Rod Serling: Picture of the spaceship E-89, cruising above the thirteenth planet of star system fifty-one, the year 1997. In a little while, supposedly, the ship will be landed and specimens taken: vegetable, mineral and, if any, animal. These will be brought back to overpopulated Earth, where technicians will evaluate them and, if everything is satisfactory, stamp their findings with the word 'inhabitable' and open up yet another planet for colonization. These are the things that are supposed to happen...Picture of the crew of the spaceship E-89 - Captain Ross, Lieutenant Mason, Lieutenant Carter; three men who have just reached a place which is as far from home as they will ever be. Three men who, in a matter of minutes, will be plunged into the darkest nightmare reaches... of the Twilight Zone.
Air date: February 7, 1963
In 1997, Ross (Jack Klugman), Mason (Ross Martin), and Carter (Frederick Beir), three astronauts aboard Space Cruiser E-89, detect a light glinting from the surface of a nearby planet. Beliving the light to be evidence of intelligent life, the crew descend to the planet to investigate. When they land, the crew discover the wreckage of a spaceship remarkably and impeccably identical to their own. An investigation of the ship's interior reveals three dead bodies which are similarly identical to the crew. Mason and Carter become convinced that the trio are actually dead and their spirits are left stuck on this planet, but Ross stubbornly refuses to hear superstitious prattling, and tries to work out what the truth behind this phenomenon is, no matter how many times they have to go over the facts.
Death Tropes:
- Adaptational Alternate Ending: The original story ended with the men realizing they were dead, and that they had become a cosmic version of the Flying Dutchman. Here, it ends with Ross's sheer skepticism causing them to relive the episode all over again.
- Ambiguously Human: It's clear that all three men are dead, but Ross apparently has the ability to trigger a time loop again and again solely by his denial. Either ghosts have time-altering abilities, or Ross was something more than a ghost to begin with.
- And I Must Scream: Zigzagged. Ross, Mason, and Carter are doomed to remain trapped in a "Groundhog Day" Loop of finding their own bodies and realizing that they've died for eternity, but they don't remember each loop as it happens, which does soften the blow to a degree. They may be stuck in this situation for all time, but it will always be new to them, and thus lacks the "aware of fate but unable to do anything about it" factor usually associated with the trope.
- Agent Scully: Ross absolutely refuses to believe that he and his crewmates are ghosts, solely because there's no evidence that says so, even opting to believe that it's the work of aliens before accepting that they're dead. It's tragically deconstructed because his reluctance to believe in the unbelievable is what forces the crew, through his unrelenting denial alone, to relive the situation he refuses to accept forever.
- Canon Foreigner: In the television adaptation, Mason sees his wife Ruth and daughter Jeannie in the afterlife, while Carter sees Kramer and Mrs. Nolan. None of these characters appear in the short story by Richard Matheson.
- Curiosity Killed the Cast: There's no information regarding what it was that actually killed the crew, since the loop always starts with someone seeing that "something glittered down there".
- Dead All Along: The whole crew are revealed to be spirits wandering through an alien world after dying in a crash landing.
- Determinator: Captain Ross. Unfortunately for his men, his unwavering resolve to refuse accepting their deaths forces the loop to continue restarting.
- Detrimental Determination: An example Played for Horror. Ross' indomitable will and steadfast refusal to accept his death is the sole factor responsible for the ever-lasting torment of him and his crew.
- Discovering Your Own Dead Body: Ross, Mason, and Carter discover their own bodies in a wrecked duplicate of their ship, but Ross remains in firm denial throughout the story.
- Downer Ending: When Mason and Carter try to force Ross to accept the fact that he's dead, he breaks down and screams that the three of them are "going to go through it again". At that moment, the episode loops back to the beginning, where Mason gets the signal the crashed spaceship's light on his scanner. Rod Serling's narration confirms that the three dead men will remain trapped in their inescapable loop for eternity, all thanks to the inability of one man to believe the truth.
- Fatal Flaw: Captain Ross' refusal to accept the fact that he and his men are ghosts, as well as his determination to find a more rational explanation even in the face of there being no other explanation, and his indomitable willpower. In the grip of a Heroic BSoD, Ross wills the loop to restart through sheer denial.
- Flying Dutchman: The E-89 and its crew. Explicitly invoked by Rod Serling in his closing narration.
- Get A Hold Of Yourself Man: When Lieutenant Mason starts to freak out over their bizarre experiences, Captain Ross punches him in the face and knocks him down.
- "Groundhog Day" Loop: The trio are forced by Ross to discover their wrecked ship and dead bodies again and again forever. Serling's closing narration even compares it to the "Flying Dutchman", a never-ending hell.
- Heroic BSoD: Captain Ross undergoes one at the end, still looking for a rational explanation when Mason and Carter have already figured out that they're dead. Unfortunately for them, his resultant breakdown and his believing that they're alive, the events are some kind of illusion, and they'll keep trying to find an explanation however long it takes, is what triggers the loop to restart.
- Named by the Adaptation: Ross and Mason are given the respective first names of Paul and Ted in the episode.
- Outliving One's Offspring: Mason's daughter Jeannie was killed in a car accident, as was his wife Ruth.
- Our Ghosts Are Different: The trio look very much alive up to and after The Reveal, and thanks to Ross' denial, they're suffering a "Groundhog Day" Loop for eternity.
- Post-Modern Magik: Not only is the E-89's fate akin to the fate of the Flying Dutchman, it takes place in the near future rather than the present.
- Psychic Powers: One of Ross' attempts at an explanation as to what's going on is that they're stuck in an illusion created by psychic aliens.
- Riddle for the Ages: How did the crew originally die? Every time the loop restarts, they see that “something glittered down there” and find the wreck of their own ship, but we never have any indication as to why the crash occured.
- Scully Syndrome: Ross' theories of a logical explanation for the crew's illogical situation include time travel and even aliens with psychic powers. Apparently he thinks those are more logical than the trio being ghosts.
- Well in a scifi setting time travel and psychic aliens are at least equally logical as ghosts.
- Thousand-Yard Stare: Carter exhibits one after he, Ross, and Mason discover their own bodies in the crashed ship.
- Time Travel: Discussed. Ross speculates that they may have circumnavigated time and been sent to a probable future where they're dead after attempting a take-off, though he believes it can be prevented.
- Tuckerization: Mason's wife Ruth is named after Richard Matheson's wife.
- 20 Minutes into the Future: The episode is set in 1997, where the E-89 is investigating the feasibility of establishing a colony on the thirteenth planet of Star System 51.
- Undeath Always Ends: Unfortunately for the trio, that's not the case.
Rod Serling: Picture of a man who will not see anything he does not choose to see, including his own death. A man of such indomitable will that even the two men beneath his command are not allowed to see the truth. Which truth is: that they are no longer among the living. That the movements they make and the words they speak have all been made and spoken countless times before, and will be made and spoken countless times again, perhaps even unto eternity. Picture of a latter-day Flying Dutchman sailing into the Twilight Zone.
