“Star Trek” and “The Twilight Zone” invite comparison. They’re both early science-fiction television that are still classics today. They didn’t actually air at the same time (“The Twilight Zone” ran five seasons between 1959-1964, while “Star Trek” aired three seasons between 1966 to 1969) but retrospectively, they feel like products of the same TV era. Both programs also reflected the social consciences of their creators, Rod Serling and Gene Roddenberry respectively, by using sci-fi stories mostly as allegory.
But while “Star Trek” can be occasionally scary, “The Twilight Zone” was often a full-on horror show. One of the scariest episodes is “It’s A Good Life.” (The episode, scripted by Serling himself, was based on a short story of the same name by Jerome Bixby.) The episode’s monster is Anthony Fremont (Bill Mumy), a little boy but not an ordinary one. Anthony is a god in corporeal form, one who has all the maturity and wisdom you’d expect a six-year-old to have. He’s walled his hometown Peaksville off from the rest of the world, controlling the townspeople’s lives, entertainment, food supply, etc. They don’t even have freedom in their own heads because Anthony can read minds. If anyone so much as thinks a bad thought, then Anthony sends them to the Cornfield. What is that? It’s probably for the best we don’t know.
“It’s A Good Life” holds up as one of the most famous “Twilight Zone” episodes. It’s also one of the many “Twilight Zone” episodes that have been turned into “Treehouse of Horror” segments on “The Simpsons,” specifically “The Bart Zone” in “Treehouse of Horror II.” (Bart, naturally, is Anthony.)
The 2002 “Twilight Zone” revival also included a sequel to “It’s A Good Life,” titled “It’s A Still Good Life.” Written by Ira Steven Behr (a name Trekkies might recognize from his work writing on “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine”), the episode followed a grown-up Anthony. Mumy, who was now almost 50 and still a working actor, reprised his role, as did Cloris Leachman as Anthony’s mother. (Anthony’s father, played by the then-retired John Larch, had since been sent to the Cornfield.)
Because Anthony was never challenged, he never had to grow up. He’s still as self-centered and vindictive as a little child often is. Worse, he also has a daughter named Audrey (Mumy’s real daughter Liliana), who has inherited his powers.
“It’s A Good Life” is such a famous “Twilight Zone” episode that “Strange New Worlds” can say the word “cornfield” and still trust its viewers will pick up its meaning. Unlike Anthony, Trelane at least has parents who are able to put him in his place.
“Star Trek: Strange New Worlds” streams on Paramount+, and new season 3 episodes premiere on Thursdays.