1.51 --- Need to Know

Reviewer's note : you know what those mean, don't you ? This is 1.51, and Red Snow is 1.52. *** Directed by : Paul Lynch Written by : Mary Sheldon (story by Sidney Sheldon) Starring : William L. Petersen, Frances McDormand First aired : 21st of March, 1986. When the population of a small town starts going crazy out of the blue, the local senator sends Edward Sayers (William L. Petersen, Manhunter, CSI : Las Vegas), a top flight biologist, to investigate the situation. Once there, he teams up with Amanda Strickland (Frances McDormand, Darkman, Mississippi Burning), who fills him in on the current affairs. Sayers first interrogates Strickland's father, freshly insane since that morning. From him, he is being lead to mrs. Hotchkiss, who also is a loon - after talking some random drivel to them, she attempts to kill them with a cutting knife. At the lab, Sayers can't find any bacteriological cause to this occurence, and Amanda suggests that it might be a disease, as it moves between people in contagious fashion. Amanda soon figures out that all the cases of insanity trace back to a certain Jeffrey Potts, an university professor recently back from the far East. Sayers drives off to visit him, and meets Potts alone inside his house, being busy with some sculptures. Potts them tells him that he discovered something wonderful - the secret to meaning of life, God, devil, and other things. He approaches Sayers in order to whisper it to him, but is rebuffed - Sayers realizes that this might well be the source of madness. When Potts joyously exclaims he will spread the message through the radio, a struggle between the two ensues and Sayers is knocked out unconscious. He wakes up after 20 minutes, and immediately drives back to Amanda, managing to destroy her radio seconds before Potts reveals "the truth". But he's late - it spread to Amanda too, and she whispers it to him as well, condemning him to a lifetime of lunacy. *** Adapted from a short story by Sidney Sheldon by Mary Sheldon (no idea if they're related), Need to Know is an intriguing episode which leaves a LOT open for imagination. Part of its appeal is that we indeed do not know what sort of a message is it which makes people stark raving mad, and can only guess. Charles Aidman's opening narration suggests it might be something trivially simple - yet again, it's not unheard of that people went mad after hearing something horrendous. You be the judge. Starring roles are handled well by a rather young William L. Peterson and Frances McDormand - neither really excels, but the episode doesn't call for it, either. Director Paul Lynch again delivers a winner here, and that shouldn't surprise you if you have followed my blog so far - he was the man behind the camera for A Message from Charity, Examination Day and Wong's Lost and Found Emporium, all upper echelon colour TZ pieces. Serling Trivia : no TZ veterans here, but Ray Ballard, who appears in the prologue, appeared in one Night Gallery episode - namely, The Phantom Farmhouse.