The Long Morrow (1964) This episode of the original Twilight Zone series had to be one of the dumbest that aired and for both story and logical reasons. Commander Douglas Stansfield (Robert Lansing) is to go on a deep space mission that will return him to Earth in 40 years, but he won't age as he'll be in space-hibernation. Now just before he lifts off he meets Sandra Horna (Mariette Hartley) and after one date they are madly in love, but their romance is doomed because when he returns from his mission she'll be an old crone. This is when things get stupid; the ship returns and the New Space Agency finds a note in his file to notify Sandra Horn who the old Space Agency had put into hibernation shortly after Stansfield ship had left. Due to communication problems they were never able to notify him of the fact that his girlfriend is doing the "big sleep" as well. So what did Stansfield do? Six months after launching he took himself out of hibernation so that when he returned to Earth he and his true love would be the same age. So when craggy Stansfield sees still hot Sandra he nobly tells her to go on with her life. What an idiot!
The stupidity factor: * Deep space travel that planned on having it's passenger in hibernation would not have packed 40 years of extra food. * 40 years alone in a tiny space capsule would probably turn your brain into grape jelly. * Stansfield never considered that in the 40 years he was in space that Sandra may have gone on with her life and got married to some one else, or even die.
This episode was written by Rod Serling and is probably the worst of his sci-fi stories and a really lame re-telling of the classic O. Henry story "The Gift of the Magi" lame because Serling forgot the actual point of that story that at the end the couples sacrifices proved how much they truly loved each other. It didn't end with the husband nobly telling his wife to go on with her short haired life without him.
The stupidity factor: * Deep space travel that planned on having it's passenger in hibernation would not have packed 40 years of extra food. * 40 years alone in a tiny space capsule would probably turn your brain into grape jelly. * Stansfield never considered that in the 40 years he was in space that Sandra may have gone on with her life and got married to some one else, or even die.
This episode was written by Rod Serling and is probably the worst of his sci-fi stories and a really lame re-telling of the classic O. Henry story "The Gift of the Magi" lame because Serling forgot the actual point of that story that at the end the couples sacrifices proved how much they truly loved each other. It didn't end with the husband nobly telling his wife to go on with her short haired life without him.