This is a little like a David Lynch nightmare. Michael Sarazen and Carol Kane (two sort of wacko actors) give birth to a blue pyramid. It turns out their child has slipped into the fourth dimension after a malfunction in a high tech machine. The little pyramid (named Py) is actually the child living space. Carol Kane's character is all over the place when it comes to the child's condition. She begins to drink heavily. Her husband and she begin to fight. She is a big time mess and she starts to need other people. The husband wants to be free of all this, but then ha falls back on past thinking. The couple is given a solution (sort of) and must make a major decision.
6 Reviews
"Having the baby's really brought us together!"
classicsoncall9 March 2022
Warning: Spoilers
I've seen Carol Kane portray so may goofy characters that it was unusual to see her here in a role that was played straight. As a sci-fi story, I guess this was alright, but what really aggravated me in this one was the attitude of Dr. Walcott (Peter Bland). Involved with a new high tech method of birthing a child, he didn't seem to know a whole lot about it. I'll give him credit for checking with the Horne's (Michael Sarrazin, Carol Kane) on whether they wanted to follow through with the OB3 birthing machine, but once the baby was somehow born into the fourth dimension, he didn't have a clue how to get it back or on what timetable. Personally, I wouldn't have trusted the guy.
To make a long story short, this episode took the long way around to demonstrate that being one with family takes precedence over all other considerations. So the message there was a good one. But once again, before submitting to the procedure that would turn Mom and Dad into pyramids, the good doctor offered no assurances on a return trip. And besides that, his bedside manner was terrible.
To make a long story short, this episode took the long way around to demonstrate that being one with family takes precedence over all other considerations. So the message there was a good one. But once again, before submitting to the procedure that would turn Mom and Dad into pyramids, the good doctor offered no assurances on a return trip. And besides that, his bedside manner was terrible.
May be the worst episode of the series...
tles718 November 2020
The fourth dimension
gridoon202426 August 2015
Warning: Spoilers
One of Ray Bradbury's most unique stories, and also one of those most likely to stay in one's memory. The pitch is simple: because of a malfunctioning "birth program", a baby is born healthy in another dimension, but looks like a small blue nightlight toy pyramid in ours! It doesn't make much sense in a "literal" sense (how does the baby survive for months in a separate dimension?), but it's not meant to; this is a poetic sci-fi story, with a beautiful ending. The near-future (for 1992) world is depicted with subtle technological touches that don't overstretch the show's meager budget, while Carol Kane gives a fine performance as the increasingly (and understandably) distressed mother. *** out of 4.
Do not get the hate for this one
loricossette-2006124 September 2021
Is the plot weird and impossible? Maybe, but this is Bradbury and I liked this episode! I will admit I will watch anything with Carol Kane, longtime fan, she is unique and an absolutely wonderful actress! Her career has kept her one of the most interesting actors of all times, she has never phoned in a performance, and that incudes this episode. Put reservations aside and give this one a chance!!
Sentiment Overcomes the So-So Acting and Plot
Gislef23 October 2020
Warning: Spoilers
First a disclaimer: I hate Carol Kane. I don't know if it's her "wacky" performances on everything from 'Taxi' to 'Addams Family' to 'Gotham'. But IMO she just doesn't have the strength to do a serious performance. Her presence drags down every scene that her character Polly is in, and the child isn't.
Fortunately, Michael Sarrazin manages to pull it out. Sarrazin, not the greatest of actors in anything I recall, gives a good performance here as a father who has to leave with his child's "birth defect". Sadly, the episode is too short to really dwell on what parents have to deal with when their child isn't "perfect" or anywhere close to it. Most of the episode's 30 minutes are either setting up the basic issue ("Ooh, the child is a blue pyramid! How'd he get that way?") or setting up the easily-overcome conflict between husband and wife.
There's also a lot of "What the heck is going on?" in the episode. Granted, Bradbury was never big on the s.f. But still, as another reviewer noted, how does the baby survive for X amount of months when it can't eat? Why does the pyramid "breath" but it can't move from one spot to another on its own? Why can't the parents move once they're transformed into pyramids?
But Sarrazin and even Kane to some degree manage to sell the whole thing, particular Sarrazin, as parents whose love for their child overcomes their disgust as the child's "appearance". "Love overcomes all" may be a trite message, but at least here it's a heartfelt one.
Part of it is the sound effects of the baby "talking". Whoever was the sound editor does an excellent job of both making Py sound like a baby, and like a canary as well. As a workman (who looks disturbingly like Ryan Stiles) describes it. What they say about how babies are "designed" to imprint on adult humans, no matter what species they are, is true, I guess.
Overall, "Tomorrow" is a brief interlude into the strange world of Ray Bradbury. It doesn't do anything new or unusual with the concept: it's basically a retelling of 'Twilight Zone's "Eye of the Beholder" and 'Night Gallery''s "The Special One". But by focusing on the parents and a baby rather than a young adult, it manages to stand on its own.
But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. What do you think?
Fortunately, Michael Sarrazin manages to pull it out. Sarrazin, not the greatest of actors in anything I recall, gives a good performance here as a father who has to leave with his child's "birth defect". Sadly, the episode is too short to really dwell on what parents have to deal with when their child isn't "perfect" or anywhere close to it. Most of the episode's 30 minutes are either setting up the basic issue ("Ooh, the child is a blue pyramid! How'd he get that way?") or setting up the easily-overcome conflict between husband and wife.
There's also a lot of "What the heck is going on?" in the episode. Granted, Bradbury was never big on the s.f. But still, as another reviewer noted, how does the baby survive for X amount of months when it can't eat? Why does the pyramid "breath" but it can't move from one spot to another on its own? Why can't the parents move once they're transformed into pyramids?
But Sarrazin and even Kane to some degree manage to sell the whole thing, particular Sarrazin, as parents whose love for their child overcomes their disgust as the child's "appearance". "Love overcomes all" may be a trite message, but at least here it's a heartfelt one.
Part of it is the sound effects of the baby "talking". Whoever was the sound editor does an excellent job of both making Py sound like a baby, and like a canary as well. As a workman (who looks disturbingly like Ryan Stiles) describes it. What they say about how babies are "designed" to imprint on adult humans, no matter what species they are, is true, I guess.
Overall, "Tomorrow" is a brief interlude into the strange world of Ray Bradbury. It doesn't do anything new or unusual with the concept: it's basically a retelling of 'Twilight Zone's "Eye of the Beholder" and 'Night Gallery''s "The Special One". But by focusing on the parents and a baby rather than a young adult, it manages to stand on its own.
But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. What do you think?
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