Death Ship

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.

"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.

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.

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.

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.