Death Ship

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")

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.

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 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.

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.