"The Twilight Zone" The Long Morrow (1964)

User Rating:

8.2/10   

Director:

Robert Florey

Writers:

Rod Serling (creator)
Rod Serling (writer)

TV Series:

"The Twilight Zone" (1959)

Original Air Date:

10 January 1964 (Season 5, Episode 15)

Genre:

Drama | Fantasy | Horror | Mystery | Sci-Fi | Thriller

Plot:

Before leaving on a decades long mission, astronaut Douglas Stansfield meets a woman and falls in love. |

Plot Keywords:

Astronaut | Falling In Love | Suspended Animation | Space Exploration | Anthology

Cast

Robert Lansing	...	Commander Douglas Stansfield
Mariette Hartley	...	Sandra Horn
Ed Binns	...	General Walters (as Edward Binns)
George Macready	...	Dr. Bixler
William Swan	...	Technician
Don Spruance		(as Donald Spruance)

Runtime:

25 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Filming Locations:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios - 10202 W. Washington Blvd., Culver City, California, USA

Company:

Cayuga Productions

Goofs:

Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): Dr. Bixler states that the galaxy Stansfield is traveling to is 141 light years away, and that the new spaceship will travel at 70 times the speed of light, and that the trip will take 40 years. If the ship will travel at 70 times the speed of light, a 141 light year journey should only take a little over two years.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Gilmore Girls: The Long Morrow (#7.1)" (2006)

Referred to in new episode of "Gilmore Girls", season opener

I remember seeing and enjoying this episode, and was touched again by its poignancy after the season opener of "Gilmore Girls," on ABC Family Network.

Rory Gilmore, played by Alexis Bledel, receives an odd gift from her boyfriend Logan Huntzberger, played by Matt Czuchry, as he leaves for England for a year. In a box usually used for long-stemmed roses, Rory receives a model of a rocket ship, instead of flowers.

She spends the rest of episode trying to figure out its meaning, and finally realizes its from this episode of the Twilight Zone, "The Long Morrow."

"Gilmore Girls" is one of those incredibly well-written shows that not enough people who enjoy good writing end up seeing, unfortunately. For it to reference such a wonderful story from an anthology of wonderful stories says a lot about it to me.