Original subtitles

These are unidentified flying objects.

Are they proof that we are being visited by civilizations from other stars?

Or just what are they?

Can I get you something?

It might keep me awake. I can't be back in a few minutes.

Mr. Rollins, we've picked up some traffic.

Dead ahead, sir. 18 miles, closing at flank speed.

Never seen that happen before.

Malfunction, do you think?

Don't know.

It's possible.

Check it out. I'll brief the captain.

Phone's now working. Go to the captain's cabin and brief him. Yes, sir.

Yes, sir.

I see it.

Got here as soon as I could.

Here, read this quick.

Here you go. It's not steak and eggs.

Thank you.

The Atlantic queen.

I reckon she's one of the biggest boats around.

Ship, Harry. You can put a boat on a ship, but you can't put a ship on a boat. Yes,

sir. But back six mile, if it'll float, it's a boat.

Why all the rush?

She doesn't dock in New York till late tomorrow. All the rush, Harry,

is because we're flying to Boston in 20 minutes.

Then we'll take a chopper out to the ship.

Couldn't we wait till she got in the port? Come on, Harry,

you know how important the time factor is.

Yes, sir, I know. I just don't like making the Air Force fly all the way out to sea.

Well, that's very considerate of you, Harry,

but the Coast Guard's gonna provide the chopper.

Northern steamship lines requested the investigations.

They don't want a lot of rumors flying around, people upset.

I waited in New York for you, and you went on the ship by yourself.

You know how crowded ships can get, those small little staterooms and all.

Harry.

Yes, sir?

What's with you? What's the matter?

Well, sir, to tell you the truth, I get seasick.

No problem.

They're seasick pills.

If those don't work, you could have a problem.

Captain Ryan? Right. Steve Rollins, executive officer.

How do you do, Mr. Rollins? Fine. My partner will be down in a minute.

This is Mr. Rollins, the executive officer. How are you? Sergeant Fitz.

Sergeant.

You gentlemen will follow me. I'll show you to the bridge.

Captain Bergstad's waiting for us. Fine.

Our gear will be down in a second. Can you handle

it for us? All right, fine. Stow it in his room.

I've been in touch with the home office since early this morning.

I feel they overreacted.

There's no reason of investigation until we docked.

Well, it is a help to us to begin at once, sir.

Ryan, the only reason I allowed you aboard is because I was ordered to.

I've heard Mr. Rollins' incredible account of flying objects.

And I'm sure you realize that a story of this kind could cause panic on this ship.

I understand that, sir, but we have an investigation to conduct,

and the sooner we get underway, the better. Very well. If nothing else,

maybe you can debunk this whole foolish situation.

Captain Bergstad, I know it may seem a little difficult

to believe the things that we described,

but there was something out there. Now, I don't know what it was,

but whatever it was, was real. Now, I'm sure of that much.

I'll see you gentlemen in my cabin when you're finished here.

Mr. Rollins, take the con. Aye, aye, sir.

It's pretty tough for most people to keep an open mind when it comes to UFOs.

Until you've seen one.

Why don't you tell us what you saw?

Yes, of course.

Mind if we record this, sir? Not at all.

What about the helmsman that was with you? That would be Anderson.

He's due back on the bridge in a few minutes,

if you'd like to wait. No, that's all right.

Why don't you go ahead, sir?

All right.

Well, it was about eight bells.

That's 0400 in your language.

We had a blip on our radar screen.

Now, it was coming directly at us at flank speed.

Then all of a sudden, it just disappeared like that.

Now, I went over to the phone to inform the captain. The phone was dead.

That's when I sent the radar operator down to the

captain's cabin to tell him what was going on.

And right after he left, I looked out over the bow.

Yes, sir. I see it. What is it, sir? Can't find out.

Mr. Anderson, did you see the second one? It was right up above us. No, sir.

Another one? Yes, it was incredible.

That's still dead. I'm gonna see if it's still out there.

But it wasn't there.

I never saw it again.

Now, gentlemen, I have been at sea most of my adult life,

and I have seen a lot of strange things, but never, never anything like that.

Did either of the objects ever touch down on the ship? Not that I saw,

but it's possible that the second one could have.

All right.

Thank you, Mr. Rollins. Well, what are you going to do now?

Check things out.

See if we can come up with any kind of physical evidence.

Well, there's a slim chance of that, isn't there?

We have to try, sir.

Well, if there's anything you need from me or my staff, you just ask.

Thank you. We'll be in touch.

Come in, Captain.

Please have a seat.

Well, what's your opinion?

About what, sir?

Why, Mr. Rollins' preposterous story, of course.

Would you say he hallucinated, or was he simply lying?

There is a third possibility, sir.

And that is that he was telling the truth.

We're being invaded by flying saucers, beings from outer space.

We're supposed to be responsible men, Mr. Ryan.

Are you saying that you can honestly accept such an outlandish premise?

We haven't accepted anything yet, sir.

Or rejected anything.

If Mr. Rollins saw something, it doesn't necessarily mean it was extraterrestrial.

Sit down.

I...

I think it's only fair to give you a little of Mr. Rollins' background.

It's probably the dream of every seafaring man to man a deep keel vessel someday.

Mr. Rollins is no exception.

Now, don't get me wrong, he's a fine officer.

But I'm afraid he's a little bit too ambitious for his own good.

What do you mean, sir?

Well, I'm getting close to retirement age. Another year, I'll be on the beach.

Mr. Rollins can have this command if he's patient,

but I don't think he wants to wait. I think he would like to expedite matters.

Even to the point of fabricating a story about UFOs?

Anything to cast a little doubt on my command.

What about the helmsman? He confirmed one of the sightings.

Well, he could be saying what Mr. Rollins told him to say.

Do you feel... all the men are against you, sir?

No, Ryan.

I'm not paranoid.

I understand the feelings of the men under me. I came up through the ranks myself.

Man at the top is always fair game.

Occupational hazard.

Yes. I wonder if I could have a few words with you. I'm Ollie Hires.

Captain?

I know. I grew up on the Ollie Hires show. I'm Ben Ryan. Come in.

This is Harry Fitz.

Hello, Harry. How are you? Hi, Mr. Hires.

I reckon you were my favorite TV comedian. You got beautiful taste.

Whenever your show came on TV,

that was the one night of the week I always had my homework done early.

It's nice to know I still got a couple of fans left. Sit down, sir. Sure.

Would you like some coffee?

Nope. Never drink it this early. Keeps me up all day.

Is there something we can do for you, Mr. Hires? Not Mr. Hires,

yet, Dolly, huh, fellas?

Well, let's get to where I came to see you.

Something happened last night, fellas, I think you should know about.

Well, why don't you go ahead and tell us, Ollie?

Is it okay with you if we record this?

Oh, yeah. I'm always much better if you got a microphone.

Well, let me see.

It was about maybe 4 o'clock in the morning, and I... Well,

I just finished my last lounge show a little while before, and I couldn't sleep.

I guess I'm what they call a night fella, you know,

and I never get to bed before dawn anyway.

So I went up on deck, figured I'd look at the stars.

It was kind of cold and clammy, but it felt good, you know what I mean?

Hi.

No offense meant, sir, but you know, once you guys start moving in,

there goes the neighborhood.

There's a man standing there, and there's light,

and this guy comes out, and... Oh, where?

What are you talking about? Oh, listen to me.

Rollins organized a searching party, but I guess they didn't find anything. Well,

Rollins must have believed your story, then.

Well, I guess so, but he didn't even question me.

He just got together with a bunch of guys and took off.

Hey, he didn't say anything to you fellas about it, did he?

No.

No, he didn't.

Mr. Hires, did the humanoid try to communicate with you in any way?

No. Just gave me a glassy stare, you know, like this.

I had an audience like that once in Boise, Idaho.

Ollie, will you show us the place where the humanoid came on board? Sure,

it's up on the promenade deck.

You know something, fellas? I've been a comic all my life.

I've made up gags about everything from movie stars to inflation.

But what I saw last night is no joke.

Believe me.

I'm standing about here, and this character comes down the beam of light.

Wow, what an entrance.

And he winds up about right where we are.

Picking up anything here?

No, sir, just normal background.

When you're finished, take a sample of the stained part of this railing. Yes, sir.

Ollie, can you describe the odor? Yeah, it was kind of like a...

Like a strong ammonia, with a capital A. I mean, but strong.

Anything like this?

Yeah, that's it.

Okay, Harry, take some scrapings from his deck, too. Yes, sir.

Is this the door the humanoid went through?

Yeah, that's it.

Do you know where this leads?

No, I didn't follow Rollins. I went back to my cabin,

had a couple of drinks, and went to sleep.

Ollie, you never said what happened to the UFO.

Well, after I talked to Rollins, I walked back

to the rail, and by that time, it was gone.

Harry, finished?

Yes, sir.

Hey, what do you fellas do with all those bits and pieces you scraped together?

We'll take them back to Wright-Patterson for analysis.

What'll that show?

Ollie, we don't play any guessing games. We have to wait till they're analyzed,

and when we get the results, we'll get in touch with you.

Oh, and then you give me the MS.

The MS, to hold truth. You don't hold anything back.

The Emma, Sully.

Hey, can I ask you something, Ben?

Have you fellas ever proved there is such a thing as a flying saucer?

Not yet, but we haven't given up.

Oh, but then if you prove that my story is right, it'll be kind of like a first.

I guess you could say that.

Hey, that'd be terrific. What a routine. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen.

A funny thing happened to me on the way to Venus.

See?

Well, the reason I didn't say anything about Ollie Heyer's

sighting is because the way he described it,

it just sounded too absurd. But you did send out a search party.

Yes, I did. I guess I let the events of the evening cloud my judgment.

Does that go for your sighting, too, sir?

No, no. No, I will stand behind my previous statements.

When you saw Mr. Hires on deck, how did he seem to you?

You asking me if he was drunk?

That and his general behavior.

Well, with Ollie, it's always a little difficult to tell. He's always on stage.

As far as being drunk is concerned, I guess I've never really seen him 100% sober.

I'm sure that's why he's had so many problems with his career.

His reputation precedes it.

How did he get this job?

His agent sold the company a story about how he had reformed, how good he was.

All he needed was another chance.

Well, you feel he hasn't reformed.

Being a comic in a ship's salon is not going to do a great deal for a man's career.

But having an encounter with an alien being,

that'll put your name on the front page of every newspaper in the world.

Yoo hoo! Yoo hoo, soldiers!

Isn't it exciting? Spaceships and visitors from other planets.

And I was afraid this was going to be a dull voyage.

Oh, I'm Marlene Baker.

I'm Captain Ryan, Mrs. Sergeant Fitz.

Oh, won't you sit down?

Well, I guess... I just love soldiers.

You know, my second husband was a soldier.

Maybe you knew him. General McAlpine?

No, ma'am, I don't think so.

Is there something we can do for you, Mr. Baker?

Well, I certainly hope so. Are you married?

Uh, no, ma'am.

Oh, please, don't call me ma'am. Marlene, I insist. I'm old enough.

I don't need any reminders.

Age-like beauty is in the eye of the beholder, Miss Marlene.

And a lady of your beauty is truly ageless.

Oh, you're so young.

Oh, what a shame.

Well, certainly been nice meeting you, Marlene.

Oh, but I haven't told you yet.

Told us what?

Well, at first, I thought it was the medication I was taking.

I have high blood pressure, you know. Actually, it runs in the family.

I remember my great-aunt Sophie... Marlene, the...

The thing you wanted to tell us.

Oh, oh, yes, yes. Well, it was very early in the morning, 4 or 4.30.

I got up, went to the door. I was a little frightened

of all the noise, but I still peeked out.

Young man, what in the world is going on around here?

Please, ma'am, get back in your cabin and lock your door.

Why? Look, I demand to know what's happening.

I wish I could tell you, but I got no idea. All I know is you better stay inside.

I came to a little later. I went back to my room, locked the door.

I tried to sleep, but of course I couldn't.

And now look.

At what, ma'am?

Why, at these, of course, if I don't get at least

eight hours sleep, I look simply dreadful.

And that doctor in Switzerland was supposed to have fixed them,

and it's only been a year. Do you think I should sue him?

Marlene, can you describe the man you saw?

Man, why, my dear, this was not a man. It was a creature with a huge head, no hair,

no ears, and the most dreadful little mouth and beady

eyes. Beady eyes? Yes, kind of shifty-like.

And his skin, ugh, it's all pasty-looking.

Marlene, have you told anyone else about this?

No, no, I haven't. Actually, I was a little embarrassed, you know,

account of the fainting. I mean, I haven't fainted since I was 16.

Well, thank you for telling us all this.

Oh, but what's going to happen now?

We still have a lot of investigating to do.

If anything new turns up, we'll be in touch with you.

Oh, that would be nice. Oh, dear, I really have to run.

I have a date with a charming little man. He doesn't speak a word of English.

Goodbye, you... Did that really happen, or was it just a dream?

It was a dream, Harry. A dream.

Look at this, Terry.

This stain is mottled, like weathering, like it's been here for some time.

Then that beam of light couldn't have caused it.

No way.

Wonder how many other people are gonna start telling these stories.

It can get contagious.

Hope it doesn't become an epidemic.

What are you fellas doing back here? Did you forget something?

No, we were trying to trace the route of our alleged alien,

see if we could establish where he was going.

Can you do that?

We know he went through that door and he passed by Marlene Baker's cabin.

And we know what direction he headed from there.

Well, what difference does it make where he was headed?

I'm not sure. I'd like to find out. Could you go with us? It'd save time.

Yeah, sure.

All right. You know Mrs. Baker was standing right about here.

The alien came from there and continued on.

Let's go.

Where does this door lead to? That's a back way up to the bridge.

Is it always locked? Always.

Who has a key? Just the captain, myself, and the first mate.

What does this give?

Eventually, down to the cargo hold. You should fire up the scintillator, Harry.

What's that for?

Check for radiation.

Kevin? You carrying radioactive material?

Yes, we are, but it's sealed in lead containers.

Let's take a look.

I'll take this here.

Let's get it, Harry.

Give me a hand here. At least it's not open all the way.

Do you know exactly what's in here?

Radioactive isotopes.

Industrial.

Right.

I don't think any real damage has been done.

Short-term exposure is not too dangerous.

Over an extended period, that could be a problem.

How do you think it got turned over?

Who knows? Probably some idiot stacked it up on top of the other ones,

then the motion of the ship knocked it off. The question is when.

Captain...

Do you suppose it's possible that this, uh,

alien had some sort of instrumentation with him that could sense this radioactivity?

If we concede there was an alien, it's possible.

Or was it the alien who opened it?

So far, there were two separate sightings of the UFO. One by Mr.

Rollins and one by Ollie. And two separate encounters

with the humanoid, Ollie's and Marlene's.

Right, plus the radioactive material. Well, that could be just coincidental.

There's still a lot of unanswered questions.

What happened to the target on the radar scope?

Why didn't the phones work?

What caused the odor?

These questions won't be answered until we

get the samples back from Wright-Patterson.

What about the other questions?

Yoo-hoo! Hello there! Oh, I just bet you're all talking about our alien, right?

Just everybody's asking me about it.

Isn't it too thrilling?

Uh, Maloney, how about you and me take a little stroll around the poop? No.

Oh, Ollie, you old lecher in here. I didn't even know you were interested in me.

Well, remember the old saying. What is the old

saying? Well, it's, uh, so old I forgot it.

Okay.

Something tells me I'm gonna need this.

No, we will.

Mr. Rollins. Yes, sir.

When we talked to Captain Bergstad, he had... some things to say about you.

We'd like to hear your side.

Well, thank you for that much anyway. At least that gives me a sporting chance.

You see, I know what the captain thinks about me.

Correct me if I'm wrong.

Good officer, but too ambitious and trying to force him into an early retirement.

Oh, I can see I'm right on the button.

Well, I plead guilty to the ambitious part.

I am.

And I am qualified to take over my own command, which I will do one day.

But I will do that on my own merit.

Not due to someone else's misfortune.

And gentlemen, I would never,

ever allow my ambition to get in the way of my loyalty.

Loyalty to whom, sir?

To the captain, to this ship, and my company, in that order.

Gentlemen, if you'll excuse me, I have duties to perform

elsewhere. I believe him. Yeah, I think I do, too.

Still, there's... There's something that's bothering me,

and I can't put my finger on it.

Any way I can help?

No?

Listen, let's go back to where Ollie had his

encounter one more time. Figured it out yet?

What?

What's been bothering you?

Oh, no.

Oh, there you are!

I've been looking all over for you.

Well, I guess you found us.

Yes, of course I did. You're right here.

Is there something you wanted, Miss Marlene?

Yes. Tonight's the last night at sea party,

and I want both of you to join me at my table.

Well, that's very kind of you, Mrs. Baker, but...

You know I was supposed to sit at the captain's table tonight,

but he had to invite some stuffy old ambassador.

I'm really very annoyed with him.

I was supposed to sit at his table last night for the masquerade party,

but he made up some silly excuse about some prince or other having to sit there.

Now, don't you think that was dreadfully rude of him?

Well, yes, ma'am, I suppose.

Anyway, you will sit with me, won't you?

Well, I don't see how we can turn down an invitation like that.

Oh, good. I just love men in uniform.

I reckon we've been had, Captain.

By an expert.

Come on, Harry. I think I know the man we have to talk to.

Harry, we're starting to get a handle on this thing.

Next thing we have to do is call the commander and Chief Atlantic Fleet.

Yes, sir.

Captain, you know, I've been thinking.

It's too bad we didn't get here one day sooner. Why's that?

Well, that way we could have gone to the masquerade.

You know, I hadn't been to one of those since I was a junior in high school.

I remember I went as the count of... Harry, you're beautiful!

Oh, no, sir.

Of course, some of the girls back in Six Mile did think I was right cute.

Wow! Hey!

Thank you. My gosh, you're such a good audience. I wish I had a better act.

Well, you know, this is kind of a return engagement for me here on this ship.

Really? Yeah. I gifted a show here in 1941.

Must have been a big hit. They couldn't wait to get me back.

Listen, I don't know whether the whole world's on

a diet or people just can't afford to eat anymore.

Everything is so expensive. Wow.

Cheaper to eat the money.

I'm not kidding. We went to a restaurant in Paris the other night.

It's called La Petite something. I don't know. It must mean, boy,

this is expensive. Because we sold a car.

We went in, picked up the menu. You wouldn't believe it.

T-bone steak, $17.50. With meat on it, $35.00.

I'm a nut. I ordered a steak. Darn thing was so small, I had to call a waiter over.

I said, hey, close the window.

Blew off the plate nine times.

Then after dinner, this guy had the nerve to walk over and say,

how did you find your steak? I said, I just moved the onions, and there it was.

I guess by now you folks know we've got an alien on board.

Well, I mean, nobody's even questioned him.

They don't know whether he's an American, an Englishman, a Frenchman.

We can't... You know, it must be very difficult for those immigration guys.

Do you ever stand and watch them where the immigrants come into a new country?

I was up in Canada once. It's the truth. A fella come up and say,

are you an American? He said, yes.

He said, what are the words that start Spangled Banner? He said, I don't know.

He said, you're an American. Come in.

I was talking to a couple of our Air Force guys,

and they told me they have definitely found

there is no human life on the planet Mars.

Really? No, they've never asked the United States

for a loan. Hey, you've been dialed.

Thank you. And remember the old saying, a friend in need is a pest.

Oh, you're right.

Oh, wonderful.

Wonderful. Oh, you have such good taste. Hey, fellas, come on.

What's happening?

Quite a bit, actually. Ollie, if you'll meet us in the lounge in a half an hour,

I think we can explain a lot of things.

Okay, you got me.

You were terrific.

I thought so.

Well, what we're going to tell you is not meant to be an absolute

solution to all the questions that have been raised.

What we'll try to do is present reasonable,

logical alternatives to what you believe you experienced.

Kind of a mental hocus-pocus, huh? Now you see it, now you don't. Not exactly.

We do have some hard facts to go along with our suppositions.

Now, first of all...

We contacted the Commander-in-Chief Atlantic Fleet,

and they confirmed a nuclear sub was in your vicinity last night.

That could have been the traffic that you picked up on your radar.

When it submerged, it simply disappeared off your screen.

Then we checked with your electrician. He had some rewiring to do,

and he picked the time he thought would cause the least inconvenience.

So at 4 o'clock this morning,

he closed off the switching unit to one of the phone lines.

Unfortunately, he forgot to notify you ahead of time.

But even with all that, how does that explain what Ollie and I saw in the sky?

These are the meteorological reports.

Now, in essence, what they say is that early this morning, there was fog.

Thank you.

Visibility less than 1 16th of a mile.

Also, there was a full moon hanging low on the horizon.

Okay.

A strange reading on the radar scope,

and then the unexplained failure of the phone set up a psychological

framework that could have easily affected your judgment.

You anticipated something ominous. It is possible, sir,

that the fog dissipated just enough to allow the moon to show through.

What we're saying is that it's possible you and the

helmsman merely misread a very natural phenomenon.

What about the second one that I saw? Now, I know that wasn't the moon.

No, sir.

It was seagulls.

Seagulls.

A large flock of gulls, sir.

The moonlight plus the lights from the ship reflected off their wings,

giving the impression of being a solid object.

Which brings us to Ollie's sighting. Now,

we checked with the officer in charge of maintenance,

and that stain on the railing was caused a couple of years ago when some lamp black,

it's like soot, got into the varnish that they were using.

It was discovered quickly, so only a small portion of the railing was affected.

And then, this morning, something else happened.

A crewman was moving a container of ammonia from a storage locker to the aft deck.

Unfortunately, they had an accident.

Now, the crewman succeeded in washing away the mess, but the odor remained.

Strong odor of ammonia.

I don't know.

You guys are weaving a beautiful story, but you're forgetting one little thing.

There were no seagulls, and I certainly know the moon when I see it.

Now, that human creature was standing right in front of me.

He was as close to me as you are.

I saw him, too. I mean, I was so close to him, I could have almost touched him.

Is this what you saw?

We borrowed this mask and the outfit from the ship's boutique.

One of the passengers had planned to wear it to a masquerade last night. However,

he had a few too many, and he missed the masquerade.

But he did wander around the deck later, which is when you saw him.

What do you think, Marlene?

Ollie?

Gee, I don't know. It could be, and it's pretty close, I guess. I don't understand.

Well, I do.

Captain Ryan, Sergeant Fitz, as far as I'm concerned,

this episode is closed. Well done. Thank you.

Well, wait a minute, Captain.

I don't mean any disrespect to anybody, but let's get this thing right.

I know you guys have worked hard and you've come up with a lot of great theories,

but damn it, I saw that spaceship, and I saw that stream of light and that thing,

whatever it was, walk down.

And nobody or nothing is going to convince me

that I imagined it. That's the way it was.

We're not trying to convince you of anything, Ollie.

We're just trying to show you what we found.

If it was a spaceship or an alien,

we just don't have any hard evidence to prove it. On the other hand,

we can't disprove it either.

So if it's any comfort to you, Ollie,

this will go down in our records as a true unknown.

Well, I guess it's better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick, huh?

I guess that takes care of that.

Mr. Rollins.

Sir.

Shall we go back to work?

Aye, aye, sir.

Now, I don't know about Ollie, but I'll buy your story.

We really weren't trying to sell it.

I know that, but I'm a sucker for happy endings, you know?

Oh, Captain Ryan!

I'm sorry to bother you, Captain. I'm Ellen Farrell. This is my daughter, Becky.

Hi, Becky. Pleased to meet you, Mrs. Farrell. This is Sergeant Fitz.

May I speak to you a moment, please?

Charlotte, step over here.

Is there something we can do for you?

Well, I'm not sure. I've hesitated talking to you,

but after all the stories I've heard, I thought maybe I should.

You have some information about the reported sightings?

I think so.

Some information? Something you saw?

No, something my little girl saw.

Would you care to tell us about it?

Yes, I guess I'd better.

I didn't find out about this until I woke up, of course, and Becky told me.

But as I understand it, this is what happened.

Becky woke up and went over to get her doll.

In the morning, Becky told me all about it.

Of course, she told me in a way that only a mother could understand.

A big airplane was standing still.

A funny-looking man got out and walked across the air to the boat.

That must have been exciting, Becky.

Were you scared?

Why didn't you tell us all this sooner, Mrs. Farrell?

Well, naturally, I didn't take Becky seriously.

I thought it was just a little girl's imagination. You know,

like seeing lions and tigers in her room.

I just didn't believe her.

That is, until I heard the other stories.

Stay plugged into Syfy for Cybernet, which begins after the break.