11 Classic Twilight Zone Episodes That Could Be Improved By Colorization

For as long as the technology has existed, there has been resistance to the idea of colorizing old films. For one thing, colorization, like plastic surgery, has always been a pig in a poke, and a poor job can make After look worse than Before.

Furthermore, black and white photography is an art form in itself, and one that particularly suits certain stories and types of shots. Film noir, characterized by low-key lighting, bleak urban settings, and cynical characters, is especially suited to it.

Color is good for showing both substance and form, and conveying a sense of vivid realism. But sometimes color actually distracts from the message. Black and white is better when forms and textures are more important than substance. It is far superior at showing shadows, and can make it easier to focus on a character’s emotional state and read their eyes without distraction. While color impresses the sense of actually being there, black and white suggests timelessness.

The original 1959-1964 Twilight Zone series is the only one of the four to be shot in monochrome, and took advantage of that medium’s strengths to tell its stories. But in a 156 episode anthology, with a wide variety of settings and characters, there are at least a few of them that would have benefited from color.

In the near future, the world has begun moving closer to the sun, and everyone is suffering the effects of extreme heat. (On the bright side, it's surely all the fault of whatever politician the viewer hates the most). After several encounters with various looters, mad dogs and Englishmen, our heroine's painting of the New York skyline, complete with enlarged sun, begins to run, as the oil paints melt. She wakes up to find that the whole thing was just a vicarious dream. In the real world, the earth is moving farther away from the sun, and everyone is freezing to death. (but it’s still your least favorite pol’s fault).

HOW COLORIZATION COULD HELP: Not much. The film noir style suits this episode extremely well. However, various shots of the sun in the sky, as well as the one shot of the melting painting, really cry out to be colorized, along with as much orange as can be fit into the shot.