Episode 8 - Time Enough at Last

Episode 8 - Time Enough at Last
Original Airdate: November 20, 1959


Plot: An avid reader wishes for less distractions from his books. His wish is granted in the form of a hydrogen bomb that leaves just him and a whole lot of books, which he can't read because he's just broken his glasses.



I'm sure we're all familiar with this episode. Along with "To Serve Man" and "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet," this is one of the episodes that became insanely popular and is continually referenced in pop culture to this day. The bulk of the episode consists of our bookworm, Henry Bemis, walking around a bombed-out cityscape in near-silence. Bemis is a pathetic-looking creature himself so the image is stark, and in a rare change of pace, Serling does voice-over narration in the middle of the piece, not just bookending the tale. Of course Serling saves the most eloquent lines for himself, or rather his narrator persona, but the episode seemed to drag for me prior to Bemis's discovery of the destroyed library. Somehow the books survived when the structure itself failed, and never mind the ramifications of nuclear fallout, but this is a fantasy story, after all.

Bemis is played by Burgess Meredith, who most of you will recall as Mick from Rocky, but I associate primarily as The Penguin from the Adam West Batman show. He's a character actor in the truest sense. Bemis is an introverted man, bordering on autistic, who can't get his nose out of his reading material when he's introduced. His reading addiction reminded me of so many that I know who are unable to be in a room for any significant amount of time without turning on a TV. While he is an extreme example of humanity, I can't say that I care for the character: many of his reactions, particularly upon discovering that everyone else is dead, are completely illogical. It's a problem that also plagues the character of his wife, who looks like she's about to crack up laughing while being cruel and malicious.



While the ending is famously ironic, I didn't feel that Bemis got his "just desserts." His reading addiction never really came off as a character flaw, since he never really got to do it so much. I'd say that the stronger message of Time Enough at Last is one of nuclear paranoia. Mankind now possessed the power to unmake the world, and ignoring that fact wouldn't make you safe.



Consider it a call to action, a rallying cry, radiating out of The Twilight Zone.