July 13, 2003 - 740127 - Time and Again

[vgarci]

This week's program is presented for your review by Kurt (Texas).

For those who do not have the program, you can download it (with or without a Streamload account) at: www.streamload.com/vgarci (http://www.streamload.com/vgarci)

The following introduction is provided by Kurt (Texas):

Gang,

This is probably the last time I'll request a "double header". However, these are two of my all time favorite shows on the RMT, and when I listened to them again I had to request these two because:

- They're both written by Ian Martin.
- He plays, in both episodes, a kindly but slightly befuddled doctor.
- There are vampires in both, but they're not the "Count Dracula" stereotype.
- In fact, one could say the concept of "applied vampirism" is in play. Someone is either intentionally or untentionally getting something of benefit besides just staying alive.
- The "protagonist" has bad things happen to his family.
- In both episodes, the one we come to view as the protagonist decides he has to...well, I'll let you listen.

Two notes:

- John Beal, the "Time and again" lead, was once thought to be the next Jimmy Stewart. I've yet to hear him turn in a bad performance on the RMT, even when he's saddled with a not ideal script.
- I always compliment the RMT music. Listen to the music sequence immediately after his wife has died, when he's getting ready to leave his doctor's office. That segment there (to E.G.'s outro of the segment) was, IMO, an example of the RMT at its finest.

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[brian1984_2001]

It must have been early hits like this one, along with "The Chinaman Button", "Lost Dog", and "Out of Sight" (Next week's selection) that attracted an early fan base.

I love the haunted timepiece stories. I always wondered if the clock in this one might have been made by the same clockmaker as the clock in "Hickory, Dickory, Doom".

The music is great in this one. I should more carefully analyze music in my reviews since it does a great deal to establish mood.

An excellent selection. I really enjoyed hearing this one again.

[geospart]

Looks like we have two shows of the week... this morning listened to both and the subject is Vampyres. This one would be a clock that kills via what I would call blood proxy. Changing blood to water or something else either way sucking the life out of the blood from a distance eventually killing the donor. Of course what would one do with that extra thirteenth hour alone, I think we all strive for that extra hour in the day to do an almost forgotten project or I guess alone time is good. I give this one a strong 3. I am always a sucker for a good clock story, dang where did I put my copy of A Clockwork Orange. :roll:

[CBSRMTFAN]

The show was good but not one of my favorites.

I guess I had a hard time with this story because of the protagonists relationships. The protagonists clearly has a bad relationship with his mother-in-law as demonstrated by their outward hatred of one another. He also doesn't seem to have much of a relationship with his wife who is emotionally distant at best. When his wife dies under mysterious circumstances he doesn't seem very distraught. In fact he is so obsessed with the clock that the passing of his wife doesn't seem very important at all. Yet when his mother-in-law succumbs and he finds out about the other victims, he comes to the conclusion that the clock must be silenced. Given his obsession with the clock and his lack of feeling toward the victims (particularly his wife and mother-in-law) I had a hard time identifying with his decision at the end.

I think this story could have been made a lot stronger if the mother-in-law had been "bitten" by the clock first. An escalation of his concern over what was happening would also have made the ending more plausible. Finally, if he had a strong loving relationship with his wife we might have better understood his decision at the end and would have felt more compassion for his predicament.


Having said that, I always enjoy the special effects and found them to be very compelling in this episode.

On to the second episode...

[Lagavulin]

I reviewed this in my listening log and gave it a perfect score - one of my favourite episodes.

What I found compelling about this episode was the exploration of ones own moral limits. What would you do to be able to have those extra hours every day?

Very similar notion to The Chinaman Button (Episode 15, January 20, 1974) which aired exactly a week earlier - would you cause the death of an unknown person to achieve your own goals?

How will we be affected once we have made that decision.

good pick!

Miles

[dnagle]

Took me a while but I have caught on to the double-SOTW... In this one the clock-maker Ethan actually refers to "the mechanical vampire." Didn't entirely grasp the significance of the "perpetual motion machine" he keeps referring to, but it does fit into the overall concept. Of the two shows this week I preferred this one slightly over the other. At the beginning the idea of finding the testament at a curio shop reminded me of Hickory Dickory Doom. I haven't heard too many of the really early shows, they definitely have a different "look" to them (more polished maybe, and the music tends to be more prominent, not just as emphasis). And EG Marshall sounds more like Raymond (the "horror host" of Inner Sanctum in the 40's from which his narrator was derived, along with the squeaking door) than in later seasons, especially the way he says "pleasant ... dreams?". I will definitely check out some more of the 1974 shows.

[hamlet2003]

This is one of those episodes that I can listen to over and over. I like the use of the narration to tell the story and to give us a sense of how the main character is reacting internally to all that is going on.

The one thing in the episode I find a little lame is the idea that the main character is obsessed with developing a perpetual motion machine and so he loves having an extra hour a day to work on it. [b:0abc88bbb7]WHY[/b:0abc88bbb7] he is so set on developing such a thing is never explained. It just seems like a weird plot detail that never goes anywhere (other than it fits with the "time" theme of the episode.)

I like the sound effect that is used when the clock is activated. It's perfect.

This episode has always reminded me of "Little Shop of Horrors" since it too tells a story of a shopkeeper who keeps around a seemingly harmless object (a plant) that feeds on the blood of others and in return gives the shopkeeper what he has always dreamed of.

[vgarci]

A great episode and I can certainly see why Texas (Kurt) made the tie between the two shows he selected. The clock in this episode is certainly sinister and our main character sure seems to enjoy the extra time he gains each day. Everything comes at a price and the clock exacts a rather hefty fee.

[dave]

i enjoyed this one and was glued to it til the end.
i've seen several shows lately where the main character tells his story in a confession.
i don't think i'd be tempted by the extra 2 hours a day even if nobody had to die for them.
the clock maker had no redeeming qualities. he was selfish. at first i thought his mother-in-law was the bad guy ,even the doctor didn't like her. later i realized the guy was a jerk.
the twilight zone version of this was funnier but this show was anything but funny.
i gave it a 5.

[UNTIL NEXT TIME]

Only behind "The Hand" as the best I've heard so far. Creepy. Suspenseful....and a nice tough of revenge on the sister.................................Until Next Time