“A Stop at Willoughby” is a classic Serling-esque tragedy about a man who feels utterly out of place in the present day. The episode (which Serling cited as his favorite of the series’ first season) stars James Daly as Gart Williams, an under-the-gun, unhappily married advertising executive who, while drifting off to sleep one day during his train commute, dreams he’s in late 19th century New York and has arrived at an idyllic small town called Willoughby. He returns to the town in a subsequent dream, and, upon awakening, resolves to disembark during his next reverie.
Williams finally follows through, and pledges to the townspeople he encounters that he plans to stay there — and, in a sense, he will because he’ll never wake up again. At the end of the tale, we learn Williams leaped from the moving commuter train to his death while shouting “something about Willoughby.”
If you asked me to name 50 “Twilight Zone” episodes that might make excellent feature-length films, I would not include “A Stop at Willoughby.” It’s a perfect short story with a devastating ending that would lose its kick if drawn out to 90 minutes.
How did “For All Time” get around this issue? By turning “A Stop at Willoughby” into a semi-remake of a novel by another “Twilight Zone” writer.