The Long Morrow

Last updated
"The Long Morrow"
The Twilight Zone episode
Episode no.Season 5
Episode 15
Directed by Robert Florey
Written by Rod Serling
Featured musicStock
Production code2624
Original air dateJanuary 10, 1964 (1964-01-10)
Guest appearances
Episode chronology
 Previous
"You Drive"
Next 
"The Self-Improvement of Salvadore Ross"
The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series) (season 5)
List of episodes

"The Long Morrow" is episode 135 of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone . It originally aired on January 10, 1964 on CBS. In this episode, an astronaut falls in love on the eve of a 40-year-long space voyage. The story focuses on how he and his lover confront the problem that his 40 years in suspended animation will cause a wide age disparity between them by the time he returns.

Contents

Opening narration

Serling's narration begins with the opening scene of Stansfield in suspended animation:

It may be said with a degree of assurance that not everything that meets the eye is as it appears. Case in point, the scene you're watching. This is not a hospital, not a morgue, not a mausoleum, not an undertaker's parlor of the future. What it is is the belly of a spaceship. It is en route to another planetary system, an incredible distance from the Earth. This is the crux of our story - a flight into space. It is also the story of the things that might happen to human beings who take a step beyond, unable to anticipate everything that might await them out there.

The narration continues after Stansfield is informed that his journey into space will take forty years:

Commander Douglas Stansfield, astronaut, a man about to embark on one of history's longest journeys: forty years out into endless space and hopefully back again. This is the beginning, the first step towards man's longest leap into the unknown. Science has solved the mechanical details and now it's up to one human being to breathe life into blueprints and computers, to prove once and for all that man can live half a lifetime in the total void of outer space, forty years alone in the unknown. This is Earth. Ahead lies a planetary system. The vast region in between is the Twilight Zone.

Plot

Commander Douglas Stansfield, age 31, an astronaut in the year 1987, is scheduled in six months to be sent on an exploratory mission to a planetary system roughly 141 light-years from Earth. Although the spacecraft will travel at the rate of 7 times the speed of light, the round trip will still take forty years. To save him the ordeal of 40 years of loneliness, he is to be placed in (newly developed) suspended animation for the twenty-year trip to his goal, and again for the twenty-year return trip. During his time in suspended animation, he will age only a few weeks.

Shortly before his mission, he meets and is enchanted by his young colleague, Sandra Horn. They meet that night, after only three and half hours, they declare their love for each other, and lament the fact that when Stansfield returns, Sandra will be an old woman.

Forty years later, Stansfield returns to Earth, a forgotten pioneer. The discoveries he made on his mission were independently achieved earlier by technology developed after his departure. Sandra is waiting for him, still 26 and lovely. She had herself put in suspended animation during Stansfield's mission. Stansfield, however, had voluntarily disabled his suspended-animation system six months into his journey after a communications failure on his ship, and is now a man of 70. He has endured forty years of inconceivable loneliness in the hope of being with Sandra when he returned. Sandra offers to continue their relationship, but the heartbroken Stansfield urges Sandra to begin a new life without him.

After Sandra leaves, General Walters offers some small consolation to the aged astronaut: "Stansfield, you're really quite an incredible man. It may be the one distinction of my entire life, that I knew you ... that I knew a man who put such a premium on love."

Closing narration

Commander Douglas Stansfield, one of the forgotten pioneers of the space age. He's been pushed aside by the flow of progress and the passage of years, and the ferocious travesty of fate. Tonight's tale of the ionosphere and irony, delivered from the Twilight Zone.

Cast

Legacy

"The Long Morrow" is the title of a Season 7 episode of Gilmore Girls, where Logan gives Rory a gift inspired by his favorite The Twilight Zone episode, "The Long Morrow".

Related Research Articles

<i>The Twilight Zone</i> Media franchise based on an American television anthology series

The Twilight Zone is an American media franchise based on the anthology television series created by Rod Serling in which characters find themselves dealing with often disturbing or unusual events, an experience described as entering "the Twilight Zone". The episodes are in various genres, including fantasy, science fiction, absurdism, dystopian fiction, suspense, horror, supernatural drama, black comedy, and psychological thriller, frequently concluding with a macabre or unexpected twist, and usually with a moral. A popular and critical success, it introduced many Americans to common science fiction and fantasy tropes. The first series, shot entirely in black-and-white, ran on CBS for five seasons from 1959 to 1964.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rod Serling</span> American screenwriter (1924–1975)

Rodman Edward Serling was an American screenwriter and television producer best known for his live television dramas of the 1950s and his anthology television series The Twilight Zone. Serling was active in politics, both on and off the screen, and helped form television industry standards. He was known as the "angry young man" of Hollywood, clashing with television executives and sponsors over a wide range of issues, including censorship, racism, and war.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Where Is Everybody?</span> 1st episode of the 1st season of The Twilight Zone

"Where Is Everybody?" is the first episode of the American anthology television series The Twilight Zone and was originally broadcast on 2 October 1959, on CBS. It is one of the most realistic Twilight Zone episodes, as it features no supernatural elements and is based on fairly straightforward extrapolation of science.

"Escape Clause" is episode six of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone. It is "the story of a strange contract between a mortal man and his most satanic majesty"; it originally aired on November 6, 1959, on CBS.

"I Shot an Arrow into the Air" is the fifteenth episode of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone.

The Last Flight (<i>The Twilight Zone</i>) 18th episode of the 1st season of The Twilight Zone

"The Last Flight" is the eighteenth episode of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone. Part of the production was filmed on location at Norton Air Force Base in San Bernardino, California. The vintage 1918 Nieuport 28 biplane was both owned and flown by Frank Gifford Tallman, and had previously appeared in many World War I motion pictures.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">People Are Alike All Over</span> 25th episode of the 1st season of The Twilight Zone

"People Are Alike All Over" is episode 25 of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone.

"Eye of the Beholder" is episode 42 of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone. It originally aired on November 11, 1960, on CBS.

"The Invaders" is episode 15 of season 2 of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone. The episode, which originally aired January 27, 1961, starred Agnes Moorehead. It was written by Richard Matheson, directed by Douglas Heyes, and scored by Jerry Goldsmith. Distinctive features of this episode include a near-solo performance by one character, and an almost complete lack of dialogue. The only dialogue in the entire episode aside from Rod Serling's usual narration came from Douglas Hayes, the episode's director. In addition, this is the only episode in which Rod Serling gives his opening monologue at the start of the prologue, rather than the end. The protagonist portrayed by Agnes Moorehead often cries out in pain and terror, but never speaks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Obsolete Man</span> 29th episode of the 2nd season of The Twilight Zone

"The Obsolete Man" is episode 65 of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone, starring Burgess Meredith as Romney Wordsworth, the accused, and Fritz Weaver as the Chancellor. It originally aired on June 2, 1961, on CBS. The story was later adapted for The Twilight Zone Radio Dramas starring Jason Alexander as Wordsworth.

"The Midnight Sun" is episode 75 of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone, first shown in November, 1961.

"The Parallel" is episode 113 of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone. In this episode an astronaut returns from a voyage to find the world not quite the same as he remembers it. It was an early example of the concept of mirror or alternate universes. The Star Trek: The Original Series episode "Mirror, Mirror" was another example, although the differences between the characters in the two Star Trek alternate universes were quite noticeable. The concept has also been used by both DC Comics and Marvel Comics in their comic books and cinematic universes.

"Probe 7, Over and Out" is an episode of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone. Its plot is a shaggy God story.

"A Kind of a Stopwatch" is a 1963 episode of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone. In this episode, a man acquires a stopwatch which can stop time.

<i>The Twilight Zone</i> (1959 TV series) American TV anthology series (1959–1964)

The Twilight Zone is an American fantasy science fiction horror anthology television series created and presented by Rod Serling, which ran for five seasons on CBS from October 2, 1959, to June 19, 1964. Each episode presents a standalone story in which characters find themselves dealing with often disturbing or unusual events, an experience described as entering "the Twilight Zone", often with a surprise ending and a moral. Although often considered predominantly science-fiction, the show's paranormal and Kafkaesque events leaned the show much closer to fantasy and horror. The phrase "twilight zone", inspired by the series, is used to describe surreal experiences.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mariette Hartley</span> American actress (born 1940)

Mary Loretta Hartley is an American film and television actress. She is possibly best known for her roles in film as Elsa Knudsen in Sam Peckinpah's Ride the High Country (1962), Susan Clabon in Alfred Hitchcock's Marnie (1964), and Betty Lloyd in John Sturges' Marooned (1969). She has appeared extensively on television, with notable roles as Claire Morton in the ABC soap opera Peyton Place (1965), various roles in the CBS television western drama series Gunsmoke, and a series of commercials with James Garner in the 1970s and 1980s.

"The Little People" is episode 93 of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone. It originally aired on March 30, 1962 on CBS.

Breakaway (<i>Space: 1999</i>) 1st episode of the 1st series of Space: 1999

"Breakaway" is the first episode of the first series of Space: 1999. The screenplay was written by George Bellak ; the director was Lee H. Katzin. Previous titles include "Zero-G", "The Void Ahead" and "Turning Point". The final shooting script is dated 22 November 1973. Live-action filming took place from Monday 3 December 1973 to Friday 11 January 1974. A three-day re-mount took place Friday 22 February 1974 to Tuesday 26 February 1974.

"Cavender Is Coming" is episode 101 of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone. It originally aired on May 25, 1962 on CBS.

Suspended animation in fiction refers to the temporary cessation of life processes experienced by fictional characters, followed by their subsequent revival. This process is commonly employed as a plot device in science fiction narratives. It is frequently utilized to transport a character from the past to the future or to facilitate interstellar space travel, which necessitates an extended journey for months or years. In addition to accomplishing the character's primary objective in the future, they often encounter the unfamiliarity of a new world, which may bear only faint resemblance to their previous surroundings. On occasion, a character is portrayed as possessing skills or abilities that have become lost to society during their period of suspension, enabling them to assume a heroic role in their new temporal setting.

References