It's often been said that insanity is defined as doing the exact same thing over and over again and expecting different results. This tense Twilight Zone episode epitomizes this as a group of 3 spacemen are confronted with the strangest situation of their lives. The episode begins with a flying saucer called E89, piloted by Captain Ross (Jack Klugman) and two of his lieutenants, Mason and Carter. Mason sees something on a radar scope and thinks it might be a sign that the planet is inhabited and therefore suitable for human colonization. The ship lands on the strange world, and Ross and his men are shocked to come across a crashed ship which seems to be a carbon copy of their own. Moreover, upon going into its bridge, they find dead bodies of themselves. Ross tries to reason that there's a logical explanation for everything, and says they saw what they saw because time has been altered in some way, and they're witnessing a glimpse of a possible future. Ross tells the others they aren't dead, but the wrecked ship is a warning of what will happen to them if they try to leave the planet. Ross says they have to stay, but Carter and Mason don't like this idea because unlike him, they have relatives on Earth. Ross says they're staying and that's final. Carter and Mason then undergo strange hallucinations, with the latter being reunited with his wife and child back on earth, and the former revisiting his home only to find a telegram on his bed informing his wife he is dead. Ross breaks Mason out of his visual experience and shows him a newspaper saying his wife and child are dead, and his short time reunited with them was just in his mind. Ross then says he has a new angle to what's going on here: the planet they're on is inhabited by aliens who are too weak to physically make humans go away, so instead, they produce optical illusions (such as the downed spaceship) in order to scare any potential explorers. Ross is convinced there is nothing keeping them on the planet but fear itself, so he decides to blast off. The E89 takes off successfully, but Ross, now knowing there is nothing to be afraid of, decides to land the ship again because they still have a job to do. Mason and Carter think he's out of his mind and try to fight him for the controls. The ship lists sharply and almost crashes, but is stabilized at the last moment. Managing to land safely, Ross tells everyone to look outside, positive the ship isn't there anymore. However, upon looking outside, the crew is shocked to see the wreckage of the saucer clear as day. Ross, clearly in denial by this point, tries to promote the idea that the ship being there doesn't mean anything, but Mason tells him they're not going to crash if they go up again because they already crashed. Ross, Mason and Carter are all dead, and this is proven because the people Carter and Mason were able to talk to in their visions are dead as well, but Ross doesn't want to accept this. He tells them they're going to go over the scenario again and again until he finds an explanation that makes sense. Everyone is suddenly teleported back to the beginning of the episode when Mason tells Ross about the strange object on the radar screen, and the entire event plays out on repeat forever. A long time ago, I wrote about On Thursday We Leave for Home, another hour long TZ installment with a space theme. Death Ship and that one have a lot of commonalities, and it is rare to see a good hour long episode of this show. Most of them just don't hold up very well. Death Ship is different because it has great interactions between the characters, the story is interesting, and the isolated setting helps things feel more hopeless. Just like in a film such as Jaws, the characters are in a place (billions of) miles away from any kind of assistance, so they're forced to rely on each other to stay alive. For Carter and Mason, this is especially hard considering their captain is so stubborn. He just ignores what he doesn't want to accept as real. I also found it strange how similar the music in this episode sounds to something you'd hear in The Outer Limits. Since they were both going on at the same time, it's a possibility the composer was the same. Overall, Death Ship is one of the best episodes of Twilight Zone's fourth season and one of the best of the show in general. Just like a ghost ship, the E89 is doomed to endlessly drift in the limitless void of outer space.
Review of Death Ship
