A Little Peace and Quiet
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| “A Little Peace and Quiet” | |
|---|---|
| The New Twilight Zone episode | |
 Melinda Dillon as Penny |
|
| Episode no. | Season 1 Episode 2 |
| Guest stars | Melinda Dillon |
| Written by | James Crocker |
| Directed by | Wes Craven |
| Original airdate | September 27, 1985 |
| Episode chronology | |
| ← Previous | Next → |
| "Shatterday" | "Wordplay" |
A Little Peace and Quiet is an episode of the television series The New Twilight Zone.
Contents |
[edit] Cast
Penny: Melinda Dillon
Russell: Greg Mullavey
Newscaster: Clare Nono
Russell Jr.: Joshua Harris
[edit] Plot
Penny (Mellinda Dillon) unearths a locket that bestows her with the ability to stop time.
[edit] Opening Narration
"Wouldn't it be nice if once in a while everyone would just shut up and stop pestering you. Wouldn't it be great to have the time to finish a thought or spin a daydream. To think out loud without being required to explain exactly what you meant. If you had the power, would you dare to use it, even knowing that silence may have voices of its own... to the Twilight Zone."
[edit] Synopsis
Penny, a housewife and mother of four, awakens to a loud alarm. She gets up and cooks breakfast. Her children argue and fight as she attempts to cook breakfast. Her husband comes down complaining about the mess in the closet. The noise of her children, the washing machine, her husband, gets to her. She is in need of a little peace and quiet.
Later Penny works in her garden, the neighbor loudly chainsaws a tree as she works. As she digs she discovers a wooden box containing a golden amulet. She takes the amulet inside and puts it on.
At the grocery store, Penny is harassed by her whiny children and annoying customers. She drives home as her children fight. She tries to cook dinner when her children begin to pester her and her husband comes downstairs complaining about a rip in his shirt. As the noise level becomes too much she yells at them to shut up. After she yells at them, they freeze in time. She is confused at first but soon realizes that the amulet can stop time. She tells her family to start talking and time restarts. She smiles as she realizes that she will finally have a little peace and quiet.
Later that night, Penny watches a news program about the recent Peace talks between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. She becomes annoyed and freezes time. She expresses her happiness and goes to sleep.
The next morning, Penny enjoys a peaceful breakfast with her family as they stand frozen in time. Later, she uses her time-stopping power at the grocery store. When she gets home, a knock at the door reveals two anti-nuclear weapons activists. As they speak to her, she becomes annoyed. She tells him that she doesn't want to waste time helping them. She freezes them and drags them into the yard. She restarts time and the two activists are shocked to find themselves laying in the grass.
Later that evening, Penny enjoys a relaxing bath. Her husband listens to the radio when suddenly air raid sirens go off. The radio reveals that nuclear missiles are heading for the United States. As her husband and son begin to weep, Penny freezes time. She heads into the street and sees that everything is frozen. She looks up and just above a theater marquee reading "Fail Safe / Dr. Strangelove", she sees a Soviet nuclear missile frozen over her city.
[edit] Closing Narration
None given.
[edit] Themes
This episode is similar in theme to two episodes of the original series; "Time Enough at Last" which involves a man who seeks a refuge from life while reading when the world ends through a nuclear war, and "A Kind of Stopwatch" which involves a man who gains the power to stop time using a stopwatch.
[edit] Trivia
- In the final sequence as Penny looks up to see the nuclear missile floating overhead, you can see a theater marquee. It reveals a double feature of Fail Safe and Dr. Strangelove. These two films are cold war thrillers about a nuclear exchange between the United States and the Soviet Union..
[edit] References/External links
Back to: The New Twilight Zone, Episode List, Season 1
