Tread carefully interstellar explorers! One never knows who may lay underneath your boot or who may tower above your helmet. Learn what may exist beyond your feeble understanding in the following review of “The Little People” from The Twilight Zone.
Rod Serling, a former paratrooper and World War II combat veteran, created The Twilight Zone in the late 1950s. This black and white TV series originally aired for five seasons on CBS from 1959 to 1964. Since then The Twilight Zone has been rebooted three times. The latest iteration ran for two seasons from 2019 to 2020 and was narrated by Jordan Peele, an actor, comedian, and filmmaker who has made a number of modern horror films such as “Get Out,” “Us,” and “Nope.”
Rod Serling narrated the original run of The Twilight Zone and wrote the majority of the episodes. He had a unique and memorable line delivery which made his narrative segments a key part of The Twilight Zone. Furthermore, he often discussed controversial issues such as contemporary politics, nuclear holocaust, racism, and xenophobia. Although, during his career he had to tamper the sharpness of his critiques to avoid censorship such as when he experienced pushback when trying to address the murder of Emmett Till. (NOTE: Check out the Smithsonian magazine article An Early Run-In With Censors Led Rod Serling to ‘The Twilight Zone’ to learn more about Serling’s fight with censors and for the original meaning of the phrase “The Twilight Zone.”)
Serling wrote the story we will be examining today. The Little People first aired on March 30, 1962 as the 28th episode of the 3rd season. The copy I watched, taken from the DVD box set, ran for a hair under 26 minutes and included an advertisement for “Chesterfield King” cigarettes at the very end. Twenty-one vintage tobaccos grown mild and aged mild you say? Fancy! (MEDICAL NOTE: Throughout his adult life Serling smoked several packs of cigarettes a day which probably contributed to his death of a heart attack at the relatively young age of 50. TL;DR Don’t smoke kids.)
The story of The Little People begins with a spaceship which was damaged during flight and forced to land on an alien planet. Captain and pilot William Fletcher was onboard as well as co-pilot and navigator Peter Craig. Right from the get-go viewers learn that navigator Craig is a malcontent who if he had his wish would be in control of large numbers of people. Lo and behold what should he find during his walks around their landing site but a city of microscopic people! (SIDE NOTE: While I did enjoy the plot it suffers from a number of unlikely coincidences making it rather predictable and requiring a hefty suspension of disbelief.)
Readers should not be surprised that Craig would use his comparatively immense size to dominate and torture the inhabitants of the minuscule city. His superior officer Fletcher attempted to ameliorate Craig’s abusive behavior. However, Craig pulled a weapon on his captain and won out, at least for a short while. At this point I must mention that The Twilight Zone earned a reputation for surprising twists and endings which promoted moral behavior. Ergo, people who did wrong got their just desserts. This episode was no exception.
The special effects were decent considering the year this show was produced and their TV show budget. A few props and uniforms were re-used from older productions. For instance, the uniforms seen in the very bottom image came from the 1956 film “Forbidden Planet.” A few miniatures, shown above, were utilized. They worked well enough. A few static images, shown below, were also utilized. They did not work as well.
Unfortunately, the tiny people never actually appeared on screen thus there was no visible interaction between itty-bitty extraterrestrials and humans. Instead, the alien buildings and vehicles were seen. Undoubtedly, this was a case of parallel development as their trucks and homes looked exactly like typical American trucks and homes in the 1960s.
Overall, I love The Twilight Zone as a whole. Alas, this particular episode was not the best of the bunch, but it is still worth a watch for those interested in classic science fiction.
Stay tuned for another size review coming up in 10 minutes. The next piece of sizey media was published in the far-flung year of 2025!
This post was written by Solomon E and is protected under Fair Use copyright law.
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There She Grows 