"The clouds. While I was passing through it I couldn't hear my engine. It was like being swallowed in a vacuum."
Pilot for the Royal Flying Corps, in 1917, gets lost in the clouds while fleeing three German planes, winding up landing on an American base in 1959 much to his dismay. It's the time paradox theme Twilight Zone is known for where a sequence of events allow a certain character, somehow transported to another time, to change history. Lt. William Terrance Decker (Kenneth Haigh, who is just marvelous) is appropriately perplexed at the idea of landing in 1959, noticing the advancements in planes on the American Air Force base in France, learning from AF Major General George Harper (Alexander Scourby) and AF Major Wilson (Simon Scott) that an old friend AVM Alexander Mackaye, a heroic fighter plane legend will be arriving soon. On introspection, Decker believes, once he learned that Mackaye had survived in an air fight with 9 German planes—damn near an impossible feat—from Wilson, that he needs to get in his plane, returning to the clouds so that he can help rescue "Old Leadbottom" (a nickname given to Mackaye by Decker). See Decker conveys to Wilson that he is a coward, explaining certain instances where he was afraid to engage the enemy, admitting that he was leaving Mackaye, flying away from German planes; Decker feels this is his chance for vindication, further believing that his "time trip" was meant for a reason. Decker will probably have to force his way through Wilson and others keeping him from leaving the base because of needed answers (Harper is not convinced (why should he be?) that Decker is who he says he is because it is simply too fantastic) in order to get to his plane and fulfill his new mission, most of all to prove to himself that he is not a coward. Haigh's performance is right-on as he presents to us a man truly troubled with various emotions and rightfully so since he finds himself in another time, his guilty conscience addressing his frailties, knowing who he is yet unable to get others to believe that he is in fact Terry Decker. Scott's Major Wilson is sympathetic to Decker, while he still has a hard time accepting that this guy is from 1917, he is starting to become convinced that this seemingly far-fetched story might have some truth to it. I think tales like this work because we can see both perspectives and understand them. How can Harper and Wilson truly swallow that they have a pilot from 40 years ago landing on their base, even if he's dressed the part with a plane to match? And Decker is in a precarious position because he's actually a man from 40 years ago, but how can he get rational minds to even consider such a possibility? It is when this possibility is given credence, such as the final scene when Old Leadbottom arrives with Harper and Wilson receiving startling truths that at one time seemed too incredible to conceive.
"He belonged to the sky—and the sky has taken him."
Pilot for the Royal Flying Corps, in 1917, gets lost in the clouds while fleeing three German planes, winding up landing on an American base in 1959 much to his dismay. It's the time paradox theme Twilight Zone is known for where a sequence of events allow a certain character, somehow transported to another time, to change history. Lt. William Terrance Decker (Kenneth Haigh, who is just marvelous) is appropriately perplexed at the idea of landing in 1959, noticing the advancements in planes on the American Air Force base in France, learning from AF Major General George Harper (Alexander Scourby) and AF Major Wilson (Simon Scott) that an old friend AVM Alexander Mackaye, a heroic fighter plane legend will be arriving soon. On introspection, Decker believes, once he learned that Mackaye had survived in an air fight with 9 German planes—damn near an impossible feat—from Wilson, that he needs to get in his plane, returning to the clouds so that he can help rescue "Old Leadbottom" (a nickname given to Mackaye by Decker). See Decker conveys to Wilson that he is a coward, explaining certain instances where he was afraid to engage the enemy, admitting that he was leaving Mackaye, flying away from German planes; Decker feels this is his chance for vindication, further believing that his "time trip" was meant for a reason. Decker will probably have to force his way through Wilson and others keeping him from leaving the base because of needed answers (Harper is not convinced (why should he be?) that Decker is who he says he is because it is simply too fantastic) in order to get to his plane and fulfill his new mission, most of all to prove to himself that he is not a coward. Haigh's performance is right-on as he presents to us a man truly troubled with various emotions and rightfully so since he finds himself in another time, his guilty conscience addressing his frailties, knowing who he is yet unable to get others to believe that he is in fact Terry Decker. Scott's Major Wilson is sympathetic to Decker, while he still has a hard time accepting that this guy is from 1917, he is starting to become convinced that this seemingly far-fetched story might have some truth to it. I think tales like this work because we can see both perspectives and understand them. How can Harper and Wilson truly swallow that they have a pilot from 40 years ago landing on their base, even if he's dressed the part with a plane to match? And Decker is in a precarious position because he's actually a man from 40 years ago, but how can he get rational minds to even consider such a possibility? It is when this possibility is given credence, such as the final scene when Old Leadbottom arrives with Harper and Wilson receiving startling truths that at one time seemed too incredible to conceive.
"He belonged to the sky—and the sky has taken him."