There is a fifth dimension
beyond tha t which is known to man.
It is a dimension as vastas space
and as timeless as infinity.
It is the middle ground between lightand shadow
between science and s upers ti tion
and it lies between the pit of man's fears
and the summit of his knowledge.
This is the dimension of ima Gina tion.
It is anarea which we call the twilight zone.
Witness flight lieutenant William Terrance Decker,
royal fl ying corps,
returning from a pa trol somewhere over France.
The year is 1917.
The problem is the lieutenant
is hopelessl y lost.
Lieutenant Decker will soon discover
tha ta man can be lost
not onl y in terms of maps and miles
butalso in time.
And time, in this case,
can be measured in e terni ties.
All right, mister.
Get out of there.
What do you think you're doing?
Who in the name of...?
What do you mean running this antique
in front of an approaching aircraft?
Don't you understand
what? t I'm sa ying?
Are you French?
I'm British.
Are you American?
Can't you see this is an American base?
What, all this?
We had no idea you were so advanced.
What?
You better come with me.
Major Wilson to see you, general.
Sit down, major. I'll be with you in a minute.
Well, what is this?
This man, sir.
He's apparently British.
He landed his ship on our field.
His ship, I might add...
Who are you?
Second lieutenant William Decker, sir.
Royal flying corps.
You mean royal air force.
No, sir.
Royal flying corps.
What are you doing here?
Why are you dressed like that?
I beg your pardon, sir?
There some kind of an air show nearby?
Air show, sir?
Are you making a film?
I'm afraid I don't quite understand you, sir.
You don't understand?
What are you...?
Why are you wearing this costume?
This is my uniform, sir.
Your...!
At ease.
Thank you, sir.
Excuse me, sir.
Where exactly am I?
Now, where exactly did you think you were?
Well, I thought I was landing
at 56th squadron, r.F.C.
56th squadron r.F.C.?
Wasn't that a...?
What's today's date?
March 5.
What year?
Why, 1917.
1917?
Yes, that's correct.
Well, isn't it?
It's march 5, 1959, lieutenant.
Uh... look here.
You're not joking with me, are you?
Good lord.
You don't seriously expect us to believe that...
But it's true. It's true.
When I took off this morning, it was 1917.
Tha t ol oud...
While I was passing through it,
I couldn't hear my engine.
It was like being swallowed in a vacuum.
The same sort of thing happened to guimerd.
The French fighter pilot?
He disappeared one day while flying.
At the memorial service, the cardinal said
"he belonged to the sky
and the sky has taken him."
Who do you think you're fooling, Decker?
Or whatever your name is.
Sir, I swear to you
when I took off this morning it was march 5,1917!
Mack and I were...
Who?
Captain mackaye.
Mackaye?
Yes, we're in...
Alexander mackaye?
How did you know?
What have you got to do with...
How did you know?
I suppose you're going to tell us
you don't know that Alexander mackaye,
air vice-marshal Alexander mackaye,
is at this moment en route to this base
for a tour of inspection!
But that's impossible.
Why is it impossible, lieutenant Decker?
Because he's dead.
It's ingenious, I'll give you tha t much.
This could be checked on, sir.
If we wanted to waste our time, yes.
Well, if it's a hoax,
it's certainl y an elabora te one.
Ifit's a hoax, major.
I mean, sir,
it's hard to believe that anyone would go
to such incredible lengths just to play a joke.
Who said it wasa joke?
Alright, sir, what is it?
We'll find out when mackaye arrives.
We could ask the ministry of war in London.
There might be records on this Decker.
I think you believe him.
No, sir.
It's just that I can't help feeling
there's more to this than just a hoax.
Exactly.
You don't think he meant to use that on mackaye?
We'll know soon enough.
But, sir, I'd swear the man was genuinely shocked
when he heard mackaye was coming here.
If he'd meant to do the man any harm
he would've worn his gun, he wouldn't have left it in his plane.
Major, if you'll excuse me, I have a lot of work to do.
But, general, this whole idea doesn't make any sense!
Major! If you'll excuse me.
Yes, sir.
Lieutenant.
Why am I a prisoner here?
Not quite as bad as all that.
I'm being kept here, am I not?
I'm only following orders, Decker.
What earthly good is it going to do
for me to see mackaye?
Why are you so afraid of seeing mackaye?
I'm not afraid.
I'm not afraid of anything.
Well, then?
Well, all right, I'll see him.
Good.
About that white cloud you spoke of.
I've told you everything.
Now, look here, Decker.
Do you realize you're asking us to believe
something rather incredible?
A cloud of silence?
A world war I pilot
landing at an American base in France in 1959?
Such a thing just doesn't happen every day!
Well, it happened today!
Now, look here, I've told you I'll see mackaye.
Now, why don't you leave me alone?
You really feel you know him, don't you?
Know him?
"Old leadbottom?"
Leadbottom?
Yeah, well, whenever we fly...
Whenever we flew over the German lines
the soldiers fired at us.
Well, one day mack got hit in a most embarrassing spot.
I always called him old leadbottom after that.
It's a private joke, of course.
Mack's a proud fellow, you know.
He wouldn't like it if I bruited it about.
But why do you keep insisting that he's dead?
Because the last I saw of him
he was caught in a circle of seven German planes.
There was nothing I could do about it, of course.
I was involved with three others.
Obviously, he got away.
I don't see how he could have.
Not only could have, he did.
He was one of britain's great heroes during the blitz.
That was the second war we told you about.
Won the d.F. C. For knocking down three German bombers
one night o ver I ondon.
He undoub tedl y sa ved hundreds of lives.
Ma ybe even thousands.
Decker!
You manage, sir?
Yes, you can wait outside.
What's wrong, Decker?
I've got to leave!
That's impossible.
Mackaye will be here in a while. We'll get to the bottom of this.
I can't see him.
Why not?
He'll know me for what I am.
What are you?
I'm a coward!
I'm a coward.
I've always been a coward.
All my life I've been running away
pretending to be something I never was, never could be.
That's why I'm here...
Because I was trying to run away.
Because I wanted so desperately to escape
that I did escape.
Oh, I gotby with my pretending well enough.
My kind of strained idiocy
is exactly the brand we all put on.
We're playing a part, you know?
Boys on a lark... laughing, joking, drinking...
Oh, it's too much, all of it.
And turning into deadly, ice-cold killers in the sky
although not me, of course.
No, not me.
Up there, I'm just as afraid as I am on the ground.
And mack and I are supposed to go on patrols together
but, uh... I can usually manage to persuade him
into splitting up.
You know, I think he actually hopes
he'll run into some trouble.
Me, well, I just... Linger in the clouds
flying back and forth, dreading the possibility
that I might see an enemy plane, and...
Just hoping for enough time to pass
so that I can go back.
You know, sometimes I think...
I'll land behind the German lines
and I'll let myself be captured.
The pilots always get the best of treatment, you know.
But I'm afraid of doing that even.
I'm afraid that I'd be discovered, and...
Discredited.
I couldn't bear that.
I have to carry on the self-delusion, you know.
You know...
I've actually fired bullets
through the cockpit walls
so that the chaps will see them
and be impressed.
God help me.
It isn't a crime to be afraid, Decker.
Everybody's afraid at one time or another.
I'm sure mackaye would understand that.
Well, what makes you think he knows anyway?
Because it was me that let the Germans trap him.
But I thought you said
you were fighting three German planes yourself.
I wasn't fighting anyone!
I was running! I was running!
When the Germans came at us, I left him up there to die.
But he didn't die!
Well, I can't understand that!
Well, maybe he got helped somehow.
What's the matter?
What you said.
Wha t?
That he got help.
It's certainly in the realm of possibilities.
Don't you see?
Maybe it was me that helped him.
I said when he got help
I meant that somebody else...
There wasn't anyone within 50 miles
who could have helped him.
Maybe it wasn't an accident that I landed here.
Maybe I was brought here for a purpose...
To find out that mack had survived.
To find out that time was giving me a second chance.
You've got to let me go.
But I can't.
You've got to, don't you see?
It's the only chance I have.
It's the only chance he has.
But he's alive. He's coming here today.
How do you know that if I don't get back
he won't be here?
How do you know that he won't have been killed
42 years ago unless I help him now?
That's insanity, Decker.
Hey, where do you think you're going?
Turn it off!
Can't you understand?
It's not just him.
It's all those other lives he saved.
Are they to be lost as well?
Turn it off, Decker, or I'll fire.
Well, fire.
I'd rather die.
You're in trouble, major.
I hope you know that.
I know it, sir.
You know, your thought processes elude me.
They positively elude me.
Letting that maniac loose.
How could you possibly...?
Yes?
Air vice-marshal mackaye, sir.
Fine, fine.
We were supposed to meet him when he landed.
All right. At ease.
Marshall mackaye.
How do you do, general?
I'm very pleased to meet you, sir.
I trust you had a comfortable flight.
Oh, yes, splendid.
Good. This is major Wilson.
How do you do, sir?
Honored, major.
Won't you sit down, sir?
Thank you.
May I?
Oh, thanks.
Sir, did you ever know a man
by the name of William Terrance Decker?
Terry Decker?
Well, I certainly should know him.
Saved my life.
What?
How did he save your life, sir?
Well, you see, we were out on patrol together.
Now, as a rule, we'd have split up
but on that day, we were flying together
when a flight of Germans dropped down on us.
You fought them together?
Well, not at first.
What do you mean, sir?
Well, I had a feeling
that old Terry was lighting out on me.
He flew away?
Yes. Cl imbed high.
Disa ppea red in a cl oud.
A white cloud, sir?
I don't know.
I suppose so.
And then?
Well, then, out of nowhere, it seemed,
Terry came diving down, his gun chattering away.
He got three of the blighters before they got him.
Sa ved my life.
Then he did get back.
What?
Didn't the Germans
usually bring back the personal effects
of pilots who had been shot down?
Usually.
I say, what is this all about?
They brought back his?
No?
Where in heaven's name did you get these?
They're his?
Yes. Now, what the devil is this all about?
Maybe you'd better sit down, old leadbottom.
Old...
What did you call me?
Dial 06 from a pla y... hamle t to hora tio:
"There are more things in hea ven and earth
than are dream t of in your Phil os oph y."
Dial og from a pla y written long before
men took to the sky.
There are more things in hea ven and earth
and in the sky tha t perha ps can be dreamt of.
And somewhere in between hea ven, the sky, the earth
lies the twilight zone.
Rod serl ing, the orea Tor oftwilight zone,
will tell you about next week's story
after this word from our al terna te sponsor.
And noi/I/, Mr. Serl ing.
Next week, we show you the face of war.
But the kind of portrait we vetnure to say you've never seen before.
Dick York and William Reynolds star in the purple testament.
The story of a man who can forecast death.
That's next week on the twilight zone
the purple testament.
We hope you'll join us.
Thank you and good night.
Be sure to see the fun-filled famil y life
of one of america's grea test entertainers, the Danny Thomas show.
Monda y nights, over most of these sta tions.