Black Mirror and The Twilight Zone: How Television Gives a Window into the Fears of American Society

by Alyssa Santisteven

A THESIS

submitted to

Oregon State University

Honors College

in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of

Honors Baccalaureate of Arts in English (Honors Scholar)

Presented May 28, 2021 Commencement June 2021

AN ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS OF

Alyssa Santisteven for the degree of Honors Baccalaureate of Arts in English presented on May 28, 2021. Title: Black Mirror and The Twilight Zone: How Television Gives a Window into the Fears of American Society .

Abstract approved:______Randall Milstein

Black Mirror and The Twilight Zone have each left their mark on popular culture. Charlie Brooker and Rod Serling created television shows with macabre and imaginative concepts and brought them to the small screen. “This is like something straight out of The Twilight Zone!” has become a common phrase since the 1960’s, but as society has progressed, our television content has as well. Over the years, using ‘The Twilight Zone’ as a simile for a strange occurrence has been replaced with “This is like something out of Black Mirror!” Both anthology series share stories that leave viewers questioning their values and life choices, and are representative expressions of new, old, and historical fears of American and global society.

Key Words: Black Mirror, The Twilight Zone, Charlie Brooker, Rod Serling, Fears

Corresponding e-mail address: [email protected] ©Copyright by Alyssa Santisteven May 28, 2021 Black Mirror and The Twilight Zone: How Television Gives a Window into the Fears of American Society

by Alyssa Santisteven

A THESIS

submitted to

Oregon State University

Honors College

in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of

Honors Baccalaureate of Arts in English (Honors Scholar)

Presented May 28, 2021 Commencement June 2021 Honors Baccalaureate of Arts in English project of Alyssa Santisteven presented on May 28, 2021.

APPROVED:

______Randall Milstein, Mentor, representing Physics

______Joseph Orosco, Committee Member, representing History, Philosophy, and Religion

______Don Wayne, Committee Member, representing University of California San Diego

______Toni Doolen, Dean, Oregon State University Honors College

I understand that my project will become part of the permanent collection of Oregon State University, Honors College. My signature below authorizes release of my project to any reader upon request.

______Alyssa Santisteven, Author Acknowledgments

First I would like to thank Dr. Milstein for being such a wonderful mentor and for helping me to conceptualize and create a thesis I am, and always will be, proud of.

I would also like to thank the ladies of thirteenth street: Desiree Odgers, Canessa Thomas, Shannon Barranger, Mckenna Marshall, Mackenzie Karnstein, and Jenna Bruce. They were pivotal in my survival and were always ready to make a run to the store to get me more Reese’s Pieces.

In addition, I would like to thank my partner-in-crime, Aiden Holcroft, for always listening when I went on a tangent about whatever episode I happened to watch that day. He is a constant support system for me and without his help I would have never had the courage to finish.

Thank you to the Dutch Bros. on the corner of 26th and Washington, your tables were immaculate and I knew I could always count on you to be open when I needed a change of scenery.

Lastly, thank you to my parents, Suzanne and Phil Santisteven. They always supported my endeavors, even if they didn’t quite understand what I was talking about half of the time. Without your encouragement I wouldn’t be who I am today.

In the twenty-first century, we are presented with television content dealing with concepts including interracial marriages, sexual identity, violence, political philosophy, and substance abuse. Historically, these types of themes were not considered acceptable to be aired by any television network. For a long time, television networks and their sponsors were controlling and censoring what was broadcast to viewers. Television program creators were forced to adhere to strict rules established by networks in order to ensure their shows were produced and seen by the public. As the world changed to become more socially inclusive television content changed as well. Programming’s inclusivity has not been without the hard work of various writers and producers, as they have fought against network censorship to get more relevant and open content on-screen. Those writers and producers were trying to tell stories reflective of their social reality; some of the stories made it past network barriers, others were left on the writer's room floor.

The concepts presented in the television shows The Twilight Zone and Black Mirror tend to be difficult for average viewers to comprehend. For most, television is a way to relax and forget about the worries of day-to-day life. In fact, the most watched television shows of 2021 deal with topics removed from day-to-day life. Viewers are choosing to watch television shows avoiding the realities of routine daily life - especially under the life pressures of living within a pandemic. Television shows such as The Walking Dead, and Tiger King allow viewers to sit back and forget about their daily anxieties. Black Mirror and The Twilight Zone, while no longer in production, are still available to view on streaming and cable networks

The Twilight Zone was a revolutionary television series, the series’ creator, Rod Serling, encountered numerous difficulties getting the series greenlit for production. Throughout Serling's career, he focused on telling a compelling story, without sacrificing the important details. He was met with pushback from networks and sponsors forcing him to reimagine many storylines and make them entirely different. The pushback that Serling received from trying to get his script based off the murder of Emmett Till on television was one of the key reasons Serling decided to create The Twilight Zone.

Serling knew he had to change some of the important facts of the Till case in order to get his script to air on national television, Serling shared this with Mike Wallace while promoting the premiere of The Twilight Zone. During the interview, Serling shares how he knew socially relevant stories needed to be shared, and because of troubles he faced with his Playhouse 90 script, ”A Town Has Turned to Dust”, he knew he would need to be creative with ways he wrote each of his scripts and the sensitive subjects they contained. Serling tells Wallace, “Better say something than nothing,”1 and continues explaining his core motivation for The Twilight Zone is to share difficult themes in an accessible way for the American public.

Rod Serling took a major risk in deciding to write and produce The Twilight Zone. The idea of writing and producing an anthology series was outdated to networks during this time as they focused on getting viewers to come back week after week, and anthologies could not guarantee return viewers. Viewers were more apt to tune in if they had a continuing storyline to follow, along with recurring characters they were familiar with and could form an emotional connection to. Serling was so intent on creating The Twilight Zone he decided to use his own money to produce the series, taking a huge risk that could have left him with a tarnished reputation and no money left to support his family. Without Serling taking the steps to create the television show he wanted to create, we would’ve never gotten Black Mirror years later.

While writing each episode of The Twilight Zone, Serling was aware he could not simply write about racial injustice, the fears of getting old, or the concept of fate without getting laughed

1 Wallace, Mike, and Rod Serling. “The Mike Wallace Interview.” The Mike Wallace Interview with Rod Serling, ABC American Broadcasting Company, New York, New York , 22 Sept. 1959. out of network meetings. Serling knew, based on his previous experiences having to rewrite entire scripts, that he had to make sure the stories' themes were just outlandish enough he could claim they were not a direct commentary on society: they were simply silly stories about an unknown place called ‘The Twilight Zone.’ Most episodes of The Twilight Zone were written by

Serling himself, though as the seasons continued Serling wrote original scripts less and less.

Though he continued to be present in the creative process until The Twilight Zone ended in 1964.

Outside of the writing process, Serling was protective over the look of the show and wholeheartedly trusted George T. Clemens to be his director of photography throughout the entire run. Clemens was the main reason each The Twilight Zone episode maintained their signature eerie otherworldly atmosphere, promoting a not-earth contextual environment2. In fact,

The Twilight Zone became so known for its signature look that when CBS decided to shoot a few episodes from Season Two on videotape instead of film, the two episodes have a distinctly different tone which disappointed audiences enough that they switched back to film.

Surprisingly, Serling was not as adamant about who directed episodes and based on my research,

I find there is no pattern as to why a specific director was chosen for an episode, outside of special guest stars such as Ray Bradbury.

Fears Centered in the Military

Throughout Season One of The Twilight Zone, what inspired Serling to write each of the episodes, were the anxieties and fears of being a person living in America during the 1950’s and

60’s. Many episodes of The Twilight Zone are inspired by short stories written by various

2 Mortenson, Erik. “A Journey into the Shadows: The Twilight Zone’s Visual Critique of the Cold War.” Science Fiction Film and Television, vol. 7, no. 1, 2014, pp. 58. science fiction and fiction authors popular before and during the run of the show. One of the first

Twilight Zone episodes aired in 1959 was Time Enough at Last, inspired directly from Lynn

Venable’s short story of the same name. Venable’s original story was first published in If

Magazine in 1953 just six years before the premiere of the episode of the same name. The story can only be described using the words of Mr. Serling himself, “Witness Mr. Henry Bemis, a charter member in the fraternity of dreamers. A bookish little man whose passion is the printed page, but who is conspired against by a bank president and a wife and a world full of tongue-cluckers and the unrelenting hands of a clock. But in just a moment, Mr. Bemis will enter a world without bank presidents or wives or clocks or anything else. He'll have a world all to himself... without anyone.”3

“Time Enough at Last.” The Twilight Zone, Season 1, Episode 8, CBS, 20 Nov. 1959. Netflix, https://www.netflix.com/watch/70110576?source=35.

3 “Time Enough at Last.” The Twilight Zone, Season 1, Episode 8, CBS, 20 Nov. 1959. Netflix, https://www.netflix.com/watch/70110576?source=35. Each episode of The Twilight Zone has a unique storyline tackling complex concepts that end up feeling oddly familiar in their own way. Yet many of these storylines are connected by two underlying fears that have etched their way into every person on Earth, war and the unknowns of space. The themes presented in Time Enough at Last revolve around time, loneliness, and isolation. This episode of The Twilight Zone is neither the first nor the last to use war as a background theme to the main issues Serling wanted to bring to viewer's attention.

Based upon my research, in Season One of The Twilight Zone, there are 8 of 36 episodes revolving around some sort of military operation, with scenarios centered on the United States

Military viewed through rose colored glasses. Unfortunately, during the era in which The

Twilight Zone was written, the American government was heavily involved in keeping

Hollywood from producing anti-American military propaganda (Weikle)4. While Serling was able to skirt network regulations regarding social topics, there was no way for him to share stories painting the American military in a bad light or directly show war. Though Serling was able to show the effects of war. Time Enough at Last is a perfect example of this phenomena, in which the viewers are aware that a hydrogen bomb has been dropped on Mr. Bemis’ town, but they were not shown the act itself.

In The Twilight Zone, undertones of the military are simply a backdrop for the more personable tales that are woven into the series. Instead of focusing on the bigger picture, which is how most serial television is crafted, each thirty-minute Twilight Zone episode revolves around an individual and their own complicated circumstances. In another Twilight Zone episode, And

When the Sky was Open5, a military man is again a backstory for the main character's' perils. And

4 Weikle, Brandie. “How Hollywood Became the Unofficial Propaganda Arm of the U.S. Military | CBC Radio.” CBCnews, CBC/Radio Canada, 17 Aug. 2020, www.cbc.ca/radio/ideas/how-hollywood-became-the-unofficial-propaganda-arm-of-the-u-s-military-1.5560575. 5 “And When the Sky was Opened.” The Twilight Zone, Season 1, Episode 11, CBS, 11 Dec. 1959. Netflix, https://www.netflix.com/watch/70174032?source=35. When the Sky was Open shares the story of two pilots who work for the United States Air Force.

They have just crashed landed back on Earth after piloting an experimental craft called the X-20

Dynasoar, and one of the men, Major William Gart, is still in the hospital for his injuries.

Colonel Clegg Forbes comes to visit Gart in the hospital and immediately begins to question

Gart about what he remembers from their mission. Forbes is adamant that there was a third man,

“And When the Sky was Opened.” The Twilight Zone, Season 1, Episode 11, CBS, 11 Dec. 1959. Netflix, https://www.netflix.com/watch/70174032?source=35.

Ed Harrington, on the craft with them. He is looking around the room for evidence of their third partner as Gart watches him in confusion. In his frantic search for the confirmation that there was a third on their mission with them Forbes begins to tell Gart a story about when himself and

Harrington were coming back from being deployed, the viewer is shown a flashback in which

Forbes and Harrington are together drinking in a bar. Suddenly Harrington gets the feeling that he doesn’t belong, and gets up to call his parents. When they answer, they claim they do have a son named Ed Harrington and then Harrington mysteriously vanishes. The viewer is taken back to the present with Forbes and Gart in their hospital room. After

Forbess shares his story, Gart still does not remember there ever being a man named Harrington with them on their mission. At this moment Forbes looks in the mirror and notices that he no longer has a reflection, and runs into the hallway in terror. Gart is left in the hospital, and when a nurse comes in to check on him he asks about Forbes, to which the nurse responds that there never was a man named Forbes. Gart is horrified and in that moment of reflection, he too disappears. The episode ends with the spacecraft X-20 Dynasoar also disappearing from its space in the hangar, leaving the audience to ponder what exactly happened on their short trip. In this instance, the character's terror lies in a technology the general public may not know about, whether that tech is Earth-made or not, and the frightening aspects of its use.

Fear of the Unknown

The fear of the unknown is another common theme used throughout The Twilight Zone.

The concept of the unknown is both literal and figurative in the universe of The Twilight Zone.

In many of the episodes, the unknown is the driving force for the conflicts that arise for our characters of the week. In the episode, The Monsters are Due on Maple Street6, the unknown cause of a power outage, and the looming threat of an outsider causing chaos, leads Maple Street residents to turn on each other. The viewer is shown an average street in an average American town, when suddenly the power is cut off on Maple Street. All of the neighbors come together to try to find the cause, but as they investigate weird things begin to happen. They send one of their neighbors, Pete Van Horn, off to walk to the next street over to try to understand the problem.

6 “The Monsters are Due on Maple Street” The Twilight Zone, Season 1, Episode 22, CBS, 4 March. 1960. Netflix, https://www.netflix.com/watch/70174036?source=35. Some of the neighbors begin to gain power while others are left without, and the cars on the block are no longer starting except for one. Oddly, the ones who regain their power are the ones who seem to be the outcasts of the neighborhood, causing the street to grow suspicious, accusing their neighbors of communicating with aliens. One neighbor suggests attempting to use his homemade ham radio to try to contact those outside of Maple Street, but due to never mentioning the radio to others on the block, he becomes the target of scrutiny. As the episode progresses, each of the families on the block begin to turn against each other, accusing each of being malicious towards the rest of the street.

As the night grows darker and tensions begin to rise, the neighbors congregate on their street. A shadowy figure begins to walk towards them. In a moment of fear one of their neighbors, Charlie, grabs his shotgun. With pleas from those around him to not shoot, Charlie’s anxiety takes over and he shoots and kills the figure who turns out to be none other than Peter

Van Horn returning from his mission. The camera pans out as the street breaks into chaos. At the end of the episode, it is revealed while there was an outsider messing with their street, it was not one of their own as they led each other to believe, it was aliens from another planet testing to see how quickly they could force humans to turn on each other.

Serling writing The Monsters are Due on Maple Street is not only an example of how the unknown can push humans to their brink, but also plays on the audience's fears regarding the

"Red Scare". At the time that this episode was released, America was still facing the effects the

"Red Scare" had on its population. Serling himself was exposed to fear mongering from the "Red

Scare", and while he may not have been directly involved, he was in the middle of the infamous

‘Hollywood Ten’ scandals. The Hollywood Ten were ten screenwriters called to testify in front of the House Un-American Activities Committee, and remained silent when asked to name communist peoples who worked in Hollywood. Serling was aware of the activities taking place within the film and television communities and saw the effects that not knowing who among you could be trusted had on his coworkers. The alien characters appearing at the end of The Monsters are Due on Maple Street can be interpreted as a metaphor for communists looking for a way to break down American society.

“The Monsters are Due on Maple Street” The Twilight Zone, Season 1, Episode 22, CBS, 4 March. 1960. Netflix, https://www.netflix.com/watch/70174036?source=35. The Monsters are Due on Maple Street was not the first, nor last Twilight Zone episode using metaphor to deal with the fear lurking in the back of American’s mind regarding the "Red

Scare" and the Cold War. An episode dealing with these concepts in a more direct way is The

Jeopardy Room7, in Season five of The Twilight Zone. The Jeopardy Room plays into the

American perception of Russian military personnel. In this we see a former KGB agent, Major

Ivan Kuchenko, attempting to leave the KGB be forced into a puzzle room in which he must find his way out in three hours or he will be killed by Russian assassins. The assassins attempt to kill

Kuchenko by planting a bomb within his hotel room that will be triggered by Kuchenko

7 “The Jeopardy Room” The Twilight Zone, Season 5, Episode 29, CBS, 17 April. 1964. Netflix, https://www.netflix.com/watch/70174128?source=35 . answering the phone. By the end of the episode, Kuchenko skillfully makes his way out and escapes to a ‘better life’ in Europe, but not without also outsmarting the KGB agents sent after him and killing them with their own trap. Once again, not-so-subtly, The Twilight Zone reinforces the American ideology that Russians are the enemy and 'American good’ will always win out in the end.

Another Twilight Zone episode entitled Judgement Night8, a spin on the classic biblical phrase Judgement Day, Serling again uses a military theme, where we are introduced to a British soldier who has no recollection of who he is or where he came from, only that his name is Carl

Lanser. Lanser appears on the decks of a British ship, with a feeling of impending doom. The ship makes a stop for repairs at 12:05 and as the clock ticks on Lanser feels that he must warns his fellow crewmates, becoming increasingly anxious over the thought of himself and all of his crewmates dying in a barrage from the enemy. As Lanser makes his way throughout the ship attempting to warn his fellow crewmates of their potential demise he is met with stares before they all vanish. As the bombs descend on the ship, Lanser is transported into the identity he once knew, except this time he is the high-ranking commander of the German ship firing the barrage.

This German Captain Lanser is shown to be ruthless by not warning the British ship of their decision. The captain's second-in-command is horrified by his nonchalance towards human lives and warns of all on this ship one day having to pay for their decisions, especially Lanser who ordered the attack. Once daylight breaks, Lanser is once again shifted back to the beginning of the naval engagement and forced to live out his earthly sins for the rest of time.

Judgement Night seems to ease the mind of those who supported the Allied Forces in

World War II, ensuring them the other side will not rest in peace due to the tragedy they

8 “Judgement Night” The Twilight Zone, Season 1, Episode 10, CBS, 4 Decemer. 1959. Netflix, https://www.netflix.com/watch/70174031?source=35 . committed. This episode and The Jeopardy Room each seem to quell the fears of the American public, ensuring them that while there are monsters, those monsters and their monstrous behaviors will not go unpunished.

Many of these early Twilight Zone episodes deal with the unknown of an opposing force, but Serling does not confine his stories to the known world. There are many episodes that tackle the unknown in a more unusual form. Many episodes deal with the concept of an alien figure coming to Earth, and attempting to alter traditionally human outlooks on life. An episode from

Season Two, entitled Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up9, a similar backstory to Maple Street is used, but instead of being voluntarily stuck on their own street, we have a cast of travelers who have been stuck in a diner during a snowstorm. A UFO has crash landed near the diner and two police officers are investigating who within the diner might be an alien. The only patrons of the diner are a group who are traveling by bus. The bus driver claims that when he started his journey there were only six passengers, but at this moment he is counting seven. This leads each of the patrons to immediately begin to distrust each other. The diner staff is cleared on the account that they have all been there since before the crash, and all attention is put on the bus passengers.

The officers follow the passengers lead in saying that obviously the two couples are in the clear as they should know each other. Tensions rise and the businessman is getting upset that he needs to make a meeting in the morning. The bus driver tells his passengers that they will not be leaving until it is safe to cross the bridge up ahead. The jukebox then begins to play on its own and the lights begin to turn off and on. At this moment the telephone rings and they are informed that the bridge has been deemed safe enough to drive on. Everyone is eager to leave and the

9 “Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up” The Twilight Zone, Season 2, Episode 28, CBS, 26 May 1961. Netflix, https://www.netflix.com/watch/70174066?trackId=14277283&tctx=-97%2C-97%2C%2C%2C%2C . Officers claim they cannot keep them here without probable cause so all of the passengers begin to pay the diner’s cashier, Haley, and return to the bus to get on their merry way. The officers offer to drive up ahead and ensure they get across the bridge safely.

The next scene shows the businessman who was eager to leave returning to the diner, telling the diner staff that everyone, including the officers, has died in a tragic bridge accident.

Haley asks how the businessman managed to survive, and he explains that he is indeed the alien that they were looking for, showing Haley a third hand from underneath his coat. He explains that he is visiting Earth as a scout from Mars sent ahead of his invading fleet. Haley then reveals to the businessman that he is also an alien from Venus with a third eye underneath his hat, and his Fleet has intercepted the Martian fleet in order to gain control over Earth. This episode

“Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up” The Twilight Zone, Season 2, Episode 28, CBS, 26 May 1961. Netflix, https://www.netflix.com/watch/70174066?trackId=14277283&tctx=-97%2C-97%2C%2C%2C%2C . reinforces the concept of how easy it can be to manipulate humans into turning against each other. Even when there is a foreign being among us, we cannot tell the difference either way. The

‘other’ is a concept only reinforced by fear of those who are different, despite the fact that without the precursor that someone is different from them, it can be almost impossible to tell the difference.

While researching and watching hours of The Twilight Zone it becomes clear to me how many episodes revolve around aliens causing havoc on other beings. The trope plays out in many different ways throughout the series and in many cases the concept of aliens tends to be flipped.

The audience only assumes some of the beings are aliens because they are presented as the

‘other’, while at the end of the episode it is revealed the true aliens were the presumed humans all along. Serling loves to twist the audience's brain in different ways with this trope. The

Twilight Zone follows a very simple formula: each episode starts with Rod Serling giving his opening narration, followed by the introduction to the stars of the episode, and then within the last few minutes the story's twist is revealed. As with any good story, there are breadcrumbs along the way that can be interpreted only after the episode is over, and usually the twist is so well written that you find yourself thinking ‘I should have picked up on that!’ This writing technique fits extremely well with the premise of the show, and allows for each episode to pack an emotional and mind-bending punch.

Fear of the “Other” and the American Dream:

Due to the sheer number of Twilight Zone episodes dealing with aliens in some regard, I find it suggests that the concept of aliens addresses an underlying fear in American minds during the 1950s and '60s - a fear of "the other". In the same way that there are many episodes regarding the effects of war, it is easy to conclude alien others are something the public was (and still is) concerned about. With the emergence of the Space Race between the United States and the Soviet Union, the idea of scientists being able to find other life forms in space was not an outlandish thought. The public already had fears of "the other" when it came to communists, it is easy to see how that same fear could be shifted to how aliens might become a threat to Earth itself. Aliens are used in many Twilight Zone episodes to incite violence among Earth beings, and are shown studying the way earthlings interact with one another. It comes as no surprise Serling uses aliens to explore the fears humans have about how aliens would treat them if they were to co-exist within a universe filled with diverse life forms.

In People are Alike all Over,10 adapted from a short story by Paul Fairman, this Twilight

Zone episode follows two astronauts on their way to Mars in which one is optimistic about alien life and the other has apprehensions. A not-so-subtle metaphor for the already real dichotomy of mindsets we have here on Earth. The astronaut who is suspicious of otherworldly lifeforms tragically dies during their crash landing on Mars. The optimistic astronaut, named Warren

Marcusson, seizes the opportunity to interact with the native Martians, and is amazed by their ability to speak perfect English. He later learns they have Babelfish-like translation technology in which they can understand any language they encounter. As the episode progresses, the Martians show a deep interest in Earth culture and take our optimistic astronaut to a near perfect replica of a stereotypical American suburban home. Telling Marcusson that he is welcome to stay while he awaits help from Earth. Marcusson is enthusiastic over the opportunity to interact with the

Martians and experience their culture. He is also amazed at their near perfect recreation of the

10 “People are Alike all Over” The Twilight Zone, Season 1, Episode 25, CBS, 25 March 1960. Netflix, https://www.netflix.com/watch/70174038?source=35. “People are Alike all Over” The Twilight Zone, Season 1, Episode 25, CBS, 25 March 1960. Netflix, https://www.netflix.com/watch/70174038?source=35. average suburban home. The Martians leave Marcusson to familiarize himself with his new space, and as Marcusson is investigating he realizes the windows are fake and the doors have been locked from the outside. In the episode's culminating moment, it is revealed the Martians have created this American home as a zoo-like cage for the astronaut for Martian amusement.

The end shot implies this is a common occurrence for Martians and that they have many other creatures for their citizens to gawk at.

While “the other” is a significant theme that is present throughout People are Alike all

Over, it is also worth noting the commentary that Serling is placing on the American Dream.

Merriam-Webster cites the definition of the American Dream as “a happy way of living that is thought of by many Americans as something that can be achieved by anyone in the U.S. especially by working hard and becoming successful” (Merriam-Webster)11. In this episode, the

Martians have successfully recreated what Marcusson describes as the perfect suburban home as

11 “The American dream.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/the%20American%20dream. Accessed 20 May. 2021. his cage to stay in for, presumably, the rest of his life. The home they create for Marcusson is the idealized version of what American society describes as the ‘American Dream.’ A perfect home for your nuclear family in which everyone has space to live and there is room in the yard for a dog, all due to your hard work and determination. The ‘American Dream’ has been pushed upon society since long before The Twilight Zone was in production, and despite most of American’s best efforts, the ‘American Dream’ stays as just a dream. Marcusson worked hard to achieve his goal of becoming an astronaut, hoping that when he finished his mission, he could return home with newfound knowledge and the money to buy a home for his family. Instead, his dreams were thrown back at him like yesterday’s newspaper. In the end, Marcusson got what he wanted, but in exchange he ended up caged by society.

Throughout The Twilight Zone's many Seasons, Rod Serling explores ample different scenarios in which aliens and humans interact. Episodes such as People are Alike all Over, present the common trope that aliens are inherently malicious towards earthlings and we should be afraid of any interaction with beings not like us. Other episodes such as Elegy12 show humans as malicious and other life forms actively fear us. Each of these episodes takes viewers' imagination to the extreme, waiting in fear and anticipation of what space travel could bring to

Earth and what Earth could bring to Space.

Elegy follows the journey of three astronauts, Meyers, Webber, and Kirby, who are from the twenty-second century as they land on an unknown planet which looks like Earth, but is not quite right. The three men notice two Suns, and all the people on the planet seem to be frozen in time. As they investigate their new terrain, they come across a single entity that is able to move, a man named Jeremy Wickwire. Wickwire explains to the three men that they have landed on an

12 “Elegy.” The Twilight Zone, Season 1, Episode 20, CBS, 19 February 1960. Netflix, https://www.netflix.com/watch/70175801?source=35 . exclusive cemetery titled “Happy Glades” which was created in 1973 for those who could afford the service, and he is the caretaker of their bodies. Wickwire shows the astronauts around and asks about what is happening back on Earth. They explain that in 1986 Earth was wiped out by a nuclear war and it has taken over 200 years for the population to recover. After this sentiment

Wickwire gives them each a beverage, asking what their greatest wish is. All reply that they wish they could be on their ship headed home, though as they finish their drink they begin to feel off.

Wickwire has poisoned their drinks with a fluid that both kills and embalms the men. As he is taking the men back to their ship to stage their bodies, Wickwire makes the comment “While there are men, there can be no peace.” Wickwire has given the three astronauts their greatest wish, and they will act it out for the rest of eternity, just like the others who are stuck in “Happy

Glades.”

It is clear to me what drives each of Rod Serling's Twilight Zone scripts is the unknown: unknown Aliens and what they could possibly bring to Earth, the unknown that comes with war, and the manufactured ‘other’ that comes with it. But many episodes throughout The Twilight

Zone deal with the unknowns of life and death. In all moments in history, human beings have had to deal with the unwavering truth that we will never know what comes with death. Humans have to deal with the anxieties of life's ‘what-ifs’. What if I never married my husband? What-if I left my abusive home for another family? What-if I never moved away from home? This inherent fear of the unknown has always been, and will always be with us, as a key component of the human experience, even as technology improves.

The Bewitchin’ Pool 13 is the ultimate example of this trope in The Twilight Zone. This episode explores the perils of two children who seem to have it all, rich parents, a large house, a

13 “The Bewitchin’ Pool.” The Twilight Zone, Season 5, Episode 36, CBS, 6 May 1960. Netflix,https://www.netflix.com/watch/70110588?source=35. backyard with a pool, and no need to want for anything in their life. Except they must face this with the caveat of having parents who do not give them the love and affection they yearn for. In their daydreams for a more fulfilling life, they find a passageway at the bottom of their pool to a poor, yet loving family on a far-off farm. In this new world they receive the love and family lifestyle they never get at home, yet always yearned for. After attempting to return home and being told they most likely will not find their way back, the two children are faced with the ultimate dilemma: do they leave their family behind and continue with their new life, or return to the dismal home-life they have grown up in. In the end, they choose to leave their real home and the episode ends with the two children ignoring the calls of their parents and enjoying their newfound family.

The Bewitchin’ Pool is also a commentary on the American Dream, similar to that of

People are Alike All Over, but instead of our astronaut Marcusson striving and achieving a twisted version of the American Dream, our two children start their life already having achieved what so many Americans work their whole life to try to afford. With everything they could have ever wanted, and everything the American zeitgeist tells them they need in order to be happy they seem to strive for the simpler things in life. The two children’s parents believe that since they can provide any tangible thing their kids could ever want they do not need to fulfill their needs in any other way. Leaving the two siblings to yearn for a house that feels like a home, and not just a hollow shell of the American Dream.

In The Bewitchin’ Pool, two children take full advantage of the mystical Twilight Zone and get the love they never thought they would receive, but some take the darker path the

Twilight Zone offers. In another classic ‘what-if’ episode, A Stop at Willoughby14 explores the

14 “A Stop at Willoughby.” The Twilight Zone, Season 1, Episode 30, CBS, 14 June 1964. Netflix, https://www.netflix.com/watch/70174133?source=35. concept of suicide. Serling tells the tale of a man whose life is consistently beaten down by both his wife and his work and wants to be able to get away from the constant belittling that he encounters. As he makes his work commute by train, he is shown a seemingly new stop called

'Willoughby' in which everyone in the town welcomes him in a complete switch of tone from what he is used to. With every commute he makes, the town of Willoughby becomes increasingly enticing, and eventually he commits to getting off at the Willoughby train stop in a depressing metaphor for taking his own life. The ending scene of the episode shows Willoughby as being the mortuary his body was taken to.

These Twilight Zone episodes explore the intrusive thoughts most humans have: the internal voice pushing them to make choices they normally wouldn’t, the daydream of moving onto a better life, or finally being happy within your own skin, though all of these Twilight Zone stories show the very real consequences of following through with your intrusive thoughts. By having the true Willoughby be the mortician coming to take your lifeless body away shows the audience those types of daydreams are simply that, daydreams. In our real life, being inexplicably happy is almost never achievable. The same can be said with The Bewitchin’ Pool: if one were to step away from the story and truly examine the metaphor behind the children leaving their abysmal life by way of the deep end of the pool, it could be said their escape was actually double suicide. In both instances, the viewing audience must live with their fears for the rest of their life, whether they want to or not. These trials and tribulations come with being a human. “A Stop at Willoughby.” The Twilight Zone, Season 1, Episode 30, CBS, 14 June 1964. Netflix, https://www.netflix.com/watch/70174133?source=35. All of these Twilight Zone storylines explore the collective fears of community or fears that come with the human consciousness. There is one subset of fears that I would like to highlight that draws attention to the fears that may come out as hate toward certain communities.

Rod Serling is notorious for having written scripts that challenge the mind and draw attention to fears and the problems that come with them. During the 1950’s and 60’s there were many issues regarding race and sexuality within the American zeitgeist. These fears appear in Serling’s writing for The Twilight Zone. While issues of race and sexuality were not as explicitly portrayed in The Twilight Zone as other concepts I have presented, the undertones are certainly there in many episodes.

Social Fears Regarding Race & Sexuality:

The Twilight Zone episode, Eye of the Beholder15 follows the story of a woman who undergoes intense surgery in order to achieve a more beautiful face. The woman’s true face is

15 “Eye of the Beholder.” The Twilight Zone, Season 2, Episode 6, CBS, 11 November 1960. Netflix, https://www.netflix.com/watch/70174047?source=35. never shown until the last moments of the episode, and the doctors and nurses' faces are always shrouded in darkness. In this society, referred to as the “State”, their government strives for conformity and this woman is undergoing the maximum amount of facial surgery she is allowed to get in order to fit in. In the background of the hospital, the viewer can see televisions displaying propaganda to encourage their citizens to conform to the societal standards of beauty.

As she is healing, the hospital professionals are gossiping with each other in hushed voices that they have no hope for this woman and that she will remain ugly for the rest of her life. As the episode ends the woman's facial bandages are removed and it is revealed that she has a conventionally beautiful human face, while the doctors and nurses surrounding her have squashed pig noses and large hairy eyebrows. The woman is emotionally scarred by her unsuccessful surgery and runs out of the hospital room where she runs into a man who is what

“Eye of the Beholder.” The Twilight Zone, Season 2, Episode 6, CBS, 11 November 1960. Netflix, https://www.netflix.com/watch/70174047?source=35. our society deems as conventionally attractive. The man pulls the woman aside and tells her of a society in which she will fit in, away from the mainstream. The two are last seen driving off to join the community of their own kind where they feel welcomed. During Eye of the Beholder,

Serling created a commentary on how the community you surround yourself with can shape the way you are perceived, and how you perceive yourself, in a way that is not always truthful or healthy.

At its surface Eye of the Beholder, can be interpreted as a representation of the fear of not fitting in and needing to find your own community in order to feel good within your own skin.

This concept is something that almost every human being fears as most have had some sort of experience with feeling as if they do not belong. On a deeper level though, this episode is a fantastic commentary on society as a whole. Often, we see different types of people segregated into groups. Much like the classic Mean Girls scene in which all of the stereotypical high school students are assigned a table in the lunchroom, we also tend to do this within our own society.

This mindset often leads to ousting those that the “State” deems to be non-conforming, hiding behind the fear that they are not like the majority so they must be separated from the general public. During the time period in which this episode was written, America was actively confronting segregation and the prejudices that come with it; a fight that continues to this day.

Eye of the Beholder is an iconic Twilight Zone episode, though Serling did not leave the concept of addressing segregation from his television scripts after one successful episode.

Serling brought segregation into another episode entitled Number Twelve Looks Just Like You16, where viewers are taken to another society within the Twilight Zone that thrives on everyone looking the same. In this episode, when you turn 19 you are required to undergo surgery to turn yourself into a preselected model human. In this world, surgery not only changes your appearance but extends human life along with fixing certain psychological conditions. Our main

16 “Number Twelve Looks Just Like You.” The Twilight Zone, Season 5, Episode 13, CBS, 24 January 1964. Netflix, https://www.netflix.com/watch/70174047?source=35. character for this episode, Marilyn Cuberle, struggles with what she should do. All of her family and friends are busy discussing what model she should choose, and whether she will go with the popular choice of model number 12. Marilyn is exposed to countless of her friends who have chosen model number 12 and feels the pressures to conform with society, but is conflicted about never being able to be uniquely herself once she makes her decision. Marilyn ultimately decides not to undergo the surgery after she was given banned literature that was once her dead father’s, who committed suicide due to regret he felt from undergoing the surgery. Marilyn becomes an outcast to her society for not conforming to the designated look, and loses all sense of community from her decision, but feels relieved at being able to stay truly and uniquely herself.

Number Twelve Looks Just Like You and Eye of the Beholder both deal with how humans' perceptions of themselves can be drastically changed based upon the society surrounding them.

While both Twilight Zone episodes deal with the superficial concept of looks, due to the social issues of the time they can both be interpreted as having a deeper meaning than meets the eye.

Serling used social issues as themes for episodes he wrote, and while these two episodes are not the only ones dealing with society's perceptions of "the other", they certainly leave the audience with something to think about as they go back to their day-to-day life.

The Twilight Zone has over one hundred and fifty episodes, each captivating its viewers with immersive tales that subvert expectations and mystified people of all ages for over six decades. The series left its mark on pop culture with people all over the world referring to anything seeming odd or eerie as ‘something straight out of The Twilight Zone’. It is no surprise that an iconic television show such as The Twilight Zone that deals with complex themes in an accessible way would become inspiration for another writer to create a television show that explores these cultural fears in a modern way. Charlie Brooker, writer and creator of Netflix’s Black Mirror has grabbed the attention of a younger generation of viewers by following in

Serling's footsteps, creating a television series that is once again bending minds and bringing

America’s recurring fears back to the small screen.

Charlie Brooker admits he took inspiration from Rod Serling in order to create Black

Mirror. In an interview with GamesRadar17 Brooker states Serling's use of metaphor to get around rules regarding content censorship while writing episodes of The Twilight Zone stimulated his own imagination (Berriman). Due to the rise of subscription services such as

Netflix and Amazon Prime, creating a television show with darker themes has become significantly easier for modern writers, producers, and directors. Gone are the days of having to appease both the network and their advertisers; now writers, such as Brooker, can take their stories to extremes with fewer restrictions.

While Black Mirror is significantly more intense than The Twilight Zone, and ties in much darker themes, at its core Black Mirror is still attempting to address the same themes as

The Twilight Zone, except this time the world around us has gotten more tech savvy. Similar to

The Twilight Zone, Black Mirror’s title gives insight into the world the show takes place in. As

I’ve mentioned, the themes present in Black Mirror’s episodes are focused on the progression of technology in society and how that affects citizens and their inter- and intrapersonal relationships. The series’ title - Black Mirror - reflects technology's influence on society as when most technology is turned off the screen is simply a black mirror.

After Season Two, Brooker was not bound by network syndication while conceptualizing and writing Black Mirror. Surprisingly, the British Broadcasting Corporation first commissioned

Black Mirror for two seasons set to air on Channel 4, but after Season Two, the show was picked

17 Berriman, Ian. “Charlie Brooker Talks The Twilight Zone And Technology.” SFX Magazine, GamesRadar+, 1 Feb. 2013, www.gamesradar.com/charlie-brooker-talks-the-twilight-zone-and-technology/. up by Netflix and labeled as the streaming service's ‘Original’ series. Unlike Serling who had to stick to a strict time limit while writing episodes of The Twilight Zone, Brooker was able to write episodes that could be as long or as short as they needed to be to tell their story, especially after

Netflix picked up the series for Season Three. The first Black Mirror episode to air in 2011, entitled “The National Anthem18”, was met with both awe and disgust as the central plot revolves around some rather unfortunate relations with a pig.

Social Fears regarding Social Media:

The episode “The National Anthem" opens with a terrorist claiming to have kidnapped beloved British Princess Susannah and demands that Prime Minister Callow has sexual intercourse with a pig live on national television by 4pm that day in order to ensure that the

Princess is not killed. As soon as the news breaks to the public, thousands reach out on social media at first showing sympathy for Callow, and later demanding that the prime minister goes through with the captor's requests. All of this information is flooding in while authorities are still debating whether the threat is real or not. As the episode progresses, we see the Callow struggle with what he should do; does he have sex with the pig and destroy his own self-respect along with the respect of his wife, or does he keep his dignity and his relationship and lose the support of the public all while being responsible for the murder of a beloved British royal? The unknown captor leaves several instructions that make it impossible to fake the relations with the pig, and when the captor finds out that the prime minister’s team has attempted to create a fake broadcast, they send the princesses finger to the Prime Minister. The clock ticking and as the

18 “The National Anthem.” Black Mirror, Season 1, Episode 1, BBC4, 1 December 2011. Netflix,https://www.netflix.com/watch/70264857?source=35. episode comes to its climax, the Prime Minister succumbs to the demands of both the public and the captor and has sex with the pig as the whole world is watching. After this, the Princess is released and the Prime Minister’s reputation is bolstered in the eyes of the public, though behind closed doors, he has lost the respect of his wife and struggles with the psychological repercussions of the forced sexual acts.

“The National Anthem.” Black Mirror, Season 1, Episode 1, BBC4, 4 December 2011. Netflix,https://www.netflix.com/watch/70264857?source=35. Brookers' decision to have The National Anthem be the introduction to his series is an interesting choice, and many who have become fans of the show have explained that if it weren’t for the overwhelming success of the anthology, they would have not continued with watching the series after finishing this episode. The vulgar and explicit themes of The National Anthem are certainly off putting at first watch, though the messaging behind the episode represents real life fears that come with a worldwide social media presence, especially in a time in which anyone can watch, judge, and share their opinions with a few clicks.

In the twenty-first century, everything that we do has the potential to become the center of public scrutiny or praise due to the rise of social media use throughout the world. In a research study conducted by Pew Research Center, they claim that in 2005 only 5% percent of American adults used at least one form of social media, but by 2011 that number rose to over 70% of

American adults (Demographics of Social Media Users and Adoption in the United States)19. The rise in social media use has created a whole new aspect of American culture in which users are constantly connected to other users everywhere they go. Gone are the days of only being able to be reached by mail or home phone, now we have access to information and other social media users twenty-four hours a day. Anyone can share their opinions whenever and wherever they please. The ability to ruin someone's reputation has never been easier and Prime Minister Callow is forced to endure the scrutiny and humiliation that comes with anyone being able to anonymously post to the internet.

The fears that come with the rise of social media is a common theme throughout Black

Mirror. In an episode from Season Three, aptly titled Nosedive20, we are introduced to a community that operates based upon how your peers rank you. Similar to how one would rate your rideshare driver based off of their service, this society is run by your peers rating you on a scale of one to five. The higher your rating the more opportunities you get and the better your quality of life is. This episode tells the story of Lacie Pound. The episode begins with Lacie attempting to move into a better neighborhood and is informed that in order to live in her dream home, she must have a rating of 4.5 or higher. The real estate agent informs her that the best way to raise her rating is to try to be as social, and as likeable, as possible. Lacie begins to be obsessed with earning a higher rating and will do whatever it takes to raise her 4.2 higher.

Throughout the rest of the episode, the audience is shown Lacie anxiously attempting to raise her score; she becomes overly nice to her barista, giving five-star reviews to all of those that she

19“Demographics of Social Media Users and Adoption in the United States.” Pew Research Center: Internet, Science & Tech, Pew Research Center, 26 Apr. 2021, www.pewresearch.org/internet/fact-sheet/social-media/. 20 “Nosedive.” Black Mirror, Season 3, Episode 1, Netflix, 21 October 2016. Netflix, https://www.netflix.com/watch/80104627?source=35 . meets, and being extremely nice to her childhood friend Naomi, despite Naomi treating Lacie poorly. Despite her attitude, Naomi has a rating of 4.8 and is connected to many other high-ranking individuals, so Lacie sees their friendship as a perfect way to achieve her goal. The perfect opportunity strikes for Lacie when Naomi asks her to be a bridesmaid in her wedding.

Lacie is overwhelmed with anxiety over the prospect of being able to finally reach her goal of achieving a 4.5 rating. As she is traveling to the wedding, she continuously has minor problems with strangers which brings her rating down to a 4.1. In an unfortunate turn of events, the flight that Lacie needs to be on has been canceled and in order for Lacie to make it on the next closest flight, she needs to have a 4.2. As her anxiety increases and her need to be liked takes over, Lacie takes a Nosedive and lashes out at the airline workers and ultimately is kicked out of the airport and has her score dropped to 3.1 for a whole twenty-four hours. Lacie, rightfully, goes completely insane as she makes her journey to Naomi’s wedding. From not having a high enough rating to rent a nice car, to that same car not having enough charge to make it to the wedding, Lacie struggles with the idea that her dreams could be completely ruined in less than twenty-four hours. Ultimately Lacie flags down a truck driver named Susan with a rating of 2.0 drives her to Naomi’s, and during their journey Susan explains how she too was once obsessed with having a high rating, but now she feels as though she is living a better life not being worried about her rating.

After Susan drops off Lacie, Lacie takes a deep turn for the worst and goes on a drunken rampage at Naomi’s wedding. With mascara streaming down her face, she shares the horrible things that Naomi did to her while they were kids and as the wedding guests attempt to subdue

Lacy, she attempts to stab Naomi’s new husband. As this is happening, the wedding guests are making Lacie’s score get lower and lower and she seems to go more and more insane. The episode ends with Lacie being taken to prison and the rating technology is removed from Lacie.

She is last shown throwing insults back and forth with another inmate and she seems to have a weight lifted off her shoulders from the sudden freedom.

“Nosedive.” Black Mirror, Season 3, Episode 1, Netflix, 21 October 2016. Netflix, https://www.netflix.com/watch/80104627?source=35 .

Nosedive and The National Anthem both deal with the fears and anxieties that human beings are starting to feel as society begins to rapidly adopt social media into our daily lives.

Nosedive is centered around the more intrapersonal aspects of how social media can affect one's mental health while The National Anthem explores the interpersonal aspects. Lacie is an example of the extreme of what could happen if we allow society to continue down the path that we have been. As of 2011, five years before Nosedive was released, over 70% percent of adults in the

United States had some sort of social media presence. As internet accessibility has increased, the use of social media has skyrocketed. Subsequently, society has seen a surge in the popularity of influencers who thrive off of the attention of others, very similar to the concept that Brooker introduced in Nosedive. These influencers are driven by having a high number of followers and earn attention and notoriety the more presence they have online. Due to this, today’s influencers must do everything in their power to appease their audience, much like how Lacie and Prime

Minister Callow are constantly aware of how others are perceiving their actions. Brooker understands the power of social media and shows how nothing you do may go unnoticed by the public, and no matter what you decide to do you, if it becomes internet fodder, it will be judged, whether good or bad.

The rise of social media did not come about without the rapid innovation of technology.

Another of Black Mirror’s pivotal episodes Shut up and Dance21 explores the horrors that come with having access to any and everything on the internet. Shut Up and Dance takes a step back from the public aspect of technology that was explored in both The National Anthem and

Nosedive, and instead takes the viewer into the depths of the dark web.

Shut Up and Dance follows the journey of introverted teenager Kenny who comes home from work to find out that his younger sister has borrowed his laptop and has managed to accidentally download a virus. Kenny is visibly upset and takes his laptop to his room to attempt to wipe the virus from his computer. As he is looking for an anti-malware program, he finds a program called ‘shrive’ that he deems as good enough to remove the virus and protect his computer, so he downloads it without a second thought. After feeling satisfied with his decision,

Kenny decides to satisfy himself by masturbating to some unknown content on his computer, presumably porn. After he is finished, he is immediately met with a text message from an unknown number that threatens to share what he did with his whole family if he doesn’t do as the text messages say. The camera pans to Kenny’s face and he has a look of complete fear and anxiety on his face. As the episode continues, Kenny is repeatedly harassed by the blackmailer who is forcing him to complete tasks throughout the next twenty-four hours. As Kenny is completing each task, he comes across multiple other people who are being blackmailed by the

21 “Shut Up and Dance.” Black Mirror, Season 3, Episode 3, Netflix, 21 October 2016. Netflix, https://www.netflix.com/watch/80104626?source=35. same person, each as equally terrified and anxious about their secret being shared with their friends and family.

“Shut Up and Dance.” Black Mirror, Season 3, Episode 3, Netflix, 21 October 2016. Netflix, https://www.netflix.com/watch/80104626?source=35. As the episode reaches its climax the blackmailer sends Kenny off into the woods with a large stack of cash where he meets another who has also been receiving instructions from the blackmailer. At this point, both Kenny and this other man receive messages, both receive the same message that indicates that they must now fight to the death or their secrets will be revealed. The other man asks Kenny what he did, to which Kenny responds with “I only looked at pictures.” The other man claims that he also only did that too, and follows his statement up with a pivotal question for Kenny; “How young were they?” Kenny doesn’t respond, and only then picks up the gun he stole earlier in the episode and points the gun first at the man he is fighting, and then at himself before he fires. The gun is not loaded and Kenny realizes now he must fight. After winning the fight, Kenny begins his journey home, with dead eyes and blood on his clothes. Kenny assumes since he has completed the tasks he is in the clear and the fact he is a pedophile will not be shared with his friends and family. Though when Kenny arrives home, he receives one last text from the blackmailer with one simple image, a troll face. As soon as this is sent, we hear Kenny’s mother in the background yelling “They were kids, Kenny!”, revealing the blackmailer did not stick to his promises and all of the horrific tasks Kenny completed were for nothing. After this moment with Kenny’s mother, the scene fades to black.

Throughout the entirety of Shut Up and Dance the audience is blissfully unaware of just how serious of an act Kenny committed. To the viewer, Kenny has simply masturbated and is terrified of this very private video of him coming to light. Many viewers' reactions are mixed, most admit that before Kenny’s pedophilic tendencies are revealed they feel sorry for him, but as the episode comes to a close and his secret is revealed they feel disgusted with themselves for ever feeling sorry for a pedophile. The plot of this episode of Black Mirror is very similar to the way in which Rod Serling would write episodes of The Twilight Zone in that the twist is not revealed until the end of the episode, with hints littered throughout.

Shut Up and Dance highlights the horrors of how little privacy humans actually have on the internet. While the average viewer does not have the same skeletons in their closet as Kenny,

Brooker uses this exaggerated, yet very real possibility, as a commentary on how much trust people seem to have with technology. The newfound fear that has a hold on society in which anything they do on the internet could be shared without their consent is very real. When people go on the internet, they believe they can hide behind their anonymity and none of the things they look up will be brought to light. Their transgressions will be kept secret, and they can get away with bullying their favorite celebrity, or Googling an embarrassing question. In actuality everything one does on the internet can be tracked and one click, or one extremely tech-savvy individual, could lead to the downfall of a person's entire life.

The core theme and fear present throughout the entirety of Black Mirror revolves around how new technology can affect human life. Each episode centers around some piece of technology that ultimately causes trouble for most of our main characters. While Black Mirror is rooted in the effects of technology on society, it still reflects the same fears present within The

Twilight Zone. Many episodes of The Twilight Zone revolve around the fears American society has about the secrecy and power of the military. This is a long-standing fear and Black Mirror does not shy away from exploring the topic of secrecy, power and the military as well.

Fears Regarding the Military:

In a Twilight Zone episode, I am the Night- Color Me Black, Serling writes about the wrongful hanging of a man named Jagger who has been wrongfully accused of murdering a bigot in self-defense. Sheriff Koch feels conflicted, as he is unsure of whether or not Jagger deserves to die. Everyone around the Sheriff, including his wife, has no reservations about the hanging and encourages the Sheriff that this is the right decision. Though the Sheriff is still unsure due to the lack of autopsy and the reputation of the deputy who arrested him. The day of Jagger’s hanging comes and as the town awakens, the sun does not. The darkness is contained to just this town and despite the Sheriff pondering whether or not they should go through with the hanging

Jagger is taken to the gallows. Before Jagger is killed, the local clergyman, who is black, comes forward and thanks him for standing up for him in the past and very obviously feels conflicted about what to do. Despite this Jagger is hung, and the sky around them grows darker. The deputy and other citizens are convinced the darkness is just a fleeting moment, but the Sun never rises again. In the background, we can hear a reporter over the radio sharing that multiple other places within the world are experiencing the same phenomena, including certain sections of the Berlin

Wall, North Vietnam, a section of Chicago, and many other notoriously hateful places. The closing remarks from Serling for this episode reveal the true warning to the audience: “A sickness known as hate. Not a virus, not a microbe, not a germ—but a sickness nonetheless, highly contagious, deadly in its effects. Don't look for it in the Twilight Zone—look for it in a mirror. Look for it before the light goes out altogether.” 22

“I am the Night- Color Me Black.” The Twilight Zone, Season 5, Episode 26, CBS, 27 March 1964. Netflix, https://www.netflix.com/watch/70174126?source=35.

The messaging of I am the Night- Color Me Black is very clear to viewers: hatred breeds hatred and it is imperative you call out hatred and work towards a brighter and less hateful future. When Serling was writing this episode, America was in the midst of fighting segregation and other biases that plagued our nation. Authority figures such as the Sheriff and the Deputy are meant to protect the citizens of this small town from wrongful conviction and yet they were heavily influenced by their own biases and the influence of those around them. Despite society progressing, we are still dealing with those in power being influenced by society, despite having their own reservations about their actions. In a Black Mirror episode entitled Men Against Fire,

Brooker explores the same topic as Serling except with the added twist of technology.

22 “I am the Night- Color Me Black.” The Twilight Zone, Season 5, Episode 26, CBS, 27 March 1964. Netflix, https://www.netflix.com/watch/70174126?source=35. In Men Against Fire23 from Black Mirror Season Three we are introduced to a military organization with an unknown affiliation that is sent to kill off a mutant organism that they refer to as ‘Roaches’. The viewer follows the struggles of Koinage as he begins experiencing glitches in his military issued implant, referred to as Mass, after he is exposed to a green flash during a mission. The implants give a reward to each officer as they make more and more ‘Roach’ kills, showing them simulations of intimate moments with their ideal partner. Koinage is distrubed by the glitches in the system due to the fact that when he is out in the field, he sees flashes of real people taking the place of the ‘Roaches’. When he goes to his superiors for help, they tell him not to worry and give him more time with more pleasant simulations with his imagined partner in hopes to quell his worries. Despite this, Koinage continues to question the glitch, and when he is sent on a mission to a run-down mansion with the rest of his team, he is introduced to the truth.

While investigating, it becomes clear to Koinage that while the rest of his team is seeing and shooting ‘Roaches’, Koinage is actually seeing real human beings. Koinage is disturbed by what he is seeing and tries to convince the rest of his teammates that the ‘Roaches’ are human beings, but they do not believe him. Koinage in an attempt to save the last of the ‘Roaches’, a mother and her child, ushers them out of the mansion and they escape to woods. After they successfully flee, the mother, Caterina, explains to Koinage that while the Mass implant makes soldiers see mutant humanoids, the rest of the world sees the ‘Roaches’ as they are - downtrodden civilians. The world views these people as less than desirable due to propaganda and bigotry, and supports the murders Koinage and his organization are headlining. At this moment the last of Koinage’s team finds him, murders Caterina, and takes him back to base to be further evaluated.

23 “Men Against Fire.” Black Mirror, Season 3, Episode 5, Netflix, 21 October 2016. Netflix, https://www.netflix.com/watch/80104626?source=35. As he is brought back to base, Koinage is sent to a psychologist, Arquette, who explains the logistics of the program. Koinage is told that he is part of a worldwide eugenics program that is seeking to purify the bloodline. Arquette further explains that Koinage was aware of his decision when he signed up to receive the implant, and shows him the video of himself agreeing to receive the implant. Arquette further explains that despite Koinages newfound sympathy for the ‘Roaches,’ he must choose between having the Mass implant reinserted or being incarcerated and have his murders played on loop in his head for the rest of his life. Arquette forces Koinage to watch his first mission, and first kill. Before Koinage finally agrees to have the implant fixed and reactivated. The last moments of the episode show Koinage driving up to a run- down home in sweatpants, but then the perspective switches and it reveals what Koinage actually sees is a nice home with his partner waiting for him and himself in a fully decorated military uniform.

“Men Against Fire.” Black Mirror, Season 3, Episode 5, Netflix, 21 October 2016. Netflix, https://www.netflix.com/watch/80104626?source=35. The last scene of this episode reveals that while Koinage has been exposed to the horrors of the organization that he works for he still chooses to have the Mass implant repaired. The remorse Koinage feels as Arquette is explaining to him that he signed up to be a part of their program is not enough to outweigh the pain he would feel if he were to renounce the program. In the end, Koinages selfless actions are finite, and he chooses his own well-being over the greater good.

I am the Night, Color Me Black and Men Against Fire both deal with the fears of bigotry within the community and the powers of conformity. While they each tackle the subjects of bigotry and conformity with different backgrounds, Brooker and Serling were aware of the power group-think and authority have over a population. Men Against Fire deals with the fears of non-conformity and being labeled as the ‘other’ in a large-scale sense, while I am the Night,

Color Me Black focuses on the small-scale repercussions. Both episodes show hatred is a powerful force, especially when placed in the hands of those with authority. The fear of being the

‘other’, whether that be standing up for the ‘other’ and going against the societal grain, or simply being the designated ‘other’ can take hold on any human being, no matter where they are from.

Serling and Brooker both show how it can affect society and the individual, and it will take more than one person to speak out in order to make a difference in this world before it is too late.

These two episodes are extremely similar in that they both deal with the 'other' being persecuted by those in charge: in I am the Night, Color Me Black police kill an innocent man, and in Men Against Fire the military commits genocide to purify the bloodline of the world.

Though the fear of the ‘other’ has been present within many other episodes of The Twilight Zone,

I feel these two episodes have similar plotlines allowing for a direct comparison of the two shows. Each episode represents fear of the 'other' in a way easy to interpret for the time period the episodes were released, and yet they still give the same warning 60 years apart.

Disappointingly, the need for entertainment narratives warning viewers of the fears of

‘the other’ are often rooted in the atrocities of World War II. Brooker does not hide the motivations behind Men Against Fire, and explicitly uses the horrors of genocide as a backdrop for this episode. The warnings of how those in charge can manipulate the public into committing horrific actions against those they once thought to be their friends, people whom they once trusted within their community, are not hidden in the way Serling had to use metaphor to express his disgust. Many of the episodes Serling wrote for The Twilight Zone were not as direct as Men

Against Fire, but they still carry the same weight in their messaging. Another Twilight Zone episode entitled Deaths-Head Revisited explores the fears of the 'other', but from the perspective of a Nazi. Very similar to the case in Judgement Night, along with Brooker’s Koinage from Men

Against Fire, Deaths-Head Revisited storyline revolves around the experiences of the one committing the hatred.

“Deaths-Head Revisited.” The Twilight Zone, Season 3, Episode 9, CBS, 10 November 1961. Netflix, https://www.netflix.com/watch/70174075?source=35.

In Deaths-Head Revisited24, an episode from Season Three of The Twilight Zone, we are introduced to former Nazi Gunther Lutze who is visiting his former base camp in Dachau. It is

24 “Deaths-Head Revisited.” The Twilight Zone, Season 3, Episode 9, CBS, 10 November 1961. Netflix, https://www.netflix.com/watch/70174075?source=35. seventeen years after the camp was running at full capacity, and this once highly decorated SS officer has decided to revisit the concentration camp in which he caused pain and horror to countless human beings. Lutze returns to Dachau under his assumed name of ‘Schmidt’, and as he is checking into his hotel the receptionist seems to recognize him before he plays off his true identity and forces the women to recall to him the horrors of Dachau, revealing his malicious nature. Later that evening, Lutze goes to Dachau, reminiscing about the pain he once caused before he sees a former prisoner named Becker who was victim to some of Lutze’s most violent crimes. Throughout the evening, Becker takes Lutze through the camp and introduces him to dozens of other prisoners who also faced the wrath of Lutze.

As the night continues, Lutze continues to remember all the pain he forced the prisoners of Dachau to endure. The prisoners eventually take him to court to force him to pay for his crimes against humanity and just as Lutze is about to admit what he did, the courtroom fades and

Lutze is left alone with Becker. Becker forces Lutze to relive all the torment and torture he did to the prisoners of Dachau. As he is about to pass out from the pain of the torture, Lutze remembers

Becker was killed by him all those years ago and this realization causes Lutze to pass out. Lutze is found by the police and taken to a doctor where he is admitted to the Psychiatric Ward of a hospital. Much like any other Twilight Zone episode dealing with intense themes, Serling’s closing remarks share more about his motivations behind writing the episode; “There is an answer to the doctor's question. All the Dachaus must remain standing. The Dachaus, the

Belsens, the Buchenwalds, the Auschwitzes – all of them. They must remain standing because they are a monument to a moment in time when some men decided to turn the Earth into a graveyard. Into it they shoveled all of their reason, their logic, their knowledge, but worst of all, their conscience. And the moment we forget this, the moment we cease to be haunted by its remembrance, then we become the gravediggers. Something to dwell on and to remember, not only in the Twilight Zone but wherever men walk God's Earth.”

Serling and Brooker wanted to ensure the fear of the ‘other’ that motivated the

Anti-Semitic Nazi regime is not forgotten, and not in a way that encourages fear. Each of these episodes, including Men Against Fire, attempt to warn viewers of the tragedy that comes with partaking in horrific dehumanizing acts. People such as Lutze, Koinage, and Carl Lanser, are still human and at the end of each of these episodes it is made very clear to the audience anyone can commit these atrocities. Even if they come to terms with what they did and attempt to repent, their crimes will never be forgotten especially not by those who were victims of their actions.

Fears Regarding Death:

Another fear present in both The Twilight Zone and Black Mirror is the fear of not being in control of your own life; that the life you are living could be a lie and your life could be flipped upside down in a single moment. Brooker and Serling approach this fear in two different ways, representing the progress we have made as a society and how these fears can evolve as society itself evolves.

In The Twilight Zone episode, A World of Difference25, Arthur Curtis, a business man with a loving wife is planning a vacation to Northern California. As Arthur is getting ready to leave the office, a director yells cut and Arthur is rightfully confused by the sudden change. Arthur is told by the rest of the crew his name is actually Gerald Raigan, and they are concerned about his well-being. Arthur (Gerald) is adamant he is not actually playing a character, Gerald

25 “A World of Difference.” The Twilight Zone, Season 1, Episode 23, CBS, 11 March 1960. Netflix, https://www.netflix.com/watch/70110583?source=35. wholeheartedly believes he is Arthur Curtis. In an attempt to prove to his agent, and the woman who claims to be his wife wrong, Arthur attempts to find his daughter and his house. Arthur is never able to find the home, and returns to the set in an attempt to get answers. As Gerald/Arthur arrives, he is once again transported back into his office with his wife and secretary. He rushes his wife out of the office, worried he might get stuck in the parallel reality. As the episode ends, the last scene is of an airplane taking off, implying Arthur was finally able to go on his vacation and is in his preferred universe. Meanwhile, Arthur’s agent is back on set unable to locate where

Arthur went.

Brooker seems to take this same concept and adds Black Mirror’s signature technological twist. Instead of our main character being dropped into a parallel universe, we are exposed to the feelings of an A.I. (Artificial Intelligence) who is suddenly dropped into a world they cannot call their own. In Black Mirror’s one and only Christmas special, aptly titled White Christmas26, one of the three interconnected stories revolves around the work of Matthew Trent. The episode opens with Matthew and another man named Joe Potter sitting in an isolated cabin as Christmas music is playing over the radio. Matthew and Joe’s relationship seems strange to the viewers despite them being introduced as coworkers of over five years, as neither man seems to know much about the other. Matthew begins to ask Joe about why he accepted this job in the first place. Joes stays quiet and turns the question onto Matt. Sensing tension, and obviously wanting

Joe to feel comfortable, Matt begins the story of his adult life. This episode is split into three parts, with each centered around a different job Matt has worked during his career. For the purposes of comparison, allow me to focus on Part II of White Christmas in which Matt shares

26 “White Christmas.” Black Mirror, Season 2 Episode 4, Netflix, 16 December 2014. Netflix, https://www.netflix.com/watch/80073158?source=35. the story of his time working with a company that copies their client's consciousness and places that consciousness into a device similar to devices such as an Alexa or a Google Home.

Matt shares he was tasked with acclimating the consciousness of a wealthy woman named Greta to her new smart home device. Matt gives this consciousness a replica body of the real Greta to help the consciousness get used to their newfound job. In the mind of the device, they are actually Greta, and consistently push back against the help of Matt who in a last-ditch attempt forces Greta’s consciousness to be alone for three weeks, and when pseudo-Greta doesn’t submit Matt forces her to be alone for six months. This second stint of forced solitude finally breaks pseudo-Greta, and she succumbs to the truth she is not the real Greta, simply the consciousness of Greta and 'her 'purpose is to make the real Greta’s life easier. White Christmas continues with the story of Matt and Joe, but the short insight into the forced slavery of pseudo-Greta, is reminiscent of the story told by Serling in A World of Difference, though with not nearly the same happy ending.

Both White Christmas and A World of Difference deal with a human and human presenting figure who are plucked from the reality they once knew. In The Twilight Zone Arthur

Curtis makes his way back to his own preferred reality, ultimately achieving his happy ending. In contrast, Black Mirror’s technology does not allow for pseudo-Greta to turn a blind eye to the reality she is facing. Present day technology does not allow for us to turn a blind eye to the truth.

Most are able to always have access to information. The technology we keep does not allow for us to be blissfully ignorant of what is our current reality. Luckily for Arthur, he had the ability to turn a blind eye to the life he was living. The fear of being stuck in a reality he did not want to be in was squashed as he ran off into a new life. Brooker’s vignette into Matt’s life during White Christmas shares the reality of a technologically evolved world, forcing us to ponder the moral and ethical questions that come with moving forward societally and technologically.

In both The Twilight Zone and Black Mirror, one fear transcends time and plagues most of human nature is the fear of getting old and being forgotten. One Twilight Zone episode highlighting Serling’s interpretation of this fear is an episode from Season One, The Sixteen

Millimeter Shrine27. This episode follows Barbara Jean Trenton, a washed-up film star living out her last days watching her old films in her personal screening room. Barbara is constantly reminiscing about the olden days when she was young and beautiful, refusing to believe she has aged with time. Her family members worry she spends all of her time in the screening room, refusing to meet with anyone she does not deem important enough. Barbara's family attempts to coax her out of the screening room by inviting her old flame, Jerry Herndon, to her apartment to cheer her up. Upon hearing the news, Barbara is ecstatic, though when Jerry arrives Barbara is visibly confused. Barbara was expecting the young famous actor Jerry and not the old Jerry who is a grocery store manager. The shock of both herself and her co-star's aging causes Barbara to once again retreat to her screening room, lamenting on how she wishes she could live in the movies forever. Jerry leaves the apartment, and when Barbara’s family goes to check on her,

Barbara has vanished. They begin to start the projector and see Barbara young again, on screen, in the house they are standing in. Barbara looks happy and the screen fades to black.

The Sixteen Millimeter Shrine leaves Barbara with a happy ending, allowing her to live out her days, young and doing the things she loves. This message reassures the audience their daydreams of staying young forever and wishing to be remembered as young and vibrant is normal. The fear of getting old and being forgotten is inherently a human trait. No one wants to

27 “The Sixteen Millimeter Shrine.” The Twilight Zone, Season 1, Episode 4, CBS, 23 October 1959. Netflix, https://www.netflix.com/watch/70174029?source=35. be forgotten, and most want to be remembered for the way they were in their prime. In the

1950’s and 60’s, when Serling wrote this episode there was no way people could have imagined technology as advanced as it is today. If Barbara had the option to upload her consciousness into a younger body when she died, it could be easy to assume based on her actions that she would do it, quelling her fears of not being remembered and never being able to live in her prime ever again. While this sounds amazing, Black Mirror tackles this concept and shows the modern fear that comes with having the ability to live forever.

Be Right Back28, an episode from Season Three of Black Mirror, deals with the consequences of human beings being able to surpass death and live in a freeze frame of their last moments. In this episode we follow a young couple, Martha and Ash, as they move to the remote countryside. Ash is introduced as a social media addict, constantly checking his phone to see any updates. In the first few days of moving, Ash takes their rental van back and as he is distracted checking his phone, there is an accident and he is killed, leaving Martha behind. During Ash’s funeral, Martha’s friend introduces her to a new service where you can upload all of the deceased’s social media and they use that information to allow you to continue to have conversations with your loved one as if they were still alive. Martha reluctantly downloads the service, but is apprehensive to use it until days after the funeral she finds she is pregnant. After this discovery Martha uses the service consistently until one day she breaks her phone causing her to panic. After fixing the phone, ‘Ash’ tells her there is a beta program she can purchase where she can upload Ash’s consciousness to a synthetic body and she can continue life with a simulated, fake Ash without the worry of losing signal, or what would happen if she breaks her device again.

28 “Be Right Back.” Black Mirror, Season 2 Episode 1, Netflix, 11 February 2013. Netflix, https://www.netflix.com/watch/70279173?source=35. “Be Right Back.” Black Mirror, Season 2 Episode 1, Netflix, 11 February 2013. Netflix, https://www.netflix.com/watch/70279173?source=35. Martha purchases the beta and the new Ash is now confined to the attic in Martha’s home away from prying eyes. As she adjusts to her new life with her simulated husband, she grows tired of his emotionless actions, even though theoretically he is satisfying all of her other needs.

She becomes frustrated and in a moment of anger, she takes ‘Ash’ to a cliff and orders it to jump.

‘Ash’ steps forward and Martha quickly stops him, angry because the real Ash would never take such an action. They walk back to the house together. The episode fast forwards to years later,

Martha has given birth to a baby girl who is now a toddler. We see the toddler interact with her android father only on weekends, until her birthday rolls around and she asks her mother if she can give her father a piece of cake, which Martha allows. Martha grows emotional at the thought of the family being together and the episode ends on a seemingly happy note.

Be Right Back and The Sixteen Millimeter Screen both deal with humanities fear of being forgotten, Barbara with her obsession with staying young and relevant, and Ash with his obsession with curating a social media presence. Barbara manages to use the magic of the

Twilight Zone to stay relevant, choosing to live forever on the silver screen, side-stepping death. Ash on the other-hand does not choose his fate. He was obsessed with staying relevant, though by means of social media, and in his death the decision to be immortalized was made not by his own choosing but by those around him. The fears of death and dying seem ingrained within society. Much like the fear of ‘the other’, the fear of death transcends time and found a way into our media, whether it be on the silver screen or a black mirror.

Rod Serling and Charlie Brooker each had goals while creating their television shows.

Serling was adamant he be allowed to write and air shows dealing with relevant social and sensitive material that would otherwise be barred from broadcast. Serling spent his own money and found loopholes by writing of an alternate universe to get past network barriers. While creating The Twilight Zone, Serling created a time capsule showing future generations what inter- and intrapersonal issues were relevant at the time of its creation. The consistency of episodes such as Eye of the Beholder and Men Against Fire show fears of being outcasts based upon your looks were as relevant in the 1950s as they are today. The fact this concept is still present as a plot theme in television, though presented slightly different, suggests while our society has moved forward in the last six decades, at our society's core we are still plagued with fear of 'the other'. Today, advanced technology has made us hyper aware of certain aspects of the world around us. Our fears have not changed, current television entertainment has simply molded those fears into something slightly different to appeal to a changing audience demographic.

Black Mirror and The Twilight Zone are both able to appeal to their respective audiences by playing into the fears and wants of their audiences. Rod Serling knew that in order to keep families -and networks- asking for more episodes he had to make sure the content was accessible and entertaining. Serling could not blatantly discuss the fears and societal issues he wanted to without ensuring they were entertaining to watch. The mastery of the craft of screenwriting Serling displays makes it easy to understand why The Twilight Zone is still present within pop culture today. There was nothing else like it on the air at the time of its release, and it was just what the American people needed.

By the time Charlie Brooker was able to tell his own stories, society had changed. Black

Mirror would be accessible worldwide, and the writing of the show represents that shift. The

Twilight Zone was uniquely American, despite being watched across the globe in the years after its initial release, and the fears and stories Serling told were rooted in American pop culture of the 1960’s. Black Mirror took on a more universal role, as society also began to become more globally connected. The technology presented in Black Mirror is not unique to one culture, and subsequently the stories themselves are representative of technology's global reach. In the end, the fears that act as the backbone for Brooker’s stories are still evolved from the fears that gripped America in the 1950s and 1960s, though now with the added fear of advanced technology.

Media is created with the current era in mind, The Twilight Zone and Black Mirror are not excluded from this fact. In order for a show to be successful it must captivate and understand the current needs of its intended audience. Serling was aware of cultural fears that came with the sudden quick progression of both science and society, which allowed him to write scripts relatable to his audience. Brooker was equally as aware in writing Black Mirror, which is why we see a shift from the fears of aliens and space present in The Twilight Zone, to the fears surrounding the rapid evolution of technology. These shifts in stories represent the change in our cultural mindset. The cultural fears represented in both The Twilight Zone and Black Mirror, such as ‘the other’ and death, are representative of concepts that have always been present in human culture. By comparing these two influential television shows, it is easy to discern which fears are a human constant and which represent fears unique to their respective time periods. Works Cited

Wallace, Mike, and Rod Serling. “The Mike Wallace Interview.” The Mike Wallace Interview

with Rod Serling, ABC American Broadcasting Company, New York, New York , 22

Sept. 1959.

Mortenson, Erik. “A Journey into the Shadows: The Twilight Zone’s Visual Critique of the Cold

War.” Science Fiction Film and Television, vol. 7, no. 1, 2014, pp. 58

“Time Enough at Last.” The Twilight Zone, Season 1, Episode 8, CBS, 20 November 1959.

Netflix, https://www.netflix.com/watch/70110576?source=35.

Weikle, Brandie. “How Hollywood Became the Unofficial Propaganda Arm of the U.S. Military

| CBC Radio.” CBCnews, CBC/Radio Canada, 17 Aug. 2020,

www.cbc.ca/radio/ideas/how-hollywood-became-the-unofficial-propaganda-arm-of-the-u

-s-military-1.5560575.

“And When the Sky was Opened.” The Twilight Zone, Season 1, Episode 11, CBS, 11 Dec. 1959.

Netflix, https://www.netflix.com/watch/70174032?source=35.

“The Monsters are Due on Maple Street” The Twilight Zone, Season 1, Episode 22, CBS, 4

March. 1960. Netflix, https://www.netflix.com/watch/70174036?source=35. “The Jeopardy Room” The Twilight Zone, Season 5, Episode 29, CBS, 17 April. 1964. Netflix,

https://www.netflix.com/watch/70174128?source=35.

“Judgement Night” The Twilight Zone, Season 1, Episode 10, CBS, 4 December. 1959. Netflix,

https://www.netflix.com/watch/70174031?source=35.

“Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up” The Twilight Zone, Season 2, Episode 28, CBS, 26 May

1961. Netflix,

https://www.netflix.com/watch/70174066?trackId=14277283&tctx=-97%2C-97%2C%\2

C%2C%2C .

“People are Alike all Over” The Twilight Zone, Season 1, Episode 25, CBS, 25 March 1960.

Netflix, https://www.netflix.com/watch/70174038?source=35.

“The American dream.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster,

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/the%20American%20dream. Accessed 20

May. 2021.

“Elegy.” The Twilight Zone, Season 1, Episode 20, CBS, 19 February 1960. Netflix,

https://www.netflix.com/watch/70175801?source=35.

“The Bewitchin’ Pool.” The Twilight Zone, Season 5, Episode 36, CBS, 6 May 1960.

Netflix,https://www.netflix.com/watch/70110588?source=35. “A Stop at Willoughby.” The Twilight Zone, Season 1, Episode 30, CBS, 14 June 1964. Netflix,

https://www.netflix.com/watch/70174133?source=35.

“Eye of the Beholder.” The Twilight Zone, Season 2, Episode 6, CBS, 11 November 1960.

Netflix, https://www.netflix.com/watch/70174047?source=35.

“Number Twelve Looks Just Like You.” The Twilight Zone, Season 5, Episode 17, CBS, 11

November 1960. Netflix, https://www.netflix.com/watch/70174047?source=35.

Berriman, Ian. “Charlie Brooker Talks The Twilight Zone And Technology.” SFX Magazine,

GamesRadar+, 1 Feb. 2013,

www.gamesradar.com/charlie-brooker-talks-the-twilight-zone-and-technology/.

“The National Anthem.” Black Mirror, Season 1, Episode 1, BBC4, 4 December 2011.

Netflix,https://www.netflix.com/watch/70264857?source=35.

“Demographics of Social Media Users and Adoption in the United States.” Pew Research

Center: Internet, Science & Tech, Pew Research Center, 26 Apr. 2021,

www.pewresearch.org/internet/fact-sheet/social-media/.

“Nosedive.” Black Mirror, Season 3, Episode 1, Netflix, 21 October 2016. Netflix,

https://www.netflix.com/watch/80104627?source=35 . “Shut Up and Dance.” Black Mirror, Season 3, Episode 3, Netflix, 21 October 2016. Netflix,

https://www.netflix.com/watch/80104626?source=35.

“I am the Night- Color Me Black.” The Twilight Zone, Season 5, Episode 26, CBS, 27 March

1964. Netflix, https://www.netflix.com/watch/70174126?source=35.

“Men Against Fire.” Black Mirror, Season 3, Episode 5, Netflix, 21 October 2016. Netflix,

https://www.netflix.com/watch/80104626?source=35.

“Deaths-Head Revisited.” The Twilight Zone, Season 3, Episode 9, CBS, 10 November 1961.

Netflix, https://www.netflix.com/watch/70174075?source=35.

“A World of Difference.” The Twilight Zone, Season 1, Episode 23, CBS, 11 March 1960.

Netflix, https://www.netflix.com/watch/70110583?source=35.

“White Christmas.” Black Mirror, Season 2 Episode 4, Netflix, 16 December 2014. Netflix,

https://www.netflix.com/watch/80073158?source=35.

“The Sixteen Millimeter Shrine.” The Twilight Zone, Season 1, Episode 4, CBS, 23 October

1959. Netflix, https://www.netflix.com/watch/70174029?source=35. “Be Right Back.” Black Mirror, Season 2 Episode 1, Netflix, 11 February 2013. Netflix,

https://www.netflix.com/watch/70279173?source=35.