How The Twilight Zone episode timeline game works

Every card is a classic episode of The Twilight Zone, with a one-line premise under the title, and you sort them by original air date. One episode starts on the timeline with its date shown. Each new card goes into the gap you pick, among the episodes already in place. Pick right and the air date is revealed; pick wrong and it still lands where it belongs, but one of your three lives is gone.

This is an anthology, with a new story and cast every week, so there is no plot to follow. The whole run was also fairly short, which squeezes the cards close together. Knowing the famous twists won't help much on its own; what helps is a sense of which stories aired near each other. The best-remembered episodes are spread across the run rather than bunched in one place.

Want a longer game? On the deck tree you can tick this deck alongside any other one measured in exact air dates, and they shuffle into a single timeline together.

What's in the deck

Here are 28 of the 33 cards you might be dealt, with 5 more in the deck. Their values stay hidden until you place them.

Where Is Everybody? A man wanders an eerily deserted town, utterly alone
Walking Distance A weary man revisits his childhood hometown.
Escape Clause A hypochondriac trades his soul for immortality.
The Lonely A prisoner on an asteroid is given a robot woman.
Time Enough at Last A bookworm survives the apocalypse, then breaks his glasses.
Perchance to Dream A man fears that sleeping will kill him.
The Hitch-Hiker A driver is haunted by a recurring hitchhiker.
The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street Suspicion tears a suburban street apart.
Eye of the Beholder A woman awaits results of surgery to look normal.
Nick of Time A newlywed becomes obsessed with a diner fortune machine.
Back There A man travels back to the night Lincoln was shot.
The Invaders A woman battles tiny invaders in her farmhouse.
The Mind and the Matter A man wishes away everyone around him.
Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up? Diner patrons suspect a hidden alien.
The Obsolete Man A librarian is condemned by a totalitarian state.
A Game of Pool A pool shark plays a match against a dead legend.
It's a Good Life A boy with godlike powers terrorizes his town.
The Midnight Sun Earth drifts toward the sun as the world bakes.
Five Characters in Search of an Exit Strangers are trapped in a mysterious cylinder.
A Quality of Mercy A soldier sees war from the enemy's eyes.
Nothing in the Dark An old woman hides from Death.
The Hunt A hunter and his dog reach the afterlife.
Kick the Can Nursing-home residents chase lost youth.
Little Girl Lost Parents search for a daughter lost in another dimension.
He's Alive A young bigot is coached by Hitler's ghost.
Nightmare at 20,000 Feet A nervous flyer sees a gremlin on the wing.
The Last Night of a Jockey A washed-up jockey wishes to be big.
Living Doll A menacing talking doll torments a stepfather.