6.4/10370 votes#1 - The Once and Future King
Season 2 Episode 1 - Aired 9/27/1986
An Elvis impersonator is transported to the 1950s where he meets the real Elvis who thinks that the impersonator is his long dead brother.
Director: Jim McBride
Writer: George R. R. Martin
6.5/10335 votes#2 - A Saucer of Loneliness
Season 2 Episode 2 - Aired 9/27/1986
A quiet waitress sees a glowing UFO, which gives her a message that everyone wants to know. She refuses to reveal exactly what the message is.
Director: John D. Hancock
Writer: David Gerrold, Theodore Sturgeon
6.3/10292 votes#3 - What Are Friends For?
Season 2 Episode 3 - Aired 10/4/1986
"What Are Friends For?" is the first segment of the twenty-sixth episode of the television series The New Twilight Zone.
Director: Gus Trikonis
Writer: J. Michael Straczynski
6.2/10345 votes#4 - Aqua Vita
Season 2 Episode 4 - Aired 10/4/1986
This episode is a cruel "fountain of youth" spin-off. A fortyish reporter is at risk of losing her anchor position on a network evening news broadcast to a younger reporter. She hears about a special type of bottled water from a friend of hers. She orders some at a relatively low cost. It works. Yet she finds she must drink it every day in order to retain her youth. When she orders another 5-gallon container. The price jumps up to $200. She talks to the water deliveryman. He refers he to her as "girlie". She remarks "girlie" is an old term and asks for his actual age. He says something along the lines of "I don't think you'd want to know". She is halfway done with the second bottle and is tearing apart her place looking for items to pawn when her husband shows up. They have no kids. She explains what has happened and decides to end her dilemma by balancing their situations.
Director: Paul Tucker
Writer: Rockne S. O'Bannon
7.5/10361 votes#5 - The Storyteller
Season 2 Episode 5 - Aired 10/11/1986
In the early 20th century a young woman takes a job as a teacher in a one-room schoolhouse. One of her students, Mica, secretly takes extra books home to read. When the teacher confronts him, she finds that the boy is reading the books to his ailing grandfather - who claims to be more than a hundred and forty years old!
Director: Paul Lynch
Writer: Rockne S. O'Bannon
6.8/10271 votes#6 - Nightsong
Season 2 Episode 6 - Aired 10/11/1986
A young DJ working the graveyard shift at a radio station rediscovers a record album by her boyfriend who disappeared five years ago. When he suddenly appears again, she is surprised and upset.
Director: Bradford May
Writer: Michael Reaves
6.3/10298 votes#7 - The After Hours
Season 2 Episode 7 - Aired 10/18/1986
A Woman goes to a mall for a doll, but encounters strange things after the closing hours...
Director: Bruce Malmuth
Writer: Rockne S. O'Bannon, Rod Serling
7.2/10341 votes#8 - Lost and Found
Season 2 Episode 8 - Aired 10/18/1986
A young college student has been losing personal items for some time. The mystery is resolved when she finds two time-travelers in her closet.
Director: Gus Trikonis
Writer: George R. R. Martin
7.1/10345 votes#9 - The World Next Door
Season 2 Episode 9 - Aired 10/18/1986
A hen-pecked man with a boring life and a secret yearn to build inventions finds a secret door in his basement that leads to a parallel world. In that world, his counterpart is a rich famous inventor in a Victorian-style setting who is equally bored with his life. The two switch lives and are happy ever after.
Director: Paul Lynch
Writer: N/A
6.6/10294 votes#10 - The Toys of Caliban
Season 2 Episode 10 - Aired 12/4/1986
An elderly husband and wife live in terror of their son, a boy who has the power to summon anything he can conceive. They are forced to limit what he sees and reads, since anything he summons has to come from...somewhere. When he becomes sick from eating too much summoned food, they take him to a hospital and attract the attention of a social worker, who doesn't know of the boy's power and is shocked at the parents' harsh treatment. The boy inadvertently kills his mother when he sees a picture of a heart in a magazine, and "summons" it out of her chest. Later, as the social worker comes calling, the boy demonstrates his power by summoning his missing mother...who has been two weeks in the grave. As the worker summons the police, the boy's father has him summon an explosion, killing them both rather than have his son fall into the hands of the government.
Director: Thomas J. Wright
Writer: George R. R. Martin
5.5/10268 votes#11 - The Convict's Piano
Season 2 Episode 11 - Aired 12/11/1986
A man in prison who insists that he is innocent of a crime discovers a piano that transports him to the old days of gangsters.
Director: Thomas J. Wright
Writer: N/A
6.0/101 votes#12 - The Road Less Traveled
Season 2 Episode 12 - Aired 12/18/1986
A man who dodges the Vietnam draft is haunted by visions of his other life as a soldier during the war.
Director: Wes Craven
Writer: George R. R. Martin
4.0/102 votes#13 - The Card
Season 2 Episode 13 - Aired 2/21/1987
A compulsive spender accepts "The Card" to keep up her habit. Unfortunately stringent penalties kick in for late payments.
Director: Bradford May
Writer: Michael Cassutt
NaN/100 votes#14 - The Junction
Season 2 Episode 14 - Aired 2/21/1987
A modern-day miner has an argument with his wife and then goes off to work in the local mine. A collapse traps him, but he finds another survivor - a miner who claims to be from 1912. The two men figure out that somehow they have become connected through time. The modern-day man helps the 1912 miner to survive, and the latter is rescued. The modern-day miner appears trapped...but the rescuers look in an unexpected spot and find him. It turns out the 1912 miner wrote a letter marked for delivery 74 years later directing them where to search.
Director: Bill Duke
Writer: Virginia Aldridge
7.0/101 votes#15 - Joy Ride
Season 2 Episode 15 - Aired 5/21/1987
Two teenage boys and their girlfriends steal a recently deceased man's classic car. While they are on a joyride, they accidentally kill a policeman.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
NaN/100 votes#16 - Shelter Skelter
Season 2 Episode 16 - Aired 5/21/1987
A survivalist traps himself in his bomb shelter when a nuclear blast finally comes.
Director: Martha Coolidge
Writer: N/A
NaN/100 votes#17 - Private Channel
Season 2 Episode 17 - Aired 5/21/1987
On board an airplane, a lightning storm transforms a boy's walkman into a telepathic tuning device that informs him that the man sitting next to him is carrying a bomb.
Director: Peter Medak
Writer: N/A
6.0/101 votes#18 - Time and Teresa Golowitz
Season 2 Episode 18 - Aired 7/10/1987
A Broadway composer, Bluestone, who has just died of a heart attack is visited by "Prince", who gives him one wish because of his contributions to entertainment. Bluestone wants to relive a youthful encounter with the girl of his dreams, Mary Ellen Kasgrove. When he returns to the high school party, nothing is as he remembers it but one girl, Teresa Golowitz, sits by herself. Prince, in a girl's body, reminds him that Teresa committed suicide that night. Bluestone gets her to sing and convinces her to meet him the next day. When he returns to the present, Bluestone finds out that Teresa went on to become a famous singer and that because of his interference he won't be going to the "higher place". He and "Prince" head off to lower fields to prepare some entertainment.
Director: Shelley Levinson
Writer: Alan Brennert
NaN/100 votes#19 - Voices in the Earth
Season 2 Episode 19 - Aired 7/10/1987
In the far future an expedition returns to a desolate barren Earth where a scientist begins to see the ghosts of those who died years ago.
Director: Curtis Harrington
Writer: Alan Brennert
3.5/102 votes#20 - Song of the Younger World
Season 2 Episode 20 - Aired 7/17/1987
In 1916 a girl and a young man from a reformatory for wayward boys fall in love and try to get away from her father, the superintendent. He finds out and doesn't approve of their love, locking away his daughter and punishing the boy. With the help of a wandering vagrant the girl finds a way to use a book to transfer both her and the boy into a primordial world where they become wolves and can live free and together.
Director: Noel Black
Writer: Anthony Lawrence
NaN/100 votes#21 - The Girl I Married
Season 2 Episode 21 - Aired 7/17/1987
An attorney and his wife have successful careers. They feel something is lacking in their marriage. Soon, they encounter younger versions of their mates.
Director: N/A
Writer: J. M. DeMatteis
The Best Episodes of The Twilight Zone Season 2
Every episode of The Twilight Zone Season 2 ranked from best to worst. Discover the Best Episodes of The Twilight Zone Season 2!
This 1980s revival of the classic sci-fi series features a similar style to the original anthology series. Each episode tells a tale (sometimes two or...
Genres:Sci-Fi & FantasyDramaMystery
Network:CBS
Season 2 Ratings Summary
"The Once and Future King" is the best rated episode of "The Twilight Zone" season 2. It scored 6.4/10 based on 370 votes. Directed by Jim McBride and written by George R. R. Martin, it aired on 9/27/1986. This episode is rated 0.1 points higher than the second-best, "A Saucer of Loneliness".