Shatterday
"Shatterday" is the first segment of the premiere episode of the first season (1985–86) of the television series The Twilight Zone.
| "Shatterday" | |
|---|---|
| The New Twilight Zone episode | |
| Episode no. | Season 1 Episode 1a |
| Directed by | Wes Craven |
| Written by | Alan Brennert |
| Based on | Shatterday by Harlan Ellison |
| Original air date | September 27, 1985 |
| Guest appearance(s) | |
| |
Opening narration
Some push for what they need; some push for what they want. Some people, like Peter Jay Novins, just push. If they do it hard enough and long enough, something might just push back...from the Twilight Zone.
Plot
Day 1: Someday
Peter Jay Novins is at a bar and attempts to call someone but accidentally dials his own home phone number. The phone is answered by someone who claims to be Peter Jay Novins. Peter has a casual conversation with himself thinking the strange circumstance is a joke, but eventually hangs up the phone in shock. Flustered, he leaves the bar and uses a phone booth to call his house. He gets himself again and begins to believe that the man on the other end of the line is his own alter ego. Peter thinks about heading over to his apartment, but the man on the phone warns him against it. Peter then asks if the two of them could just lead normal lives. The man on the phone tells him that because Peter's life is terrible, he is going to change it. Peter threatens the man on the phone and hangs up.
Day 2: Duesday
The next day, Peter cashes out his bank account, calls the grocery store and insults them to ensure that his alter ego cannot get any food delivered and then calls his apartment again. The man on the other end tells him that Peter is too late because he used the $200 that was stashed away to buy enough groceries to hold him for a while. The man on the phone tells Peter his situation is similar to what happened in the Jack London novel The Star Rover, and explains that the character in the novel used astral projection to leave his body. He figures that Peter is a piece of him that wandered off while he was sleeping and claims that he is in fact the real Peter. Peter, however, thinks that it's possible that when he went to a friend's lab and a picture of his "aura" was taken it somehow "stole" something from him. The man also tells Peter his estranged mother phoned to attempt patch things up and that the man has invited her to live with him. Angry at the prospect of his alter ego stealing his mother, Peter hangs up.
Day 3: Woundsday
During a storm, a sick Peter stares into his apartment from the street. From a pay phone, he calls the man who claims to be the other Peter and says he wants to work things out. The other Peter says that the more deserving of them should take over his life. Other Peter also reveals that he turned down an unethical advertising job that Peter had previously accepted. When Peter asks why he has done this, the other Peter tells him that he did this to himself.
Day 5: Freeday
Peter sits in a hotel room growing sicker. He receives a phone call from other Peter, who tells him that he tried to make amends with an ex-girlfriend of his who left her husband to pursue their affair. The other Peter reminds him that when he had put the woman and her child up in an apartment, he eventually dumped her when he got bored of their relationship, which was cruel. Other Peter then goes on to tell him that he had a long discussion with his current girlfriend and that she was ready to leave him, but other Peter convinced her that their relationship was worth saving. Other Peter tells Peter he plans on marrying her and having children—something Peter had apparently not considered.
Day 6: Shatterday
Other Peter finally visits a very ill Peter, who is lying in a hotel room wracked with sickness. Other Peter tells him that it is time to come to terms with the fact that he is being replaced and that he is becoming a memory. Peter goes to the window and stares out with forlorn ambivalence. Other Peter reveals that things are going well with him and that he has put his life in order—something Peter failed to do. He asks Peter if there is anything he would have done differently. Peter says no.
As other Peter leaves, Peter wishes him well, shakes his hand, and then disappears.
Closing narration
Peter Jay Novins: both victor and victim of a brief struggle for custody of a man's soul. A man who lost himself and found himself on a lonely battlefield somewhere in the Twilight Zone.
Note
This episode is based on the short story of the same name by Harlan Ellison, which was first published September 1975 in Gallery and later gave its title to a collection of his short stories. The short story uses all seven days of one week: Someday, Moansday, Duesday, Woundsday, Thornsday, Freeday, Shatterday.[1]
Syndication
This episode was shown as a stand-alone half-hour episode in syndication on the Chiller TV network instead of one segment from the original hour-long episode.[2][3]
References
- Ellison, Harlan (1980). "Shatterday". Shatterday (Book Club ed.). Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. pp. 319–332.
- "Syndication List". Archived from the original on 22 October 2013. Retrieved 21 October 2013.
- Albarella, Tony. "TZ Season 1 DVD Review". Retrieved 21 October 2013.