Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up?

After an anonymous phone call about a spacecraft that would have crashed in a frozen wood, two police officers find evidences that the event really happened and apparently one Martian had walked away from the spot. They drive to the nearby Hi-Way Café and they find a bus stopped and seven passengers waiting the reopening of a snowed in bridge. However the driver tells that he had only six passengers when he parked the bus. While interrogating the travelers, weird things happen in the diner, with the lights switching on and off and the turntable turning on and off. When the passengers are released and the bus follows his travel, one passenger returns to the diner and discloses a plot of invasion of Earth.

"Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up?" is one of the best episodes of this great series. The intriguing story has ironic and witty dialogs, funny characters and situations and a surprising and totally unexpected plot point in the very end. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "O Marciano" ("The Martian")

Note: On 04 July 2018 I saw this episode again.

The line above is delivered by Jack Elam to a Jukebox. A delightful mixture of mystery and comedy as seven people in a diner come under suspicion of being a Martian, since one too many got off the bus. Even the two married couples get troubled with uncertainty from one spouse in each case. You might expect this to be a full-on study of paranoia, reflecting recent times of communist witch-hunts or showing us what a suspicious mob humanity easily becomes like in The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street. Instead any allusion to more such worldly matters is gently wrapped up in tongue-in-cheek sci-fi. Jack Elam keeps lightening the mood, winking and gesticulating with a larger-than-life performance.

I feel this is a case of The Twilight Zone having a little fun at it's own expense.

This is one of the more adorable episodes of the Twilight Zone, with some fun dialog and amusing characters to break the tension of some creepy moments. There's the usual blond vamp "dancer" (what is up with Serling's fondness for that kind of character, such that she keeps showing up in various episodes?) and other assorted characters, but it's Jack Elam's "old man" who totally steals the show. I consider this the funny, light-hearted version of "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street" -- or, perhaps, a 20-minute Twilight Zone parody of "The Thing." On another note: I thought the young lover of the episode might be someone who eventually went on to other things -- he looked familiar -- but it seems that "Ron Kipling" disappeared after just two TV credits to his name.

This "Twilight Zone" episode from season 2 1961 called "Will the Real Martian Stand Up?" keeps you guessing with some suspense as to who is really who the drama builds thru the episode. It involves a snowstorm in which a landing and crash of a flying saucer has been reported also a bus with apparently 6 passengers have stopped and become stranded at the local diner as the roads have been blocked off. Are Aliens present? And is it 7 passengers instead of 6 you never really know? You just keep guessing only in the end the episode twist for a revealing thing it now makes you believe we are never alone strangers and aliens might just from time to time or always be among you! Overall good suspense episode.

This is a very good episode it's once again another honorable mention in my book that doesn't quite make the list of personal fav but good all the same.

It's pretty much you simple Whodunnit story but here is different because the perpetrator is an alien. It's kinda predates John Carpenter's "The Thing" just like in that film the alien is a doppelganger which of course means it could change into just about anything and anyone but worst of all imitate behavior perfectly which makes zeroing in on the alien almost impossible.

I really like the dialog going on which is what really drives the story, as we see all of the episode take place in a dinner making this kinda a bottle episode. It's true we never know any of the characters and that's the point, they all total strangers that have all came from the same bus. The real detective are us as we are constantly exercising suspicion and trying to catch any hidden details that might give the alien away. I even like a little of this one customer whom has these really odd eyes and says a bunch of things that are a bit random; that guy was obviously a red hearing but it just goes to show just because someone isn't exactly part of the norm doesn't automatically make them an alien.

The main theme of this episode is on distrust on how little we truly know our fellow man. Despite the fact that all of them came from the same bus or are eating in the dinner together that doesn't make them all automatic friends or even talk to one another. Or even any one your close to, there is one moment with this young couple, the girlfriend then states she notices a couple of things about her boyfriend like certain mark on his skin and his behavior slightly changed. That moment also shows that distrust can happen closer than you think, we can sometimes find certain things out about your significant other that makes him or her a total stranger.

I really loved the twist at the end which is a real rug puller. Beware of the person that passes you by or even sit next to, you never know who they could be or where they come from.

Rating: 3 and a half stars