Revisiting The Twilight Zone: S4 E16: On Thursday We Leave for Home
This episode has everything that Rod Serling loves to present to you in his own written episodes. He is brilliant at showing the frailty of human endeavour. At how power can corrupt an individual or a group. He takes a scenario and uses these to highlight these human flaws in a science fiction story in his usual brilliant and clever way.
Such is the fate of Brooks Hanlan - sorry - William Benteen, who for thirty years has held together the stranded society on a rock in space, unquestionably in charge in order to survive. When a ship signals it is coming, everyone is happy that they will be able to return to Earth. But as with stories like this where a man in power realises he will lose that position, he begins to rail against it.
Everything about this story is terrifically done. James Whitmore is excellent in the role of the troubled and confused Benteen, whose mad lust for power, as in all of Serling's stories, leads to his eventual downfall. It may be somewhat predictable all the way through, but it is in the acting and the way it is told that makes it worthwhile.
Rating: Another one bites the dust. 4/5
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