Have You Been Watching...? The Twilight Zone: To See The Invisible Man

 

The Twilight Zone needs no real introduction (if it does, it's an anthology series of sci-fi and horror tales). At the time of writing it has just completed it’s 4^th incarnation fronted by Jordan Peele. Originally, there was the 1960s run, with Rod Serling, the 1985-1989 run with Charles Aidman/Robin Ward as narrators, the 2002 run with Forrest Whittaker and the Jordan Peele 2020 run.

In case you need an introduction, the series is an anthology of generally unrelated takes with a different cast each week. It mixed new stories with adaptations form genre authors such as Ray Bradbury. Some episodes were hour long (with ads) or 2-3 shorter stories in 1 hour long episode. These were then split in some territories to make shorter-run episodes.

The 80s series fascinated me and is the one I have most affinity with when it was screened on RTE in Ireland and ITV in the UK. Several episodes really stood out for me as thought-provoking and sometimes horrific.

“To See The Invisible Man” is one of the thought-provoking episodes that stuck with me for many years. Its from series one in the 1980s era, and in its original broadcast in the USA was part of episode 16, with “The Elevator” and “Tooth and Consequences”. I, however, only recall it as a stand-alone.

It’s based on a short story by Robert Silverberg, an award-winning American author of numerous short stories and novels. It takes place in an unnamed world not too dissimilar to ours and stars Cotter Smith (cult TV fans may remember him as President McKenna in XMEN 2, Tony Vincenzo in the short-lived Night Stalker remake and President Jack Davies in power-cut drama Revolution). He plays Mitchell Chaplin, a self-obsessed and obnoxious man. He is found guilty by an unseen court of the heinous crime of “coldness” (uncaring for others) and sentenced to one year of “invisibility”. This appears to amount to a blob of something stuck to his forehead. He, of course, laughs this off. As his punishment begins, he starts to realise what the blob actually means. As soon as people see the blob on his head, the instantly stop interacting with him, instructing others to cease interaction and all the time monitored by floating CCTV globes. Chaplin, as his obnoxious self, finds this great. He can roam like a ghost, go where he wants and do what he wants and people won’t stop him because they can’t. To reinforce this, he visits a spa and walks right into one of the ladies’ private rooms, where a group of ladies are naked in a hot-tub. Upon seeing him, they huddle together crying, as they feel violated and degraded by his presence. It’s a harsh moment in such a short story.

As the year progresses, he becomes more and more aware of the need to be a part of society, the human need to talk and companionship. He begins to see the error of his ways and tries to help a blind man who is initially thankful, until he is told by a sighted person that Chaplin is “invisible” and the blind man is disgruntled and angry at what he understands as being taken advantage of. Chaplin could interact with him because he couldn’t see the blob.

Chaplin is later seriously injured when some thieves try to run him over, but he can’t get medical help because he is “invisible” and endures the agonising pain. One morning, as he tries to cut his own hair, his apartment door is opened and two guards come in. With relief, Chaplin realises his year’s sentence is up, but the guards do not interact with him at all until the blob is removed. They then invite him out for drinks, initially Chaplin is reluctant, but in order to appear “caring” he accepts.

The story jumps forward a few months and after listening to one of his colleagues’ woes, he is told by her that the punishment work, he is a nice caring person now. She is right. H enow fully understands the need to be a part of a society and the pain at being excluded from it. As he walks by, he is confronted by a woman who is marked “invisible” that he had encountered previously when he too was. She begs him to notice her and when he ignores her, she accuses him of being cold. The very crime he had been sentenced for. In a moment of caring, compassion and defiance, Chaplin turns around and holds the woman in a big hug as the CCTV orbs warn him against doing so. His sentence had taught him about kindness and caring, and he is likely to face punishment again for doing exactly that, but this time, he will wear his invisibility with pride.

It’s a short episode on its own, running for around 20 minutes, and there are plot holes aplenty: If everyone knows about invisibility, why is Chaplin surprised when he is first given the blob? What if the invisible want to commit a crime? There’s questions abound, but we don’t need to ponder on those, this is the story of one person’s redemption, and it’s deep and memorable.

I have never read the original short story, but I almost think to do so would change the memory of this episode, so I’m happy to keep it this way. Cotter Smith plays the obnoxious Chaplin very well indeed and conveys the change from self-obsessed through despair to caring believably well and given such a short script and screen time, is a great feat.

It’s certainly one of the hundreds of Twilight Zone episodes to look out for, and I hope when you do see it, you enjoy it and remember it as well as I do.

Year: 1986

Episode count: Oh difficult, it’s officially listed as 65 for the 1980s run, but can be anything when they are split!

Season count: 3

Availability: DVD, labelled as “The New Twilight Zone”, 3 season boxset, 13 disc set (UK)