‘The Time Element’ was Rod Serling’s first science fiction story. It is a story that deals with time travel involving a man named Peter Jenson (William Bendix) visiting a psychoanalyst Dr Gillespie (Martin Balsam) on October 4th, 1958 with complaints of a recurring dream in which he imagines waking up in Honolulu just prior to the infamous Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour in December 1941.
The script was originally for CBS and was to be the pilot for ‘The Twilight Zone’ but for some reason was shelved. It is possible that they believed the story too raw still in the memory of the American people as only 16 years had elapsed. It is due to Bert Granet a producer of The Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse who, needing a script, found it lying in the vaults at CBS. It had been gathering dust for nearly a year.
But it premiered on November 24th 1958 and was an instant hit with audiences and critics. CBS immediately began talks with Serling about producing ‘The Twilight Zone’ after earlier talks had stopped due to their negative reception of his script. The legendary series of ‘The Twilight Zone’ began in 1959 (and is being rebooted for a new series in 2019) but without Bert Granet it may never have started.
The programme begins as Peter Jenson provides a very detailed account of his experiences from the moment he wakes up in the hotel room in Honolulu to the moment he witnesses the attack on Pearl Harbour. Jenson believes at first that a trick is being played upon him by the maid when he notices the calendar says December 6th and not as he last remembers the date as being in October. He confronts the maid (Bendix gets the number of days wrong 31 not 30?!) who now thinks he is crazy.
Bendix plays this growing awareness that something is very wrong so brilliantly and so believably. We next see him at the bar where he notices a young newly-wed couple with the husband in navy uniform. Behind we see couples dancing with most men in navy uniform. Jenson starts talking to the newly-weds and discovers the husband is an ensign aboard the USS Arizona. Jenson laughs at the absurdity and explains that the ship was sunk and is at the bottom of Pearl Harbour. The young couple are aghast and shocked at his comment.
Suddenly, Jenson sees a newspaper and grabs it and reads the date: December 6th, 1941 which is superimposed for the camera to enhance the shock effect. As we see his astonishment and reaction to the date he shouts out: ‘‘It’s not 1941. It’s 1958.’’ The viewer by now should be in little doubt that this is not a dream but a very real nightmare for Peter Jensen.
As Jenson repeats saying the year we return to 1958 and see him narrating the ‘dream’ to the psychoanalyst and he confides in him that he is now sure, it is not a dream. The doctor responds that some (vivid) dreams are impossible to distinguish from reality, when you are asleep. He offers him another cigarette (and we see a very full ashtray) but the lighter is running out of fluid. Jenson paces the room and growing agitated tells the doctor that he knows the difference and that this dream is real. The doctor responds that if the dream is real then this leaves only one possibility and Jenson forcefully finishes this line of thought with: ‘‘I’m going back in time!’’
Next, we see Jenson taking advantage of the situation in 1941 as, he bets on all the winning horses, all the right teams (‘Biff Tannen’ in ‘Back to the Future Part 2’ is brought to mind) and, eventually, tries unsuccessfully to warn others — the newspaper, the military, anyone — that the Japanese are planning a surprise attack on Pearl Harbour. His warnings are seen as crazed ravings and are either ignored or met with physical violence, as he is punched out by the newly-wed husband (who works in the boiler room of the USS Arizona!), after Jenson insists that it will be sunk on December 7th. Jenson’s dream always ends as the Japanese bombers fly overhead at 8.00am on the morning of December 7th as he looks out the hotel window in desperation.
There is a 17-year gap between these two time periods and I was struck by the thought of someone from 2018 returning to New York in 2001 to warn the authorities of an attack by terrorists upon the Twin Towers. How would this be received? I would suggest very much as Jenson is seen by all those he warns. The way Bendix plays the role highlights the almost impossible task of trying to persuade others that you are a) a time traveler and b) that an event that seems preposterous is imminent.
As the picture fades out we see him asleep on the couch repeating the same words. We and the doctor seem to be witnesses now not to the reality of the events that Jenson has been telling us about but to the fact that this was only a very vivid dream. Jenson wakes. ”How long have you been having the dream?” asks Dr Gillespie. ‘‘Every night this week’’ Jenson answers. The doctor sympathises and attempts to console Jenson with the standard Freudian response. The contents of our dreams are symbols that point to unresolved issues within the person’s life. But of course, this doesn’t work with Jenson and nor with the viewer as to have such a vivid dream with such specific content involving Pearl Harbour 17 years after it took place, is, I would suggest, beyond even Freud. As Jenson softly answers him: ‘‘I’m going back in time.’’
Jenson also points out that he feels as if there is still more to come. The doctor plays along and tries a thought experiment on the premise that we can travel in time. He suggests that if he returned to the past and was then killed in an accident he could not exist in the present and this would change everything. (A variation on the grandfather paradox) So Dr Gillespie concludes time travel is impossible and ‘‘we must assume this is a dream.’’
Jenson tries again to persuade Dr Gillespie. He recounts that he remembered the surname of the young navy ensign and traced his hometown. There being only one phone number with that surname he called. Speaking to a woman he is told that her son was killed aboard the USS Arizona at Pearl Harbour and his wife killed in the street from strafing. Of course, this adds some credence to his story but it does not prove anything.
However, we are already convinced of Jenson being able to travel in time albeit specific and localised. Doctor Gillespie is unable to refute or query Jenson’s story. It is now telling that the roles have been reversed with Jenson in the ascendant and, as if to highlight this, he sits in the doctor’s chair. The doctor is unsure and bewildered, and it is he who is now struggling for answers.
In the final part we return to Jenson lying on the couch asleep and we see inside his mind as he remembers the key scenes from his time in 1941. He is very disturbed, and Dr Gillespie tries to wake him. However, we return to the morning of the attack again but this time it does not stop with Jenson waking up, as we see him being hit by bullets from the Japanese aircraft and lying motionless on the floor.
We cut back back to 1958 and the couch is empty. Peter Jenson isn’t there. As Dr Gillespie awakes (he seems to have nodded off) he looks around the room as if vaguely remembering something or someone? He looks at the empty ashtray and tries the lighter which is full of fluid. He checks the diary and written in it is: ‘No patients today’ and as he turns to stare at the couch with a strange look on his face a voice is heard to repeat his line to Jenson that ‘‘if I were killed in the past I shouldn’t be living today.’’
Dr Gillespie makes his way to ‘Andy’s Place’ which Jenson had mentioned very early on in their meeting and whilst at the bar he sees a picture (distorted at first through the glass) of someone he feels he knows. We obviously know. He asks the bartender ‘Who’s the guy in the picture?’’ and the bartender answers: ‘‘Pete Jenson’’ and continues that he used to be a bartender at Andy’s, but he was killed at Pearl Harbour. The camera holds on Dr Gillespie’s face as we see him slowly digest those powerful words and his finger taps his mouth in synchronicity with the clock on the wall. The voice like a Greek chorus declaims the date to us and asks in a rueful and doleful manner: ‘‘…if anyone is remotely interested in the element of time?’’ This is the understatement of the year. After what we have just seen, we are most assuredly, interested and intrigued.
The twist at the end is a signature of Serling’s writing style that is very familiar to us but very new to the audiences of the time. So much so that Desi Arnaz has to provide a few comforting words about the ending and what it could mean. He goes with the theory that Dr Gillespie has been dreaming after seeing Pete Jenson’s photo on the wall in the bar. But of course the major problem with that is Dr Gillespie only finds out that Pete Jenson was killed at Pearl Harbour when he enters the bar after the ‘dream’ has finished. Coincidence? I am (as I am sure are many others), not, a believer in coincidence.
Marc Barham
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