Judgment Night (The Twilight Zone)

"Judgment Night" is episode 10 of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone.

Plot summary

A nervous passenger, Carl Lanser, appears on board a British passenger liner in 1942. It will become clear that Lanser has no idea of how he got aboard or who he really is. He is standing on deck, staring into a thick fog, when a man calls him to dinner. He enters the dining cabin and joins the crew and passengers. The captain discusses German U-boats seen in the area. Lanser seems annoyed and appears very knowledgeable about submarines. He explains in great detail how one would not be aware of the presence of a U-boat. The diners ask Lanser what his profession is and how long he has been in England. Lanser uncertainly tells that he has not been there long and that he was born in Frankfurt, Germany. Lanser appears confused, claims that he is ill and retires to his cabin.

While still on deck, he speaks to a female passenger, that he met at the dinner. Lanser explains that he has no memory of how he got onto the ship. He knows who he is but can't recall specific details. His irritation grows and he begins to rant about impending doom. The captain sends an officer to request Lanser to come to the bridge. The captain is suspicious because Lanser claims he was born in Germany. His suspicion increases when Lanser cannot provide details of his life and does not have his passport on hand to verify his identity. The captain sends a steward to Lanser's cabin. The steward finds the cap of a German naval officer among Lansers possessions, while he helps him unpack. Lanser angrily takes the cap from the steward. While inspecting it in private, Lanser discovers the cap bears his own name on the inside. Lanser leaves and goes to the ship's bar.

Lanser becomes increasingly panicked while listening to fellow passengers discuss the War. He experiences déjà vu and believes it obvious that he is, unbeknownst to the others, a German submarine officer. Lanser is now certain that the ship will be attacked and that he knows the exact moment. The engines halt at 12:05. Despite the crew's reassurances Lanser panics, announcing that they will all be killed at 1:15. Unable to convince the crew that they will soon be under attack, Lanser must suffer the agony of watching the passengers killed at precisely the time that he had predicted. The freighter is sunk by a German U-boat commanded by a Captain Lieutenant Lanser.

Later, Captain Lanser is in his cabin aboard the U-boat, recording that night's kill. With him is the second-in-command who speculates whether they all might be judged according to the way they attacked the defenseless ship, Lanser replies that surely only the British will judge them. The first mate questions whether God might also judge them, and condemn them to relive the final moments of the passengers on the doomed ship. The First Mate's fears are realized: The attacking U-Boat and crew are condemned to sink the freighter over and over, with Lanser as an unwitting passenger among those killed without mercy. The episode thus recounts Carl Lanser's private hell. Lanser instantaneously reappears on the deck of the ship, and the nightmare begins anew.

Episode notes

In the first 18 episodes, Serling only had one minor conflict with CBS regarding episode content. In an interview with Mike Wallace on September 22, 1959, Serling said, "We changed, in eighteen scripts, Mike, we have had one line changed, which, again, was a little ludicrous but of insufficient basic concern within the context of the story, not to put up a fight. On a bridge of a British ship, a sailor calls down to the galley and asks in my script for a pot of tea, because I believe that it's constitutionally acceptable in the British Navy to drink tea. One of my sponsors happens to sell instant coffee (Sanka), and he took great umbrage, or at least minor umbrage anyway, with the idea of saying tea. Well, we had a couple of swings back and forth, nothing serious, and we decided we'd ask for a tray to be sent up to the bridge. But in eighteen scripts, that's the only conflict we've had."

References

Zicree, Marc Scott: The Twilight Zone Companion. Sillman-James Press, 1982 (second edition)
DeVoe, Bill. (2008). Trivia from The Twilight Zone. Albany, GA: Bear Manor Media. ISBN 978-1-59393-136-0
Grams, Martin. (2008). The Twilight Zone: Unlocking the Door to a Television Classic. Churchville, MD: OTR Publishing. ISBN 978-0-9703310-9-0

External links

v t e The Twilight Zone (1959) episodes
Season 1	"Where Is Everybody?" "One for the Angels" "Mr. Denton on Doomsday" "The Sixteen-Millimeter Shrine" "Walking Distance" "Escape Clause" "The Lonely" "Time Enough at Last" "Perchance to Dream" "Judgment Night" "And When the Sky Was Opened" "What You Need" "The Four of Us Are Dying" "Third from the Sun" "I Shot an Arrow into the Air" "The Hitch-Hiker" "The Fever" "The Last Flight" "The Purple Testament" "Elegy" "Mirror Image" "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street" "A World of Difference" "Long Live Walter Jameson" "People Are Alike All Over" "Execution" "The Big Tall Wish" "A Nice Place to Visit" "Nightmare as a Child" "A Stop at Willoughby" "The Chaser" "A Passage for Trumpet" "Mr. Bevis" "The After Hours" "The Mighty Casey" "A World of His Own"
Season 2	"King Nine Will Not Return" "The Man in the Bottle" "Nervous Man in a Four Dollar Room" "A Thing About Machines" "The Howling Man" "Eye of the Beholder" "Nick of Time" "The Lateness of the Hour" "The Trouble with Templeton" "A Most Unusual Camera" "The Night of the Meek" "Dust" "Back There" "The Whole Truth" "The Invaders" "A Penny for Your Thoughts" "Twenty Two" "The Odyssey of Flight 33" "Mr. Dingle, the Strong" "Static" "The Prime Mover" "Long Distance Call" "A Hundred Yards Over the Rim" "The Rip Van Winkle Caper" "The Silence" "Shadow Play" "The Mind and the Matter" "Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up?" "The Obsolete Man"
Season 3	"Two" "The Arrival" "The Shelter" "The Passersby" "A Game of Pool" "The Mirror" "The Grave" "It's a Good Life" "Deaths-Head Revisited" "The Midnight Sun" "Still Valley" "The Jungle" "Once Upon a Time" "Five Characters in Search of an Exit" "A Quality of Mercy" "Nothing in the Dark" "One More Pallbearer" "Dead Man's Shoes" "The Hunt" "Showdown with Rance McGrew" "Kick the Can" "A Piano in the House" "The Last Rites of Jeff Myrtlebank" "To Serve Man" "The Fugitive" "Little Girl Lost" "Person or Persons Unknown" "The Little People" "Four O'Clock" "Hocus-Pocus and Frisby" "The Trade-Ins" "The Gift" "The Dummy" "Young Man's Fancy" "I Sing the Body Electric" "Cavender Is Coming" "The Changing of the Guard"
Season 4	"In His Image" "The Thirty-Fathom Grave" "Valley of the Shadow" "He's Alive" "Mute" "Death Ship" "Jess-Belle" "Miniature" "Printer's Devil" "No Time Like the Past" "The Parallel" "I Dream of Genie" "The New Exhibit" "Of Late I Think of Cliffordville" "The Incredible World of Horace Ford" "On Thursday We Leave for Home" "Passage on the Lady Anne" "The Bard"
Season 5	"In Praise of Pip" "Steel" "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" "A Kind of a Stopwatch" "The Last Night of a Jockey" "Living Doll" "The Old Man in the Cave" "Uncle Simon" "Probe 7, Over and Out" "The 7th Is Made Up of Phantoms" "A Short Drink from a Certain Fountain" "Ninety Years Without Slumbering" "Ring-a-Ding Girl" "You Drive" "The Long Morrow" "The Self-Improvement of Salvadore Ross" "Number 12 Looks Just Like You" "Black Leather Jackets" "Night Call" "From Agnes—With Love" "Spur of the Moment" "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" "Queen of the Nile" "What's in the Box" "The Masks" "I Am the Night—Color Me Black" "Sounds and Silences" "Caesar and Me" "The Jeopardy Room" "Stopover in a Quiet Town" "The Encounter" "Mr. Garrity and the Graves" "The Brain Center at Whipple's" "Come Wander with Me" "The Fear" "The Bewitchin' Pool"