All language subtitles for The Twilight Zone - S05E15 - The Long Morrow.eng.SDH

[THEME MUSIC PLAYING]

NARRATOR: You unlock this
door with the key of imagination.

Beyond it is another dimension.

A dimension of sound.

A dimension of sight.
A dimension of mind.

You're moving into a land of
both shadow and substance,

of things and ideas.

You've just crossed over
into the Twilight Zone.

NARRATOR: It may be said
with a degree of assurance

that not everything that
meets the eye is as it appears.

Case in point: the scene you're watching.

This is not a hospital, not a
morgue, not a mausoleum,

not an undertaker's parlor of the future.

What it is, is the belly of a spaceship.

It is en route to another
planetary system,

an incredible distance from the Earth.

This is the crux of our
story, a flight into space.

It is also the story of the things
that might happen to human beings

who take a step beyond,
unable to anticipate everything

that might await them out there.

MAN [NARRATING]: I remember things.

It's more than just void,
darkness, unconsciousness.

The mind does work.
There are images, patterns,

things to recollect.

It's not just the long, deep sleep

that comes when the fear has left.

The cold is felt, the slipping away of
feeling is noted and then succumbed to.

The mind functions.

Time is distorted, jumbled,
telescoped, accordioned,

but there is a sense of time even so,

and I remember things. I
remember the way it began.

I remember the way
it was in the beginning.

[KNOCKING]

Come in, Commander Stansfield.

Dr. Bixler.

Please, be comfortable. The
figure of speech, Commander.

Be comfortable in the sense that
there's no need to stand on ceremony.

But there are no seats
to sit down on, either.

I've heard much of you, Doctor.

And I of you, and that's
the reason you're here.

You've been an astronaut for 11 years.

Is that a question, sir?

It's an observation. Should
you not have realized it,

you've been the object of considerable
observation for the past several months.

I've been aware of some, Doctor.

When the Space Agency
put me on my project,

they told me to keep in
mind the scientific problems,

but also to be aware of the human factor.

You, Commander Stansfield,
are the human factor.

Go on, Doctor.

You recognize this, don't you?

Well, this is our solar
system. This is the sun

and here is the Earth,
Jupiter, Venus, Pluto, Mars.

And what do we know about
our neighbors, Commander?

Mars is a vast, scrubby desert

with an unbreathable atmosphere.

Pluto is poisonous and extremely cold.

The moon is barren, Jupiter, volcanic.

In short, Commander,

our neighbors offer us only
one asset: they're accessible.

They're within reach.

Beyond that, they offer us nothing.

Scientific, social, economic. Anything.

They're the Mount Everest of space.

Once, they offered us challenges.

Where is the next Mount Everest, Doctor?

That's perhaps the most pertinent
question you've ever asked.

This is a planetary system.

To date seen only through
the lens of a telescope.

We know nothing of it except
that there are six bodies,

one of which we can
only assume is the sun.

It's flaming and gaseous,

and it must provide heat and
light for these five bodies here.

It's a small system like our own.

The planets run roughly
in the same orbital pattern

as we do around our own sun.

Does it have a name?

You may call it
Stansfield's Mount Everest.

That's where I'm going.

When?

In about six months.
The ship's being built now.

It's off the drawing board.
The keel is being laid.

But it'll take only one man, and
that man should be right there

watching every rivet, every bolt,

every item of equipment going in there.

You are that man, Commander.

You will be the sole occupant

and you will be its pilot.

Doctor, I…

I like this assignment very much.

That's precisely why you were chosen.

Of course, there will be the usual
dangers, the usual unknowns.

In the past, you've had
meteor showers to contend with.

You've had the usual calculated
risk of mechanical difficulties,

landing difficulties, ejection
troubles and the rest of it.

Well, you'll still have those.

Compounded.

We have another factor here.

Another problem.

Distance. This system is perhaps
141 light years away from us.

That's a rough estimate, but a good one.

The ship is…

The ship will have interstellar drive

and an anti-gravity device.

It'll be the fastest man-made
object ever conceived,

ever brought to life.

It'll go 70 times faster
than the speed of light.

But in terms of the
space you must conquer.

It'll be like an ant
crawling across the Sahara.

In short, Commander,

your trip to these planetary
bodies and back to Earth

will take approximately 40 years.

NARRATOR: Commander
Douglas Stansfield, astronaut,

a man about to embark on
one of history's longest journeys.

Forty years out into endless
space and hopefully back again.

This is the beginning.

The first step toward man's
longest leap into the unknown.

Science has solved
the mechanical details,

and now it's up to one human being

to breathe life into
blueprints and computers,

to prove once and for all
that man can live half a lifetime

in the total void of outer space,
40 years alone in the unknown.

This is Earth. Ahead
lies a planetary system.

The vast region in
between is the Twilight Zone.

[SLOW, STEADY HEARTBEAT]

STANSFIELD [NARRATING]:
That was the beginning,

that brief, unemotional,
very matter-of-fact colloquy

between the scientist
and the practitioner.

A small cast of two characters.

And that was the way it should have been.

But I remember,

I very clearly remember the
entrance of character number three.

MAN [OVER PA]: Will
communications team B-8.

Communications team
B-8 report to Central Control.

Communications team B-8, Central Control.

Oh, a friend in need.

Oh, that's my job.

Picking up papers?

I'm the new morale officer. I follow
people around who look stricken.

Oh, and do I look stricken?

You looked momentarily nonplussed.

I don't believe we've met. Are
you permanently stationed here?

I'm with the Space Agency. And you're?

Stansfield. Commander, USN.

Oh. You're the one.

I don't know whether I should thank
you or report you for insubordination?

I've always wanted to meet you.

Well, I've always
wanted to meet you, too.

No, that's true. I have ESP and I, uh…

A long time ago I woke up one early
morning and some inner voice told me

with some intensity that I would
meet a girl with a stricken look

who would drop papers in corridors.

And did your ESP tell you the name?

Mm, Sandra Horn.

Oh.

Subtle astronaut.

It's been an honor meeting you.

I, um,

I don't suppose that,
uh, the Space Agency

could do without your services
for a couple of hours this evening,

just long enough for dinner.

Well, despite the fact
that I am invaluable

and that the whole space
program rests on me alone,

I think a two or three-hour-period
could be carved out.

I'm in the book,
Commander. Please, phone.

No, I won't call. I'll pick
you up. I'll be there at 8:00.

Arrivederci, lady from the Space Agency.

At 8:00, astronaut.

Arrivederci.

DR. BIXLER: You are
31 years old, Commander.

When you return from this trip,

the Earth will have aged
almost half a century.

That's something to contemplate.
I'll be over 70 years old.

I will have lived the better part
of my life out in space and alone.

You will have lived the better
part of it, but you will not have aged.

We intend to try
something new, also a risk,

also decidedly calculated.

Freezing?

An extension of that, but
much more complicated.

It'll be a suspended
animation in its purest form.

We've developed a substance

from the lymphoid tissue
of hibernating animals,

plus several vitamin absorbents
and a collection of drugs.

The Earth will have aged,
Commander, but you will not.

You'll be only a few weeks
older when you return.

Hm. Sort of like dying
and coming to life again.

After a fashion.

But coming to life again

in the sense that there'll
be very few people here

that you will know or who will know you.

Life will have changed, Commander.

You'll have to begin
living it all over again

as a stranger, as a… Well,
as an anachronism, if you will.

All right, Doctor. When do I begin?

You have begun. As of this moment,
you are very much committed, Commander.

I'm on the payroll, Doctor,
and I just checked in.

Something?

A month from now you'll be off to space.

And by the time you come back down again…

You want to talk about that now?

Only for the following absurd reason.

I've known you for exactly
three and a half hours.

That's what it's been.

Three and a half hours.

A long dinner…

And a short dance.

And already,

-already…
-Already what, Sandy?

Already…

I feel a sense of… loss.

STANSFIELD [NARRATING]:
My life had been space.

It had been missions,
projects and expeditions.

There had been no time for intrusions
that took the form of a woman's face,

a voice, a short month of a man
and a woman drawing together,

becoming a part of one another,

reaching tentatively into that
strange and mysterious pond of love

and then watching the
ripples that came from it.

But now I think of these things.

Now they come to mind, now in
the darkness, in the cold, the solitude,

the… stillness, the loneliness.

Now there comes a feeling of warmth.

Sandy. Where are you
now, Sandy, across the void?

My dear Sandy, through
the millions of miles

of cold, empty space.

Through the vastness of a
naked desert of sky and stars,

I love you.

I love you, Sandy.

MAN [ON RADIO]: T-Minus 2-30.

[MEN SPEAKING INDISTINCTLY ON RADIO]

Small, unofficial gesture

from one of the lesser bureaucrats

of our good, respectable government.

Unofficial

and very much apart from protocol.

But I… I couldn't let you leave, Doug,

not without saying goodbye.

Not without tell you I…

I loved you very much.

And I shall sorely miss you.

And that my life…

Whatever there is left of it…

Shall be a strangely
meaningless, dull and

empty thing without you to share it.

It's a very odd thing,
Sandy, when I get back,

when I… touch this earth again,

I know the first
thought I'll have, I know

the first thing that I'll wanna see,

I know the first…

Thing that I'll want to touch.

I'll be the

little old lady in the lace shawl.

The one waving the "Welcome Home" sign.

So, look for me. Will you, Doug?

MAN: [ON RADIO] Two, one, zero.

One, two, three, four and five.

[ENGINES RUMBLING LOUDLY]

STANSFIELD [NARRATING]: I
move now, I streak across the sky,

I leave an Earth behind that
changes beyond my closed eyes.

From a warm place of leaves and trees

to a cold orb hanging in a dark sky

and growing smaller

and smaller and smaller.

And time passes.

It inexorably passes.

And I can do nothing about it.

General Walters? Space
contact, sir. A craft spiraling in.

All right, let's hear the report.

An expedition called
"Stansfield's Mount Everest."

Commanded by Douglas Stansfield.

What was the date of departure?

This one's one of the old jobs, sir.

Departure, December 31, 1987.

"Old" is putting it mildly.

All right, check it out in
your report. Let me know.

This one's one of the pioneers.

Been in space 40 years.

First voice communication we've had.

It's been tracked on radar,

but his communications
must have malfunctioned

a few hours after he left the atmosphere.

Now, here's a funny one.

How's that, sir?

Well, there's an insertion
from a man named Bixler.

He was one of the project people
years and years ago as I recall.

He must have been in charge
of the Stansfield mission.

It says we're to contact

a girl named Sandra Horn.

Who?

A Miss Sandra Horn,

a friend of Commander Stansfield.

Where would we find her, sir?

An old ladies' home?

No, you'll find her in
a hibernation room.

You'll find her a young
woman of 26 years of age.

I hope you find her alive.

General Walters.

Miss Horn.

You're looking very well
indeed. You look fine.

Sounds idiotic, doesn't it? But,

what do you say to somebody
who's been asleep for 40 years?

I was told Commander Stansfield…

Yes, his ship landed six hours ago.

I asked to see you.

What about him?

In good health.

Naturally… very tired.

I want to see him. I must see him.

You shall see him in just a moment.

I… I had to speak to you first.

I'll try to make this
as brief as possible.

Commander Stansfield
suffered a communications failure.

It probably occurred within the
first 12 hours after his departure.

There was only sporadic contact made

during the entire flight
both there and back.

He reached the other solar system?

Yes, he reached it.

He landed, he took off, he returned.

He found no life. But we
found that 20 years ago.

That's one of the ironies
of progress, Miss Horn.

Could have saved the trip.

Could have saved him his anguish.

His anguish being the following:

Unknown to us here on Earth,

to my predecessors and to theirs.

Because of the lack of communication,

Commander Stansfield arbitrarily

removed himself from hibernation

six months after leaving Earth.

-He did this because…
-I know why.

Oh, God help me.

I know why.

Over 40 years, Miss Horn.

Forty years in the cockpit of a ship.

Forty years.

His loneliness must have been

something brand-new
in the human experience.

I wish to heaven he could have
returned to you just as he left,

but as it is, he…

Doug.

You remember me, don't you?

Remember you?

I've spent…

I've spent 40 years
remembering you, Sandy.

Painting a picture inside my head.

Listening to your voice.

Thinking about your touch.

I've spent forty years

surviving for you, Sandy.

Oh, Doug.

It can still be that way.

The way you are.

The way I am.

It doesn't make any difference.

Oh, it makes a difference, Sandy.

It's 40 years difference.
That's too much difference.

You're, uh, still beautiful.

Very beautiful.

No, you go away now, Sandy.

Please go, hm?

Stansfield,

you are really quite an incredible man.

It may be the one
distinction in my entire life

that I knew you.

That I knew a man who
put such a premium on love.

Truly,

truly quite a distinction, Stansfield.

Mm.

NARRATOR: Commander Douglas Stansfield,

one of the forgotten
pioneers of the space age.

He's been pushed aside by the flow
of progress and the passage of years

and the ferocious travesty of fate.

Tonight's tale of the
ionosphere and irony

delivered from the Twilight Zone.

PRESENTER: And now, Mr. Serling.

Next time out on The Twilight Zone

an unusual little item from
the pen of Jerry McNeely

based on a story by Henry Slesar
and called intriguingly enough,

"The Self-improvement of Salvadore Ross."
This one poses the question:

If you don't like what you are,
how do you go about changing?

Don Gordon portrays a
man who really goes the route

when it comes to some basic changing
and the results are most unexpected.

[THEME MUSIC PLAYING]