This is the dimension of imagination

I caught part of a Twilight Zone marathon on TV on New Year's Day, and I can report the series is still sufficiently creepy to seep into your subconscious as you drift off to sleep. What is it about talking dolls that makes me so scared?

The pace of the episodes is a little laconic by today's television standards (if they ever reprised the show, they'd have to put two episodes in a half hour instead of just one), but I'm a fan of understatement so that doesn't bother me.

I'm also impressed by how many of the show's themes hold up -- original sin in the case of an astronaut marooned with a woman on a distant planet, mob mentality that sets in when the comforts of life disappear, and of course the ever-present threat of gremlins.

It's also nice to be reminded that William Shatner was once a young man.