Examination Day

"Examination Day" is the first segment of the sixth episode from the first season (1985–86) of the television series The Twilight Zone. The segment is based on the short story "Examination Day" by Henry Slesar.

"Examination Day"
The Twilight Zone (1985 TV series) episode
Scene from "Examination Day"
Episode no.Season 1
Episode 6a
Directed byPaul Lynch
Written byPhilip DeGuere
(Based on the short story "Examination Day", by Henry Slesar. The story was first published in Playboy (February 1958).
Original air dateNovember 1, 1985 (1985-11-01)
Guest appearance(s)

David Mendenhall : Dickie Jordan
Christopher Allport : Richard Jordan
Elizabeth Norment : Ruth Jordan
Ed Krieger : Clerk #1
Myrna White : Clerk #2
Jeffrey Alan Chandler : Clerk #3

Plot

Dickie Jordan is an intelligent and curious youth. He and his family live in a dystopian future and it is Dickie's twelfth birthday. This means he is required by law to report to a government testing facility for a mandatory IQ test. As Dickie gleefully tells his parents how he was told by an older friend that the test is easy and that he's sure he will pass it, his parents appear stressed and avoid his questions. They bring him to the facility and go back home to wait anxiously for the results.

When Jordan arrives at the testing facility, he is given medicine by an examiner who says it will ensure he tells the truth. He is then given a series of intelligence tests and appears to do well, much to his delight.

After his parents await the test results at home for hours, they are contacted by the government. Jordan's test results are in: his intelligence quotient exceeded the legal limit that the totalitarian government allows and he was therefore executed. The parents burst into tears as the government examiners ask them how they would like to handle their son's remains.

Reception

The Evening Independent wrote that the episode was "a bit predictable, but the reason for the tragic climax was a shock".[1]

gollark: Alternatively, I guess it might be faster if you use symmetric encryption, because presumably you won't give random people access to *either* device.
gollark: Oh, yes, that too.
gollark: Trouble is that ECC stuff in CC currently is... not fast.
gollark: The door lock would then verify that the message was actually signed with the key, and the times are close enough.
gollark: The door lock or whatever would store the public key, the pocket computer the private key, and the pocket computer would constantly broadcast a message containing the current time, signed with its private key.

References
  1. Masters, Kay (1985-11-14). "New Episodes of Twilight Zone Are Clever, Unpredictable, Entertaining". Evening Standard. p. 3B.
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