"Judgment Night" is a strong episode where we find ourselves figuring out events along with the protagonist; this time, it's a passenger on a British ship with few memories but palpable terror. As he pieces together the clues from the shards of broken memory and the reality becomes clear, the tension mounts and culminates with a frightening climax depicting violent death at sea.
But moments after this scene of very real (versus supernatural) terror, we're treated to a dialogue exchange that hits us over the head with the moral of the story (as you do evil to others, evil will be done to you). The ending might have been a bit more ominous if the facts were never explicitly spelled out. As it is, it's another ending that could have packed a wallop but just floats off into the night like the ship of the story.moreless
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Episode Summary
In 1942, a German wonders why he's on the deck of a British steamship, with no memory of how he got there, and an overwhelming sense of impending doom.
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Rod Serling
Narrator/Host
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Nehemiah Persoff
Lanser
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Ben Wright
Captain Wilbur
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ADD QUOTES- (Closing Narration) Narrator: The S.S. Queen of Glasgow, heading for New York, and the time is 1942. For one man, it is always 1942, and this man will ride the ghost of that ship every night for eternity. This is what is meant by paying the fiddler. This is the comeuppance awaiting every man when the ledger of his life is opened and examined, the tally made, and then the reward or the penalty paid. And in the case of Carl Lanser, former Kapitan Leutnant, Navy of the Third Reich, this is the penalty. This is the justice meted out. This is judgment night in the Twilight Zone. Edit
- (Opening Narration) Narrator: Her name is the S.S. Queen of Glasgow. Her registry: British. Gross tonnage: five thousand. Age: indeterminate. At this moment she's one day out of Liverpool, her destination New York. Duly recorded on this ship's log is the sailing time, course to destination, weather conditions, temperature, longitude and latitude. But what is never recorded in a log is the fear that washes over a deck like fog and ocean spray. Fear like the throbbing strokes of engine pistons, each like a heartbeat, parceling out every hour into breathless minutes of watching, waiting and dreading. For the year is 1942, and this particular ship has lost its convoy. It travels alone like an aged blind thing groping through the unfriendly dark, stalked by unseen periscopes of steel killers. Yes, the Queen of Glasgow is a frightened ship, and she carries with her a premonition of death. Edit
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A trivia question.
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Worst episode in your opinion?
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