This is one of eighteen episodes from season four of the Twilight Zone, the only season of it's five season run shot in hour-long lengths rather than the customary 30 minute episodes which made the show much more compact and appealing. This story was crafted before Rod Serling and the network chose to experiment with longer run times. As a consequence, it was necessary to re-write the story to fit it's hour length which meant padding it with extended scenes of chatty, dull, unnecessary dialogue. The story was meant to me told in a much shorter time and as a result drags endlessly in places and loses some of it's haunting atmosphere and thriller moments.
The Thirty Fathom Grave, otherwise, is a well conceived and interesting ghost story at sea. A U.S. Navy destroyer on routine patrol in the south Pacific in 1963 detects an unusual underwater contact, the sound of clanging metal, almost rhythmic enough to sound like Morse code. The Captain, his officers and crew, are befuddled by the incessant sound, although based on the sonar signature they have have determined it's likely originating from a motionless submarine on the sea floor thirty fathoms (180 feet) below them. Beyond that they have no answers, and all attempts to contact the vessel have gone unanswered. A diver is dispatched to investigate. He finds the submarine is American, and eventually they are able to identify it as having been lost in a sea battle in 1942 with the loss of all hands. But the mysterious banging sound from inside continues.
The destroyer's Chief Boatswain's Mate, a career Navy vet, is inexplicably afflicted by the odd encounter. He suffers crippling physical effects, sees visions of the dead crew, and is increasingly guided by a supernatural force to join the submarine below. He reveals to the Captain, who has grown intensely concerned about his erratic behavior, that he was the sole survivor of the doomed submarine below in 1942, whose sinking he blames on himself due to an an error in nighttime concealment, for twenty-one years he has carried the guilt inside him. He must join them, which he finally does.
A great and haunting story. Yet poisoned not by poor writing or acting, but by misguided television executives who knew nothing about science fiction and everything about the ad revenues they could reap from hour long episodes. It was a bad idea, but the story of the ghost submarine never was. It just should have been told in a shorter tale.
The Thirty Fathom Grave, otherwise, is a well conceived and interesting ghost story at sea. A U.S. Navy destroyer on routine patrol in the south Pacific in 1963 detects an unusual underwater contact, the sound of clanging metal, almost rhythmic enough to sound like Morse code. The Captain, his officers and crew, are befuddled by the incessant sound, although based on the sonar signature they have have determined it's likely originating from a motionless submarine on the sea floor thirty fathoms (180 feet) below them. Beyond that they have no answers, and all attempts to contact the vessel have gone unanswered. A diver is dispatched to investigate. He finds the submarine is American, and eventually they are able to identify it as having been lost in a sea battle in 1942 with the loss of all hands. But the mysterious banging sound from inside continues.
The destroyer's Chief Boatswain's Mate, a career Navy vet, is inexplicably afflicted by the odd encounter. He suffers crippling physical effects, sees visions of the dead crew, and is increasingly guided by a supernatural force to join the submarine below. He reveals to the Captain, who has grown intensely concerned about his erratic behavior, that he was the sole survivor of the doomed submarine below in 1942, whose sinking he blames on himself due to an an error in nighttime concealment, for twenty-one years he has carried the guilt inside him. He must join them, which he finally does.
A great and haunting story. Yet poisoned not by poor writing or acting, but by misguided television executives who knew nothing about science fiction and everything about the ad revenues they could reap from hour long episodes. It was a bad idea, but the story of the ghost submarine never was. It just should have been told in a shorter tale.