The Twilight Zone “No Time Like The Past”

The lead actor here is Dana Andrews, a man who appeared in a movie I wrote up twice, and also a great noir about a detective who fell in love with a murder victim’s portrait.

Basically, he has two really impressive movies on his IMDB page.

Basic Premise:  A time traveler wants to make a better present.

Writer:  Series creator Rod Serling

Commentary:  OK, I gotta admit:  the series is getting better with these hour-long episodes. Sure, it isn’t perfect.  Just better.  It helps that self-righteous time-traveler Paul Driscoll (Andrew) tries to fix his time period by saving lives a couple times before realizing that won’t work.  The police chief in Hiroshima won’t evacuate the city before the bomb drops.  The SS will intervene before Paul can shoot Hitler.  And the captain of the Lusitania absolutely will not change course.  The past can’t be changed, and Paul wouldn’t have bothered except he thinks his present sucks.

The only thing to do then is to go back to a 19th century frontier town where nothing will happen.  Sure, he can try to prevent the assassination of President Garfield, but he can’t change the past, so he won’t bother.  Why, he even finds something like love with the local schoolteacher.  Sure, he says some things that only a man with future knowledge could do because he’s kind of a self-righteous jerk, but he won’t try to change the future or tell anyone his true origins.

But his knowledge of the time seems to very specific, so will he stop the local school from burning down after an accident with a kerosene lamp and save some children’s lives?

The Twist:  Paul’s efforts to stop the fire actually start the fire, so he goes to his home time and decides the thing to do is work to make a better future rather than change the past.  You know, that obvious lesson.

Yeah, Paul sucks.

What about Rod?  He must love that void.