The Silence (The Twilight Zone) The Silence (The Twilight Zone) "The Silence" is episode 61 of the American television anthology series "The Twilight Zone". The plot of this episode was based in part on Anton Chekhov's "The Bet". It originally aired on April 28, 1961 on CBS, and was the first of only four "Twilight Zone" episodes (the others being season three's "The Shelter", season two's "Dust" and season five's "The Jeopardy Room") to feature a story without any supernatural or science fiction elements. It does, however, contain one of the series' signature twist endings. Colonel Archie Taylor, a gruff aristocrat, has difficulty enjoying his
Twilight of the Idols with a Hammer". The former title, "Götzen-Dämmerung" in German, is a pun on the title of Richard Wagner's opera, "Götterdämmerung", or 'Twilight of the Gods'. "Götze" is a German word for "idol" or "false god". Walter Kaufmann has suggested that in his use of the word Nietzsche might be indebted to Francis Bacon. Nietzsche criticizes German culture of the day as unsophisticated and nihilistic, and shoots some disapproving arrows at key French, British, and Italian cultural figures who represent similar tendencies. In contrast to all these alleged representatives of cultural "decadence", Nietzsche applauds Caesar, Napoleon, Goethe, Thucydides and the Sophists