I always liked the convoluted logic that transcends whatever we are used to in the THE TWILIGHT ZONE. This episode is not one of the best known of the episodes, but it is interesting on several levels.
Kenneth Haigh is seen landing a vintage 1917 British plane into an American air base in France in 1959. His initial comment is delicious: "We never knew you fellows were this advanced!" Gradually he (like most of the time travelers in episodes of the ZONE) realizes that he has been listed as missing in action since 1917, and that he has somehow transcended time when he entered a cloud bank that observers noticed going into. He can, of course, stay there - although it would take time to get used to the fact that everyone in the world of his day is dead now - but he learns that an old friend (Alexander Scourby) is going to be arriving that afternoon at the base. Scourby is now an air force general, but Haigh keeps thinking that something is wrong and that he'll never see Scourby. And sure enough Scourby's plane is reported missing and late.
Spoiler coming up:
Haigh suddenly remembers that years earlier, on the last day he was in 1917, he saw Scourby (a fellow pilot) having problems with his craft being chased by a German plane. Haigh panicked and did not come to Scourby's assistance. Now he wonders if his act of cowardice is going to result in the death of the man - somewhat belatedly. So he takes off on his plane and reenters the same cloud bank. Soon afterward Scourby shows up finally. When he is asked about Haigh, he recalls the last day Haigh and he fought side by side. Haigh seemed to run away into a cloud bank for the longest period, but suddenly he returned and came to Scourby's assistance, and Scourby survived but Haigh did not.
Most of the story is an interesting switch on the typical time travel story, wherein someone goes back in time to stop an event (in one of the ZONE tales Russell Johnson tries to return to Ford's Theater to stop Lincoln's Assassination). But usually we learn that history can't be changed (or if it changed the results are incalculably difficult to foresee). Here the act in the past already occurred, and a belated disaster may be about to occur. The time traveler has to return to his own period to save the actual course of history. An interesting switch.
I wonder if the germ of the story here, about Haigh's disappearance into the clouds, may have been based on the fate of French war ace, Georges Guynemer. The leading French Ace up to 1917, Guynemer disappeared in 1917 when he went on patrol, and was last seen entering a set of clouds. Although German records later said his plane and body were found and he was buried, the French did not hear of this at the time. Instead French children were told that Guynemer flew so high the angels would not let him return to earth, or he could not come back. Somehow, I would not be surprised that the end of the ace had some influence in the construction of the story.
Kenneth Haigh is seen landing a vintage 1917 British plane into an American air base in France in 1959. His initial comment is delicious: "We never knew you fellows were this advanced!" Gradually he (like most of the time travelers in episodes of the ZONE) realizes that he has been listed as missing in action since 1917, and that he has somehow transcended time when he entered a cloud bank that observers noticed going into. He can, of course, stay there - although it would take time to get used to the fact that everyone in the world of his day is dead now - but he learns that an old friend (Alexander Scourby) is going to be arriving that afternoon at the base. Scourby is now an air force general, but Haigh keeps thinking that something is wrong and that he'll never see Scourby. And sure enough Scourby's plane is reported missing and late.
Spoiler coming up:
Haigh suddenly remembers that years earlier, on the last day he was in 1917, he saw Scourby (a fellow pilot) having problems with his craft being chased by a German plane. Haigh panicked and did not come to Scourby's assistance. Now he wonders if his act of cowardice is going to result in the death of the man - somewhat belatedly. So he takes off on his plane and reenters the same cloud bank. Soon afterward Scourby shows up finally. When he is asked about Haigh, he recalls the last day Haigh and he fought side by side. Haigh seemed to run away into a cloud bank for the longest period, but suddenly he returned and came to Scourby's assistance, and Scourby survived but Haigh did not.
Most of the story is an interesting switch on the typical time travel story, wherein someone goes back in time to stop an event (in one of the ZONE tales Russell Johnson tries to return to Ford's Theater to stop Lincoln's Assassination). But usually we learn that history can't be changed (or if it changed the results are incalculably difficult to foresee). Here the act in the past already occurred, and a belated disaster may be about to occur. The time traveler has to return to his own period to save the actual course of history. An interesting switch.
I wonder if the germ of the story here, about Haigh's disappearance into the clouds, may have been based on the fate of French war ace, Georges Guynemer. The leading French Ace up to 1917, Guynemer disappeared in 1917 when he went on patrol, and was last seen entering a set of clouds. Although German records later said his plane and body were found and he was buried, the French did not hear of this at the time. Instead French children were told that Guynemer flew so high the angels would not let him return to earth, or he could not come back. Somehow, I would not be surprised that the end of the ace had some influence in the construction of the story.