The Lieutenant (TV Series)

To Take Up Serpents (1963)

Michael Ryan: Lt. Com. Joseph K. Vander

Quotes 

• Lt. Cdr. Johnson : The problem is you were sick on the ground, too. Now that indicates an inner tension - fear. Now that's perfectly normal psychological attitude - fear of a new dimension, of esoteric machinery, the unknown, the unfamiliar. You see, all fear springs from ignorance concerning the fright object. Children are afraid of the dark. Now what happens to it when you turn on the light? Then they can see and they know. The light is knowledge and understanding.

  Lt. William 'Bill' Rice : I'm not a child, sir, and I'm not afraid of the dark. I'm an adult and I'm afraid of an airplane.

  Lt. Cdr. Johnson : And you don't trust your pilot and your equipment.

  Lt. William 'Bill' Rice : Why do you say that?

  Lt. Cdr. Johnson : Because you're an intelligent young man and probably basically independent. Sheer guts, you understand, can also be sheer stupidity. We all rebel at placing our lives totally in the hands of another in a medium we're strange to. Now you're sick; you came to me; placed yourself in my hands. Your pilot knows his job as well as I know mine.