Review of Time Enough at Last

This is, for me, the preeminent episode of a series made up of numerous outstanding candidates for that position. Time Enough at Last is one of those television events that lasts and haunts and provokes you years after having seen it - and it justifiably made the TV Guide's List of greatest TV moments of all time recently. It is that powerful. The story centers around Henry Bemis, a bookish man with no other desire then to immerse himself in the printed word, but his Attila of a wife won't let him and he cannot do so at work. Fate plays a hand and deals Bemis a card he thinks he wants, but, as always, fate gets the upper hand and wins the game. The story involves a bomb, mass destruction, one-man-left-in-the-world, and a pair of incredibly thick glasses Bemis MUST have in order to read. You can figure out what happens if you somehow are unfamiliar with the episode. The cruelest joke of all is played on Bemis, and we as the audience are saddened for we like Bemis and wanted him to have what little joys he might. But maybe the truly terrifying nature of this episode isn't what Bemis lost, but what we lose, or might lose, every time we tempt fate or get what we want. That ultimately is one of the themes that you don't really want to get what you think you want. Bemis ends his "dream" clutching his face, blindly looking out into figurative and literal nothingness all alone. Maybe we are better off having our dreams without ever realizing them? Serling as always makes one ponder. The episode is strongly acted with Burgess Meredith giving a great performance as Bemis, a little man with a big desire. Equally strong are Vaughn Taylor as a pompous bank boss and giving a chilling portrayal of a wife no man wants is underrated Jacqueline deWitt - man, I would have had to catch my breath a few moments after she snatched that paper from my fingers and threw it into the fire. John Brahm does a very good job directing the episode and creating the claustrophobic yet openly empty world of Bemis working with the budget and effects available for the time. This is timeless entertainment and has a universal message - like so many episodes of The Twilight Zone.