"The Long Morrow" is episode 135 of the American television

anthology series An anthology series is a written series, radio, television, film, or video game series that presents a different story and a different set of characters in each different episode, season, segment, or short. These usually have a different ca ...

The Twilight Zone ''The Twilight Zone'' is an American media franchise based on the anthology series, anthology television series created by Rod Serling in which characters find themselves dealing with often disturbing or unusual events, an experience described ...

''. It originally aired on January 10, 1964 on

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

. In this episode, an

astronaut An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'star', and (), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a List of human spaceflight programs, human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member of a spa ...

falls in love on the eve of a 40-year-long space voyage. The story focuses on how he and his lover confront the problem that his 40 years in

suspended animation Suspended animation is the slowing or stopping of biological function so that physiological capabilities are preserved. States of suspended animation are common in micro-organisms and some plant tissue, such as seeds. Many animals, including l ...

will cause a wide age disparity between them by the time he returns.

Opening narration

Serling's narration begins with the opening scene of Stansfield in suspended animation: The narration continues after Stansfield is informed that his journey into space will take forty years:

Plot

Commander Douglas Stansfield, age 31, an

in the year 1987, is scheduled in six months to be sent on an exploratory mission to a planetary system roughly 141

light-year A light-year, alternatively spelled light year (ly or lyr), is a unit of length used to express astronomical distances and is equal to exactly , which is approximately 9.46 trillion km or 5.88 trillion mi. As defined by the International Astr ...

s from Earth. Although the spacecraft will travel at the rate of 7 times the

speed of light The speed of light in vacuum, commonly denoted , is a universal physical constant exactly equal to ). It is exact because, by international agreement, a metre is defined as the length of the path travelled by light in vacuum during a time i ...

, the round trip will still take forty years. To save him the ordeal of 40 years of loneliness, he is to be placed in (newly developed)

for the twenty-year trip to his goal, and again for the twenty-year return trip. During his time in suspended animation, he will age only a few weeks. Shortly before his mission, he meets and is enchanted by his young colleague, Sandra Horn. They meet that night, after only three and half hours, they declare their love for each other, and lament the fact that when Stansfield returns, Sandra will be an old woman. Forty years later, Stansfield returns to Earth, a forgotten pioneer. The discoveries he made on his mission were independently achieved earlier by technology developed after his departure. Sandra is waiting for him, still 26 and lovely. She had herself put in suspended animation during Stansfield's mission. Stansfield, however, had voluntarily disabled his suspended-animation system six months into his journey after a communications failure on his ship, and is now a man of 70. He has endured forty years of inconceivable loneliness in the hope of being with Sandra when he returned. Sandra offers to continue their relationship, but the heartbroken Stansfield urges Sandra to begin a new life without him. After Sandra leaves, General Walters offers some small consolation to the aged astronaut: "Stansfield, you're really quite an incredible man. It may be the one distinction of my entire life, that I knew you ... that I knew a man who put such a premium on love. Truly, truly quite a distinction, Stansfield."

Closing narration

Cast

Robert Lansing Robert Lansing (; October 17, 1864 – October 30, 1928) was an American lawyer and diplomat who served as the 42nd United States Secretary of State under President Woodrow Wilson from 1915 to 1920. As Counselor to the State Department and then a ...

as Commander Douglas Stansfield *

Mariette Hartley Mary Loretta Hartley (born June 21, 1940) is an American film and television actress. She is possibly best known for her roles in film as Elsa Knudsen in Sam Peckinpah's '' Ride the High Country'' (1962), Susan Clabon in Alfred Hitchcock's '' M ...

as Sandra Horn **(Actress Mariette Hartley was a teenager when she first met Serling. “I was head of the drama club at Staples High School in Westport, Connecticut,” recalled Hartley. “Around the mid-1950s, I saw the ‘Playhouse 90’ episode ‘Requiem for a Heavyweight,’ written by a man called Rod Serling. I was very courageous and gutsy in those days and called him to see if he would speak to our class. He actually answered the phone and said, ‘I’d be delighted.’ I can still see him sitting in the teacher’s desk, with his pipe, at the front of the classroom talking to us. He was so handsome I thought my heart would jump out of my skin! We asked questions and I remember his charm and capacity to include all of us in the discussion.” Years later, after she began working in Hollywood, Hartley met Serling again. “His limousine pulled up as I was walking out the studio,” she said. “He remembered coming to my class. I told him I was looking for work and within a couple of months he gave me the wonderful gift of working in ‘The Long Morrow’ episode.�

*

George Macready George Peabody Macready Jr. (August 29, 1899 – July 2, 1973) was an American stage, film, and television actor often cast in roles as polished villains. Early life Macready was born in Providence, Rhode Island on August 29, 1899. He claimed t ...

as Dr. Bixler *

Ed Binns Edward Binns (September 12, 1916 – December 4, 1990) was an American actor. He had a wide-spanning career in film and television, often portraying competent, hard working and purposeful characters in his various roles. He is best known for hi ...

as General Walters *William Swan as Technician * Don Spruance

Legacy

"The Long Morrow" is the title of a Season 7 episode of ''

Gilmore Girls ''Gilmore Girls'' is an American comedy drama television series created by Amy Sherman-Palladino, starring Lauren Graham and Alexis Bledel. The show debuted October 5, 2000, on The WB and became a flagship series for the network. The show ran fo ...

'', where Logan gives Rory a gift inspired by his favorite ''

'' episode, "The Long Morrow".

References

*DeVoe, Bill. (2008). ''Trivia from The Twilight Zone''. Albany, GA: Bear Manor Media. *Grams, Martin. (2008). ''The Twilight Zone: Unlocking the Door to a Television Classic''. Churchville, MD: OTR Publishing.

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Long Marrow, The 1964 American television episodes The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series) season 5 episodes Fiction about suspended animation Fiction set in 1987 Fiction set in 1988 Fiction set in 2027 Television episodes written by Rod Serling Works about astronauts Television episodes set in the 1980s Television episodes set in the 2020s