I of Newton

"**I of Newton**"
"I of Newton"
The Twilight Zone episode
	Scene from "I of Newton" featuring Ron Glass as Demon.
Episode no.	Season 1; Episode 12b
Directed by
Written by	Alan Brennert (based on the short story by Joe Haldeman)
Original air date	December 13, 1985
Guest appearances
	Sherman Hemsley: Sam ; Ron Glass: Demon
Episode chronology
← Previous; "Her Pilgrim Soul"	Next →; "Night of the Meek"
	List of episodes

"I of Newton" is the second segment of the twelfth episode from the first season (1985–86) of the television series The Twilight Zone. The teleplay was based on a short story by Joe Haldeman which first appeared in the June 1970 issue of Fantastic Stories magazine (Volume 19, no. 5). It is a play on the deal with the Devil motif, in which a mathematician completely involuntarily makes a pact to sell his soul and must win a battle of wits with a demon in order to get out of it.

Plot[]

Sam is a college professor frustrated at his multiple failures to solve a complex mathematical equation, angrily exclaiming, "I'd sell my soul to get this thing right!" A demon appears and says that despite being an idle remark in a conditional mood, Sam's statement still constitutes a binding contract. He intends to sell Sam's soul to otherworldly bidders.

The demon says the terms are as follows: Sam is permitted to ask three questions about how the process works or of demonic powers. Sam then may ask a fourth question or make a request of the demon. If the demon fails to perform the task or to answer the question, the deal is off and Sam's soul is spared. When Sam incredulously says "Really?" the demon responds "Yes, really," using up Sam's first question.

Sam asks if there are any physical limitations to the demon's powers, and for his third question, if there is any place from which the demon cannot find his way back. The demon denies any limitation in either regard. Sam then delivers the demon's task, which he has now established that he cannot accomplish: "Get lost." Defeated, the demon screams and melts away, leaving only his sunglasses. Sam throws them away and turns back to his math problem with a rueful smile, noting, "Well, that guy wasn't any help at all."

Differences from original short story[]

In the original short story, the exclamation that is tacked onto a string of math to summon the demon is "no, goddammit". The writer of the teleplay, Alan Brennert, devised the demon's screen characterization as a sort of demonic Hollywood agent who wants to sell Sam's soul.^[1] In the short story, the demon plans to eat Sam's soul rather than sell it; he observes, "Unfortunately the loss of your soul will drop your intelligence to that of a vegetable — I am also a vegetarian." When the demon has been banished (his final words being "You and Ernest Hemingway!"), Sam plays with the Fermat's Theorem disproof fragment the demon left behind and thinks about summoning the demon and tricking him again. The final sentence is fashioned after Aesop and suggests that if there was a devil there must also be a God, "watching his language."

References[]

^ Brennert, Alan (2020). The Twilight Zone: The Complete '80s Series: Audio Commentary - "I of Newton" (DVD). CBS DVD.

External links[]

"I of Newton" at IMDb

[1] Brennert, Alan (2020). The Twilight Zone: The Complete '80s Series: Audio Commentary - "I of Newton" (DVD). CBS DVD.

[1]

v t The Twilight Zone (1985) episodes
Season 1	"Shatterday" "A Little Peace and Quiet" "Wordplay" "Dreams for Sale" "Chameleon" "Healer" "Children's Zoo" "Kentucky Rye" "Little Boy Lost" "Wish Bank" "Nightcrawlers" "If She Dies" "Ye Gods" "Examination Day" "A Message from Charity" "Teacher's Aide" "Paladin of the Lost Hour" "Act Break" "The Burning Man" "Dealer's Choice" "Dead Woman's Shoes" "Wong's Lost and Found Emporium" "The Shadow Man" "The Uncle Devil Show" "Opening Day" "The Beacon" "One Life, Furnished in Early Poverty" "Her Pilgrim Soul" "I of Newton" "Night of the Meek" "But Can She Type?" "The Star" "Still Life" "The Little People of Killany Woods" "The Misfortune Cookie" "Monsters!" "A Small Talent for War" "A Matter of Minutes" "The Elevator" "To See the Invisible Man" "Tooth and Consequences" "Welcome to Winfield" "Quarantine" "Gramma" "Personal Demons" "Cold Reading" "The Leprechaun-Artist" "Dead Run" "Profile in Silver" "Button, Button" "Need to Know" "Red Snow" "Take My Life...Please!" "Devil's Alphabet" "The Library" "Shadow Play" "Grace Note" "A Day in Beaumont" "The Last Defender of Camelot"
Season 2	"The Once and Future King" "A Saucer of Loneliness" "What Are Friends For?" "Aqua Vita" "The Storyteller" "Nightsong" "The After Hours" "Lost and Found" "The World Next Door" "The Toys of Caliban" "The Convict's Piano" "The Road Less Traveled" "The Card" "The Junction" "Joy Ride" "Shelter Skelter" "Private Channel" "Time and Teresa Golowitz" "Voices in the Earth" "Song of the Younger World" "The Girl I Married"
Season 3	"The Curious Case of Edgar Witherspoon" "Extra Innings" "The Crossing" "The Hunters" "Dream Me a Life" "Memories" "The Hellgramite Method" "Our Selena Is Dying" "The Call" "The Trance" "Acts of Terror" "20/20 Vision" "There Was an Old Woman" "The Trunk" "Appointment on Route 17" "The Cold Equations" "Stranger in Possum Meadows" "Street of Shadows" "Something in the Walls" "A Game of Pool" "Room 2426" "The Mind of Simon Foster" "The Wall" "Cat and Mouse" "Rendezvous in a Dark Place" "Many, Many Monkeys" "Love Is Blind" "Crazy as a Soup Sandwich" "Special Service" "Father and Son Game"

I of Newton

Contents

Plot[]

Differences from original short story[]

See also[]

References[]

External links[]