Steve Brand

Steve Brand is the main protagonist of "The Monsters are Due on Maple Street", the 22nd episode of The Twilight Zone's first season, which aired in 1960. He is a man who tried to stop a riot sparked by enigmatic alien invaders, although he never saw the true invaders.
Steve Brand was portrayed by the late Claude Akins. In the 2003 remake of the episode, titled "The Monsters Are on Maple Street", Steve's role was filled by the more condescending Will Marshall.
== Biography ==
=== Early life ===
By the early 1960s, Steve Brand and his wife, Myra, lived on Maple Street, a neighborhood somewhere in the United States, knowing many neighbors by name, and they appeared to turn to him whenever there was trouble in town. He also had an interest in ham radios, and his wife gave him a manual on how to build one. On many nights, Steve would spend hours tinkering away at the radio.
=== The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street ===
One day, at precisely 6:43 PM, Steve was washing his car in front of his house when what looked like a meteor zoomed by overhead, creating a loud roaring sound and flashing lights, but there was no sound of impact, making Steve question if it was a meteor. Then, all power, gas, radio signals, and phone lines in the community were cut off, confusing everyone, Steve noticing it when his wife told him that the stove abruptly turned off. An elderly man named Pete Van Horn decided to investigate the next street, Floral Street, walking out of the neighborhood.
Steve's neighbors began telling him that their power went out, and all gathered by his yard to discuss what happened. Steve noted that it didn't make sense, with a fellow neighbor named Charlie Farnsworth noting that it couldn't be a storm, as there were no clouds around. Steve then realized it wasn't a simple outage, as even portable radios stopped working, offering to drive downtown to get more information, but found that his car wouldn't start, despite just being filled with gas. With that, Steve and Charlie decided to just walk downtown, but as they turned to leave, a young boy named Tommy urged them not to go, saying that 'they' wouldn't let anyone leave, saying that the meteor was actually a ship, and when Steve asked where he got that idea from, Tommy revealed that he read many comic books where a complete power and communication shutoff was a prelude to an alien invasion. Steve and Charlie tried to leave again, Steve trying to reassure him that it was just a meteor, but Tommy protested again, saying that in the stories, the only people who could leave were alien agents disguised as humans who were planted in the settlements. Steve asked him to clarify, and Tommy said how the comic book aliens sent aliens who resembled a typical human family, unnerving the townsfolk.
Steve tried to laugh it off, jokingly saying the neighbors should check to see who's human. Then, before Steve and Charlie could try leaving again, a man named Les Goodman, Charlie's neighbor, tried to start his car, only for it to start on its own when he walked away from it, shocking everyone. The neighbors suddenly became suspicious of Les, one pointing out that Les didn't come outside to see the passing meteor, making Charlie note that Les and his family were real 'oddballs.' The townsfolk then decided to question Les, and began running over to him, until Steve ordered them to stop and not make a mob. Regardless, they all approached Les, just as his car abruptly stopped working. Several neighbors began demanding to know how Les' car started, and Les denied any knowledge, asking Steve what was going on when he stepped forward. Steve tried to explain the situation, that there seemed to be a suspicion that someone in town was an alien, asking Les if he knew anything about it. Les thought it was a joke, and his car suddenly started up again. At Charlie's urging, a neighbor then revealed that she saw Les stand out in his yard in the very early morning, just looking up at the sky as if watching for an incoming spaceship, but Les said he just had insomnia, yelling that the townsfolk were starting up a nightmare.
Regardless, Charlie had the neighbors keep a watch on the Goodmans as night fell, Steve also hanging around. Eventually getting tired of the paranoid behavior, Steve approached Les, and tried to explain that the people were just scared, but Les didn't want to hear it, saying that he just liked to look at the sky and talk early walks, his wife saying that what the people were doing was madness. Steve agreed that the situation was, in fact, madness, but Charlie then yelled at him that he'd better watch who he spoke with, saying that Steve was not above suspicion, and Steve replied that Charlie also wasn't in the clear, pointing out that the people were holding everyone suspect. Charlie called for the townsfolk to keep watch, but Steve urged him to go home and get some sleep rather than act like a self-appointed judge, but that just made Charlie suspicious of him. Then, another neighbor, Don Martin, revealed that Myra had been talking about some odd things Steve had been doing. Steve pointed out that they might as well examine every little idiosyncrasy of everyone present, sarcastically telling Charlie to set up a kangaroo court and firing squad to help whittle down suspects. Don then said that he knew about the radio Steve was working on, a radio no one else had seen, making Charlie think that Steve was talking to aliens. Charlie then confronted Steve and demanded to know who he was talking to. Fed up with Charlie's increasingly paranoid and aggressive behavior, Steve angrily and sarcastically said that he was talking to three-headed space monsters in meteor-shaped ships, but Myra interrupted and explained how she bought Steve the radio's manual.
Myra then offered to show the radio, but Steve stopped her, saying that the people needed a search warrant before entering his house. Charlie tried to say that Steve couldn't afford to hide anything, but Steve rebuked him and asked to not be told who was dangerous and who was safe, berating all the townsfolk for being desperate to find some sort of scapegoat, saying that it would only result in the neighborhood tearing itself apart, making everyone go silent. Then, the people all heard footsteps in the distance, seeing a shadowy humanoid figure approaching from down the street. In their fright, they all huddled together to see who it was, and Don retrieved a shotgun from his house. Steve quickly took it from him, trying to tell him not to use violence, but Charlie ordered Steve to shut up, saying that Steve would just let the aliens walk over them, and took the shotgun from him, impulsively shooting the figure square in the chest. Charlie and the townsfolk then ran over to see that the figure was none other than Pete Van Horn, now dead, shocking Charlie, who tried to protest that he didn't know that the figure was Pete.
Charlie struggled to defend himself, saying he was just trying to protect his home, only for the lights in Charlie's house to turn on. The other neighbors began to turn on Charlie, demanding to know why his house suddenly had power, realizing that Charlie was quick to kill and tell people to look out, figuring that Charlie himself was the alien spy, trying to deflect suspicion. Charlie backed away while denying it, falling into a bush while insisting that somebody was playing a joke on him. Enraged, Steve then grabbed him and asked how he could call murder a joke, but Charlie pushed him away and threw another neighbor to the ground, fleeing to his house, but a neighbor then threw a rock at him, striking the lamp above him, the shards making a deep gash on Charlie's head. Charlie was forced to stop, but desperately screamed that he knew who the real alien was, suddenly accusing Tommy, some neighbors using Tommy's recounting of the alien invasion stories as evidence, throwing them into a frenzy. Steve, shocked by the sudden turn of events, demanded to know what was wrong with the people, ordering them to stop, but the neighbors ignored him and chased Tommy and his mother as they ran for their house.
Suddenly, the lights of a house belonging to a man named Bob Weaver turned on, before the lights to Don Martin's house also turned on, and then the house of a family by the name of Williams, Charlie still screaming that Tommy was the alien, and someone else calling Steve an alien. Lights and appliances up and down the neighborhood then began rapidly turning on and off, making the neighbors accuse each other of being alien spies and spark a riot despite Steve's protests, grabbing weapons and attacking each other. On a nearby hillside, the true aliens watched, as Steve desperately called out that the people were fools. It is unknown what happened to Steve, but it is possible that he was killed in the riot.
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