People Are Alike All Over

This "TZ" episode from 1960 features late great character actor Roddy McDowall(from 1980's "Fright Night" fame) as Sam a guy getting ready to go on a space mission to Mars. And his high hope is to find life of aliens and that of martians. Only when the spacecraft is one the planet Sam finds that life and the people are a little different it's not what he expected or what things seem to be. Overall okay episode that twist still it's entertaining with it's science fiction theme that involves aliens and space plus it's some good early work from Roddy McDowall.

The subtlety of the episode is well crafted for those times I am sure most of the message is wasted on the similar plot like "The Cage" in Star Trek. The story, on the other hand, has a message about people and how we find any reason the isolate and ostracize others who look like us but have some unique distinction. Whether color, religion, or origin, we tend to keep people categorized when in fact we are all human beings. this message was boldly presented with McDowall's last lines. Many of the staff writers for TZ were victims of McCarthism and Nazism. The world was also turning upside down with equal rights emerging as a social concern. Writers like Roddenberry and Serling knew change was coming. They wrote these concepts of a world where everyone was considered equal and people accepted you as a peer based upon you and not what you looked like. On the other hand, the fact that the astronaut thought they were speaking English and instead he was speaking their language, maybe they only looked like humans from his point of view. Great episode which speaks volumes.

Note that the some of the spaceship interior components, specifically the Pac Man light boxes, appear to be leftovers from "Forbidden Planet". These appear in a couple other TZ episodes also: "Elegy" and maybe some others.

I never realized this was the same girl from "The Cage/Court Martisl" before. Maybe she got typecast as an attractive alien seductress.

Finally got Tivo So I can record the TZ New Yeat marathon. Now I can leave my TV room on New Year's eve/day!

What's up with the 10 lines of text minimum? I can't think of anything more to say!

Samuel Conrad (Roddy McDowall) is a scientist being sent on a mission to Mars. Feeling ill-prepared and ill-suited for this mission, he's very afraid of what he might find out there. As it turns out, his fellow astronaut Marcusson (Paul Comi) had been dead-on about his perception of all forms of intelligent life; the Martian people seem very inviting, but they have something special planned for Conrad.

Although I figured out where this was going ahead of time, the big reveal is still pulled off brilliantly by Mr. Serling (adapting a story by Paul W. Fairman) and director Mitchell Leisen ("Death Takes a Holiday", "The Mating Season"). McDowall delivers a top-notch performance as the jittery would-be astronaut who finds out that it really is true: no matter where you go in this universe, you'll see the similarities between "us" and "them".

Also starring Susan Oliver, Byron Morrow, and Vic Perrin, 'People Are Alike All Over' can take its place among the best of classic TZ episodes.

Eight out of 10.

Sam Conrad (Roddy McDowall) and Mark Marcusson (Paul Comi) go to Mars as imagined in 1960. Now we know that the planet could not have anyone like Susan Oliver on it so perhaps Barack Obama is right not to bother with going there.

I like the way the start prefigures the end of the story (visually too) with the question of whether people are the same everywhere? McDowall plays the reluctant adventurer of the two astronauts, well aware that he will have to make his home on Mars. The Martians are attired in an ancient Roman looking way and have a pleasant appearance (especially Susan Oliver).

One of the odd and enjoyable episodes but not one of the greatest. The contrast between the two astronauts is good. Well played by both actors. Rod Serling wrote the teleplay based on a story by Paul W Fairman, whose other writing credits are for z rated sci-fi films and TV. Serling went on to co-write the screenplay for 'Planet Of The Apes'. Will he make a monkey of Roddy McDowall in this?