Meek librarian Romney Wordsworth (a marvelous and impassioned performance by Burgess Meredith) gets sentenced to death after being deemed obsolete in a bleak totalitarian police state society. However, Wordsworth isn't going to die without engaging in a little war of wits and wills with the strict chancellor (a terrific portrayal by Fritz Weaver) first.
Director Elliot Silverstein ably crafts a brooding oppressive atmosphere and relates the gripping story at a steady pace. Rod Serling's brilliant and incisive script not only offers a powerful and provocative central message about the evils of a fascist culture in which free thought and individuality are suppressed in favor of stifling conformity and censorship, but also makes a profound and poignant humanistic point on how even the most seemingly insignificant person still has some kind of worth and hence isn't obsolete after all. The sharp cinematography by George T. Clemens provides an effectively stark and moody look. One of this show's finest half hours.
Director Elliot Silverstein ably crafts a brooding oppressive atmosphere and relates the gripping story at a steady pace. Rod Serling's brilliant and incisive script not only offers a powerful and provocative central message about the evils of a fascist culture in which free thought and individuality are suppressed in favor of stifling conformity and censorship, but also makes a profound and poignant humanistic point on how even the most seemingly insignificant person still has some kind of worth and hence isn't obsolete after all. The sharp cinematography by George T. Clemens provides an effectively stark and moody look. One of this show's finest half hours.