In this wonderfully weird episode of the 80s Twilight Zone a "regression therapist" (someone who helps others "discover their past lives" in order to adjust to confusing memories which disturb them), Mary McNeal, who has been trying to uncover her own memories from past lives, awakens in a time of crisis, where poverty and ruin are present in the city she lives, attempting to adjust to her current predicament, trying to sort out her place in this new environment. The irony of this new environment is that *everyone* remembers who they were in past lives and this knowledge has created chaos and anarchy, including people carrying grudges into their current life, along with certain "suicidals" who aren't satisfied with their current status because of what they once were (a slovenly, overweight woman who lives destitute takes sleeping pills because she was once rich and successful in her previous life, just an example of what Mary confronts lying in the streets of the city). An underground group looking for a savior believe McNeal could be the answer to the country's woes, perhaps she has a specific skill that can help cure the "disease" plaguing people—maybe she can use her *hypnosis therapy* in a far different way. Intriguing premise is a wholly original use of reincarnation to tell a story, perfectly suited for the Twilight Zone. Nigel Bennett, a "job locator" who works in an employment office, who informs his underground team of Sinclair, may be best known to horror fans as Nick Knight's nemesis, Lacroix, on "Forever Knight". Solid work from Barbara Stock as Mary McNeal, conveying the appropriate bewilderment and loss as she tries to find her way in a world that no longer needs her regressive therapy techniques, although there are skills at her disposal which might benefit a mankind in need of rescue.
5 Reviews
An amusing episode
Miles-1027 November 2010
Warning: Spoilers
Although it is not clear how she got from her own universe to the parallel(?) one, it does not matter. The humor of this episode lies in the fact that the people in the society where everyone remembers past lives are miserable because of it, suggesting that the protagonist's therapeutic work helping people to remember their past lives is not only useless in the new world but was of questionable value in her old one.
In one scene, she overhears a man in the new world saying that his boss has it in for him and has had it in for him in previous lives as well. People in this world frequently commit suicide because they know they will be reincarnated and so if things are not working out, they might as well start over. The clever denouement is made inevitable by the fact that past life regression is the opposite of what these people need.
In one scene, she overhears a man in the new world saying that his boss has it in for him and has had it in for him in previous lives as well. People in this world frequently commit suicide because they know they will be reincarnated and so if things are not working out, they might as well start over. The clever denouement is made inevitable by the fact that past life regression is the opposite of what these people need.
Past Forgotten
sol-kay27 August 2010
Warning: Spoilers
***SPOILERS*** Philosophic based "New Twilight Zone" episode about how there are things that are better forgotten then rediscovered; Like our many past lives that we lived since the dawn of time.
Mary McNeal, Barbara Stock, is a past life regression therapist who uses the past lives of her patients to cure them of any hangups they now have in the present. It seems to work for Mary's patients so she tries to regress herself back to her past lives in order to help herself as well. What in fact happens to Mary is that she goes forward not back in time where past life regression has become obsolete with everyone but herself knowing their previous existences. Which in fact effects their lives now with disastrous results!
Picked up by the local authorities in her not remembering her past lives Mary is accused of hiding something from them. It's unheard of a person not knowing his or her past lives unless he or she has something to hide! Like being the reincarnating of Adolph Hitler or Joseph Stalin! As Mary is put on strong medication,like truth serum,it becomes apparent that she's telling the truth. And with that she's asked by those interrogating her Jim Sinclair and Mr. Vigilante, Nigel Bennett & James Kidnie, to not only help them forget their past lives but everyone else she'll treat now as a now past erasing, not regression, therapist!
This "New Twilight Zone" episode shows us as well as Mary McNeal how both dangerous as well as silly it is to try to find ourselves in the past lives that we lived over the centuries. All it does is estranges us from the lives were living now which in many cases aren't all that much better! And worst of all it takes away our fear of the unknown or of death that in knowing that we only have one life to live we'll not be so ready to throw it away if it's not as good as we want it to be in order to be reincarnated into a much better life in the future which we have no guarantee of.
In the end Mary now with a better outlook on life as well as life after death helps those who want to forget their past lives so they can go on both concentrating and living their present ones.
Mary McNeal, Barbara Stock, is a past life regression therapist who uses the past lives of her patients to cure them of any hangups they now have in the present. It seems to work for Mary's patients so she tries to regress herself back to her past lives in order to help herself as well. What in fact happens to Mary is that she goes forward not back in time where past life regression has become obsolete with everyone but herself knowing their previous existences. Which in fact effects their lives now with disastrous results!
Picked up by the local authorities in her not remembering her past lives Mary is accused of hiding something from them. It's unheard of a person not knowing his or her past lives unless he or she has something to hide! Like being the reincarnating of Adolph Hitler or Joseph Stalin! As Mary is put on strong medication,like truth serum,it becomes apparent that she's telling the truth. And with that she's asked by those interrogating her Jim Sinclair and Mr. Vigilante, Nigel Bennett & James Kidnie, to not only help them forget their past lives but everyone else she'll treat now as a now past erasing, not regression, therapist!
This "New Twilight Zone" episode shows us as well as Mary McNeal how both dangerous as well as silly it is to try to find ourselves in the past lives that we lived over the centuries. All it does is estranges us from the lives were living now which in many cases aren't all that much better! And worst of all it takes away our fear of the unknown or of death that in knowing that we only have one life to live we'll not be so ready to throw it away if it's not as good as we want it to be in order to be reincarnated into a much better life in the future which we have no guarantee of.
In the end Mary now with a better outlook on life as well as life after death helps those who want to forget their past lives so they can go on both concentrating and living their present ones.
I Just Don't Recall
Hitchcoc2 July 2017
A young psychologist who specializes in recall therapy, tries it on herself. She awakens to a world where people die and come back to life, but they retain the memories of the past. This causes great sadness and distress and danger. Unfortunately, she has trouble at first even understanding what is going on. She is grabbed up a by a small group of men who have a mission. What that mission is is at the center of this episode. This is quite creative and very thought provoking. The problem is that the whole premise is quite insane and the conclusion not quite satisfying.
To Remember, or Not to Remember
chrstphrtully5 January 2017
Warning: Spoilers
After a career of helping clients surmount their traumas by getting them in touch with their past lives, regression therapist Mary McLean (Barbara Stock) steps into a world where EVERYONE knows their past lives. When she can't recall her own past lives, she is kidnapped and drugged by some shadowy figures, who try to find out why she's the only person not subjected to the hell of those memories.
"Memories" plays like one of those "Twilight Zone" episodes that probably sounded fantastic in theory, but really comes off as something of a mess in execution. Part of the problem is that Bob Underwood's script seems really pleased with its idea of inverting the standard notion of releasing past traumas, without grasping the implications of its key plot twist -- i.e., Mary finds a new purpose helping folks repress those past memories, which are apparently more traumatic. Rather than address the downsides of both approaches (or at least, make some dramatic irony out of a society that would want to repress memories), Underwood's script simply dives into the notion that repression is always a good thing, with no apparent awareness of the potential consequences. As such, instead of playing as a satire of faddish psychological theories (from both extremes), it plays instead as an exercise in the author's blind faith in a quick fix.
Stock does what she can with what little she's given to do. Her disorientation during the initial interview comes off as genuine, and her character's compassion for her clients is real enough. Unfortunately, this believability is ill served by a story that doesn't seem to know where it wants to go, much less believe in the destination.
"Memories" plays like one of those "Twilight Zone" episodes that probably sounded fantastic in theory, but really comes off as something of a mess in execution. Part of the problem is that Bob Underwood's script seems really pleased with its idea of inverting the standard notion of releasing past traumas, without grasping the implications of its key plot twist -- i.e., Mary finds a new purpose helping folks repress those past memories, which are apparently more traumatic. Rather than address the downsides of both approaches (or at least, make some dramatic irony out of a society that would want to repress memories), Underwood's script simply dives into the notion that repression is always a good thing, with no apparent awareness of the potential consequences. As such, instead of playing as a satire of faddish psychological theories (from both extremes), it plays instead as an exercise in the author's blind faith in a quick fix.
Stock does what she can with what little she's given to do. Her disorientation during the initial interview comes off as genuine, and her character's compassion for her clients is real enough. Unfortunately, this believability is ill served by a story that doesn't seem to know where it wants to go, much less believe in the destination.
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