Twilight Zone: Judgment Night

CBS airs the tenth episode of Rod Serling’s anthology series The Twilight Zone. Nehemiah Persoff and Patrick Macnee (The Avengers) star in a script written by Serling.

1942: an Allied passenger ship, S.S. Queen of Glasgow, has become separated from her convoy in enemy waters during the height of the German U-Boat threat in World War II. One passenger, a Mr. Lanser, admits to being from Germany and seems very distracted. This arouses the suspicions of his fellow passengers, who begin trying to find out more about him. Lanser has little recollection of how he came to board the Queen of Glasgow, but his memory returns at the same time the others discover his true identity: he’s a German boat captain – the one responsible for sinking the S.S. Queen of Glasgow.

written by Rod Serling
directed by John Brahm
music not credited

Cast: Nehemiah Persoff (Carl Lanser), Deirdre Owen (Barbara Stanley), Patrick Macnee (First Officer McLeod), Ben Wright (Captain Wilbur), Leslie Bradley (Major Devereaux), Kendrick Huxham (Bartender), Hugh Sanders (Potter), Richard Peel (1st Steward), Donald Journeaux (2nd Steward), Barry Bernard (Engineer), James Franciscus (Lt. Mueller)

Notes: This is one of those Twilight Zone episodes that’s crawling with future genre stars, including Patrick Macnee (1922-2015), barely two years before taking on the role of Steed in ITV’s The Avengers, James Franciscus (1934-1991), future star of Beneath The Planet Of The Apes, and Nehemiah Persoff, who guest starred in Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea, The Six Million Dollar Man, Logan’s Run, Battlestar Galactica, The Bionic Woman, and Star Trek: The Next Generation.

LogBook entry by Earl Green