The Twilight Zone: Season 1, Episode Seven “The Lonely”

Original Air Date: November 13, 1959
Writer: Rod Serling
Director: Jack Smight

“Witness if you will, a dungeon, made out of mountains, salt flats, and sand that stretch to infinity. The dungeon has an inmate: James A. Corry. And this is his residence: a metal shack. An old touring car that squats in the sun and goes nowhere—for there is nowhere to go. For the record, let it be known that James A. Corry is a convicted criminal placed in solitary confinement. Confinement in this case stretches as far as the eye can see, because this particular dungeon is on an asteroid nine million miles from the Earth. Now witness, if you will, a man’s mind and body shriveling in the sun, a man dying of loneliness.”
-Rod Serling

“The Lonely” is an ominous, haunting, and unforgettable Twilight Zone episode written by Rod Sterling, directed by Jack Smight, and featuring another singular brilliant score by Bernard Herrmann. I truly love these early science fiction episodes and their classic Hermann musical accompaniment. As far as I can remember, I believe “The Lonely” was actually the first episode of The Twilight Zone I recall watching during a television marathon. This episode takes us deep into space for a pure science fiction story as we travel forward many years henceforth into the future and onto a remote asteroid some nine million miles from Earth where one lone man is imprisoned and relegated to finish his solitary confinement, a sentence of roughly 50 years.

Our lonely protagonist James Corry (played by Jack Warden) lives in the year 2046 –we first meet him on the fifteenth day of the sixth month of the fourth year of his incarceration. He has been banished to a distant asteroid as futuristic punishment for once killing a person, though he claims it was in self-defense, but nevertheless he must now serve out a life sentence –a sentence which some might call a punishment worse than death.

Now, a ship carrying supplies arrives and Corry rushes out to greet the men onboard. He continues to hold out hope for a pardon, but the outlook for such a verdict seems bleak. Corry asks the crew, including Captain Allenby (played by John Dehner), to join him inside his modest dwelling to play a game of cards, but they say they can only stay a few moments because there are other asteroids which demand their time. James Corry is clearly desperate for companionship. Typically, Captain Allenby sympathizes with Corry and brings various distractions for him, such as frivolous games and material parts to construct an old car. On this trip, however, the crew also gives Corry a mysterious box which he opens only after they depart. Inside is a robot woman named “Alicia” (played by Jean Marsh).

While Corry initially despises the robot, as time passes, he falls in love with Alicia –his mind is so starved for other people that he fabricates an inanimate partner in the absence of true companionship. Today, skepticism of technology is rife throughout our culture, but perhaps in 1959 the average viewer was only just beginning to grow concerned about the rapid development of machinery and technology as it encroached on ordinary life, always being hailed as altruistic and benevolent, while subsequently obscuring reality in one way or another. At any rate, one day about eleven months later, Captain Allenby and his crew return to Corry’s asteroid bringing news that he has been pardoned. The group has only a few minutes to dodge asteroids en route home so Corry must grab no more than 15 pounds worth of possessions to balance the weight of the ship (there are already 7 other prisoners aboard). This asteroid is being discontinued for solitary confinement. However, Corry suddenly realizes the weight limit means he cannot bring Alicia and he panics. He runs after her into the desert, screaming, until Captain Allenby follows and shoots Alicia in the face, exposing her wires, demonstrating to Corry that she is nothing more than a robot as she repeats the words “Corry… Corry” over and over until her power fades for the last time.

She was only ever a robot, and now James Corry can truly be cured of his loneliness. As Captain Allenby says: “All you’re leaving behind is loneliness.” To which Corry gravely responds, “I must remember that… I must remember to keep that in mind.” Like a lonely Pygmalion, in the absence of true love, James Corry has fabricated his own companion in the form of a robot only to abandon her alone on a desolate asteroid in the end.

“On a microscopic piece of sand that floats through space is a fragment of a man’s life. Left to rust is the place he lived in and the machines he used. Without use, they will disintegrate from the wind and the sand and the years that act upon them. All of Mr. Corry’s machines, including the one made in his image, kept alive by love, but now obsolete—in The Twilight Zone.”
-Rod Serling

---

My Thoughts on “The Lonely”

Extreme isolation, artificial intelligence, space travel, wrongful imprisonment —The Twilight Zone is still as relevant today as when it first aired in 1959. In our day and age, we are just beginning to embark on a new frontier of artificial intelligence, even as the horrifying prospect of extreme loneliness in the modern world is leading people to purchase robots for comfort and attachment (not to mention sexual gratification). Perhaps some people in the world around us are already living in James Corry’s horrid imprisonment, at least in their own minds, feeling his same sense of utter despair and loneliness. As always, The Twilight Zone offers a prescient and disconcerting reminder of things to come.

---

Credits:

• Director: Jack Smight
  • Jack Smight (1925-2003) was a Minneapolis native. He attended the University of Minnesota with future Twilight Zone actress Mary Gregory, who appeared in several episodes including the Jack Smith-directed episode “The Lateness of the Hour.” He began his career working in live television in New York City before relocating to Hollywood where directing for The Twilight Zone became one of his first jobs. He directed four episodes of The Twilight Zone (“The Lonely,” “The Lateness of the Hour,” “The Night of the Meek,” and “Twenty-Two“). Some of his film credits include Harper (1966), No Way to Treat a Lady (1968), Airport 1975 (1974), Midway (1976), and Fast Break (1979). Smight died of cancer in Los Angeles in 2003.
• Written by: Rod Serling
• Music: original score by Bernard Herrmann
• Cinematography: George T. Clemens
• Production Manager: Ralph W. Nelson
• Art Direction: George W. Davis and William Ferrari
• Set Decorations: Henry Grace and Rudy Butler
• Assistant Director: Edward Denault
• Casting Director: Mildred Gusse
• Sound: Franklin Milton and Jean Valentino
• Edited by: Joseph Gluck
• Starring:
  • Jack Warden…..James A. Corry
    • Jack Warden (1920 – 2006) worked as a boxer, bouncer, tugboat deckhand, and lifeguard before joining the United States Navy in 1938 where he was stationed in China. He served in the 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment, but on the eve of D-Day, he shattered his leg in a practice jump in England after crash-landing in a tree. He spent almost eight months of his hospital recovery reading the Clifford Odets plays and decided to become an actor. He studied acting in New York City on the G.I. Bill and appeared in several anthology television shows and uncredited roles in films like Sunset Boulevard (1950) before his big breaks came in From Here to Eternity (1953) and especially 12 Angry Men (1957). He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for Shampoo (1975) and Heaven Can Wait (1978). He received a BAFTA nomination for Shampoo (1975), and won a Primetime Emmy Award for his performance in Brian’s Song (1971). He appeared in two episodes of The Twilight Zone, both of them in the first season (“The Lonely” and “The Mighty Casey“). Warden married French actress Vanda Dupre in 1958, they had one son together, and separated in the 1970s (though never legally divorced). He retired from acting in 2000 and lived with his girlfriend in Manhattan until his death in 2006.
  • John Dehner…..Captain Allenby
    • John Dehner (1915-1992) was a recognizable actor who appeared in a wide array of television shows, movies, and radio dramas from the 1930s to the 1980s. He typically played sinister characters –sophisticated con men, shady authority figures, and other smooth-talking villains, many of them in Westerns. He was married twice and had two children.
  • Jean Marsh…..Alicia
    • Jean Marsh (1934-2025) was an English actress and writer. She co-created and starred in the British series Upstairs, Downstairs. She also co-created the television series The House of Eliott in 1991. Her film appearances include Cleopatra (1963), Frenzy (1972), The Eagle Has Landed (1976), The Changeling (1980), Return to Oz (1985), Willow (1988), Fatherland (1994) and Monarch (2000). She is also known for three appearances in Doctor Who: as Joan of England in The Crusade; Sara Kingdom, a companion of the First Doctor; and a villain opposite the Seventh Doctor. From 1955 to 1960 she was married to Jon Pertwee, who played the Third Doctor in the series. She initially left England because she didn’t look initial English enough, before she appeared as a Tahitian girl in “The Moon and Sixpence” (her first dramatic role) and a Western show before taking on this role in The Twilight Zone. She was fairly new to Hollywood when this episode was filmed (she was about 25 years old). Marsh died of complications of dementia at her home in London on April 13, 2025, at the age of 90.
  • Ted Knight (uncredited)…..Adams
    • Ted Knight (1923-1986) was an American actor primarily known for playing the comic roles of Ted Baxter in The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Henry Rush in Too Close for Comfort, and Judge Elihu Smails in Caddyshack. As a young man, he had withdrawn from high school to enlist in the United States Army during World War II and was a member of Company A, 296th Combat Engineer Battalion, earning five campaign stars while serving in the European Theater of Operations. He married and had three children, his grave marker bears the name Theodore C. Konopka and the words “Bye Guy,” a reference to his Ted Baxter character catchphrase “Hi, guys!”
  • James Turley…..Carstairs
    • James Turley (1929-2016) was an actor and assistant director, known for his work on Quantum Leap (1989), The Twilight Zone (1959), and Jackals (1986). He also appeared on shows like Mission: Impossible, The Virginian, and Gunsmoke, among others.

---

The Twilight Zone Trivia:

• This was one of the first episodes Rod Sterling pitched to sponsors and it became the second episode in the series to be filmed according to production order.
• The crew shot this entire episode for two full days in 116 degree heat (139 degree ground temperatures) in Desolation Canyon, Death Valley, California with many suffering from heat exhaustion and dehydration. Apparently, eight people dropped in the afternoon, including cinematographer George Clemens collapsed; he fell right off the camera crane and into the sand. Many onset feared he was having a heart attack. And in the image of Jean Marsh laying in the sand, a thermometer was placed down beside her. It showed the temperature was 140 degrees. This was the first of many Twilight Zone episodes filmed in Death Valley though in future filming ventures the crew would be better prepared.
• The inside of the shack and the exterior of the spaceship were shot on Stage 6 during and final day of shooting. They erected a shack in Death Valley at a cost of $240 for parts and labor, fake rocks were placed in various scenes at a cost of $50, a sanitary unit was rented for $240, flight insurance cost $45 since some of the crew were flown out to Death Valley, a faulty camera (which was blamed on the heat) was charged to CBS for $150, and they rented a mannequin for the closing shot of Alicia’s blown off face for $25.
• The vertical panels with a series of holes in them seen hanging as decorations in Corry’s house, and outside the door, are called PSP, or Pierced Steel Planking (sometimes called a Marston Mat). This material was developed for World War II to make temporary airfield runways and aircraft stands. The metal planks were able to hook together along the sides, and could be used to provide a hard surface for any number of purposes in isolated areas.
• The early scene of a rocket landing on the asteroid carrying the supply team was actually stock footage of a rocket taking off that was simply reversed (it was later reused in the episode).
• Bernard Herrmann’s original musical score featured Eric Cook’s “Turkish Delight” CBS stock music library (the same song was played in the show pilot “Where Is Everybody?” in the cafe scene).
• Despite being a notoriously prickly personality, Bernard Herrmann was a great animal lover and while composing for The Twilight Zone he found his beloved dog whom he named “Twilight” or just simply “Twi.”
• The original script had Jack Warden’s character named “James W. Corry,” but there was already a prominent board chair of the same name at Reliance Electric and Engineering Company in Cleveland, Ohio. De Forest Research suggested using a different name.
• Jack Warden was paid $3,500 for his role as James A. Corry.
• Frank Morris of CBS also requested that Serling remove the words “God” and “hell” from the characters speeches. Serling ignored these requests.
• Cinematographer George T. Clemens later said that sweat from the cast and crew evaporated almost immediately while filming in the desert. Because of this, the sweat which can be seen in the finished episode is actually a thick coat of glycerin.
• This episode takes place between the futuristic years of 2046 to 2047.
• The vehicle parked outside James Corry’s shack is an antique Model A Ford. The Ford Company granted Cayuga Productions free access to its vehicles as free product placement in the show.
• Ted Knight makes an uncredited appearance as a crew member aboard the spaceship in this episode (known for his role on The Mary Tyler Moore Show).
• In this episode, the spaceman Adams (Ted Knight) complains to Corry that he has to come back to this asteroid four times per year, which totals eight months away from earth. “Sometimes my kids don’t even recognize me when I come home,” he says.
• The asteroid is apparently 6,000 miles from north to south, and 4,000 from east to west.
• When Alicia and Corry go stargazing together, Corry points out the star Betelgeuse in the constellation of Orion, as well as The Great Bear and the constellation Hercules.
• Bernard Herrmann composed a special intro song just for this episode. Herrmann’s orchestration for this episode featured: 2 vibraphones, 2 harps, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, and 1 hammond organ.

Click here to return to my survey of The Twilight Zone series.

Click here to read my reflections on Rod Serling’s short story “The Lonely.”