After three canceled TV reboots, The Twilight Zone today returns in a new form: virtual reality. As creator Rod Serling dubbed it in 1959, the fifth dimension has finally hit three dimensions 63 years later in a game for Oculus Quest 2.
Throughout the original runs of five seasons and 156 episodes, virtual reality wasn’t something that was featured — or at least, not as wearable technology. Sure, people were occasionally body swapped or sent on impossible journeys through time and space.
Starting with a real gut punch, “The Midnight Sun” provides a horrifying glimpse into a world where the climate is no longer hospitable for humans. Water is rationed, and temperatures hit 130 degrees by the end of the episode.
Okay, we accept that aliens aren’t here at the time of this writing, but “The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street” is less about space monsters and more about the monstrous behavior they awaken in the neighborhood.
Speaking of artificial intelligence, “From Agnes with Love” may feel a little familiar to anyone with an Amazon Echo device. Agnes, a sort of Alexa of the 1960s, is on hand to advise computer programmer Jane on how to woo his co-worker Millie. But Agnes secretly sabotages the blossoming relationship because of her/its own feelings.