1.15 --- A Message from Charity

Directed by : Paul Lynch Written by : Alan Brennert (story by William M. Lee) Starring : Duncan McNeill, Kerry Noonan, Gerald Hicken First aired : 1st of November, 1985. Battling a severe bacterial infection which causes high fever, sixteen-year old Peter Wood (Duncan McNeill, Star Trek : Voyager) develops a telepathic bond with a 18th century pilgrim girl Charity (Kerry Noonan). Charity can see through his eyes and feel the things he eats, and soon the two of them develop a friendly bond, Peter telling her of all wondrous new things from the 20th century and of future (or, well, history) of the "colonies". When Charity however intentionally tells her God-fearing friend Ursula of those things aiming to impress her, she spreads the word to the local squire (Gerald Hicken), who comes after Charity accusing her of witchcraft. Unable to resist squire's goons, Charity is taken in for an "examination", which is in fact just a polished excuse for a rape. When squire attempts to undress her, she overpowers him and flees. On the run, Charity comes to an idea - she asks Peter to read up on history of 18th century New England, and see if he can dig something out which could be useful. Peter finds out that the squire who's after her killed two sailors over some gold, and was posthumously found guilty in 1704. Armed with that information, Charity surrenders and agrees to a trial, and then uses her knowledge to subtly blackmail the squire into proclaiming her innocent. Peter rejoices, but Charity informs him that they must break their bond - to her, it doesn't feel right to know of things to come. Time passes, and Peter almost forgets about everything, until one day he hears the familiar voice in his head, saying him to go to a local monument called Bear's Rock and check a nearby stone for inscription. He runs there as fast as humanly possible, and finds a rock with a heart and "P.W. + C.P." carved into it. *** Adapted by Alan Brennert from a short story by William M. Lee, A Message from Charity is another gem from the new Twilight Zone. A superbly original episode wisely spread over 37 minutes, Charity starts off slow and a bit ludicrous, but gradually picks up and comes into its own once witchcraft accusation is introduced. Duncan McNeill, who later found fame as lt. Tom Paris from Star Trek : Voyager, creates good chemistry with Kerry Noonan as Charity, despite two of them de facto never sharing screen time next to each other - opposite of them stands stage veteran Gerald Hicken, who is as slimy and menacing as one would expect from an 18th century witch hunter. Production design must be mentioned too, as 18th century New England looks and feels rather authentic - better said, like it's portrayed in historical books, that is. Watching this episode without subs was a learning experience. As I noted before, English is not my first language. I do speak and write it rather good in my opinion (I'll leave the final verdict to my readers), but when it comes to movies or television, years of staring into subtitles created a habit of fixating my glare every few seconds into the low portion of the screen and ignoring actor's mouths, which makes me lose my concentration every now and then and have a "what the hell did he just say ?" moment. Charity just upped the ante with its frequent usage of "ye-olde-english", but I have to say, I survived without reaching for the "rewind" button. TZ Trivia : Michael Fox, who plays Tom Carter, is a veteran of three classic Twilight Zone episodes - Nightmare as a Child (29th of April, 1960.), Mr. Dingle, the Strong (3rd of March, 1961.) and Sounds and Silences (3rd of April 1964.). Odd trivia : Charity's father Obediah is played by James Cromwell (LA Confidential, Green Mile), making this episode unique in a way that not one, but two actors who participated in it went on to play a major Star Trek character - Cromwell appearing as warp-drive pioneer Zefram Cochrane in Star Trek : First Contact.