There are two stories here. The first is pretty interesting. It starts out with a man telling another man something in secret. The man suddenly goes mad and begins to scream. Soon an investigator played by William Peterson of CSI fame comes to town because there are about 25 people who have gone nuts. He meets Francis McDormand and they try to piece together how this can be. This is an original story with a creative ending. The second has a double meaning. The red snow in question is blood, but it's also about a Siberian gulag where strange occurrences are taking place involving wolves and death. A high official of the KGB is the central character. He is investigating an area which expresses hatred for the Soviet activities. Good werewolf story.
7 Reviews
You shouldn't know everything, it's bad news, and a Russian vampire unit!
blanbrn26 March 2011
This TZ episode from season one was only mediocre nothing really special the segments were okay, yet not one of the better ones as they just didn't hold much interest. They were titled "Need to Know" and "Red Snow". Most memorable is a guest part in the first segment which featured Frances McDormand before she became a big star.
First up the segment "Need to Know" was the better of the two, it centered around a small rural town where strange things are happening one by one. As people one by one when communicated with fall to the likes of an evil insane plague! A government investigator(William Petersen)comes to small town America to look into the matters of the not normal only to find a big shock a lesson is learned keep things quite as you don't need to know everything as sometimes things are not to be known and they are better off kept private.
Second was "Red Snow" a strange mystery spy like drama set in Russia which involves a KGB officer who's sent to the harsh and cold likes of Siberia to investigate a strange series of murders involving Communist party officials. Only as it turns out the big secret is that these Russians have plenty of bite and sharp teeth and do a lot of day sleeping! Overall these segments were nothing great still watchable for any TZ fan.
First up the segment "Need to Know" was the better of the two, it centered around a small rural town where strange things are happening one by one. As people one by one when communicated with fall to the likes of an evil insane plague! A government investigator(William Petersen)comes to small town America to look into the matters of the not normal only to find a big shock a lesson is learned keep things quite as you don't need to know everything as sometimes things are not to be known and they are better off kept private.
Second was "Red Snow" a strange mystery spy like drama set in Russia which involves a KGB officer who's sent to the harsh and cold likes of Siberia to investigate a strange series of murders involving Communist party officials. Only as it turns out the big secret is that these Russians have plenty of bite and sharp teeth and do a lot of day sleeping! Overall these segments were nothing great still watchable for any TZ fan.
Three years after Monty Python
safenoe26 January 2022
Warning: Spoilers
Three years before Need to Know debuted, Monty Python tried to explain the meaning of life in Monty Python's The Meaning of Life. It's hard to believe William Peterson and Frances McDormand starred in this Twilight Zone episode, before they achieved mega-stardom.
It's intruiging what is the meaning of life, and that's what Need to Know is all about.
It's intruiging what is the meaning of life, and that's what Need to Know is all about.
"Need To Know" is Excellent
whitsbrain29 April 2019
Warning: Spoilers
"Need To Know" stars William Petersen (CSI) stars as an investigator looking into why people in a rural community are going insane. Francis McDormand, playing a woman whose father is a victim of the "disease", also assists in the investigation. The opening scene sets up the story perfectly and left me asking "what was that all about?". It geared me up for the story to come. When Petersen's character visits McDormand's father in the mental hospital, the room appears to be covered in blood. It's quite shocking, whatever it is. The ending is great and it made me wonder what may have happened to the world as time went on. I especially enjoyed the last scene and shot of Petersen as he breaks the fourth wall and turns toward the viewer almost as if he's compelled to pass along the deadly secret. The silence followed by a distant scream from the farmhouse is very effective, as is Charles Aidman's closing narration. My favorite story of the '80s series.
"Red Snow" is a real yawner about a Russian agent and some Siberian vampires. I don't know how they could have telegraphed the ending any more than they did.
"Red Snow" is a real yawner about a Russian agent and some Siberian vampires. I don't know how they could have telegraphed the ending any more than they did.
The Twilight Zone - Need to Know
Scarecrow-8826 August 2016
Warning: Spoilers
"Need to Know" will be best remembered as featuring two superb actors in William Petersen of CSI fame and Frances McDormand of her many memorable performances in the late 90s/early 2000s. Petersen is called in to investigate what is causing a township to fall prey to what appears to be a spread of lunacy. McDormand's father (Harold Ayer) is the recent case. Petersen and McDormand are working in concert to find a cure for the onset of derangement. One wild scene has cute old lady Ellen Albertini Dow lunging at Petersen with a knife! McDormand offers a theory that perhaps it spread from "word of mouth" as a chain existed, starting when one local met with another, so on and so forth. Petersen gets word that a local potter named, ironic enough, Jeffrey Potts (Robin Gammell), who spent some time in the orient, has a secret which might shed light on the reasoning behind the madness. Petersen, though, realizes that very secret (of life itself!) might just be what is causing the increasing craziness. Potts decides he must tell as many as possible, allowed the chance on the local radio station to "spread the word", with Petersen unable to stop him. McDormand's welfare becomes his mission, but will he be too late? Just too short to be all that effective, and I just felt that Petersen and McDormand are just too talented to be squandered in a minor diversion as this. Still cool to see them before they really took off (though Petersen would have some big films in the 80s, and McDormand was in Blood Simple).5/10
Soviet colonel (George Dzunza, Law & Order, the early seasons) is sent to Siberian village to investigate the odd deaths of Russian comrades his government wants investigated. He soon discovers a coven of vampires, their kind protected by the villagers in a partnership because of the dangerous wolves that threaten human life. Loyalties to the Communist regime or embracing potential overthrow are possible thanks to his trip to this dark, cold, remote region. Victoria Tennant is well utilized as a fetching but fearsome vampire, Vladimir Skomarovsky good as his human protector, Barry Miller as the village vampire consort not bad as secretive clerk, and early Andrew Divoff (Wishmaster) as a Moscow soldier with high ranking friends. Good wintry atmosphere and unforgiving cold present quite a chilling (pun intended) backdrop for vampires. Twist at the end is expected but fun just the same. Dzundza is very good as the agent who has a commanding way of carrying himself; you can see that those around him are impressed by his authority and sense of integrity. He isn't just a bullying Commie riding in to cause a ruckus.
Soviet colonel (George Dzunza, Law & Order, the early seasons) is sent to Siberian village to investigate the odd deaths of Russian comrades his government wants investigated. He soon discovers a coven of vampires, their kind protected by the villagers in a partnership because of the dangerous wolves that threaten human life. Loyalties to the Communist regime or embracing potential overthrow are possible thanks to his trip to this dark, cold, remote region. Victoria Tennant is well utilized as a fetching but fearsome vampire, Vladimir Skomarovsky good as his human protector, Barry Miller as the village vampire consort not bad as secretive clerk, and early Andrew Divoff (Wishmaster) as a Moscow soldier with high ranking friends. Good wintry atmosphere and unforgiving cold present quite a chilling (pun intended) backdrop for vampires. Twist at the end is expected but fun just the same. Dzundza is very good as the agent who has a commanding way of carrying himself; you can see that those around him are impressed by his authority and sense of integrity. He isn't just a bullying Commie riding in to cause a ruckus.
Siberian vampire story
Leofwine_draca15 May 2015
NEED TO KNOW is an entirely trivial story that features a central performance from MANHUNTER (and later, CSI) star William Peterson. He plays an investigator who visits a small town to uncover the truth about a plague that's been spreading there. What he discovers has the power to induce madness, and it's very much on a 'need to know' basis. This story is based around a twist and it's very slight and insubstantial.
RED SNOW is an odd and slight little story that never really gets going despite the intriguing nature of the storyline. In it, a KGB agent is sent to a remote town in Siberia to investigate a string of mysterious disappearances. He soon discovers that vampires, no less, are responsible. The snowbound vampire theme made me think of 30 DAYS OF NIGHT although this is a much, much tamer production.
The most interesting thing about this story is the unusual setting and the mystery aspect of the first half of the segment that helps to propel the narrative. RED SNOW also features a rare leading role for character actor George Dzundza, who masters his Russian accent and has fun with the part. The episode isn't perfect but I did find it perfectly acceptable for this TV show.
RED SNOW is an odd and slight little story that never really gets going despite the intriguing nature of the storyline. In it, a KGB agent is sent to a remote town in Siberia to investigate a string of mysterious disappearances. He soon discovers that vampires, no less, are responsible. The snowbound vampire theme made me think of 30 DAYS OF NIGHT although this is a much, much tamer production.
The most interesting thing about this story is the unusual setting and the mystery aspect of the first half of the segment that helps to propel the narrative. RED SNOW also features a rare leading role for character actor George Dzundza, who masters his Russian accent and has fun with the part. The episode isn't perfect but I did find it perfectly acceptable for this TV show.
The Word & Strangers in the Night
sol121820 August 2010
Warning: Spoilers
**SPOILERS** #1 "Need to Know". A bit underwhelming twin episodes of the "New Twilight Zone" involving the meaning of life and everything that you always wanted to know about existence but were afraid to ask as well as a vampire infestation in a Siberian gulag in the then now defunct "Evil Empire" the USSR.
The first episode "Need to Know" tells those of us watching that knowing isn't everything if you know too much. That's too much for your brain to comprehend in what this the meaning of life and everything in between is really all about. This happened in a place called Loma County where someone somehow found out what it's all about and ended up losing his mind. Not only that everyone else who got the message, from word to mouth, ended up going crazy as well!
That's until the US Government sent a special agent to investigate this strange phenomenon Edward Sayers, William Petersen, who by finding out what the big secret, the meaning of everything in existence, really is ended up going as mad as a hatter as well! What the episode "Need to Know" tells you is that the less you know the better off you are.
#2. "Red Snow". In this episode of "The New Twilight Zone" Soviet KGB Agent Col. Ulyanov, George Dzundza, is sent on a secret mission to the upper reaches of the Siberian frozen wilderness to the village of Vercoda where the sun almost never shines. It's Col Ulyanov's job to find out why two Soviet officials ended up dead there possibly killed by the people living in the village.
Col.Ulyanov soon finds out that the two officials had been drained of all their blood and put on ice by the local villagers! It's later that Col.Ulyanov is attacked by a group of vampires lead by woman vampire Victoria Tennant whom he caught in the act of gorging herself on the blood of a wolf that she and her fellow vampires has just killed in the wild. Being the nice and understanding KGB officer, which is a rarity among KGB men, that he is Col. Ulyanov is not only allowed to live in that killing him would only bring attention to the group of vampires in Vercoda he's also allowed to join them!
In the end Col. Ulyanov is back in Moscow now a full fledged vampire, with fangs, making sure that his superiors in the KGB and Soviet Government are kept in the dark to what's going on in far off Vercoda. Col. Ulyanov's job now is not only to protect his fellow vampires but also himself, who'd be shot on the spot if found out, as well.
The first episode "Need to Know" tells those of us watching that knowing isn't everything if you know too much. That's too much for your brain to comprehend in what this the meaning of life and everything in between is really all about. This happened in a place called Loma County where someone somehow found out what it's all about and ended up losing his mind. Not only that everyone else who got the message, from word to mouth, ended up going crazy as well!
That's until the US Government sent a special agent to investigate this strange phenomenon Edward Sayers, William Petersen, who by finding out what the big secret, the meaning of everything in existence, really is ended up going as mad as a hatter as well! What the episode "Need to Know" tells you is that the less you know the better off you are.
#2. "Red Snow". In this episode of "The New Twilight Zone" Soviet KGB Agent Col. Ulyanov, George Dzundza, is sent on a secret mission to the upper reaches of the Siberian frozen wilderness to the village of Vercoda where the sun almost never shines. It's Col Ulyanov's job to find out why two Soviet officials ended up dead there possibly killed by the people living in the village.
Col.Ulyanov soon finds out that the two officials had been drained of all their blood and put on ice by the local villagers! It's later that Col.Ulyanov is attacked by a group of vampires lead by woman vampire Victoria Tennant whom he caught in the act of gorging herself on the blood of a wolf that she and her fellow vampires has just killed in the wild. Being the nice and understanding KGB officer, which is a rarity among KGB men, that he is Col. Ulyanov is not only allowed to live in that killing him would only bring attention to the group of vampires in Vercoda he's also allowed to join them!
In the end Col. Ulyanov is back in Moscow now a full fledged vampire, with fangs, making sure that his superiors in the KGB and Soviet Government are kept in the dark to what's going on in far off Vercoda. Col. Ulyanov's job now is not only to protect his fellow vampires but also himself, who'd be shot on the spot if found out, as well.
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