1.31 --- But Can She Type ?

Reviewer's note : again, guide writers got it wrong - this one is 1.31, and The Star 1.32. *** Directed by : Shelley Levinson Written by : Martin Pasko & Rebecca Parr Starring : Pam Dawber, Charles Levin First aired : 20th of December, 1985. Karen Billings (Pam Dawber, Mork & Mindy, Stay Tuned) is an overworked, underappreciated secretary, finishing some last errands for her boss Burt (Charles Levin) before departing for a Christmas eve party. Just as she gets ready to leave, Burt unexpectedly saddles her with another task - to make 35 copies of some paper, to be finished by next morning. Grudgingly, Karen heads to the xerox room and starts chugging out the copies, until a weird combination of keys flashes a blinding ray of light. Not noticing anything, Karen makes the last copy and then leaves for the party. Once there, she causes a massive commotion by admitting she's a - secretary ! Before she knows it, she is the toast of the party, drinking the night away and talking about her "exploits" at work, as people are strangely interested in her profession. At the end of the night, she even scores a job offer from mr. Rehnquist, who is desperately looking for a good secretary. Not all is perfect though. After discovering she lost her keys, Karen returns to the xerox room and accidentally reverses the effects. She finds her keys, which fell out from her purse back in the "old" dimension, and heads home, where she finds out something odd happened after hearing the messages on her answering machine. She then dials the number on mr. Rehnquist's business card, and when nobody picks it up, she realizes she was in another dimension, where being a secretary is a rather glamorous line of work. Back at work, Burt again chides her for a minor fault, and Karen decides she had enough. She prints out her resignation and heads to the xerox room, teleporting herself back to the "better" place. She promptly calls mr. Rehnquist, who is only too happy to employ her - and immediately send her first-class to his Paris offices. *** Before there was Nicol Kidman, there was Pam Dawber. Yes, this is a fun episode. Yes, it features pre-Star Trek Jonathan Frakes as one of the guys at the party. But, please, let's just end it at the fact this is a solid, if not spectacular episode, and dedicate the rest of this review to drooling over Pam Dawber. Fine, maybe not. But She Can Type ? is the second episode in new Twilight Zone's little Christmas medley, and is just good enough to be better than Night of the Meek, if not totally classic. Interestingly enough, the usually tight-fisted Mark Scott Zicree heaps praise upon it in his Companion, calling it "a charming, humorous piece". That, indeed, it is - but not completely worthy of the Golden Rods come the next award ceremony, in my opinion. TZ Trivia : Amzie Strickland, who had a role in The Monsters are Due on Maple Street (4th of March, 1960.), apparently appears very briefly in this one as cleaning lady. Credit goes to Jed from The Twilight Zone Café for pointing this out.