"Mr. Denton on Doomsday" (aired October 16, 1959)
Rod Serling must’ve loved westerns or maybe he simply understood that television audiences of the time loved them. The Rifleman, Wagon Train, Gunsmoke and Have Gun Will Travel were just a few of the popular westerns on the air in 1959. Serling no doubt realized that western stories might pull in audiences to this weird new show called The Twilight Zone.
Even for seasoned western fans, “Mr. Denton on Doomsday” does not disappoint. What easily could have been a cliché-ridden half hour instead becomes a clever, well-produced episode. Al Denton (Dan Duryea), the town drunk, is shown in the opening sequence singing for a drink. Unlike most TV drunks of the time, Denton is truly dirty and sloppy, a staggering mess. Fate literally steps in, allowing Denton a second chance at redemption in the form of a gun. But there’s a price: Denton was once the best gunfighter in the west. Now he’ll have to prove it again and again. It’s what drove him to drink in the first place. So is he now in the midst of deliverance or deeper in despair?
“Mr. Denton on Doomsday” is the first Twilight Zone episode with a true twist at the end, the kind of twist that would help define the series. It’s certainly not in my Twilight Zone Top Ten, but maybe the Top 50. (This episode also features a young Martin Landau and a very young Doug McClure.)
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