The Premonition (The Outer Limits)

"The Premonition"
The Outer Limits episode
Episode no.	Season 2 Episode 16
Directed by	Gerd Oswald
Written by	Sam Roeca (teleplay) Ib Melchior (teleplay & story)
Cinematography by	Kenneth Peach
Production code	47
Original air date	January 9, 1965
Guest appearance(s)
Dewey Martin Mary Murphy
Episode chronology

"The Premonition" is an episode of the original The Outer Limits television show. It first aired on 9 January 1965, during the second season.

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...

Plot

Jim Darcy, the pilot of an X-15 rocket-powered research aircraft, and his wife, Linda, become trapped 10 seconds ahead of their time, enabling them to watch time unfold to catch up with them at the rate of about one second every 30 minutes. In the time left before returning to synch with normal time, they see that their daughter, Janie, is about to be hit by a rolling military truck whose parking brake had not been set. Jim and Linda's inability to move objects in the "real" world prevents them from resetting the truck's parking brake or pulling young Janie out of danger. Their problem is aggravated as they soon learn that at the moment when time "catches up" with them, they must assume the exact positions they had been in five hours earlier, when this whole thing started, or they could remain in that state forever.

They meet an unnamed and seemingly malevolent individual (Kay Kuter, but only identified as "Limbo Being" in the cast list) who earlier experienced the same situation, but failed to make it back in time. When it reveals that it could take from them their chances to return to reality Jim and Linda come to see just how grave their situation is: one or both could end up being stuck in this state forever.

On discovering that he can move and manipulate items in the crashed plane and car, Jim hits upon a way to save his daughter from death. He removes seatbelts from his wife's car and ties them to the back wheel of the menacing truck. He then ties the other end around the brake lever so that the truck's brakes will engage the moment the time warp ends. (It was, by that time, moving at 10 mph.)

With no time to spare, they hurry back to the crash site and assume their original positions. When time catches up the seatbelt pulls the emergency brake, stopping the truck. Their daughter is safe, the world returns to normal, and no one is the wiser.

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?

Cast

Dewey Martin – Jim Darcy
Mary Murphy – Linda Darcy
William Bramley – General Baldwin
Dorothy Green – Matron
Emma Tyson – Janie Darcy
Kay Kuter – "Limbo Being"
Coby Denton – Gate Sentry

Production notes

Many effects were used to keep even the slightest movement by the actors and extras from being noticed such as: still photographs, two-dimensional life-sized cardboard cutouts and split screen effects where one half of the screen was a freeze frame and the other incorporated movement.
This episode's original title was "Gordian Knot". The Gordian Knot is a legend associated with Alexander the Great. It is often used as a metaphor for an intractable problem, solved by a bold stroke.
The X-15 accident footage used in this episode occurred 5 November 1959 when a small engine fire forced pilot Scott Crossfield to make an emergency landing on Rosamond Dry Lake, Edwards AFB, California, in 56-6671. Not designed to land with fuel on board, the test craft came down with a heavy load of propellants and broke its back, grounding this particular X-15 for three months.

References

External links

The Premonition at the Internet Movie Database
"The Premonition" at TV.com

The Outer Limits episodes

1963 series
(episodes)

Season 1	"The Galaxy Being" "The Hundred Days of the Dragon" "The Architects of Fear" "The Man with the Power" "The Sixth Finger" "The Man Who Was Never Born" "O.B.I.T." "The Human Factor" "Corpus Earthling" "Nightmare" "It Crawled Out of the Woodwork" "The Borderland" "Tourist Attraction" "The Zanti Misfits" "The Mice" "Controlled Experiment" "Don't Open Till Doomsday" "ZZZZZ" "The Invisibles" "The Bellero Shield" "The Children of Spider County" "Specimen: Unknown" "Second Chance" "Moonstone" "The Mutant" "The Guests" "Fun and Games" "The Special One" "A Feasibility Study" "Production and Decay of Strange Particles" "The Chameleon" "The Forms of Things Unknown"

Season 2	"Soldier" "Cold Hands, Warm Heart" "Behold, Eck!" "Expanding Human" "Demon with a Glass Hand" "Cry of Silence" "The Invisible Enemy" "Wolf 359" "I, Robot" "The Inheritors" "Keeper of the Purple Twilight" "The Duplicate Man" "Counterweight" "The Brain of Colonel Barham" "The Premonition" "The Probe"

1995 series
(episodes)

Season 1	"The Sandkings" "Corner of the Eye" "Under the Bed" "Dark Matters" "The Conversion" "Quality of Mercy" "The New Breed" "The Voyage Home" "Caught in the Act" "The Message" "I, Robot" "If These Walls Could Talk" "Birthright" "The Voice of Reason"

Season 2	"Stitch in Time" "Resurrection" "Unnatural Selection" "I Hear You Calling" "Mind Over Matter" "Beyond the Veil" "First Anniversary" "Straight and Narrow" "Trial by Fire" "Worlds Apart" "The Refuge" "Inconstant Moon" "From Within" "The Heist" "Afterlife" "The Deprogrammers" "Paradise" "The Light Brigade" "Falling Star" "Out of Body" "Vanishing Act" "The Sentence"

Season 3	"Bits of Love" "Second Thoughts" "Re-Generation" "Last Supper" "Stream of Consciousness" "Dark Rain" "The Camp" "Heart's Desire" "Tempests" "Awakening" "New Lease" "Double Helix" "Dead Man's Switch" "Music of the Spheres" "The Revelations of Becka Paulson" "Bodies of Evidence" "Feasibility Study" "A Special Edition"

Season 4	"Criminal Nature" "The Hunt" "Hearts and Minds" "In Another Life" "In the Zone" "Relativity Theory" "Josh" "Rite of Passage" "Glyphic" "Identity Crisis" "The Vaccine" "Fear Itself" "The Joining" "To Tell the Truth" "Mary 25" "Final Exam" "Lithia" "Monster" "Sarcophagus" "Nightmare" "Promised Land" "Balance of Nature" "The Origin of Species" "Phobos Rising" "Black Box" "In Our Own Image"

Season 5	"Alien Radio" "Donor" "Small Friends" "The Grell" "The Other Side" "Joyride" "The Human Operators" "Blank Slate" "What Will The Neighbors Think" "The Shroud" "Ripper" "Tribunal" "Summit" "Descent" "The Haven" "Deja Vu" "The Inheritors" "Essence of Life" "Stranded" "Fathers and Sons" "Star Crossed" "Better Luck Next Time"

Season 6	"Judgment Day" "The Gun" "Skin Deep" "Manifest Destiny" "Breaking Point" "The Beholder" "Seeds of Destruction" "Simon Says" "Stasis" "Down to Earth" "Glitch" "Decompression" "Abaddon" "The Grid" "Gettysburg" "Nest" "Final Appeal"

Season 7	"Family Values" "Patient Zero" "A New Life" "The Surrogate" "The Vessel" "Mona Lisa" "Replica" "Think Like a Dinosaur" "Worlds Within" "In the Blood" "Flower Child" "Abduction" "Lion's Den" "The Tipping Point" "The Human Factor" "Human Trials"

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