Trollheart

Redemption: 9

Although many of the episodes, even here in the first season, are dark and somewhat unremitting and unforgiving, there is room for redemption and salvation.

MDOD: The clearest and indeed earliest example being Mr. Denton, who gains his self-respect back and also need no longer fear challengers to his prowess.

TSMS: Can it be considered redemption for Barbara, who disappears into the world in which she wants to live? Maybe.

TL: Redemption comes, finally, for Corry as he is pardoned and allowed leave the asteroid prison.

TFTS: Salvation is available to the Sturka and Riden families as they escape their doomed planet and head to a new life on Earth.

TLF: Decker finds the courage to gain redemption by sacrificing his life in the past to save his friend in the future.

AWOD: Arthur manages to find redemption when he makes it back to the world he believes is real, though everyone else seems to think it is that of a film script and a character in that film.

NAAC: Salvation for Helen as the murderer of her mother is both identified and brought to swift and brutal justice.

ASAW: And whether he actually got there or died en route to a place that did not exist, Williams seems to have found redemption in Willoughby.

APFT: Joey Crown is saved from Limbo and from a dismal existence on Earth, and allowed a second chance.

Pressures of modern life: 4

As I noted in the review of one of the episodes, the 1950s and 1960s saw the rise of the business executive, with things like Madison Avenue springing up and people no longer working just for a wage but to make a career. This led to intense and often brutal competition, both between and within companies, and gave birth to the kind of stress that could end a career, or even a life.

WD: It’s the pressure of his high-powered job that sends Martin Sloan back to the carefree days of his boyhood, though in the end he makes it even worse, ending up with a limp for his troubles.

TEAL: The pressures of his bank job, to say nothing of those at home from his social-climbing wife, make Henry Bemis take refuge in the sanctuary of books.

ASAW: Gart Williams is increasingly unable to deal with the stress of his job, and pines for a simpler time, when the pace of life was slower.

MB: Mr. Bevis does not do well with the hurly-burly of modern life, and as a consequence (before the day is reset) is fired from his job.

Immortality: 5

The great goal of man, to live forever. But this always comes at a price, and to some extent could dovetail with the next theme, though we’ll keep them separate.

TSMS: Barbara attains a kind of immortality, living forever now on the silver screen, where she will always be young and never age.

EC: Walter Bedeker seeks immortality, but is in the end bored by it and ends up painting himself into a corner by being far too clever for his own good.

JN: I guess you could say Lanser has also attained a kind of immortality, though he would probably prefer not to have done.

LLWJ: Walter Jameson is the longest-lived man in history. Until he pisses off the wrong woman.

ANPTV: Valentine, like Barbara and Kapitan Lanser, also becomes immortal in the very worst way.

Greed and hubris: 8

Where there’s ambition and desire there’s greed, and usually hubris too, which is why I’m grouping them together here. A story with a moral can only be such if the hubris of the main character - or someone else - is shown to its fullest extent. Here we have the people who thought they could have what they wanted at no price, never realising that of all places, The Twilight Zone extracts the highest tolls for the bounties it confers.

EC: As I said, there might, and probably will be, some crossover between these and the last theme, and here we have a classic example both of greed and hubris, as Bedeker tries to stack the deck in his favour, but realises too late that the devil always finds a way to win the game. Do not bet against the House!

TEAL: Perhaps not greed but definitely hubris, as Bemis realises that his own frailties have led to his disappointment and loss.

JN: The hubris of the Kapitan is rewarded by having him relive it every single night for eternity.

WYN: Renard’s greed and hubris is his undoing, as he fails to be happy with what the pedlar gives him and wants to make money out of his talent.

TFOUAD: And in a similar way, hubris ends up being the downfall of Arch Hammer, who thinks he can circumvent any situation by choosing the face that best suits it, but makes the wrong choice in the wrong place.

TF: I reckon you could say Franklin’s snottiness about gambling is a kind of hubris, and it certainly is newly-awakened greed which leads to his death.

LLWJ: Jameson believes he will live forever (and why not, given how long he has already lived?) but treats those around him as lesser beings, toys to be played with, and it is this hubris that fails to credit the possibility of one of these used people coming back and ending his long life.

AWOHO: The only place I can see where man’s hubris does not turn against him, where Gregory West believes he can control everything in his life, and does. There’s no real comeuppance in this story, unless you consider Victoria’s hubris in refusing to believe she is a made-up character - and even when his wife is proven to be not real, he just shrugs and creates a new one.

Deal with the devil/Demons and Angels: 8

While the theme of meeting and dealing with the devil would run, not throughout just this series but fantasy and speculative fiction in general for centuries - and had done, well before Serling put pen to paper to create The Twilight Zone - the first season only has a handful of episodes involving the Fallen One, so I’ve paired this with episodes which feature or refer to angels and also demons if any. Also Death and Fate, and any other supernatural agencies.

OFTA: Bookman has a date with Death (no I’m not saying it any more, deal with it) which he does not relish keeping.

MDOD: Denton is helped turn his life around by Fate.

EC: Bedeker literally makes a deal with the devil, and ends up regretting doing so.

THH: Nan is pursued by the personification of Death, in the form of a hitch-hiker.

ANPTV: Valentine thinks he’s dealing with an angel but finds out to his cost he could not be more wrong.

TC: Roger goes to see a man whose name is Professor A. Daemon. Yeah.

APFT: Crown is helped in the afterlife by an angel. Again, yeah.

MB: And a guardian angel helps Bevis re-run the worst day of his life.

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