The Twilight Zone: Season 1 Episode 20 Elegy
Three astronauts land on an asteroid and find it full of static people.
Series Index
Characters/Groups
Jeremy Wickwire - Cecil Kellaway
Captain James Webber - Kevin Hagen
Character thumbnails with links to profiles
Detailed Synopsis
Captain James Webber, Kurt Meyers and Peter Kirby are lost in their rocket ship when they land on an asteroid. Kirby checks the atmosphere and notes that it matches that of Earth and Webber notes that there is gravity like on Earth. They open the rocket door and Meyers tells them that they are 655 million miles from Earth, but as they stare out at the landscape, it appears to look like Earth. They go outside and Kirby sees a dog and calls it to him. He and Webber then notice that the dog doesn't move. They find a tractor which Meyers tells them was used on Earth before the Total War. Meyers notices there are two suns and tells them that they are definitely not back on Earth. Webber sees a farmer and introduces himself and the farmer is also immobile. They find a man fishing, but he also turns out to be frozen. Music starts to play and when they go to where it is coming from, they find out the music is coming from a speaker. They see a banner for the inauguration of Finch as the new mayor and walk into a building where a static man appears to be giving a speech. Meyers thinks that perhaps what they are seeing is an illusion, but Webber doesn't think so. Meyers then has the idea that maybe time for them has sped up while time for the other people has slowed down. Kirby notices there are no hands on the clock and Webber tells them to separate and search the area and return in an hour.
Webber finds a building where people are playing cards and one of them has a five of a kind. Meyers goes into a hotel and finds a an older man with a young woman who appear to be dancing to music. Kirby goes into a tent where a beauty pageant looks to be going on and the winner is older looking than her competitors. He starts yelling at people to talk to him and as he runs out of the tent, one of the spectators turns his head. The trio continue to search the area and when Webber jokingly speaks to what he thinks is another frozen person, Jeremy Wickwire answers his question. Wickwire takes them into a house and tells them that the house was built for a Mr. Jenkinson who then decided he wanted to be a knight and so was placed in the medieval section. Webber tells him that they are from Earth and were on a geological mission when some of their equipment was destroyed during a meteor storm. Wickwire figures out that they aren't from The Glades and asks them if the Earth had the Atomic War. Meyers tells him the Atomic War was in 1985 and most of the Earth's surface was destroyed. Wickwire tells them that they are in a cemetery and goes to make them food. He comes back and offers them a drink and toasts to everlasting peace. He asks them what their greatest wish would be and Kirby says he would like to be on the rocket ship headed back to Earth. He asks what year they left and Webber tells him it was 2185. He explains that they are on Happy Glades, a mortuary where the departed could be placed in the scenarios where they would be happiest. He tells them that he is the caretaker and is also a robot. They all start to collapse and admits that he gave them an eternifying fluid in their drinks, because they are men and when there are men, there is no peace. They die and later, Wickwire dusts the bodies of Kirby, Meyer and Webber, which have been placed back in their rocket ship.