Volume 20 of The Twilight Zone DVD collection opens with "Elegy," a first-season episode in which three astronauts are forced to land on an Earthlike asteroid where all of the people seem frozen in time. The only exception is an elderly "caretaker" (Cecil Kellaway), who explains that the asteroid is actually a cemetery where the dead are posed in the posthumous fulfillment of their fondest wishes. This was the third episode written by the prolific TZ contributor Charles Beaumont, and it ends with the requisite twist.

"The Thirty-Fathom Grave" is from the fourth season, when episodes were expanded to one-hour length. The cast includes such TV stalwarts as Simon Oakland and Bill Bixby, but the standout is Mike Kellin, who plays Chief Bell, a crewman on a present-day Navy destroyer who's haunted by visions of crewmates who drowned in a World War II submarine 20 years earlier. When the destroyer investigates a mysterious noise heard from inside the derelict sub, Bell suffers a nervous breakdown, and it remains unclear whether the submarine specters were real or figments of Bell's survivor-guilt-ridden imagination. Although it suffers from slow pacing, the episode is redeemed by Kellin's intense performance.

The Twillight Zone: Vol. 20

It's a great flick. It scared me as a kid and scares me now. If you're a Twillight Zone fanatic, this is a must see!

Another great trip to another dimension!

This DVD has 3 great episodes on it. "30 Fathom Grave" would have been one of those classic episodes that people keep quoting (Like "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" or "Time Enough At Last"), but it was a 30 minute episode that was stretched to an hour. If they had edited this as a half-hour episode, it would have been perfect, but it suffers from too much padding. It's still a good story though. The other two stories are great ones too, though "Elegy" is just a little predictable. Well worth owning though.

More twisted tales from Rod Serling's "Twilight Zone"

You will not find a common theme to the three episodes form "The Twilight Zone" on Volume 20 of the DVD collection. "Elegy," written by Charles Beaumont from his short story, finds three astronauts landing on an asteroid and discovering the place looks just like Earth, with buildings and people, except none of the people move. It is like being in a giant wax museum. Then they discover the one animate figure in the place, Jeremy Wickwire (Cecil Kellaway), the "caretaker," who explains the asteroid is a cemetery where people get to realize their greatest wish after they die. He then asks the astronauts what their greatest wish might be. A nice little tale, with Kellaway's performance making it work just fine. "The Thirty-Fathom Grave," an hour-long episode written by Rod Serling, a destroyer finds a sunken sub from which clanging sounds are coming. A diver investigates and hears tapping in response to his signals. Meanwhile, Chief Bell (Mike Kelin), is having a nervous breakdown and finally tells Captain Beecham (Simon Oakland), that he is the reason that sub was sunk during World War II. Bell insists he sees the ghosts of his dead crewmates and that they are beckoning him to join them. Like most episodes from that fourth season, this one would have been twice as good if it were half as long. "A Short Drink from a Certain Fountain," written by Serling and based on an idea by Lou Holtz, finds millionaire Harmon Gordon (Patrick O'Neal) using an experimental youth serum invented by his brother (Walter Brooke) so that he can keep up with his gold-digger wife Flora (Ruta Lee). The serum works and Harmon starts getting younger, and younger, and younger. Even given the Twilight Zone, there is a nice twist to the end of this one. All in all, this volume is a slightly above average one in the series.