Review: The Twilight Zone – The Complete Collection (R1) / Director: Various / Screenplay: Various / Starring: William Shatner, John Carradine, Agnes Moorehead, Bob Cummings / Release Date: November 19th (US Only)

This is a magnificent remastered DVD set chronicling all 156 episodes of Rod Serling’s incredible science fiction and fantasy series. Airing from 1959 to 1964, Serling’s groundbreaking anthology was inspired by comic books, pulp magazines, novels, radio shows and the movies of his youth, and as well as his own scripts it included the work of talented writers such as Richard Mattheson, Ray Bradbury, George Clayton Johnson and Charles Beaumont.

With so many episodes to choose from, where to begin? How about with Beautmont’s classic The Howling Man, a creepy and atmospheric episode in which a lost hiker discovers a mysterious man imprisoned in a hidden, mountain monastery? Then there’s A Nick of Time, in which newlyweds played by William Shatner and Patrice Breslin allow themselves to be drawn into a web of superstition (or is it fate?) through a fortune-telling machine with a wobbling devil’s head. In King Nine Will Not Return tormented World War II pilot, Bob Cummings, finds himself the sole survivor of his B-25 in the African dessert. Is he actually there or is he hallucinating? Meanwhile, The Invaders sees Agnes Morehead delivering a tour-de-force performance without dialogue as she fends off what appear to be tiny aliens from another world. And in The Odyssey of Flight 33, a commercial airliner piloted by John Anderson encounters a freak jet stream that sends the airliner and its passengers back into time. Will they get back to the present before their fuel runs out?

This beautiful DVD set offers a stunning black-and-white transfer and rich sound, a great showcase for a TV show that was made over fifty years ago and that still stands the test of time today.

Extras: Previews of next week’s show hosted by Mr Serling after each episode