Will, Spock, and Kirk were busy at MGM Studios, cast in episodes of the TV series that many deem the greatest of all time. Over the course of 156 episodes which originally aired from 1959 to 1964, audiences saw the early beginnings of future megastars. For many, The Twilight Zone was the major launching pad of their career on the screen.

Those who grew up with the show easily recall the series' best twists-Burgess Meredith as a bookworm bank clerk who survives the H-bomb or Don Keefer getting turned into a jack-in-the-box by a little boy with mystic powers. Oscar Beregi leading a mission where four men travel a hundred years forward in time in attempt to collect off the worth of gold bullion acquired from a train heist. Some nine-foot-tall creatures who come to Earth as friendly ambassadors for the purpose of 'serving man' … which starts out as a campaign to end world problems but ends with the purpose of serving man up on a plate! Even the most forgettable of episodes of The Twilight Zone were far better than most series' best. They have withstood the test of time as classic black and white vignettes that have acquired their own distinguished patina.

The merry band of writers who conceived these wizard stories principally included creator Rod Serling, and sci-fi masters Richard Matheson and Charles Beaumont. They crafted remarkable tales, many of which they adapted for TV from previously published short stories written by themselves and others. In turn, they offered actors dynamite roles. Suzanne Lloyd, an actress who appeared in numerous episodes of early television including Twilight Zone says," The Twilight Zone was, in those days, one of the shows 'to get' because the writing and the production values were at such a high level.it was one of the greatest experiences of my life."

Few if any who have ever watched a single episode of the series will attest to the fact that The Twilight Zone (sans 'The' in its last two years of production) was anything less than a class act from start to finish. Despite the fact that its ratings never went through the roof, everyone loved it. It was different. It was fresh. It was innovative. But at the time, few of its guest-starring actors had any idea they were making history. It was just another job, a single 40-hour work week. Three days of rehearsal, one day of blocking with cameras, all in preparation for one day's shooting.

Contrary to the stereotype The Twilight Zone has attained over the years, it was not a sci-fi show. Serling: "It is a show about ordinary people who find themselves in extraordinary situations." Quality was always the prime objective. Producer Buck Houghton, who guided the first three seasons of the show, saw to it that The Twilight Zone remained grounded in its two characteristic themes: fantasy and the extraordinary. Thanks to a remarkable combination of forces, what emerged were some of the finest moments in television history. Houghton left the show at the end of its third year. In the fourth season, the show was expanded to an hour, produced by Herbert Hirschman and Bert Granet. Some have called this move a mistake, but it did result in several of the finest segments seen in the entire series. For the final year, the show was shortened back to 30 minutes and Granet left his post, succeeded by William Froug.

But it was the actors that ultimately brought the show its special quality, says writer George Clayton Johnson ( Ocean's Eleven , Logan's Run ), who wrote four Twilight Zone episodes plus stories for four more, "The writers...we were words on paper. The director laid the plans. The actors built the temple." He adds, "You never had to worry about inept actors lousing up your stories." True. The casting was magnificent. Only occasionally was a role miscast. Indeed, many of the best names the biz had to offer at that time were secured for the parts-Burgess Meredith, David Wayne, Joseph Schildkraut, Jeanette Nolan, Ross Martin, Keenan Wynn, Ida Lupino, Beverly Garland, Martin Balsam.

Some who got the parts had already done Rod Serling material in episodes of Playhouse 90 and some would go on to do Serling's later series' Night Gallery and The Loner . The surviving actors continue to claim recognition for the temple they built, lo these 40 years later.

Ordinary People …

Some say The Twilight Zone paved the pathway for all similar shows that followed it, including Boris Karloff's Thriller and The Outer Limits , and to some extent, Star Trek . In fact, it would be unfair to say that The Twilight Zone was not a cousin to Alfred Hitchcock Presents , with which it shared three years of airtime. At any rate, the magic dust of these early shows rubbed off on many, including actor William Shatner.

He was new to Hollywood at the time, having done the feature film version of The Brothers Karamazov in 1958 as one of his first acting projects. Shatner still remembers the two episodes he did for The Twilight Zone , both written by Richard Matheson. In "Nick of Time," he was a superstitious member of a honeymoon team who reckon with the forces of a mystic seer in a diner in a small Ohio town. In the memorable fifth season episode "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" (which was remade into a segment of the 1983 flick Twilight Zone: The Movie ) he was Robert Wilson, a man flying home after six months in a sanitarium, having suffered a mental trauma on a previous flight. For over 50 years, Matheson has been regarded as a leading wielder of the horror pen, and "Nightmare" was undoubtedly one of his best efforts. Shatner gives a thoroughly convincing portrayal; his every subtle expression gives the impression that he is really and truly terrified of mental relapse. Apparently his acting talents got lost in the stars after he boarded the Starship Enterprise; Captain Kirk never gave him much opportunity to display his sizeable acting range. In between his two appearances on The Twilight Zone , he appeared in the 1961 Roger Corman film The Intruder , written by Charles Beaumont.

Fellow Trek stars Leonard Nimoy and George Takei also did "Zone" cameos. Nimoy appeared in a very small part as a soldier in Serling's "A Quality of Mercy," which starred Dean Stockwell, and Takei appeared in "The Encounter" with Neville Brand.

Piercing eyes and a violent expression have long been his trademarks, and Martin Landau used both to good effect on two drastically different Twilight Zone installments.

In the early first season episode "Mr. Denton on Doomsday" (a mini-western drama co-starring Dan Duryea and Jeanne Cooper), he played Hotaling, a desperado who insists on taunting former marksman-turned-drunkard Al Denton (Duryea). Hotaling always buys Denton a drink in exchange for three choruses of "How Dry I Am." Then one day, a traveling salesman named Henry J. Fate steps in and gives Denton a gun that aids in ending his domination over Denton. One of the last programs originally aired was a reality-based piece by Serling called "The Jeopardy Room," where Landau displays fire-burning intensity as Major Ivan Kuchenko, a Siberian defector en route to the Western world. A Commander named Vassiloff has been assigned to kill him. He visits Kuchenko's hotel room and sedates him with a glass of drugged wine. After he comes to, Kuchenko receives a message by tape recorder that a bomb has been planted in the room. If he finds and deactivates it within a period of three hours, he can go free. He doesn't quite deactivate it, but through a most ingenious plan of action, manages to escape.

Twelve-year-old Ann Jillian was the star of the somewhat controversial episode "Mute" in 1963, eons before she was a hit in "Sugar Babies" on Broadway with Mickey Rooney and received her Golden Globe for The Ann Jillian Story . In the hour-long Twilight Zone segment, she played Ilse Nielsen, a child who is part of an experiment. Her parents are one of a small group who sign a pact, agreeing to communicate with their children only telepathically. They raise her to believe that the world is not associated with words, but instead made up of objects with a particular function or meaning. When she is twelve years old, they die in a house fire, but Ilse escapes from the burning house and is taken in by the local sheriff and his wife. One problem - she has never attended school and still doesn't know how to talk. While trying to locate her family, they put her in school under the tutelage of a strict and frigid school marm named Miss Frank. Alongside Frank Overton and Barbara Baxley as Sheriff and Mrs. Wheeler, Ann Jillian does magnificently with a difficult role. Naturally, the script called for her to do all but the final scene using only facial expressions, coupled with her 'thought-voice' (voiceovers of what she is thinking). It's not hard to see why she continues to enjoy success both as an actress and motivational speaker.

The humble Hollywood beginnings of Robert Duvall came with a non-speaking part in the unforgettable 1962 classic film To Kill a Mockingbird, as the hermit Boo Radley. One of his first roles on television was a touching hour-long episode "Miniature," written by Charles Beaumont. He is Charley Parkes, a shy, virginal, 30-something office worker who never quite fits in with the rest of the world. The only place he finds solace and refuge is a local museum, where he falls in love with a girl in a dollhouse and gets committed to a mental institution. Needless to say, the part was a far cry from Network, Lonesome Dove, Deep Impact, or virtually any other role that Duvall has lent himself to, and he does splendidly. Pert Kelton and Barbara Barrie (late of "Suddenly Susan") played his doting mother and sister. Emmy award-winning actor William Windom, whose career in TV and film has spanned over five decades, plays the psychiatrist who thinks he's cured Charley but actually didn't quite.

Those looking for a good laugh should check out Burt Reynolds' early work as Rocky Rhodes in "The Bard," where he does a marvelous and genuinely 'New Yaaawk' impression of a Brando-type temperamental TV star. The same episode stars Jack Weston-the John Candy of the Sixties-as an eccentric young writer insistent on breaking into writing for television, a subject Rod Serling knew all too much about. Columbo fans will be surprised at Peter Falk's portrayal of Castroesque figure Ramos Clemente in "The Mirror"-he had the cigar but hadn't yet gotten the tan-hued trenchcoat. Dennis Hopper is a corrupted young neo-Nazi set on changing the world in "He's Alive." Serling always loved Carol Burnett, at that time a regular on The Garry Moore Show . He wrote a story for her as a clumsy movie theater usherette in "Cavender is Coming," which proved that comedy was not his forte but it certainly was Burnett's. It's no surprise that the later-legendary comedienne got her own variety show that lasted for 11 years in prime-time on CBS. One of Don Rickles' very first TV appearances was in yet another comedy episode of Serling's, as a barfly in "Mr. Dingle the Strong," starring Burgess Meredith, in 1961.

Tinka Tinka Tee TV

They succumbed to the surreal frolics of TV's prime time in the mid-Sixties, but nearly the entire Bewitched company visited The Twilight Zone beforehand. Agnes Moorehead, by then long established as one of the great dramatic actresses of the twentieth century but three years pre-Endora, starred in Richard Matheson's horror story "The Invaders," where she played an old farmhouse hag who gets terrorized by astronauts from Earth. She holds the distinction of playing the only character in all of Twilight Zone with not a single word of dialogue. Elizabeth Montgomery may have become Endora's nose-twitching daughter who defected from the cauldron-stirring world of witches for a life as humdrum homemaker, but one of her favorite roles was the episode "Two" which co-starred the late Charles Bronson. Like Moorehead before her, she has a near-silent part as a Russian soldier who undergoes a battle of wills with an American soldier (Bronson). Dick York-Samantha's own loveable Darrin "Durwood" Stephens-also performed amicably in a pair of episodes-"The Purple Testament" and "A Penny for Your Thoughts." David White (Darrin's boss, Larry Tate) is also featured in "A World of Difference" alongside Howard Duff, and in "I Sing the Body Electric," the only Twilight Zone episode written by the legendary Ray Bradbury. And, to top things off, both Mrs. Kravitzes - Alice Pearce and Sandra Gould, made cameos in the episodes "Static" and "What's in the Box," respectively.

Bumbling Bag of Bolts

In 1965, Jonathan Harris and Bill Mumy boarded the Jupiter 2 for three years of being lost in space (no pun intended!), after appearing in a combined five installments of The Twilight Zone . Harris played a toffee-nosed doctor with heinous laugh in the episode "Twenty-Two" (starring Barbara Nichols), an experience he always treasured. He also appeared briefly in "The Silence" as Franchot Tone's lawyer. "It was so wonderful what Rod was doing for television," he related in one of his last interviews in 2002. Several years later, Harris would begin his creation of the illustrious and ever-frustrated Dr. Smith, servant to a robot whom he always barbed with side-splitting repartee. Six-year-old Bill Mumy would become a favorite of the casting directors on Twilight Zone and other staple shows of the day. His first appearance came in the second season episode "Long Distance Call," where he played a boy who communicates with his dead grandmother (Lili Darvas) on a toy telephone given to him just hours before she dies. In the fifth season, he teamed up with Jack Klugman, as father and son in Serling's touching tale "In Praise of Pip." But his most memorable work was done on the horrifying third season episode "It's a Good Life," where he plays a little boy who uses his mystic powers to obliterate people who think bad thoughts about him. Oscar and eight-time Emmyist Cloris Leachman played his placid and homely mother, some nine years before she breathed life into zany Phyllis Lindstrom on "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" and "Phyllis," and sickly Ruth Popper in The Last Picture Show . Mumy and Leachman reunited in 2003 for the latest Twilight Zone revival on UPN in a sequel episode "It's Still a Good Life," which also starred Mumy's daughter.

Cloris Leachman was not the only one from the Mary Tyler Moore crowd to pop in on The Twilight Zone .Ted Knight will forever be known for his unforgettable run as Ted Baxter, the malaproping anchorman of WJM-TV Minneapolis' Six O'Clock News. In 1959, he joined Jack Warden and Jean Marsh ( Upstairs, Downstairs ) and the Twilight Zone crew in Death Valley, where he played one of three lieutenants who travel to deliver supplies to Earth men serving jail sentences on asteroids. At the time, Knight was barely making the rent with sporadic acting jobs, and oddly enough he didn't even receive on-screen credit for his appearance! Harold Gould is best known as Martin Morgenstern, Rhoda and Brenda's beloved 'Pop', which he also played on Rhoda . After earning a PhD in theater, Gould taught drama at Cornell University for a number of years but preferred the stage over the lecture hall. One of his earliest TV roles came in 1963, a small part as a government official in "Probe 7-Over and Out" who communicates by satellite with Richard Basehart, who's stranded on a remote planet. The same year, he also appeared in Rod Serling's film The Yellow Canary with Barbara Eden and Pat Boone and had a major role in the 1973 classic feature The Sting . Irene Tedrow, who played Congresswoman Margaret Gettys on a number of "Moore Show" episodes, made two noteworthy appearances in Serling's "Walking Distance" and also "The Lateness of the Hour" with Inger Stevens and John Hoyt.

Stranded Castaways and Hillbillies

Time travel was a prominent theme on Twilight Zone , one Rod Serling later remarked that "we ran to death [on the show]." Russell Johnson, who spent three years stranded on Gilligan's Island as The Professor-a role that never really seemed to suit him-starred in two compelling time travel episodes by Rod Serling, "Execution" and "Back There." Coincidentally, in "Execution" he also played a professor. He brings an outlaw (Albert Salmi, in a superlative performance) 80 years into the future using a time machine. In "Back There," he plays an engineer named Peter Corrigan who's also a member of a MENSA-type club. He travels backward in time in attempt to stop the assassination of Lincoln after having a theoretical discussion with some elderly chums. While the assassination of Lincoln still happens, Corrigan does succeed in changing the future.

James Best remarked recently that he's going to go to his grave being remembered solely for Rosco P. Coltrane with the basset hound pooch! But before his seven-year stint on The Dukes of Hazzard , Best appeared in three Southern-style Twilight Zone episodes-"The Grave" (with Lee Marvin in one of his few TV appearances), "The Last Rites of Jeff Myrtlebank" (with Sherry Jackson) and "Jess Belle" (with pre- Honey West Anne Francis). Like William Shatner, his talents were completely unrealized in the rather hackneyed part as the dopey deputy of Hazzard County. Luckily, we have those few episodes to savor.

Although she had no way of knowing it at the time, a young actress named Donna Douglas was cast in would become probably the deepest-resonating Twilight Zone story, "Eye of the Beholder" by Rod Serling. This is the episode where a woman named Janet Tyler (actress Maxine Stuart under heavy wraps) is confined to a hospital after undergoing numerous attempts to restore her hideously deformed face. She nearly goes insane and insists that the bandages be removed. All the while, we never see the faces of the doctors and nurses who refer to her supposed ugliness. The last layer comes off, and reveals a beautiful woman (Douglas) … at least by our standards. The 'beautiful' people of her society are people with faces that resemble those of pigs. Janet Tyler is ultimately sent to a community of societal outcasts. Unfortunately, Donna Douglas will always be known as the demure girl who loved raccoons, Ellie May Clampett of The Beverly Hillbillies .

Kevin Hagen was horse-and-buggy Doc Baker of Little House on the Prairie 's Walnut Grove, but he was already well-established as a versatile character actor by the time he took the part in 1974. Two of the roles that helped him get on the map were the Twilight Zone episodes "Elegy" and "You Drive." The latter story, effectively written by Earl Hamner, starred Edward Andrews ( Sixteen Candles , Gremlins ). Andrews plays a hit-and-run driver named Oliver Pope whose car comes alive, runs him down, and forces him to turn himself in. Meanwhile, he's having to fend off young Pete Radcliff (played by Hagen) whom he insists is trying to steal his job at the office and who later gets arrested for the crime Pope committed. In the early episode "Elegy," Hagen plays one of a group of geologists whose spaceship malfunctions and touches down on an asteroid, only to find everyone and everything motionless. Come to find out, the place is a futuristic cemetery where the dear-departed can achieve their unfulfilled life's ambitions. Only here can a homely woman win a beauty pageant.

The Twilight Zone today is bigger than ever. It stays alive in reruns around the globe, with websites, new books of the old scripts, and TV documentaries. In August 2002, the first-ever exclusively- Twilight Zone event was held in Hollywood, a two-day convention that featured an autograph show and panel discussions featuring writers, cast, and directors from the original series. Fanatics come home from work and pop in a DVD and catch an episode over dinner, then log on and check out the hundreds of Twilight Zone -related items listed for sale on eBay. Hundreds of actors who appeared in Twilight Zone can be found all over the dial, every hour of the day in reruns of old shows or appearances in new shows. The now-older actors are constantly popping up in new feature films and in stage productions in playhouses all over the world, skillfully imbibing the same style and flair that made them successful in the biz. They may have gone on to more memorable roles, but have never forgotten the series that played an important part in skyrocketing them into Rod Serling's great landscape beyond the stars.

Joanne Linville, 'Star Trek' Romulan commander and 'Twilight Zone' actress, dead at 93

Joanne Linville, who made a memorable " Star Trek" appearance as a Romulan commander in the original TV series, died Sunday in Los Angeles. She was 93.

In a statement to USA TODAY, her family said Linville "lived a full life."

"One whose spirit, passion for art and life was an inspiration to all who had the pleasure of knowing her," the statement continued. "A loving mother and proud grandmother." 

The actress, born Beverly Joanne Linville on Jan. 15, 1928, in Bakersfield, California, stood out in an acclaimed 1961 episode of "The Twilight Zone." She played a Southern belle in the final days of the Civil War who learns the cost of war and hatred in one of the classic series' famous twists.

Linville, who studied acting with Stella Adler, was a frequent TV guest star and film actor from the 1950s through the 1980s, with roles in more than 100 shows and movies.

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She appeared on classic series including "Alfred Hitchcock Presents," "Gunsmoke," "Dr. Kildare," "Ben Casey," "Route 66," "I Spy," "Bonanza," "The Fugitive," "Hawaii Five-," "Kojak," "The Streets of San Francisco," "Charlie's Angels," "Dynasty" and "L.A. Law."

In the late ‘80s, Linville and Adler started an acting conservatory under Adler's name. Linville also wrote a book "Seven Steps to an Acting Craft," published September 2011.

More: Writer Janet Malcolm, 'The Journalist and The Murderer' author, dies at 86

"Trek" fans remember Linville for 1968's "The Enterprise Incident" episode, a fan-favorite from the original TV show's final season in which she portrayed the commander of a Romulan vessel.

Her character falls for Spock ( Leonard Nimoy ) while he and Captain James Kirk (William Shatner), enemies from the Federation, are in custody on her ship.

Linville's movie credits include "The Goddess" (1958), "Scorpio" (1973), "Gable and Lombard" (1976), "A Star Is Born" (1976) and "The Seduction" (1982). She played gossip columnist Hedda Hopper in "James Dean," a 2001 TV movie starring James Franco and directed by her ex-husband, Mark Rydell.

Besides Rydell, Linville is survived by their two children, Christopher Rydell and Amy Rydell; grandchildren Austen, Ruby and Ginger; and great-grandson Kingston Fisher Lourd Rydell, the son of Carrie Fisher's daughter Billie Lourd and Linville's grandson Austen Rydell.  

More: See adorable photo of Billie Lourd's son dressed as Princess Leia for Star Wars Day

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FAMOUS TWILIGHT ZONE ACTORS

A List of famous actors most of whom were unknowns at the time they appeared on Twilight Zone.

1. William Shatner

Actor | Star Trek V: The Final Frontier

William Shatner has notched up an impressive 70-plus years in front of the camera, displaying heady comedic talent and being instantly recognizable to several generations of cult television fans as the square-jawed Captain James T. Kirk, commander of the starship U.S.S. Enterprise. Shatner was born ...

2. Robert Redford

Actor | The Natural

Born on August 18, 1936, in Santa Monica, California, to Charles Robert Redford, an accountant for Standard Oil, and Martha Redford, Charles Robert Redford, Jr. was a scrappy kid who stole hubcaps in high school and lost his college baseball scholarship at the University of Colorado because of ...

3. Burgess Meredith

Actor | Clash of the Titans

One of the truly great and gifted performers of the century, who often suffered lesser roles, Burgess Meredith was born in 1907 in Cleveland, Ohio. He was educated in Amherst College in Massachusetts, before joining Eva Le Gallienne 's Student Repertory stage company in 1929. By 1934 he was a star ...

4. Charles Bronson

Actor | Death Wish

The archetypal screen tough guy with weatherbeaten features--one film critic described his rugged looks as "a Clark Gable who had been left out in the sun too long"--Charles Bronson was born Charles Buchinsky, one of 15 children of struggling parents in Pennsylvania. His mother, Mary (Valinsky), ...

5. Jack Klugman

Actor | 12 Angry Men

As a film character actor, Klugman was the epitome of the everyman. He was one of the pioneers of television acting in the 1950s, and is best remembered for his 1970s TV work as Oscar Madison on The Odd Couple (1970) and as the medical examiner on Quincy M.E. (1976).

6. Elizabeth Montgomery

Actress | Bewitched

Elizabeth Montgomery was born into show business. Her parents were screen actor Robert Montgomery and Broadway actress Elizabeth Allen . Elizabeth graduated from the Spence School in New York City and attended the Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York. After three years' intensive training, she made ...

7. Mickey Rooney

Actor | It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World

Mickey Rooney was born Joe Yule Jr. on September 23, 1920 in Brooklyn, New York. He first took the stage as a toddler in his parents vaudeville act at 17 months old. He made his first film appearance in 1926. The following year, he played the lead character in the first Mickey McGuire short film. ...

8. Ron Howard

Producer | Arrested Development

Academy Award-winning filmmaker Ron Howard is one of this generation's most popular directors. From the critically acclaimed dramas A Beautiful Mind (2001) and Apollo 13 (1995) to the hit comedies Parenthood (1989) and Splash (1983), he has created some of Hollywood's most memorable films. Howard ...

9. Dennis Hopper

Actor | Easy Rider

Multi-talented and unconventional actor/director regarded by many as one of the true "enfant terribles" of Hollywood who led an amazing cinematic career for more than five decades, Dennis Hopper was born on May 17, 1936, in Dodge City, Kansas. The young Hopper expressed interest in acting from a ...

10. Cliff Robertson

Actor | Spider-Man

Clifford Parker Robertson III became a fairly successful leading man through most of his career without ever becoming a major star. Following strong stage and television experience, he made an interesting film debut in a supporting role in Picnic (1955). He then played Joan Crawford 's deranged ...

11. George Takei

Actor | Star Trek

George Takei was born Hosato Takei in Los Angeles, California. His mother was born in Sacramento to Japanese parents & his father was born in Japan. Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, he & his family were relocated from Los Angeles to the Rohwer Relocation Center in Arkansas. Later, they were ...

12. Carol Burnett

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13. James Doohan

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'Star Trek: Discovery' Season 5 Is Based on This Unforgettable 'Next Generation' Episode

EPs Alex Kurtzman and Michelle Paradise talk Season 5, their process when approaching new seasons, & tease upcoming Star Trek projects.

The Big Picture

• Collider's Steve Weintraub sits down with Star Trek: Discovery executive producer Alex Kurtzman and executive producer and showrunner Michelle Paradise to discuss the final season.
• Kurtzman and Paradise discuss the inspiration behind Star Trek: Discovery Season 5, the themes of the final season, and share behind-the-scenes Star Trek details.
• Kurtzman also teases upcoming Star Trek projects like Star Trek: Starfleet Academy , Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 5, and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 3.

In both celebration and a farewell, the cast and creatives behind Star Trek: Discovery made their way from the final frontier to Austin, Texas for this year’s South by Southwest film and television festival. It was a bittersweet moment for all as they world premiered the first episode of 10 for the final fifth season, “Red Directive.” Ahead of the screening, Collider’s Steve Weintraub had the opportunity to sit down with executive producer Alex Kurtzman and executive producer and showrunner Michelle Paradise to have a conversation about how the duo approached this final season's storyline, and all things Star Trek .

With Discovery 's Season 5 now available to stream on Paramount+, fans have had the opportunity to join Michael Burnham ( Sonequa Martin-Green ) and her crew's final mission on an adventure to locate an ancient artifact with some seriously mind-boggling powers. As it turns out, they aren't the only ones searching for the mysterious object, pitting them in a race against time to retrieve the item before it falls into the wrong hands. In addition to Martin-Green, Season 5 sends off Doug Jones ( Pan's Labyrinth ), Wilson Cruz ( My So-Called Life ), Blu del Barrio ( The Listener ), David Ajala ( Fast & Furious 6 ), Mary Wiseman ( Marriage Story ), and so many more.

Check out the full interview in the video above, or the transcript below, to find out how Star Trek: The Next Generation inspired Discovery 's swan song, the behind-the-scenes planning for new Star Trek series and episodes, and what they hoped to explore in Season 5. Kurtzman and Paradise also share some teasers for upcoming projects like Star Trek: Starfleet Academy , Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 5, Season 3 of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds , and more.

Star Trek: Discovery

Taking place almost a decade before Captain Kirk's Enterprise, the USS Discovery charts a course to uncover new worlds and life forms.

Read Our 'Star Trek: Discovery' Season 5 Review

COLLIDER: I’ve seen the first four episodes, and the only thing I’m mad about is I don’t have more to watch.

MICHELLE PARADISE: [Laughs] We did that on purpose. We were hoping to make you angry before you interviewed us.

How many episodes is the final season?

PARADISE: Ten.

How does that number get determined for each Trek show? Is it the studio saying, “This is the number we want?”

ALEX KURTZMAN: Yeah, I think they're only making 8 to 10 [episodes] of all shows, not just Trek shows, from this point forward.

You’re talking about for Paramount+?

KURTZMAN: For Paramount+. Yes, that's my understanding.

Where Does a New Season of Star Trek Begin?

You finish the last season, you find out you're going to get to do another season. What is the discussion like in terms of, “What is going to be our next season? What's the arc we're going for?” How does that all work behind the scenes?

PARADISE: Well, we always start with our characters, and where did they end last season and where do we want them to go this season? In those kinds of discussions, a lot of things start to come out thematically in terms of things that feel thematically resonant across those different characters, the things that we want to explore. In the midst of all of that, we are also figuring out the big ideas for the season. So, thematically this season, we're exploring questions of purpose and meaning , which felt like a natural extension coming off of the DMA and out of COVID and the Season 4 stuff. “What is next for our characters?” That felt like an organic place to go. And just in the midst of talking about all of that, it kind of organically leads to questions of, “Who are the antagonists for the season? What is the thing that our heroes are doing this season?”

Coming into Season 5 we knew that we wanted to do a bit of a tonal shift. We wanted to lead with a bit more action and adventure, and make it slightly lighter than earlier seasons. That’s where the idea for a quest came from. And those are organic conversations that all feed into one another as we're figuring out what we want the season to look like. We really do a lot of work up front breaking out just the high level of what the season will be before we start diving into the individual episodes.

'The Next Generation' Inspired 'Star Trek: Discovery' Season 5

One tng episode paved the way for the discovery crew..

This season connects to Star Trek: The Next Generation , which of course makes me very happy. When you do something like that, how did that come about, and ultimately, who makes the decision, like, “You're allowed to do this?” Is it you? Is it the studio? How does that decision get figured out?

PARADISE: Well, in terms of where it comes from, we had actually been interested in the episode, “The Chase.” It’s something that has stuck with many of us from TNG just because it has such big ideas, big things that it's exploring — where does life come from? It was this single episode that explores these big things and then kind of moves on to the next episode, and it kind of lends itself to so many questions of, “Well, then what happened? What do we do then?” So we were actually looking at that and considering folding some of that into Season 4, but as we got into Season 4, we realized with the 10-C, there was just so much story, it was too much happening, and it didn't quite feel organic. When we came into Season 5 and started looking at where our characters were and where they were going to go over the course of the season, and what Burnham was exploring with respect to meaning and what's next and all of that, it really felt like that progenitor story as a quest felt like the perfect place to live thematically.

Then in terms of who allows us to do that, I mean, we talk about it and Alex says yes. Then, I don't know, do people above and beyond that…?

KURTZMAN: No. There's always a big conversation about whether or not that's something in canon. What you never want to do is just throw in an Easter egg to throw it in with no real reason. That is, I think, the worst mistake because it starts to feel like fan service and has the exact opposite effect of what you want. In this particular case, it's the root of the season, and it sets the season forward, and it asks a very fundamental question that becomes the question that we set out to answer for the season. So, from that perspective, it was the right choice.

At the studio, how does it actually work? Obviously, you are near the top of the food chain on Star Trek. Who do you talk to at Paramount+ in terms of working out budgets or working out what they want for Star Trek, which you then do? How is that structure figured out?

KURTZMAN: It's a communal conversation, meaning I talked to the head of the studio, David Stapf, who's been incredibly supportive from the beginning, from Discovery' s launch. Then we go, and we talk to the Paramount+ folks, and we tell them, “Here's what we're thinking. In order to get to this show, we're going to need to start planning, really, two years ahead, which means you have to start putting things in development.” It's actually a small group of people. And then once you figure out what show everybody wants to make, then it becomes a question of what it costs to make it.

‘Star Trek: Discovery’s Connection to ‘The Next Generation’ Explained

I'm assuming you have a number for the budget for all 10 episodes. How does it work in terms of figuring out where and when you want to deploy additional resources, knowing you can only spend so much here and there?

PARADISE: I think it depends on the individual episode. So, for example, our premieres and finales have always tended to be a little bit bigger than pattern. We have a pattern budget, which is the number that we want to hit for any given episode. Because our premiere and finales are typically larger because we want to launch with a bang and end with a bang, we just know that if we go over the pattern in the episode, or in a particular area of the episode, that in later episodes we're gonna need to make that up. So, it's really a matter of just making sure that we are diligent about that and keeping track along the way, so that by the end of the season we have hit our pattern for all of the episodes, even if one or more went over.

Bottleneck Episodes Are Actually Beneficial to Television

"it's an essential part of it.".

How much in the writers’ room are you thinking, “It would be great, because we want to go big in two episodes, we really need a flashlight episode in Episode 6. That way we can take that money and use it somewhere else?”

PARADISE: We're very thoughtful about that. For example, going into any season, I don't even need to know what the season is about to know that our premiere and our finale are probably going to be bigger, because that's just how we tend to do it. So we always go in kind of knowing that. Once we start getting budget information, we get a sense of how much bigger the premiere will be, and then we just know, “Here's how much we have to make up along the way.” We're diligent about making sure that if we need to do a bottle episode, we do a bottle episode.

Flashlights.

PARADISE: We do flashlights, and no one gets to change their costumes suddenly. [Laughs]

I'm a huge Star Trek fan. If you watch Next Generation , every season there's a flashlight episode, or something that requires just sitting in one stage, just them talking, you know what I mean? And you know that the money's gonna be deployed somewhere else.

KURTZMAN: No, it's an essential part of it. In fact, I think from a dramatic perspective, it's great because it forces you to tell stories that are just focused on character, nothing else. If you say, “Sorry, you don't get any explosions this episode. You don't get anything, any of the bells and whistles, you just have to write people in a room,” it forces your brain into a different space than you're usually in, which is a great thing if you're doing it right. It's a great thing for character.

How 'The Twilight Zone' and 'Twin Peaks' Changed the Television Frontier

If you could only watch one TV show for the rest of your life, what TV show would it be, and why?

PARADISE: I might say The Twilight Zone , because it's one of those shows where there are different tonal elements in all the episodes. It did such a wonderful job of reflecting what was happening in society at times. It's an incredible mix of character work and genre, and just profound questions that it would explore. I remember growing up on that and just loving it. And every Thanksgiving they would have Twilight Zone marathons, and I would just sit and watch The Twilight Zone for hours and hours on end. I have The Twilight Zone companion at home. [Laughs] It's really wonderful, compact storytelling, and I think it endures for a reason.

It also led to where you're sitting.

PARADISE: Yes, that too. I mean, I don't think you can overlook the importance of that show in all of these.

100%. What about you?

KURTZMAN: Twin Peaks for me, which is weirdly very Twilight Zone adjacent. Twin Peaks made me want to make television. It just changed my understanding of what television could be. I remember seeing the premiere of the episode at a screening at LACMA when I was growing up. I was in high school, and I didn't understand what I was watching because at that point, television was cops, doctors, lawyers, right? And so you see that show, and he's just blowing up everything you understand about TV. It is endlessly entertaining to me, and the more you watch it, the more you begin to see that it's a case study on all the things that should be done on television, and then all the things that shouldn't be done on television when networks come in and start mandating certain things that sort of break the rules that was fundamentally so wonderful about an idea. So, I just think it's an amazing, amazing piece of art.

Kyle MacLachlan Ushered in a New Era of Cool Detective in 'Twin Peaks'

I think, also, a lot of people don't realize the context of time of when it was on, just like you said.

KURTZMAN: People don't get it. It was funny, we had a whole conversation this week in the writers’ room about it because a lot of the writers’ assistants, who are of a totally different generation, just had no frame of reference for Twin Peaks . And so somebody, one of the writers’ assistants, asked, “Why should I watch? Why should I watch the show? What's so special about it?” And I said, “You’ve got to understand context, which is impossible for you to understand given the fact that you didn't live through it, but there was nothing like that that had ever existed. It was the first thing ever. And every show that you love now…” You can name 20, 30 of them. It was funny because we just finished Season 4 of True Detective , and I said, “There is no Season 4 of True Detective without Twin Peaks . It doesn't exist.” I mean, I can name 10 shows right now that don't exist without Twin Peaks . And so I think when he saw that, he went, “Oh my god, that's right. I didn't understand it. I apologize.”

Star Trek Fire Round With Alex Kurtzman

As the person near the focal point of Star Trek, I do have a few individual questions for you, if you don't mind. Just like Discovery , I'm a big fan of Strange New Worlds . I know you're filming Season 3. How's that going?

KURTZMAN: It’s going great.

Anything you want to tease?

KURTZMAN: No. [Laughs]

Got it. I am also a fan of Lower Decks . I think that Mike [McMahan] does such a great job with that. Do you know if Paramount's planning on renewing that? Do you know if it's near the end of its run? What can you say?

KURTZMAN: I don’t. What I can tell you is that I think we’ve had five amazing seasons. If it’s five amazing seasons then that’s amazing. The fact is that five seasons of anything in the streaming universe is almost unheard of at this point. It’s been such a delightful show. Mike, the whole staff, everybody on it — amazing. Tawny Newsome, who obviously plays Mariner on the show, is also in our Starfleet writers’ room, and so it feels like the spirit of that show has somehow also migrated into Starfleet in some ways. But if this turns out to be our last season I think we will all walk out heads high.

Filming Star Trek's 'Strange New Worlds' x 'Lower Decks' Crossover Was a "Dream Come True" for Tawny Newsome

Speaking of Starfleet Academy , not like I wasn't going to ask about it, h ave you started casting?

KURTZMAN: We haven’t started casting the kids .

Have you revealed when it takes place on the Star Trek timeline?

KURTZMAN: Not to you, no.

[Laughs] Right. Exactly.

PARADISE: Actually, to everyone but you. [Laughs]

100%. So is it gonna be another 10-episode show?

KURTZMAN: Yeah.

Is it like a six-month shoot, a nine-month shoot?

KURTZMAN: Yeah. It could end up not airing until 2026. We don’t know. Just building the sets alone is a massive endeavor, then six months of shooting, then six to eight months of post. If you recall, there was all this noise around Season 1 and Season 2 of Discovery because the streaming service, they were like, “Oh, it’s a cop show.” I’m like, “No, you don’t understand. It’s eight months of visual effects turnaround, and we’re not gonna rush that.” So, it’ll come out, but it’ll come out when it’s done.

'Absentia' Co-Creator Gaia Violo Working on ‘Star Trek: Starfleet Academy’ Spin-Off Series for Paramount+

One of the main issues, and I talk about this with everyone at every streamer, is I don't understand how they don't keep writers’ rooms going all the time because it's like, get the scripts ready so at least if they green light, you can try to go as soon as possible.

KURTZMAN: We’re actually starting to have that conversation now. There’s a million reasons to do it. It’s not just that it keeps things fresh, but it also saves an enormous amount of money for your budget.

Absolutely. That’s why Netflix, with Avatar [ the Last Airbender ], just renewed two seasons. It’s great.

KURTZMAN: Yeah. You’re sitting here holding stages and you’re paying for those stages and nothing’s happening. Sometimes it takes four to six months to renew a show. The case that we’ve been making is if you take four to six months that’s just money off the screen and you’re burning money. Everybody hears it. Everybody understands. There’s no debate about it.

I know you haven't cast the kids, but what can you tease about the cast and the protagonists on the show?

KURTZMAN: This is my first official Starfleet Academy question. There are a lot of different kids from a lot of different places. Some of them want to be there, some of them don’t want to be there. It’s gonna be a fundamental reinforcement about all the things we love about Starfleet in general. You always want to ask yourself, “Why this show now?” I think that one of the big things that certainly my 17-year-old son is facing, which is kind of a fundamental Star Trek question, is, “How did we get here? How has this generation inherited the mistakes from the previous generation? And what are we gonna do to fix it to build that optimistic future that is Roddenberry’s essential vision?” That is very much going to be at the heart of Starfleet Academy .

One of the reasons why I'm excited for the show is because Star Trek cannot exist with just aiming at the older fans. You have to bring in new people. One of the reasons why Prodigy is great, and one of the reasons why I'm looking forward to Academy is because you can go after, maybe,15 to 19-year-olds. Do you know what I mean?

KURTZMAN: I do. So here’s the thing, I couldn’t agree with you more. I will also say, and I’m always very vocal about this with the studio, you can’t do that to the exclusion of OG fans. You have to make sure that you are also pleasing people who have been around and are die-hard TOS fans, die-hard Next Gen fans, whatever iteration of Trek is yours. You cannot alienate those people. You actually also have to invite them to the tent. So the challenge is how do you do that while also bringing in Trek to a new generation of fans that have no experience with those shows, has never watched those shows? So you need to make a show that you can drop into if you don’t know anything about Star Trek, but also a show that you can get a tremendous amount out of if you have all of that canonical history.

One of the things about the Academy is that you only go to Star Trek Academy for so many years. So, hypothetically you get to run for four seasons — do you see it that each season you would essentially be bringing in new people and people would be graduating, or are you aiming for the whatever-amount of years? Do you see what I mean?

KURTZMAN: Of course I see what you mean. [Laughs] We talk about it every day. Without spoiling anything, what I’ll tell you is I think the structure and the construction of the show is going to allow for both of those things to happen.

Do you know when you're going to announce the cast, or no?

KURTZMAN: It’ll be a while. We haven’t actually started the casting process, essentially. We’ve started generally for some of the adult characters. We haven’t even started with the kids.

New episodes of Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 release every Thursday on Paramount+.

Watch on Paramount

Wealth of Geeks

The Best-Written Sci-Fi TV Series of All Time

Posted: February 9, 2024 | Last updated: February 18, 2024

Since its very inception, science fiction has maintained a tight hold over the imagination of its principal audience, achieving mainstream appeal with the advent of television. Like literature or film, the best-written sci-fi television transports viewers to exciting new locations, forcing them to look at the uncomfortable reality behind such issues as deep-space exploration, interplanetary colonization, or new technological innovations.

As with any genre, sci-fi requires a basis in stellar writing, with the best-written sci-fi series continuing to win acclaim years, sometimes decades, after the show itself has aired on television.

1. The Twilight Zone (1959-1964)

Often imitated yet never duplicated, The Twilight Zone remains among the best-written sci-fi television programs for good reason. With stories spanning science fiction, horror, and fantasy, creator Rod Serling used The Twilight Zone to ask fundamental questions about life in the mid 20th century, creating intricate allegories for the Cold War, racism, human suffering, and the dangers that lurk behind mankind’s fascination with the stars.

2. Battlestar Galactica (2004-2009)

Reviving the middling ‘70s space opera Battlestar Galactica for a new generation, showrunner Ronald D. Moore rebuilt the series from the ground up. A stylistic departure from the kitschier presentation of most space opera series, Moore utilized a grittier, more realistic tone for 2004’s Battlestar Galactica , allowing the show to achieve a sense of true weightiness and inherent drama. It ranks as some of the best-written sci-fi of the 21st century in any medium.

3. Star Trek: The Original Series (1966-1969)

In no uncertain terms, Gene Roddenberry created the modern space opera with his work on Star Trek: The Original Series. Combining the comic book aesthetic of Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon with the drier tone of 19th-century adventure fiction, Roddenberry constructed a complex sci-fi universe more expansive than any other of its day and age.

As a result, Roddenberry not only spawned one of the most successful sci-fi series of all time–he also popularized a genre that gained further traction with the release of 2001, Star Wars, and Alien in the decade that followed.

4. The X-Files (1993-2018)

A forward-thinking television series, The X-Files zeroed in on the concept of a police procedural series with a “mystery of the week” theme behind it, replacing murdering fugitives and serial killers with U.F.O.s, government conspiracies, and paranormal monsters from folklore. What followed helped revitalize televised science fiction for mass viewership, achieving the same level of avid popularity as The Twilight Zone.

5. The Prisoner (1967-1968)

A key narrative influence on everything from Lost to Twin Peaks, The Prisoner also offered a sharp rebuke of the traditional espionage genre. Incorporating numerous themes taken from James Bond, The Prisoner ’s subliminal messages and surreal presentation allowed for a thought-provoking Orwellian portrayal of conformity, individuality, and the precedence of Cold War hostilities.

6. Stranger Things (2016-present)

One of the best-written sci-fi shows of the modern era, Stranger Things also appears among Netflix’s flagship series, helping give the streaming platform a vital foothold in premium content on par with HBO. An endearing love letter to all things ‘80s, Stranger Things strings together every cliche and pre-existing convention of dated pop culture, including meticulous references to early Spielberg films, kitschy slashers, Dungeons & Dragons, Stephen King novels, and Bronze Age comic books.

7. Severance (2022-present)

A show that reflects the darker aspect of corporate sci-fi (a niche but fascinating subgenre in itself), Severance also offers a poignant depiction of unscrupulous business practices. Exploring the differences in individuals’ personal lives and workplace personalities, Severance asks all the right questions regarding contemporary capitalist society.

8. Lost (2004-2010)

While viewers continue to lament its somewhat disappointing finale, most television scholars still credit Lost as one of the greatest TV shows of the 21st century. Borrowing the comic book presentation of Alan Moore’s Watchmen, Lost ’s split narratives and shifting protagonists allowed for an in-depth study of numerous characters’ backstories.

Aside from its fascinating episode structures, the show also boasted an unending array of unforgettable mysteries, several of which centered around sentient pillars of black smoke, ‘70s fringe scientists, and a Biblical duel between good and evil.

9. Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987-1994)

The best of the Star Trek spin-off series, The Next Generation , harked back to The Original Series’ dialogue-heavy tone. Introducing a cast of new characters every bit as endearing and three-dimensional as Kirk or Spock, The Next Generation ’s preference for strong characterization over stylized spaceship dog fights gave Trekkies a chance to bask in everything that made Star Trek so remarkable in the first place.

10. Rick and Morty (2013-present)

Yes, one can describe Rick and Morty as a biting satire of Back to the Future and Doctor Who . Yet with each new season, Rick and Morty leans further into its own distinct brand of storytelling, alternating back-and-forth between meta-fictional sci-fi adventures and heartrending meditations on loneliness, substance abuse, and existential dread over one’s place in the cosmos.

11. Firefly (2002)

While Firefly ’s abrupt cancellation after the release of its single season left most industry experts perplexed, viewers can always look at the series’ persevering cult status as evidence of Firefly ’s superior quality. A rare mainstream space Western that featured as many easter eggs to Bonanza and Gunsmoke as it did to Star Wars or Star Trek, Firefly  made a habit of providing vivid characterization to its lead cast.

12. Doctor Who (1963-present)

Most viewers can expect to see a show as long-running as Doctor Who ebb and flow in popularity over time. While certain periods in the show’s history fail to gauge viewers’ interests, Doctor Who ’s prevailing inventiveness, whimsy, and distinct British charm continue to fascinate fans over six decades since its original release.

13. Westworld (2016-2022)

Canceled in the wake of declining viewership numbers and disappointing critical reviews, the initial season of Westworld remains one of the most successful television series to ever air on HBO. Taking Michael Crichton’s ‘70s sci-fi film and flipping it on its head, the show’s intelligent treatment of artificial intelligence, entertainment, and technological advancements left viewers awestruck in 2016, the series possessing all the complexity of Blade Runner, A.I: Artificial Intelligence, or Ex Machina.

14. Fringe (2008-2013)

Taking liberal inspiration from The Twilight Zone, Lost, and The X-Files, Fringe acted as the ideal sci-fi counterpart to the fantasy-based Supernatural , utilizing a similar “monster of the week”-style presentation. Like all the best TV series, the show’s self-contained mythological universe accounted for the main reason to tune in each week, with viewers delighting in its distinct portrayal of fringe science.

15. Black Mirror (2011-present)

The 21st-century successor to The Twilight Zone, whereas Rod Serling used his series to probe into the fundamental worries of the 20th century, Black Mirror showrunner Charlie Brooker uses science fiction to explore new advancements in technology and culture.

While the series’ writing quality has fluctuated over time, the best episodes of Black Mirror continue to challenge viewers, presenting them with an upsetting speculative portrait of what the very near-future might look like.

16. The Expanse (2015-2022)

The best space opera series since Battlestar Galactica, The Expanse ’s detailed portrait of a colonized galaxy on the brink of war achieves the same realistic tone as Ronald D. Moore’s landmark series. Spending a significant portion of time on the political turmoil that foreshadows full-scale wars, The Expanse ’s intelligent and even-handed depiction of science fiction makes it one of the greatest television series of the past decade.

17. Orphan Black (2013-2017)

If Westworld offered a nuanced look at the arguments surrounding self-aware artificial intelligence, Orphan Black raised those same arguments for the implications of human cloning. A wondrous look at individuality and personality, Orphan Black ’s thematic discussions helped the series transcend the limits of science fiction, engaging viewers from an emotional and intellectual perspective.

18. The Outer Limits (1963)

The main thematic rival to The Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits offered viewers a more dedicated depiction of science fiction than Rod Serling’s program. Employing a wide array of talented sci-fi writers like Harlan Ellison, The Outer Limits ’ nightmarish presentation of the genre exploited the prevalent fears most Americans felt at the time, including imminent invasion and nuclear annihilation.

19. Futurama (1999-present)

Canceled, rebooted, and then revived once again, Futurama ’ s multiple resurrections over the years speak volumes about fans’ favorable stance towards the show.

Spawning his own fully-rendered sci-fi universe, Simpsons creator Matt Groening conjured up a hilarious galaxy filled with colorful characters and exotic settings, from alcoholic robots to anxiety-riddled lobster physicians.

20. Stargate SG-1 (1997-2007)

A significant improvement over the 1994 sci-fi film of the same name, Stargate SG-1 never rivaled the storytelling prestige of Battlestar Galactica or Star Trek . Yet even when compared to those aforementioned sci-fi giants, Stargate SG-1′ s intelligent handling of intergalactic conflict and its implementation of Egyptian, Arthurian, and Greek mythology make it a dazzling space opera in and of itself.

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I moved from California to Tennessee for my husband's job. We can finally save money, but it's been a major culture shock.

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