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The Acclaimed Twilight Zone Episode Sci-fi Legend Richard Matheson Wrote - Then Hated
The legendary Richard Matheson wasn't too fond of one of his own Twilight Zone episodes.
When it comes to The Twilight Zone, Rod Serling is the creator whose name first comes to mind, but just behind him in terms of influence on the series and its stories is another legendary genre fiction figure: Richard Matheson.
An author and screenwriter who remains one of the most influential horror writers of the 20th century, Matheson is the mind behind classics like I Am Legend, Duel, and Stir of Echoes, as well as prolific short fiction writer whose stories often made it to television. Joining The Twilight Zone in the first season of the show, Matheson ultimately wrote 16 of the original series' 156 episodes, including classics like "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet," "Steel," and "Little Girl Lost."
Matheson's influence on The Twilight Zone is well-known and well-regarded, but there's at least one episode from his time on the show that Matheson never actually liked all that much.
The Twilight Zone's "The Invaders"
Matheson contributed five stories to the first season of The Twilight Zone, two adaptations of his short fiction by Serling and three original scripts by Matheson himself. When Season 2 arrived, he turned in two more original scripts: "Nick of Time" and "The Invaders," an episode with a very intriguing conceptual hook that makes it stand out to this day.
"The Invaders" stars Agnes Moorehead as a woman who seemingly lives alone in a remote cabin, just going about her day trying to make food in her kitchen. Her work is interrupted when a strange object lands on the roof, revealed to be a classic flying saucer in miniature form. When two little spacemen creep out of the craft and start to menace her throughout the house, the woman is forced to fight for her life.
What makes the episode so interesting, apart from its typical Twilight Zone twist ending that reveals the true origins of the spacemen, is its use of certain storytelling limitations. Apart from Serling's opening narration and a brief bit monologue at the end of the episode, there is no dialogue. The woman never speaks, and we never learn anything more about her life beyond the walls of her cabin. The story unfolds entirely within the bounds of the cabin, and counting the two spacemen, there are only three characters. It's a remarkably restrained piece of storytelling, but because of the atmosphere created and the creepiness of the concept, it works.
Why Richard Matheson Didn't Like "The Invaders"
"The Invaders" is regularly listed among the greatest Twilight Zone episodes of all time. Entertainment Weekly cited it as Serling's favorite episode that he didn't write, and SYFY WIRE ranked its ending among the 10 best twists in the history of the show. On a recent episode of the horror podcast The Scares That Shaped Us (hosted by SYFY WIRE's own Matthew Jackson), bestselling author Daniel Kraus (The Living Dead, The Shape of Water, Whalefall) cited the episode as one of two foundational horror stories in his life, alongside Night of the Living Dead.
There's no question that the episode is a true Twilight Zone classic, but one person who didn't think so was Matheson himself. According to Marc Scott Zicree's The Twilight Zone Companion, Matheson felt the episode messed up the pacing of his script, and he wasn't too fond of the design of the spacemen (who were basically glorified hand puppets) either.
"I never liked it," Matheson said. "I don't like it today. For one thing, I think it's incredibly slow-moving. My script had twice as much incident as they used in the final version; it moved like a shot. The teaser alone, of the woman cutting vegetables and then hearing the noise, it seems like it takes her forever to get up to the roof
"Also, I thought those little roly-poly dolls were ridiculous looking. The way I had written it, you would only catch very quick views of them and never anything clear. To see those little things waddling across the floor was about as frightening as Peter Rabbit coming at you."
You can never please everybody with an episode of television, and sometimes that even includes the guy who wrote it.
The Twilight Zone airs regularly on SYFY. Check the schedule for more details.
