Twilight Zone - "I Shot an Arrow Into the Air"

I plan on watching all of the Twilight Zone episodes over the next two months... sure, I could catch up on any number of books I should be reading, or doing what I'm being paid to do... but I'd rather watch my favorite TV show of all time.

I'm already balls deep in the first season of the show, already having seen two or three that I never seem to catch during the New Year Marathon (that I still watch, despite having all of the episodes on DVD). The Four of Us Are Dying was one that I'd heard of, but didn't remember seeing in its entirety... a man can change the shape of his face to look like anyone he wants and over the course of the episode he becomes 4 different people. Then, he happens to pick a person that someone wants dead... as he lies on the ground, shifting between the different faces, he realizes the... TITLE OF THE EPISODE!

Right now I'm watching "I Shot an Arrow Into The Air". The first manned spacecraft is launched and the monitors back on Earth lose track of it. The space crew then ends up crashing on some kind of deserted planet... or should I say DESERT-ed planet, because it's a desert landscape. Arguing over food and water, and what exactly they should do, the men start to get angry with each other. As is standard fare in several episodes, there's one asshole that goes crazy before the rest of them.

Anyway, long story short... crazy guy ends up taking out the other two survivors and uncovers a twist ending that happens to be incredibly reminiscent of a certain Planet of the Apes.

I like this episode alot because of the way thirst is portrayed... it was filmed in Death Valley, so their sweat and thirst is probably actual. I'm sitting here with a Dr. Pepper in one hand, and a bottle of water in the other, and watching them stumble through the desert makes me feel like I'm going to die of thirst. Also, the pre-PotA's twist ending is pretty cool, minus Dr. Zaius. Especially since Crazy Guy has to live with the fact that he's an idiot.

Finally, I love Serling narrations before, after and during the episode. Just like "Time Enough at Last", he narrates a bit of descriptive monologue while we watch Crazy Guy meander about.

Overall, a good episode, not one of my favorites, but one I'll happily watch.

I give this episode 3 telephone poles out of 5