"One," he says. Ha! From 1973,
the Twilight Zone #53, cover by George Wilson.
"The Yesterday Window" would probably have made a middling episode: a G.I. returns from Vietnam, but doesn't want peace and quiet, he wants to live in Greenwich Village! He gets a crummy attic apartment, but that's fine; he wants to paint, and that seemed like the place to do it. Then he has bizarrely vivid dreams about New Amsterdam (
why they changed it I can't say) and finds a walled-off window that seems to look into the distant past there. Of course there's a pretty girl there, trying to talk her father out of sailing on a ship the G.I. knows is going to be lost; so he has to go back to help, which involves committing suicide in the present out the boarded-up window. But because this is an older
Twilight Zone, he still gets a happy ending. (Art by Frank Bolle.)
"The Manuscript" is a period piece, where a hard-working doctor is killed before he can finish his life's work, so his wife picks up the ball, working herself to death to finish it, with his help. Uh...yay? "Time on His Hands" is far more fun, and could've made a memorable episode with the right casting: an officious efficiency expert is making everyone miserable at a factory, until he receives a handwritten note to "leave our section out of your survey." He traces the note back to the oldest section of the factory, where he finds a secluded, private section of cheerful, lackadaisical screwballs; who seem to work on their own schedules, with their own systems, and their own side projects. Also, there doesn't seem to be any exits, which doesn't seem to bother them? Maybe they're better workers than anyone would give them credit for. Still, not a good time for the efficiency expert, who is almost physically ill dealing with them. (Art by Jack Sparling.)
Finally the cover story, "Telephone from the Tomb," with art by Al Williamson. This features a type of character that might be somewhat unfamiliar to modern readers, a gossip columnist: Ramona Powers had been the power behind the throne in Hollywood, able to make or break young wannabes with a mere phone call. And her calls had continued after her death! She had actually had a phone line installed in her tomb and prepaid like a hundred years of service; which should be a hilarious parting shot, but an actor keeps getting calls from her. A private investigator works the case, which seems to point to Ramona's secretary; but there's more to it than that.
Man, that guy would stroke out in my house...For some reason, I hear "
Inefficiency! RAMPANT INEFFICIENCY!" in a Dalek's voice.
