Old-School TV: Tales of Tomorrow- The Dune Roller

This is a sad occasion.  It is the last Episode on the Disc.  This just may be the last of my...

Aliens- why are they always invading?!?  Seriously, don't they have their own Planet?  That rhetorical question leads me to the fourth (in no order whatsoever) Episode of the show called...

For some reason, the story is framed as a Story being told to this girl.  Why?  I have no clue.

Anyhow, he tells her the story of The Dune Roller.  It all starts with these two guys discovering that a nearby Element has transformed.  They try to figure out why.

Unfortunately, it turns out to be related to some weird incidents with people being confronted at their homes by flashing lights.  Yeah, you have to wait for any pay-off.

That does help explain the framing device.  In the early days, stories had to be lightened up (hence the rise of Horror Film Hosts) and have some disconnect.  Making it all past tense does the latter.

It does a good job of building up the suspense though.  You have to make do with no monster, of course.

Obviously the only one way to stop this as-yet-seen creature is to talk dryly about Science.  That was the answer to stopping any sort of monster back in the 1950s after all.

It is time for the final showdown.  They are, after all, on the part of the set that vaguely-looks like it is outside.

In the End, they blow the creature up- off-camera, naturally- and talk about how it was some sort of alien life-form controlling a meteor fragment (or something).  Oh well, at least it is dead.

...or is it?!?!?

Well, is it?  I mean, this Story is being told to someone.  Shouldn't we have an answer?  The End.

It is a bit of a tease, really.  If you go into this Episode with the right expectations, it does not disappoint.  It has some mystery to it, while giving you most of the answers you'd want.  It is silly to frame the whole thing in past tense though.  It would be neat to see a story like this redone, but with a twist thrown in.  For example, if the man was telling her the Story and then they panned out at the end to reveal that most of the World was destroyed.  As it is, the Story will just seem like a lot of build-up and little pay-off to a modern-viewer not familiar with that kind of thing.  I won't deny it.  It is certainly not the strongest of the four tales I've seen so far- that's probably still the first one- but I did like it.  It has an old-school The Thing From Another World (aka the film remade as The Thing) vibe to it.  Given that the film came out only a year prior, that's no surprise.  It is a good template for shows and films to come.  If viewed as an early draft for tales like this (see The Blob), then it is a neat piece of history.  As a stand-alone tale, it is a merely-average Episode.

After all four of these Episodes, I'm really looking forward to me.  Who would have guessed that I'd get so much out a .49 cent splurge at Moviestop?

Next up, I'm going to track down some more Episodes of this show for the future.  As to which Episode is next, even I don't know!  Stay tuned...