The Twilight Zone (The Original Series 1959-1964): All Episodes Rated and Ranked

On January 11, 2016, a little over 18 months ago, I set myself on a quest. To re-watch every episode of the original Twilight Zone series in order, and to rank, rate and review each one of them. Last night I succeeded in completing this quest, the result of which some of you have been able to join me in my journey, and many of you will not doubt just be glad that it is over.

For the most part, this has been a lot of fun. At times it has felt pointless and hard to press on, mostly for the fact that I know practically no one reads what I write, and that doing it didn't really serve any purpose.

Except that it did. It encouraged me to re-watch every episode of this wonderful series, of which not enough positives can ever be written. It was groundbreaking at the time, and some of the writing and acting is absolutely exceptional. Not all of it, mind you, because there are times when you get two or three average episodes back to back that you think it's time to stop. But by going through with this I was able to continue on and re-discover some real gems of which I had either completely forgotten about, or perhaps had never seen for whatever reason.

On top of all of that, of being able to have re-watched every episode, and now be sure I have seen them all, I was able to create my own definitive ranking of every episode, which is something I like to do. In this way, I can be sure that this is how I feel about each episode, and not just guess through a half dozen that I know I love, and not be sure about the rest.

Of the 156 episodes over five series, I have rated 73 episodes with a four out of five or better. In my rankings, I believe that anything of four or better is an exceptional episode, ones that have that special quality that will have you wanting to watch them again and again. As it turns out, that is almost half of the episodes in this series that I feel this way about. I would hazard a guess that, over such a long series this would be very high.

And so, for those that have waited for this moment, the list below is my personal list, in order, of the episodes of The Twilight Zone. Some will be obvious, but others may surprise.

Thanks for taking the journey with me. Perhaps we'll do it again some day.

5
S01 E22: The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street
S01 E08: Time Enough at Last
S01 E10: Judgement Night
S01 E18: The Last Flight
S05 E03: Nightmare at 20,000 Feet
S01 E21: Mirror Image
S01 E14: Third From the Sun
S02 E18: The Odyssey of Flight 33

S03 E24: To Serve Man
S01 E11: And When the Sky Was Opened
S04 E11: The Parallel
S01 E30: A Stop at Willoughby
S02 E15: The Invaders
S01 E15: I Shot an Arrow into the Air
S05 E30: Stopover in a Quiet Town
S05 E14: You Drive

S05 E13: Ring-a-Ding Girl
S01 E34: The After Hours
S04 E03: Valley of the Shadow
S05 E22: An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge
S03 E25: The Fugitive
S05 E16: The Self-Improvement of Salvadore Ross

4.5

S03 E09: Deaths-Head Revisited

S02 E28: Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up?

S03 E08: It's a Good Life

S02 E29: The Obsolete Man
S02 E06: Eye of the Beholder
S02 E25: The Silence
S05 E06: Living Doll

S03 E05: A Game of Pool

4
S02 E10: A Most Unusual Camera
S02 E09: The Trouble With Templeton
S02 E23: A Hundred Yards Over the Rim

S04 E06: Death Ship
S02 E07: Nick of Time
S04 E04: He's Alive
S01 E23: A World of Difference
S02 E16: A Penny For Your Thoughts

S02 E19: Mr. Dingle, the Strong

S04 E17: Passage on the Lady Anne

S03 E21: Kick the Can

S03 E37: The Changing of the Guard

S03 E15: A Quality of Mercy
S05 E35: The Fear
S01 E07: The Lonely
S05 E26: I Am the Night – Colour Me Black
S03 E14: Five Characters in Search of an Exit
S01 E06: Escape Clause
S04 E10: No Time Like the Past
S03 E30: Hocus-Pocus and Frisby
S03 E07: The Grave
S04 E02: The Thirty Fathom Grave

S04 E09: Printer's Devil
S02 E05: The Howling Man
S01 E36: A World of His Own
S04 E14: Of Late I Think of Cliffordville
S02 E03: Nervous Man in a Four Dollar Room
S01 E02: One For the Angels
S05 E29: The Jeopardy Room
S03 E35: I Sing the Body Electric
S05 E19: Night Call
S04 E13: The New Exhibit
S05 E05: The Last Night of a Jockey

S04 E16: On Thursday We Leave for Home
S03 E29: Four O'Clock
S01 E25: People Are Alike All Over
S05 E07: The Old Man in the Cave
S04 E15: The Incredible World of Horace Ford
S01 E12: What You Need
S04 E12: I Dream of Genie
S03 E31: The Trade-Ins
S01 E01: Where is Everybody?
S03 E18: Dead Man's Shoes

3.5
S03 E03: The Shelter

S03 E02: The Arrival

S02 E26: Shadow Play

S03 E32: The Gift
S05 E04: A Kind of Stopwatch

S03 E27: Person or Persons Unknown

S03 E13: Once Upon a Time

S03 E16: Nothing in the Dark

S04 E05: Mute
S05 E10: The 7th Is Made Up of Phantoms
S01 E19: The Purple Testament
S03 E04: The Passerby
S02 E21: The Prime Mover
S01 E28: A Nice Place to Visit
S05 E09: Probe 7, Over and Out
S03 E33: The Dummy
S05 E28: Caesar and Me
S02 E20: Static
S05 E24: What’s in the Box?
S01 E20: Elegy
S05 E15: The Long Morrow
S01 E26: Execution
S01 E05: Walking Distance
S05 E32: Mr. Garrity and the Graves
S05 E31: The Encounter
S04 E08: Miniature

S04 E01: In His Image
S05 E33: The Brain Center at Whipple's
S05 E20: From Agnes – With Love
S03 E23: The Last Rites of Jeff Myrtlebank
S02 E04: A Thing About Machines
S01 E09: Perchance to Dream
S05 E08: Uncle Simon

3
S03 E19: The Hunt
S02 E22: Long Distance Call
S02 E02: The Man in the Bottle
S03 E20: Showdown With Rance McGrew
S01 E24: Long Live Walter Jameson
S02 E11: The Night of the Meek

S02 E17: Twenty Two

S03 E26: Little Girl Lost
S05 E02: Steel
S01 E35: The Mighty Casey
S03 E28: The Little People
S02 E01: King Nine Will Not Return
S01 E03: Mr. Denton on Doomsday
S02 E14: The Whole Truth
S05 E23: Queen of the Nile

S04 E18: The Bard
S05 E34: Come Wander With Me

S03 E17: One More Pallbearer
S01 E16: The Hitch-Hiker
S05 E12: Ninety Years Without Slumbering
S02 E24: The Rip Van Winkle Caper
S05 E18: Black Leather Jackets
S01 E17: The Fever
S02 E27: The Mind and the Matter
S01 E04: The Sixteen-Millimeter Shrine
S05 E27: Sounds and Silences
S03 E22: A Piano in the House
S05 E25: The Masks

S05 E01: In Praise of Pip
S03 E06: The Mirror
S05 E21: Spur of the Moment
S03 E11: Still Valley
S05 E17: Number 12 Looks Just Like You

2.5
S03 E36: Cavender Is Coming
S03 E10: Midnight Sun
S01 E33: Mr. Bevis
S03 E01: Two
S01 E31: The Chaser
S01 E27: The Big Tall Wish
S03 E12; The Jungle
S01 E29: Nightmare as a Child
S01 E32: A Passage for Trumpet

2
S05 E11: A Short Drink from a Certain Fountain
S02 E13: Back There
S02 E08: The Lateness of the Hour
S05 E36: The Bewitchin' Pool
S02 E12: Dust

S04 E07: Jess-Belle
S01 E13: The Four of Us Are Dying

1.5
S03 E34: Young Man's Fancy