Profile in Silver

"**Profile in Silver**"
"Profile in Silver"
The Twilight Zone episode
	Scene from "Profile in Silver"
Episode no.	Season 1; Episode 20a
Directed by	John Hancock
Written by	J. Neil Schulman
Original air date	March 7, 1986
Guest appearances
	Lane Smith: Dr. Joseph Fitzgerald ; Andrew Robinson: John F. Kennedy ; Louis Giambalvo: Ray Livingston ; Barbara Baxley: Dr. Kate Wang ; Jerry Hardin: Lyndon B. Johnson ; Ken Hill: Presidential aide ; Huck Liggett: Texan
Episode chronology
← Previous; "Dead Run"	Next →; "Button, Button"
	List of episodes

"Profile in Silver" is the first segment of the twentieth episode of the first season (1985–86) of the television series The Twilight Zone. In this segment, a time traveler interferes in the assassination of John F. Kennedy, and must find a way to repair the resulting damage to the timeline.

Plot[]

Dr. Joseph Fitzgerald has traveled back in time from the year 2172 and assumed the identity of an instructor at Harvard University. His mission is to video record the assassination of John F. Kennedy, from whom he is descended. Fitzgerald is nervous about watching his own ancestor be murdered. Dr. Kate Wang, a colleague from his own time, rebukes him for carrying around a 1964 coin with Kennedy's image, but he implores her to let this minor infraction against time travel rules slide.

At the scene of the assassination, Fitzgerald impulsively shouts for the president to take cover. President Kennedy ducks, and the shot misses him. A grateful Kennedy invites Fitzgerald to stay at the White House. As Kennedy and his entourage return home, the president is notified that Secretary Nikita Khrushchev has been assassinated and Soviet troops have captured West Berlin.

Fitzgerald consults his wrist computer, which informs him that his alteration of history has caused massive rips in the fabric of time. The assassination of Khrushchev was not enough to fix the damage; all possible outcomes to this timeline involve war between the superpowers. The only way to repair the timeline is for Kennedy to die in the exact manner as history recorded.

The president's Secret Service bodyguard, Ray, has grown suspicious of Fitzgerald after finding his 1964 coin and examining his video camera, the shell of which is an unknown alloy that cannot be opened. Kennedy summons Fitzgerald, who tells them the whole story, showing a holographic display from the camera as partial proof. Kennedy volunteers to go back and be assassinated in order to repair time. Fitzgerald, overwhelmed by his ancestor's heroism, removes his Harvard school ring, which is actually his time travel device, and places it on Kennedy's hand. Kennedy is transported to Fitzgerald's home, in 2172. Fitzgerald takes Kennedy's place in the Dallas motorcade.

At Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas, the dead body of "President Kennedy" (actually Fitzgerald) is attended to by Dr. Wang. Ray recognizes her ring because it is identical to Fitzgerald's. She tells him she knew what Fitzgerald's fate would be, since even actions committed during time travel become part of history.

At Harvard University in 2172, John F. Kennedy delivers a speech to a classroom full of students, in which he implicitly lauds Fitzgerald's sacrifice and the sacrifices of other honorable men like him.

Response[]

Starloggers.com ranks it as number two on its top 10 Twilight Zone episodes from the 1980s.^[1]

References[]

^ https://starloggers.com/2019/04/07/top-10-twilight-zone-episodes-from-the-1980s

External links[]

[1] ttps://starloggers.com/2019/04/07/top-10-twilight-zone-episodes-from-the-1980s

[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"

Profile in Silver

Contents

Plot[]

Response[]

See also[]

References[]

External links[]