There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to man.

It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity.

It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of

man's fears and the summit of his knowledge.

This is the dimension of imagination.

It is an area which we call the Twilight Zone.

One of the things that I've enjoyed about going back to the beginning with the Twilight Zone

is seeing some of the things that would become kind of regular occurrences or themes happening

for the first time. I think in the instance of this episode, despite the Twilight Zone being

often considered to be a science fiction show.

The episode we'll be discussing tonight the lonely is really our first out-and-out sci-fi episode.

It's the first time the show went into space and our first look at an alien world and the first

time we see a robot.

I also like to see the show returning to certain

themes as well and seeing it tackle them in different ways. This time round we're back to the

theme of loneliness like in the first episode where is everybody. In both instances we see someone

who's exposed to extreme loneliness. You know, although, although the setting in both instances

couldn't be more different. In one, it's a guy in solitary confinement in a really small space in

this, a guy's in solitary confinement on a whole asteroid. He's got, you know, thousands of miles to

himself. You can see how crushing loneliness can be now

normally we'd cut straight to the rod sailing open a narration we'll get to that in a

moment but I'd like to read to you the original open narration as it was written

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