The Twilight Zone: A shared universe

Hulk_Smash

Banned
I had this thought: What if the events that took place in The Twilight Zone all took place in the same universe?

The same TZ that had a camera that could predict the future would be the same TZ that has a haunted slot machine.

The same TZ that made time travel possible is the same TZ that dimensions you can get stuck in and the same TZ with gremlins that terrorize airline passengers.

Some episodes would be trickier than others. You'd have to explain the fallout of a nuke going off in some random American town and a place where pig people think normal people are ugly (an island country perhaps?)

The show would be about a Torchwood/agents of shield type agency that investigates these strange occurrences.

Would you watch that?
 
Personally, I love the disconnected short-story format of TZ. That's the hook for me, just like a good PKD or Borges or Wolfe short-story collection.
 
Personally, I love the disconnected short-story format of TZ. That's the hook for me, just like a good PKD or Borges or Wolfe short-story collection.

Exactly, anthology formats are the best. You go in fresh each time and get something completely different. No previous knowledge required, just enjoy some good writing that doesn't need to reference or link itself to other things to improve itself.
 
This would be more of a spin off with some knowledge that these incidences already took place or was in the middle of taking place.

Like Torchwood or Damage Control.
 
There was an episode where aliens took over the world so all the episodes taking place in the same universe would not work.

They're all alternate dimensions.... Twilight Zones.

Besides stuff like X-Files is already like a Twilight Zone that takes place in the same universe.
 
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This would be more of a spin off with some knowledge that these incidences already took place or was in the middle of taking place.

Like Torchwood or Damage Control.
Heh, Damage Control was actually gonna get a series. Think it was gonna be a sitcom.
But I could see a functional Twilight Zone universe in which, using a method like The Cloverfield Paradox, every episode manages to fit into the same continuity.

Hey, there's an idea. A Damage Control/Agents of SHIELD/Twilight Zone-type series, in which the Federal Bureau of Control SCP Foundation Cloverfield Unit investigates and settles supernatural occurrences around the globe, all the cause of the disaster aboard Cloverfield Station.
 
Heh, Damage Control was actually gonna get a series. Think it was gonna be a sitcom.
But I could see a functional Twilight Zone universe in which, using a method like The Cloverfield Paradox, every episode manages to fit into the same continuity.

Hey, there's an idea. A Damage Control/Agents of SHIELD/Twilight Zone-type series, in which the Federal Bureau of Control SCP Foundation Cloverfield Unit investigates and settles supernatural occurrences around the globe, all the cause of the disaster aboard Cloverfield Station.

That would be cool. It wouldn't be Twilight Zone but it would be cool.
 
That would be cool. It wouldn't be Twilight Zone but it would be cool.
Yeah, a Cloverfield series would be a bit more amped up. Less "sorry Death I uh, I need more time to accomplish my dream, can't kill me yet :)" and more "this city has entered its own bubble universe in which the rest of the world has been eaten away by an interstellar planet-sized monster--how the fuck do we move these people into a less disastrous scenario?"

Though I don't think such concepts as "bubble universes" that can be entered and left would serve the Cloververse well. Yes, The Cloverfield Paradox allows for completely contradictory events to take place within the same universe, but applying logic to that only takes away the magic. But perhaps there's still some enigmatic method for travelling between scenarios that could be used, without defining some new rule for Cloverfield lore.

A Twilight Zone series without the whole "bubble universes" or separation of scenarios would be neat, though I imagine that any show attempting to tell such a story would have to establish its own continuity, separate from all the other Twilight Zones. Else we'd have nuclear annihilation and alien invasions all in the same timeline, unless we were to retroactively reduce their scale, and take away the impact of those stories.
 
I always viewed the Twilight Zone as a multiverse. I guess that is a moot point due to it being an Anthology, but what sticks out to me on that is the S1E14 'Third From the Sun' episode. It is filled with Cold War tropes, right up to the point of missile launch. You have a nuclear family, contemporary cars for the time, it all seems like a doomsday scenario in the U.S. with a twist that caught me off guard the first time I saw it. As a result of that twist, I kept the idea that the Twilight Zone is happening in multiple threads at the same time.

I know I am not saying anything ground breaking or new, but it is what makes the show so great to me. If you don't want spoiled don't click through the imdb link, not sure who hasn't seen it yet nor do I intend to ruin it for a younger generation who might enjoy it with fresh eyes.

www.imdb.com/title/tt0734682
 
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