Execution

Time machine transports outlaw Albert Salmi from 1880's hangman's rope to 1960's New York City.

Time travel was of course a series staple, only here it's explored with more humor and insight than most. Two elements stand out for me. Salmi's portrayal of the crudely inarticulate cowboy is stunningly realistic from archaic speech patterns to crackling voice quality to squinty-eyed stare, all of which suggest a hard life on the trail. I doubt any of the many cowboy shows of the time produced quite this level of authenticity. There's also the unexpectedly funny details of transporting a "19th century primitive" into a "20th century urban jungle", as the script puts it. The barroom scene with Salmi and a flummoxed Manhattan bartender is as comically inventive as any in the series. Having the cowboy react frantically to the intolerable noise level of the city is both grimly humorous and tells us a lot about a hundred years of "progress". Too bad the episode is marred by a highly implausible struggle between a scrawny Than Wyenn and the burly Salmi, for which the director should take the blame-- what was he thinking. Anyway, it's a very entertaining and revealing half-hour with the usual TZ dollop of irony thrown in.

Albert Salmi plays old west outlaw Joe Caswell, who is about to be hanged for murder when he unexpectedly finds himself transported to the modern day room of a scientist(played by Russell Johnson) who has used time-travel to bring Caswell forward in time, not realizing just how murderous and savage he is, until it is too late... Salmi gives a most believable performance as an immoral man out for himself, and his reactions to the modern world are authentic and well-thought out. Unfortunately, the plot itself is filled with holes and contrivances, undermining him, but episode remains a passable if mediocre effort, falling short of its potential.

"Execution" is, in my humble opinion, one of the weaker episodes of the overall magnificent first season. It deals with the - for The Twilight Zone, at least - familiar and almost common theme of time- traveling and the irresponsible and bizarre consequences this may have. Somewhere in the Far West in the late 19th Century, hoodlum Joe Caswell is led to the gallows for the grisly murders he committed and he doesn't show any remorse whatsoever. As he's hanging by the neck from the oak tree, during his death struggle, Caswell suddenly vaporizes into thin air, leaving the priest and the local Sheriff flabbergasted and suspecting witchery. Caswell wakes up in the laboratory of Dr. Manion who successfully performed his first and long-awaited time transporting experiment and Caswell just happened to be the random guinea pig. Dr. Manion notices the marks of the hangman's noose around Caswell's neck, but it's too late, as he already picked up his old bad habits and fled into the city. Here, however, Caswell quickly realizes that 20th century society is murderously loud and that there criminals more vicious than he is. Although the idea and basic concept of this episode is once again very good, I personally wasn't too convinced with how it got processed. The time traveling aspect, and particularly the random traveler selection, remains quite vague. I do acknowledge, of course, that TZ episodes are too short to provide waterproof details on all plot aspects. The sequences showing our cowboy criminal struggling in the hectic and noisy metropolis are definitely powerful. The ending is original but abrupt, and the sudden dragging in of a third protagonist I found disappointing. I think I would have preferred if they kept it between Joe Caswell and Dr. Manion.

This is a fairly lesser known episode that shows a guy in the Old West about to be executed. It turns out he's teleported to eighty years in the future with a time machine. It's weird looking at that, because it's now been about sixty years since this episode aired! You could re-use that plot in modern times! The guy who brought him there suspects that he's a criminal. That's why his neck was like that.

This really is an intense episode as we see the guy go crazy at modern technology. Hmm, I wonder if someone from 1960 would go crazy being teleported to this time? Things don't seem to have changed as much as they did from that period than from 1880 to 1960. Okay, that's not as much of a gap but still. The ending's a little predictable, but it's still a classic episode. Everyone got what they deserved, more or less. ****

David MacDearmon directed this camp episode, and a few others for the series. Definitely a stab at dark comedy, also another story that could have been used by Hitchcock for his tv show, perhaps with a few alterations.

Mission: Time Travel, Rod Serling style.

Russell Johnson plays a character he is so fondly remembered for, a scientist, who invents a time machine. He brings a killer from the 1800s into his modern-day lab -- just as he is about to be hung. This is one bad hombre. Had this been a law-abiding denizen of the old west, it wouldn't have worked. Serling chose the right victim.

Albert Salmi makes the perfect villain, set loose in the Big City. Without givng too much away, he gets what he deserves in spades. Shades of the Mr. Pip episode, who welcomed another killer to his own unique universe.

Lots of bizarro scenes here, like a series of blackouts, the most original being Salmi confronting a gunman on a western tv show, believing it's REAL. He kills the tv set, only for the nightmare to continue. The ending an absolute knockout. One thought; how about strapping the dude into a modern day electric chair and see where that takes him?

What top writing and acting translates to. SEASON 1. EPISODE 26. CBS dvd box set. A must for collectors, especially new fans.