Twilight Zone Companion Read Online Free Page B

Dr. Gillespie (Balsam), a psychiatrist. He explains that hes been having a recurring dream in which he finds himself in Honolulu on December 6, 1941the day before the attack on Pearl Harbor. In his dream, he tries to warn a number of people of the attack, including a young naval ensign (Hickman) and his bride (Carol Kearney), and a newspaper editor (Bartlett Robinson). Predictably, no one takes him seriously.
    Dr. Gillespie understands perfectly how this could be a most unpleasant dream, but he is astounded when Jenson reveals that he believes these events are real, that he is in fact going back in time! The doctor tries to explain to Jenson the plain impossibility of time travel, but Jenson counters with:
    Ive never been in Honolulu in my whole life before, except during that dream. So after the first couple of times I dreamed this I decided Id put it to a test. I knew the ensigns last name. It was an odd one: Janosky. He told me that he and his girl had come from a little town called White Oak, Wisconsin. I placed a call there. There was only one Janosky in the book. A woman answered the phone. She told me she was his mother. I told her that I was an old friend of his from Honolulu and I asked was he there … And then she told me that her son and his wife were killed in Honolulu on December seventh, 1941.
    On the psychiatrists couch, Jenson falls asleep. His dream picks up where it last left off, on the morning of December 7, 1941. Through the French doors of his hotel room he sees a number of Japanese planes coming in for a bombing run. Jenson cries out, I told you! Why wouldnt anybody listen to me? His only answer comes with the sound of an explosion, as the panes of the French doors shatter and the room comes down on top of him.
    In his office, Dr. Gillespie lifts his head with a start. He is alone. Vaguely, he knows something is amiss, but what? He checks his appointment book; no appointments today. To steady himself, he goes into a bar down the street and orders a drink. On the wall behind the bar, he notices a picture of Pete Jenson. For some reason he cant quite put his finger on, he feels a sense of disquiet.
    Whos the guy in the picture? he asks the bartender (Paul Bryer).
    Oh, thats Pete Jenson, the bartender answers. He used to tend bar here. Know him?
    No. Gillespie shrugs. Just looked familiar, thats all. Where is he now?
    Hes dead, the bartender replies. He was killed at Pearl Harbor. But the episode doesnt end there. Apparently, the sponsor was still extremely nervous about the ambiguous ending, and so at the end of the show Desi Arnaz stepped out and offered his rational explanation of the events: We wonder if Pete Jenson did go back in time or if he ever existed. My personal answer is that the doctor has seen Jensons picture at the bar sometime before and had a dream. Any of you out there have any other answers? Let me know. This prompted one irate journalist to write, GO HOME, DESI!
    Compared with Twilight Zone episodes to come, The Time Element stands as no great masterpiece of television. The direction is competent but not brilliant. The acting, though sincere, is unconvincing. And although Nick Musuraca (Cat People, Curse of the Cat People, The Spiral Staircase) was director of photography, the episode looks flat and featureless, typical television drab. The importance of The Time Element lay not in what it was, but rather in what it did.
    The Time Element received more mail than any other episode of Desilu Playhouse that year, and the newspaper reviews were universally good. This was enough to convince CBS that it had made an error in shelving Serlings script. It was decided that a pilot of The Twilight Zone would be made.
    William Dozier, vice-president in charge of West Coast Programming for CBS, assigned William Self, a recent recruit to the CBS corporate hierarchy, to oversee the project. It was a good choice; just prior to joining CBS, Self had spent four years as producer of Schlitz Playhouse of