Time Enough at Last

"Time Enough at Last" is episode 8 of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone. The episode was adapted from a short story written by Lynn Venable (pen name of Marilyn Venable). The short story appeared in the January 1953 edition of the science fiction magazine If: Worlds of Science Fiction about seven years before the television episode first aired. "Time Enough at Last" became one of the most famous episodes of the original Twilight Zone and has been frequently parodied since. It is "the story of a man who seeks salvation in the rubble of a ruined world" and tells of Henry Bemis /ˈbiːmɪs/, played by Burgess Meredith, who loves books, yet is surrounded by those who would prevent him from reading them. The episode follows Bemis through the post apocalyptic world, touching on such social issues as anti-intellectualism, the dangers of reliance upon technology, and the difference between aloneness (solitude) and loneliness.

Opening Narration

Plot summary

At Last

"At Last" is a 1941 song written by Mack Gordon and Harry Warren for the musical film Orchestra Wives, starring George Montgomery and Ann Rutherford. It was performed in the film and on record by Glenn Miller and his orchestra, with vocals by Ray Eberle and Pat Friday. Unreleased recordings of the song, however, had been made in 1941 by Glenn Miller for possible inclusion in the film Sun Valley Serenade. An orchestral version of the song without lyrics first appeared in that movie in 1941. A new version was recorded by Glenn Miller and His Orchestra in Chicago on May 20, 1942, and released by RCA Victor Records as a 78 single, catalogue number 27934-B, backed with the A side "(I've Got a Gal In) Kalamazoo". The song reached number 9 on the Billboard pop charts in 1942, staying on the charts for nine weeks, and later became a standard. In 1960, it was covered by blues singer Etta James in an arrangement by Riley Hampton that improvised on Warren's melody. James' version was the title track in the same-named album At Last! and was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999.

Advanced Technology Large-Aperture Space Telescope

The Advanced Technology Large-Aperture Space Telescope (ATLAST) is an 8 to 16.8-meter (26 to 55-foot) UV-optical-NIR space telescope proposed by Space Telescope Science Institute, the science operations center for the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). If launched, ATLAST would be a replacement and successor for the HST, with the ability to obtain spectroscopic and imaging observations of astronomical objects in the ultraviolet, optical, and infrared wavelengths, but with substantially better resolution than either HST or the planned James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). Like JWST, ATLAST will be launched to the Sun-Earth L₂ Lagrange point.

ATLAST is envisioned as a flagship mission of the 2025 – 2035 period, designed to determine whether there is life elsewhere in the galaxy. It will attempt to accomplish this by searching for "biosignatures" (such as molecular oxygen, ozone, water, and methane) in the spectra of terrestrial exoplanets.

The backronym that the project currently uses, 'ATLAST', is in fact a pun. It refers to the time taken to decide on a true, visible-light, successor for the Hubble Space Telescope. However, it is expected as the project progresses, a new name will be chosen for the mission.

At Last!

At Last! is the debut studio album by American blues and soul artist Etta James, which includes the title song "At Last". The album was released on Argo Records in November of 1960 and was produced by Phil and Leonard Chess. The original release contained four of James' hits on the Rhythm and Blues Records Chart between 1960 and 1961. It was her first of five studio albums James would release on the Argo label.

At Last! was ranked at #119 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time in 2012.

History

The original release of At Last! was issued as a 12-inch LP, consisting of ten tracks, with five songs on each side of the LP. Phil and Leonard Chess believed that James's voice had crossover pop potential, and therefore with her debut album, they both backed her with orchestral arrangements on many of the album's tracks, including "At Last" and "Trust in Me".At Last! spawned four singles to the R&B and pop charts between 1960 and 1961: "All I Could Do Was Cry", "Trust in Me"; "At Last", and "My Dearest Darling". It includes covers of pop and jazz standards, such as "Stormy Weather" and "A Sunday Kind of Love", as well as "I Just Want to Make Love to You". The album was digitally remastered and reissued as a compact disc July 27, 1999 under MCA/Chess, with four additional bonus duet tracks with Harvey Fuqua: "My Heart Cries," "Spoonful," "It's a Crying Shame," and "If I Can't Have You."

Time Enough

"Time Enough" (alternate title: "Enough Time") is a science fiction short story written by Damon Knight. It first appeared in the July 1960 issue of Amazing magazine and has since been reprinted twice, in Far Out (1961) and The Best of Damon Knight (1976).

Synopsis

A psychiatrist of the future (1978) treats a young man, using a machine that causes him to relive an embarrassing incident from his childhood. The psychiatrist describes the treatment as follows:

"The past can be altered. The scholar can take his exam over again, the lover can propose once more, the words that were thought of too late can be spoken...It's like a game of cards. If you don't like the hand that is dealt to you, you can take another, and after that, another..."

At the end of the story, having failed once again to resolve the childhood incident in a satisfactory way, the client leaves, with the words, "There's always tomorrow, isn't there?"

Background

About this story, Knight wrote

During an unproductive session at the typewriter in 1959, I said the hell with it and decided to go and lie down. While horizontal, with the dorsal muscles relaxed, I got the idea for "Time Enough," thus establishing a principle that I have followed successfully ever since: when you're not writing, get away from the typewriter.