The year was 2002, and UPN’s not-very-successful “Twilight Zone” reboot, hosted by Forest Whitaker, wasn’t exactly setting the world on fire. This, despite the fact that there were actually some really great episodes, like the one where Jason Alexander played the Grim Reaper and tried to end his own life, or the creepy sequel to the classic “Twilight Zone” episode “It’s a Good Life.”
One of the ways the UPN show tried to stand out against a slew of network and cable competitors was with a series of notable guest stars. Remember when Katherine Heigl tried to kill baby Hitler? It was that kind of show. And at the time it’s fair to say that Jessica Simpson was an even bigger “get.”
The episode, “The Collection,” stars Simpson as Miranda Evans, a college student studying child psychology. She takes a gig babysitting a little girl named Danielle, whose parents are overbearing but who lives in a nice house with a giant collection of dolls. Funny thing about those dolls: Danielle keeps them behind locked glass doors and refuses to let them out, even to play with them. (Danielle is played by Ashley Edner, by the way, who recently did a six-episode stint on the hit series “Evil,” and even played the alien in extremely elaborate makeup who Chekov flirted with at Captain Kirk’s birthday party in “Star Trek Beyond.”)
When one of Danielle’s dolls mysteriously falls over, she insists on fixing it herself, but when she opens the cabinet and grabs the plastic figure she screams! A doll she calls Shelly bit her, or so she claims, so Miranda takes her downstairs to bandage the wound, and wouldn’t you know it, Miranda leaves the key in the cabinet. When they get back upstairs … Shelly is gone.