Donald Pleasence plays Professor Ellis Fowler, an elderly literature teacher who has served over fifty years at the same prep school in Vermont.\u00a0 We meet up with him at the last class before the Christmas vacation.\u00a0 He chides his students for their lack of scholarly interest in his curriculum but he finishes by wishing them warm good wishes for their vacation.<\/p>\n
But when the headmaster calls him into his office he finds out that he has been forced into retirement.\u00a0 Going home Fowler reflects on the generations of boys he has taught but to his mind, he hasn\u2019t accomplished anything.\u00a0 He believes that the lessons he taught were of no value to the boys in his classes.\u00a0 Reflecting on the end of his career to his housekeeper, Fowler considers himself a failure.\u00a0 Afterward he decides to commit suicide with a revolver he takes from his desk.<\/p>\n
He walks over to a statue on campus of Horace Mann that has the motto, “Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity.”\u00a0 He says to the statue that he has won no victory and is ashamed but he will die.\u00a0 But suddenly the class bell inexplicably starts tolling and Fowler follows the bell to his classroom.<\/p>\n
As he stands in front of the empty classroom suddenly spectral forms solidify into young men at the desks.\u00a0 One by one they walk up to Fowler and he recognizes them as the grown forms of some of his students.\u00a0 Each of them tells the heroic circumstances of his death (in war or in the interests of humanity) and tells Fowler what lesson he learned from his Literature teacher that inspired him to the courageous actions he took.<\/p>\n
Finally Mr. Fowler returns home and his students serenade him with Christmas carols outside his window.\u00a0 Now Mr. Fowler tells his housekeeper that he is very satisfied to retire, the changing of the guard of the title.<\/p>\n
This is a sort of a Twilight Zone version of Goodbye Mr. Chips.\u00a0 Donald Pleasance does a good job and projects the emotions needed for the transition from despair to happiness.\u00a0 This is another sentimental story drawing on the traditional values of the old pre-war world surviving into the present.\u00a0 It\u2019s slightly derivative but I\u2019ll be a little generous and give it a B.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Donald Pleasence plays Professor Ellis Fowler, an elderly literature teacher who has served over fifty years at the same prep school in Vermont.\u00a0 We meet<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[237,4,244,240,1661],"tags":[38,1355,1194,44,309,265,1691,1919,154,1692,838],"class_list":["post-7192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","category-sff","category-sff-tv-reviews","category-tv-reviews","category-twilight-zone","tag-review","tag-reviews","tag-rod-serling","tag-sci-fi","tag-sci-fi-tv-review","tag-science-fiction","tag-sff-tv-show-reviews","tag-the-changing-of-the-guard","tag-tv-review","tag-tv-reviews","tag-twilight-zone"],"yoast_head":"\n