- Nick of Time (The Twilight Zone)
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"Nick of Time" The Twilight Zone episode 
Don, Pat, and the 'mystic seer' fortune-telling device.Episode no. Season 2
Episode 43Directed by Richard L. Bare Written by Richard Matheson Featured music Uncredited Production code 173-3643 Original air date November 18, 1960 Guest stars William Shatner: Don Carter
Patricia Breslin: Pat Carter
Guy Wilkerson: Counter Man
Stafford Repp: Mechanic Lars
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"The Lateness of the Hour"List of Twilight Zone episodes "Nick of Time" is an episode of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone.
Contents
Synopsis
When Don and Pat Carter's automobile breaks down in Ridgeview, Ohio, they decide to have lunch at the Busy Bee Cafe. The booth they sit in has a fortune telling machine on the table. Don asks the "mystic seer" if he is going to get a promotion at work. The card says that it has been decided in his favor. When Don calls the office, he discovers that the seer was right. Because of this initial success, Don asks the seer more and more questions.
Pat begins to realize Don is taking the seer too seriously. Due to the seer's predictions, Don feels it is not safe to leave the diner until after 3 p.m. Pat gets him to leave earlier, but at 3 p.m. the couple is almost struck by a car while crossing the street. After they calm down, they go back to the cafe. However, another couple is sitting at their booth, so Don and Pat must wait at the front counter.
Pat wants proof that the seer is legitimate, pointing out that it was Don who had brought up the issue of 3 p.m. After reclaiming their booth, Don immediately asks the seer more questions. One of the things he wants to know is whether their car will be fixed by the end of the day. The seer says the car has been repaired, and a few moments later the mechanic arrives with that very news.
The breaking point comes when Don asks where they're going to live in the future. She tries to break the spell the seer has over Don. After a persuasive speech from Pat, Don apologizes to Pat and then announces directly to the mystic seer that they're leaving to go do what they please. Right after they leave, another couple, noticeably distraught, sits down at the booth with several pennies and starts asking questions (implying that they had a previous encounter with the seer and were now "enslaved" by it).
Production
Richard Matheson writing in The Twilight Zone Magazine said that he wished that Pat Breslin, who played Pat Carter (the wife of Don Carter, Shatner's character in this episode) had been available to play Shatner's wife again for the famous 5th season episode "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet".
See also
References
- Zicree, Marc Scott. The Twilight Zone Companion. Sillman-James Press, 1982 (second edition).
- DeVoe, Bill. (2008). Trivia from The Twilight Zone. Albany, GA: Bear Manor Media. ISBN 978-1593931360
- Grams, Martin. (2008). The Twilight Zone: Unlocking the Door to a Television Classic. Churchville, MD: OTR Publishing. ISBN 978-0970331090
External links
- "Nick of Time" at the Internet Movie Database
- TV.com episode page
- Guide to building your own Mystic Seer
Richard Matheson Novels I Am Legend (1954) • The Shrinking Man (1956) • A Stir of Echoes (1958) • The Beardless Warriors (1960) • Hell House (1971) • Bid Time Return (1975) • What Dreams May Come (1978)Short stories "Born of Man and Woman" (1950) • "Blood Son" (1951) • "Button, Button" (1970)Screenplays The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957) • House of Usher (1960) • "The Last Flight" (1960) • "Nick of Time" (1960) • "A World of Difference" (1960) • "A World of His Own" (1960) • Master of the World (1961) • The Pit and the Pendulum (1961) • "The Invaders" (1961) • "Once Upon a Time" (1961) • Night of the Eagle (1962) • Tales of Terror (1962) • "Little Girl Lost" (1962) • "Young Man's Fancy" (1962) • The Raven (1963) • "Death Ship" (1963) • "Mute" (1963) • "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" (1963) • "Steel" (1963) • The Comedy of Terrors (1964) • The Last Man on Earth (1964) • "Night Call" (1964) • "Spur of the Moment" (1964) • Fanatic (1965) • The Young Warriors (1966) • "The Enemy Within" (1966) • The Devil Rides Out (1968) • De Sade (1969) • Duel (1971) • The Night Stalker (1972) • The Night Strangler (1973) • The Legend of Hell House (1973) • Dracula (1973) • The Morning After (1974) • Trilogy of Terror (1975) • The Martian Chronicles Mini-Series (1980) • Somewhere in Time (1980) • Jaws 3-D (1983) • Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983) • "Button, Button" (1986) • Loose Cannons (1990) • The Dreamer of Oz (1990) • Rod Serling's Lost Classics (1994) • Trilogy of Terror II (1996)Adaptations
by others"And When the Sky Was Opened" (1959) • "Third from the Sun" (1960) • Cold Sweat (1970) • The Omega Man (1971) • The Incredible Shrinking Woman (1981) • What Dreams May Come (1998) • Stir of Echoes (1999) • "Dance of the Dead" (2005) • "My Ambition" (2006) • I Am Legend (2007) • I Am Omega (2007) • The Box (2009) • "The Splendid Source" (2010) • Real Steel (2011)Categories:- The Twilight Zone episodes
- 1960 television episodes
- Screenplays by Richard Matheson
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