"The Premonition"
 
Original Title: "Guardian Knot"
Production and Broadcast Order #48
Shooting Days: 2-9 November 1964
First Air Date: January 9, 1965
 
Production Credits:
Teleplay
: Sam Roeca and Ib Melchior
Story: Ib Melchior
Director: Gerd Oswald
Assistant Director: Gregg Peters
Director of Photography: Kenneth Peach
Composer: Harry Lubin
Cast of Characters:
Dewey Martin
as pilot Jim Darcy
Mary Murphy as Linda Darcy
William Bramley as General Baldwin
Dorothy Green as the Matron
Emma Tyson as Janie Darcy
Kay Kuter as the Limbo Being
Coby Denton as the Sentry
 
Opening Narration:
"On the fabulous spawning grounds of Man's ever-increasing knowledge of science and technology, ancient, half-forgotten legends seemingly have no place. Except one: The legend of the Gordian Knot, a knot so intricate and convoluted that no man could untie it. For there are problems so perplexing that they are seemingly impossible to solve, when Man ventures to the outer limits of his experience..."
 
Plotline:
Test pilot Jim Darcy flies a NASA's experimental supersonic jet that crosses a time portal at Mach 6 and crashlands near his base. Out of his cockpit, he realizes the whole world is frozen into time and only his wife and he are desynchronized. The couple goes to the base to alert and find a solution. They witness the possible death of their little daughter because of a future truck accident. After observing immobile officials and technicians in their functions, they encounter a strange man stuck into this no man's land for so long that his physical appearance has changed radically and prevents them from the danger they risk if they remain in this in-between realm. Fortunately, they not only save their child with their car's safety belts but return to the present.
 
Closing Narration:
"Man is forever solving the most perplexing problems as he ventures ever further into the unknown. But where are the outer limits of his ingenuity? Will he ever encounter a problem, a Gordian Knot, which he cannot ultimately cut?"
 
Quote:
"If you'll miss your chance to return—one-millionth of a second behind time, your chance will pass you by, and leave you where I am now—in forever-now. A black, motionless void. No light, no sun, no stars, no time—eternal nothing! No hunger... thirst... only endless existence. And the worst of it... you can't die! So, fellow man, you challenge me for a wish to take your place? You, both of you, would feel no different if you were caught in this black oblivion... if you were not back in your plane... in your car... at the exact instant."
— The Limbo Being (Kay Kuter)
Comments:
The prologue starts with a long pan shot over Flight Control and followed by stock footages of the US Air Force: a B-52 takes off and flies high, inserts of dials and pilots, the launching of the X-15 jet (aka Skybird, according to Jim Darcy). After that official introduction, we can take a glimpse at the Darcys: Mrs Darcy brings her daughter to the Day Nursery which looks like a POW camp or an animal's cage owing to the metallic fence—that's why she escapes on bike to find out her fatal destiny! Jim Darcy's awarness of the time stop is depicted with four cheap freeze frames of the area: two soldiers who look at the sky, his own jet, a raptor chasing its prey, a coyote chasing a jack rabbit, and then Jim Darcy witnesses two Linda's in the same framing because of the sonic boom produced by his jet: meaning a shockwave has caught up his wife too. Actress Mary Murphy's over-acting ruins her character—to calm his wife down who has seen a freeze frame of an eagle, Jim Darcy slaps her. The couple is projected ten seconds into the future but time moves to the present in slow-motion. As in "Behold Eck!", the bear fears fire and the couple uses flares to protect themselves—a pointless attitude because the limbo man is desperate and peaceful. The only worthwhile scene remains the second meeting with the limbo man: the cameraman executes a revolving pan shot at 180 degree on Linda Darcy, accompanied by the "O.B.I.T." 's machine sound effect, then the bear finally expresses himself. We learn that as the Darcys, he is also a person trapped in this nothingness. To save his daughter from death, Jim Darcy attaches a car's seatbelts from the back wheel to the handbrake of the military truck. To justify the episode's title, Jim Darcy explains to his wife why he runs to see his daughter: "I don't know, I have a feeling, just a... premonition." The time paradox story is interesting but the family-oriented and the use of a little girl subplot a la "I, Robot" are dreadfully unbearable. It's a cheap, repetitive—see the four "comings and goings"—and minor episode but fascinating due to sci-fi director Ib Merchior's input (see his plot from "The Time Travelers") and the look of the monster. This is the last one directed by Gerd Oswald: notice the long corridor in Flight Control with a frozen MP that is enhanced by a long dolly in; the editing and the use of close-ups during Baldwin's countdown is also fascinating. For those who like the special effects in the line of "The Galaxy Being" and the haunting sound effects of "O.B.I.T."—thanks to music supervisor John Caper Jr.—with a "Twilight Zone" treatment (also see actor Dewey Martin from "I Shot an Arrow into the Air" and stars in a classic 1950's sci-fi film: "The Thing") about a frozen time plotline. After "Cry of Silence" and "Wolf 359", this is the last episode—without including "The Invisible Enemy"—from that season that takes place in a desert surrounding a la "Zanti Misfits". The added limbo being is the real star of the episode—I have a soft spot for this negative reversed character and, as in season 1, notice the eyeballs of the bear whose effect "seems" made with a moving filter to highlight: that's very bewildering—and not the conventional couple. It's the second episode that used the show's title in a narration (... when Man ventures to the outer limits of his experience...") as in the season 1 "The Borderland". Most fans have a nostalgic leaning for that particular one. It is said it is director James Cameron's favourite episode! Jim Darcy's much too big test pilot helmet is from "Men Into Space". Sometimes misremembered as a "Twilight Zone" one, this is the last time paradox plot after "Soldier" and "Demon With A Glass Hand"—time traveling is possible first via a vortex, a mirror and here the sound barrier (when the horizon is not visible you are in the twilight zone in the Air Force lingo!). Find for the last time the military gate from "Cold Hands, Warm Heart". TV Analogy: "The Alternative Factor", one episode from "Star Trek", allow us to dive into another time prison.