The Twilight Zone (TV Series) Death Ship (1963) User Reviews

Very good, though I would have preferred a more ambiguous ending...

[planktonrules · 8/10 · 27 May 2010]

"Death Ship" is a very successful one hour episode in that the show did not seemed padded and was able to use the time slot well. This is a com0plaint I have with some of the hour-long shows, but not this one.

It begins with a ufo-like spacecraft from Earth exploring for habitable planets. I thought it was rather funny that this interplanetary ship was supposedly traveling in the futuristic year 1997! When the ship lands, however, things get very, very confusing The three astronauts (Jack Klugman, Ross Martin and Fred Beir) are very confused to say the least. There is a crashed ship next to them...and it looks exactly like their ship! The Captain (Klugman) is very rigid and insists they cannot jump to conclusions. But, when they investigate the wreck and find themselves dead in the wreckage, what conclusions are they to draw?! Is this REALLY them? If so, how can they be looking at their dead selves?! Overall, this is a really good episode. My only problem with it is that there are multiple possibilities as to what is happening. It could be that residents of the planet are causing this and many other hallucinations in order to either scare them off or cause them to destroy themselves. It could be that they are dead and are seeing themselves but cannot accept it. Or, there could be another excellent possibility. I loved the ambiguity of this and was very disappointed when, at the end, the narrator makes it very clear exactly what has occurred. This seemed unnecessary and like over-kill. Still, a fascinating show and one that shows that season four's one-hour format could work.

A Doomed Ship

[AaronCapenBanner · 8/10 · 3 November 2014]

Jack Klugman stars as Earth spaceship Captain Ross, who is in charge of a science vessel meant to determine the suitability of a planet for colonization. Under his command are Lt's Mason(played by Ross Martin) and Carter(played by Fred Beir). All three men are shocked upon landing to discover their exact doubles on board a duplicate crashed ship already on the planet dead. The two Lt's. believe that they are now dead, ghosts basically, but obstinate Capt. Ross refuses to believe this, no matter how many times they have to go over it... Eerie outer space ghost story has fine performances by the three leads, and an effective atmosphere, but especially chilling is the idea that somehow Ross is able to prevent the other men staying in heaven... Deeply disturbing,(even absurd) though of course there may be something else going on here as well...

"It was us in there!"

[classicsoncall · 8/10 · 24 June 2010]

Ultimately, this episode of The Twilight Zone turns out to be an interplanetary ghost story. Along the way, the writers (Serling and Richard Matheson) delve into a scientific theory of circumnavigating time into potential time warps and a possible future. I have no idea if any of this has been posited before, but it all sounds pretty cool, and makes more sense than some of the pseudo-scientific rationale that was used in sci-fi flicks of the Forties and Fifties.

A thought that came to me while watching was whether Gene Roddenberry ever took note of the story before coming up with a Star Trek first season episode called 'Shore Leave'. In that one, the ST crew conjured up a range of experiences related to their life back home, much in the way that Lieutenant Mason (Ross Martin) and Liutenant Carter (Fred Beir) did here. Whether experienced for real or in their mind's eye, it all seemed very real to them while it lasted.

One thing you have to say for Rod Serling and the production crew, they took every advantage of recycling their equipment to keep expenses down. There were probably a good half dozen TZ shows utilizing your standard elliptical flying saucer that was commonplace during the era. I was surprised the camera was never used to pan over the downed spacecraft to reveal the insignia of E-89. I mean, if you wanted to play head games with the crew, there would have been no better way to do it than with that revelation.

Two very cool concepts from the story that emerge with the benefit of almost a half century of hindsight - it took place in the way distant future of 1997! And - the futuristic Interplanetary Administration had the foresight to create a Rocket Bureau - imagine that!

Great acting and a cool story

[carrera_cabriolet-1 · 10/10 · 30 August 2009]

You can identify 50s science fiction by it's curious blend of ancient technology (large computers with blinking buttons/lights that are operated with binary switches) and characters who smoke, but with stories which aren't very far off scientifically. The reason for this is simple: relativity, quantum mechanics and most physics we know today, at least the barebones, was known then. But technology such as computers and social norms, such as not smoking, didn't become part of our culture in the 1990s. It was a gradual change.

What we have in this story is an interesting incident in which 3 astronauts find a ship crashed on a planet they're exploring. The characters are clearly in a time loop in which all space-time routes away from the planet loop back to the planet. They arrive to see their crashed ship. They attempt to leave at some point, and their actions, which are in response to their own observance of the crashed ship, cause them to crash their ship. So, you're left with "how did they first crash the ship?" The solution in physics can only be a closed space-time loop. There's no way for it to have happened the first time in the universe they are in.

The universe in which they crashed it initially is no longer part of their history, but it is part of one of their histories, which has now broken free from all of their possible current histories. My guess is that this could be explained using Everett's many worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics if you suspend the axiom of independence for all universes--at some point, they made a transition to one of the virtually infinite branches of their current universe to a version which has a closed space-time curve

curves back on itself, and there is no way to get back to the actual universe they came from and no way to leave the planet.

"We are going to go over it again"

[nickenchuggets · 9/10 · 11 July 2023]

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.

Aww, a great episode!

[ericstevenson · 10/10 · 18 August 2018]

This is great because it keeps you guessing the whole time. It features three astronauts who land on an alien planet. They end up fighting their own crashed ship with their bodies in it! I first thought that this had something to do with time travel. They actually themselves suggest that. They've traveled forward in time where they're dead.

Another idea is that there are in fact aliens on this planet. The ship and bodies are merely illusions they've created. They also see visions of themselves meeting their loved ones. We finally find out what happened at the end. They have in fact died and are trying to make it to the afterlife. Unfortunately, their captain refuses to believe this and won't let them advance. ****

A Classic: Best Episode of Season 4

[deankiravar · 10/10 · 26 March 2020]

There are a few "classic" Twilight Zone episodes during Season 4, the only season with hour-long episodes. "Valley of the Shadow", "Printer's Devil", and "On Thursday We Leave for Home" are excellent episodes as well, but I really love the premise of "Death Ship".

A 3-man crew is on a spaceship. They spot a glint in an alien world and land on the surface to see what it was. Turns out, it's a crashed space ship that looks exactly like their own. The crew on the crashed ship is dead and they are exactly the same 3 people. It's a spooky set-up and the 3 are trying to figure what happened and they can be seeing themselves "dead".

Jack Klugman is great as the pig-headed captain and Ross Martin has a great performance as Lieutenant Mason, who is constantly challenging the captain's dogma.

The mystery enthralls you the entire episode. And while the ending seemed a bit sudden, it still made for an excellent twist.

Captain Ahab Has Nothing on Jack Klugman

[Hitchcoc · 7/10 · 22 April 2014]

This is a very familiar episode. It was written by Richard Matheson who always raised the Twilight Zone to a higher level. In it, a group of space travelers (using the same tired flying saucer that has appeared numerous time in Serling's offerings) land on a planet with a friendly atmosphere. There is tremendous tension among the three, Jack Klugman's Captain an ornery, inflexible autocrat. They are on an exploratory mission and it is natural for them to do this. Upon looking out on the landscape, they see a crashed saucer, an exact copy of the one they are on. Since it is safe for them to do so, they enter the ship, and are aghast to find exact duplicates of themselves, in various poses, all of them dead. Klugman refuses to listen to anything the others say. They are in shock and believe that they have actually died. The two shipmates actually experience a kind of out-of-body experience where they find themselves meeting people who have died in the past. They have also experienced evidence of their own deaths: a newspaper clipping and a funeral bulletin. They are shocked into returning to the ship. Suddenly, the prospect of remaining on the planet becomes unacceptable and this leads to action.

This is a nicely done episode. Jack Klugman's Captain is insufferable. It makes one wonder how these three haven't killed each other long before this. He sees the others as weak and whimpering.

A real mind-messer! Death Ship is The Twilight Zone at its very best!

[Coventry · 9/10 · 25 January 2022]

The absolute greatest episodes in "The Twilight Zone" - or even the greatest Sci-Fi stories in general - feature an uncanny atmosphere from start to finish, have bleak endings, and their plots continue to haunt your thoughts for several more days after. "Death Ship" ticks all the above boxes, and I honestly cannot understand why this episode isn't listed among the best and top-rated ones of the entire series.

Richard Matheson - who else? - delivers captivating Sci-Fi tale that handles with one of the most complex and sensitive themes of the genre, namely time-traveling and all the paradoxes and loops that come with it. It's not the story's main premise, though, and thanks to the longer running time (50 minutes) there is also room for mystery, suspense and melodrama (but not the irritating kind).

During a routine interstellar mission to scout for new resources, in the year 1997 (!), a three-headed space crew spots a strange reflection on an unknown planet. When they land to investigate, they make a shocking discovery, namely their own crashed ship with their own dead bodies inside. This naturally leads to paranoia, deep fear, hallucinations, extreme speculation, and severe disagreement between the three of them. "Death Ship" is a stupendous episode, brought to an even higher level by the integer performances, and the bitterly sad family moments.

Forbidden Planet 2

[StuOz · 14 August 2007]

The spaceship from Forbidden Planet is used again. I even think of this as Forbidden Planet 2...well almost. This is all about a pain-in-the-bum Captain (Jack Klugman) who can't understand what is going on with his "death ship".

The closing narration plays in my head whenever I encounter stupid people doing the same thing all the time. But is the episode a classic? No. The teaser, act one and the end are classic but a good part of it is crap. It feels like a 51 minute episode that should have been a 25 minute show.

It gets high marks for the use of stock Jerry Goldsmith music played during the bit where Klugman glares at the dead crew. And, as I said, the closing narration is a mind-blower.

They'll Never Get That Crate Off The Ground.

[rmax304823 · 6/10 · 1 April 2013]

Three astronauts -- skipper Klugman, and Martin and Beir -- land their flying saucer on a planet with orders to collect any specimens of life they find. What they find is an exact replica of their own ship, crashed, and containing their own dead bodies.

This rather discomfits them. How can they be examining the wreck of their own ship, and how can they roll their own dead bodies around? Well, in fact, they don't know.

Captain Klugman guess that they've passed through some sort of time transmogrification or something and the crashed ship they're looking at is a vision of one possible future. There follows a sequence in which Martin and Beir each experience a hallucination or something in which they are reunited with some dead loved ones.

When Klugman snaps them out of it, he decides that his original hypothesis about crossing the equatorial time barrier was wrong. They're really being hypnotized by invisible beings who live on the planet, resent their presence, and don't want them to leave. No kidding, that's how Klugman's explanation works out.

The three men argue about this at some length, take off and land the ship again, and the crashed replica is still there. "Why not give it up, Captain," sobs Martin. "Can't you see we're all dead already?" Cut to the beginning of the episode, with the flying saucer approaching the planet and about to land for the first time. Maybe they'll do it "unto eternity," Rod Serling's narration informs us.

That's all well and good, except I don't know what they'll be doing unto eternity or why. Neither will you.

Beir is unconvincing but Klugman and Martin do decent jobs. The problem is that the story makes very little sense. Serling once observed that the show as perfect for a half-hour time slot and he was right, by and large. The story seems padded out and turgid at one hour. Some of the hour-long episodes were much better but this one is kneecapped by poor writing and a sort of slapdash quality to the production. It's supposed to be thirteen degrees below zero outside, yet the ship has its windows open and there are banana plants growing around it.

A deeper meaning

[will-44211 · 10/10 · 11 November 2019]

Tied for my favorite episode of the zone for a lot of reasons. This episode has a concept surrounding denial and the power it has in every day Life that can be applied far beyond the excellent script of this powerful story line

Good moments, but generally tired and dated.

[darrenpearce111 · 6/10 · 28 December 2013]

Jack Klugman makes his third of four appearances in TZ and Ross Martin returns after 'The Four Of Us Are Dying' from series one. What kept me interested in this story was whether the three spacemen could end up alive somehow even after finding dead bodies of themselves. Some interesting theories are put foreword by the headstrong Captain Ross (Klugman). I watched knowing that spacemen have a generally low survival rate in TZ.

The flying saucer and tilted camera effects somewhat date this entry. There are bright moments also some real conviction shown by Klugman and especially Martin. Yet I consider this a lesser TZ as you get the feeling of deja-vu. There are certainly earlier episodes that this resembles. Die-hard Zone fans might almost expect them to pass by Rod Taylor up in space.

"God have mecry on us"... us viewers

[aliases-53334 · 2/10 · 16 February 2016]

It is not exactly news that the 50 minutes format of the TZ did not work, but some episodes were not quite as bad as this. For starters, this episode is completely dated. I can appreciate why this might have been original or interesting when it first aired. A space mystery that might be an illusion, some kind of a mind game or a more morbid reality. However, today it comes down to three men chasing their own tale, with a solution too easy, and a technology that does not come through as impressive anymore. Add to that the characters, non of them is very interesting. Three men in space, lack any real depth and likeness, and you've got yourself 50 minutes of snoozefest.

Best TZ episode of all

[Rfischer8655 · 10/10 · 9 January 2022]

This is the best Twilight Zone episode of them all. It exceeds in surrealism by perfectly displaying the ambiguity of life vs death. The unknown nature of why they encounter their dead counterparts and what caused their ship to crash adds provoking philosophical elements to the plot.

It has a very dark, eerie, and unsettling atmosphere aided by the equally chilling music score. The episode is only made better by the superb acting of the 3 crewmen. The story written by Richard Matheson is most original as outstanding fantasy and science fiction.

The Mystery of the Spaceship E-89

[claudio_carvalho · 9/10 · 6 August 2023]

In 1997, the spaceship E-89 is travelling through the space to collect vegetables, minerals and animals to see if the planet can be colonized by earthlings since Earth is overpopulated. When Lieutenant Mason sees a glittering object on the surface of the 13th planet in star system 51, he and Lieutenant Carter convince Captain Ross to land on the planet. They see a crashed spaceship identical to theirs and decide to explore her. Soon they find three bodies inside the crashed ship, and when they check them, they realize that they are themselves. What is happening to the crew of spaceship E-89?

"Death Ship" is a mysterious episode of "The Twilight Zone". The story recalls the legend of Sisyphus from the Greek mythology, condemned to roll an immense rounded rock up a hill, only to watch it roll back down forever, and to repeat this action. I tried to put myself in the same situation of Lieutenants Mason and Carter and imagined how crazy I would be if I find what they have just found in the wrecked spaceship. The conclusion is adequate to the profile of Captain Ross. My vote is nine.

Title (Brazil): "A Nave da Morte" ("The Ship of Death")

Haunting and Foreboding

[tavasiloff · 10/10 · 5 January 2023]

I rank "Death Ship" in the top 3, one-hour Twilight Zone episodes. The other two are: "On Thursday We Leave for Home" and "No Time Like the Past."

The storyline and mood are both haunting and foreboding. The viewer senses almost immediately that the crew are doomed. Fred Beir's character perfectly captures this sentiment, especially as he looks for his wife when he "returns home." Ross Martin equally makes us feel this sense of foreboding, especially when Jack Klugman shows him the newspaper clipping.

The writing is tight and well-delivered and is an excellent example of how well-crafted each TZ episode was.

Schroedinger's Planet

[jweare-46308 · 10/10 · 20 December 2023]

Simply mind-blowing. Likely one of THE most gruesome, terrifying concepts I've encountered to date. Quantum Physics and Existentialism together at last.

This episode was vaguely reminiscient of the earlier sci-fi episode titled "The Invaders" with Agnes Moorehead. If you enjoyed that one, this episode radiates the same "Okay, whal the heck is going on here? Vibe.

Klugman plays angry/compulsive quite well. (Just ask Henry Fonda...) Ross Martin was, as always, good, however, his acting seems its usual two-mentional portrayal.

In all, this episode should rank among the highest of Mr. Serling's efforts.

A great plot despite the disappointing ending

[MTonyS · 8/10 · 7 May 2023]

A great plot, great actors, great ideas, a bad ending that copies the ending of other stories in the series itself. Even before the end, it has the same level of fiction and suspense as the film The Forbidden Planet, but it is ruined by the ending, which is completely out of science fiction. Not following the style of the story at the end is the worst thing a movie can have. It destroys everything and it gets frustrating. But I still give it an 8 for the atmosphere, interpretation and development of the story. It holds your attention despite the disappointing ending.

A great plot despite the disappointing ending.

Common elements, not well used

[cpotato1010 · 5/10 · 18 December 2018]

Yet another take-off on the Forbidden Planet space ship, but this time rocket-powered? It seems an advanced interplanetary spaceship would not use rockets to take off, but that was what the early 60's screenwriters were stuck on.

Also, the interior was very poorly designed. If they ARE going to use rockets, with their apparent high initial acceleration, the placement of the controls makes no sense - as seen when the fight over the controls occurs.

While I think Jack Klugman acted his character as directed, I did not like the character at all. Can you imagine James Kirk striking a fellow crewman who disobeyed orders? Um, OK, bad example, but in that episode at least it made sense.

Speaking of Star Trek, I find it an interesting contrast with how this episode treated the possibility of alien mind control with the Star Trek Menagerie/Cage episodes. Here it is almost a throw-away, offered without any real proof, vs ST, where it is the central conceit of the episode(s), and discussed in detail.

While it was worth watching once, I doubt there is any reason for a repeat viewing.

Bad.

[bombersflyup · 1/10 · 6 December 2019]

Death Ship is an awful episode, with absolutely horrendous acting. They're dead, yeah great one. Waste of bloody time... these fifty minutes episodes are intolerable. I'm done!!

The ending sucks!

[BA_Harrison · 4/10 · 9 April 2022]

In a rather presumptuous or perhaps optimistic move, writer Richard Matheson puts the year 1997 against this tale of deep space exploration; twenty five years after that and we're no closer to colonising another planet than we are to unlocking the answer to life, the universe and everything.

Jack Klugman plays Captain Ross of Earth spacecraft E-89, on a mission to explore the 13th planet in star system 51. Landing on the planet, Ross and his crew -- Lieutenant Mason (Ross Martin) and Lieutenant Carter (Fred Beir) -- exit the craft to examine a nearby wrecked ship identical to their own, where they are shocked to find three dead men who look just like them. Fearing that they have somehow taken a glimpse into the future, the men must decide whether to risk taking off or to stay put on the planet forever.

Death Ship features fine performances from its three main cast members, and the mystery is developed well enough, but the whole episode is let down by the ending, a variation on the old 'they're all dead' cliche. To be presented with such an uninspired conclusion after fifty minutes of intrigue and suspense can only be considered a cop-out and a disappointment.