“What you are about to see is a matter
of human record. Explain it? We cannot. Disprove it? We cannot. We simply invite you
to explore with us the amazing world of the unknown, to take that One Step
Beyond…”
- Host John Newland’s introduction to Alcoa Presents, or One Step Beyond (1959-1961)
The second episode of One Step Beyond remains one of its weirdest, most chilling and most dramatic, even several decades after it first aired on American television. If you've seen this episode, chances are, you've never forgotten it.
- Host John Newland’s introduction to Alcoa Presents, or One Step Beyond (1959-1961)
The second episode of One Step Beyond remains one of its weirdest, most chilling and most dramatic, even several decades after it first aired on American television. If you've seen this episode, chances are, you've never forgotten it.
“Night of April 14,” written by Collier Young
and directed by John Newland concerns a young couple that books a honeymoon
trip on the maiden voyage of the Titanic in April of 1912. Leading
up to the sea journey, the bride-to-be, Grace (Barbara Lord) dreams of drowning
in icy water. "I could feel the water," she reports to
her mother. "It was like ice." Grace's
husband-to-be, Eric Farley (Patrick Macnee) chides Grace for allowing a bad
dream to dictate the shape and direction of her life, and Grace is properly
chastened. "The Titanic...our honeymoon...it's once in a
lifetime," she realizes.
Once the Titanic has set sail with the
happily married Farleys aboard, strange things begin to occur. Another
concerned passenger aboard the unsinkable liner reports hearing a strange
"grinding sound" -- as if the ship has struck something -- but
nobody else seems to have heard it
Meanwhile in Winnipeg, Canada, a Methodist
preacher unexpectedly changes his congregation's hymn for the evening of
04/14/12 to "Pray for Those in Peril on The
Sea" after a
vision of the incident.
Finally, the Titanic sinks and Grace survives on a
lifeboat, but Eric perishes. And then, in the episode's coda, John
Newland gives viewers the final kick in the pants. He reveals the
existence of a real book that diagrammed almost precisely the details of the Titanic disaster.
But here's the rub. That book was titled Futility, and it was written in 1898.
A full fourteen years before
Titanic's maiden voyage.
Airing originally on January 27, 1959, the black-and-white “Night of April 14” remains creepy as hell today because it ends on that spooky and unsettling note.
When I wrote my book An Analytical Guide to TV’s One Step Beyond in 1999, I knew that this story was a turning point of sorts in an understanding of the series. If I could find that book and verify Newland’s claims, then the show's argument that it was based on “fact” was at least plausible. On the other hand, if the prophetic novel was but a calculated fiction created for One Step Beyond, then I knew that any claim of veracity was likely suspect.
Well, the book existed (and is extant), and I've written about it on the blog before (in relation to The Lone Gunmen and the 9/11-styled pilot episode, I believe.). The novel is indeed titled Futility and it was written by a novelist named Morgan Robertson. Futility’s plot concerns the maiden voyage of the largest ocean liner ever built. On an April night – in the story – this fictitious vessel (described in the text by the adjective “unsinkable”) strikes an iceberg and because there are not enough lifeboats aboard over one thousand passengers die in freezing waters.
The name of the ocean liner in Futility is…Titan.
In fiction, the Titan could travel 25 knots; the same speed
as the real Titanic. In fiction, the Titan was 70,000 tons to Titanic's 66,000 tons. But the big similarities
are plain: a disaster on an April night, an "unsinkable" ship, the
striking of an iceberg...and over 1,000 casualties because of a paucity of life
boats. Plus the similarity in vessel names. One or two such similarities you
could easily and immediately write off as coincidence...but the exact month of
the incident? The ship's top speed? The reason for the huge number of
casualties?
To turn a phrase, it
boggles the mind...
Watching John Newland describe (accurately) the book Futility and the novelist's accurate prediction
of the Titanic disaster to the moody strains of Harry
Lubin's atmospheric score..you'll get a serious case of the creeps.
My research, I should also point out, verified other aspects of
"Night of April 14," particularly those claims of a "psychic
web" surrounding the tragedy. A professor at the University of Virginia,
for instance, collected nineteen documented reports about the Titanic sinking. Six were of the
precognitive variety, like the one experienced by the heroine, Grace, in
"Night of April 14." One report involved a crew member on Titanic who fled the ship because of
persistent dreams of drowning.
Countries across the world shared in the news first of Titanic's unique nature, and secondly in its horrifying destruction. The disaster preceded World War I, World War II, and of course, the media terror of 9/11. Was the Titanic's sinking the first really "worldwide" story of mass suffering and death? I don't know for certain, but Titanic's tale has had an imprint not just on the generation that witnessed the disaster, but on all the succeeding ones, even a century later.
In some ways, this episode serves as a template for One Step Beyond. Night
of April 14" is not alone in attempting to accurately dramatize reports of
paranormal incidents surrounding historical events. "The Day The World
Wept: The Lincoln Story" gazed at President Abraham Lincoln's recurring
visions of his own demise while in the White House. "Where Are They?"
involved a strange story about rocks falling from the same sky -- every
day at the same time --
in the city of Chico, California. The events were reported in the San Francisco Examiner in March of 1922, and so on.
Still, few of the above-listed stories match the shattering impact
of "Night of April 14." It's one thing to refer off-handedly to
newspaper reports of a disaster, it's quite another to point out a detailed,
meticulous account of tragedy from a book written more than a dozen years before that tragedy occurred.
The Futility story of the Titan/Titanic may represent a coincidence and not
precognition, but hell if it isn't a one of the eeriest coincidences ever.
One of those creations from my earliest childhood memory. It was an influence along with,The Outer Limits and still takes me back in a very real and spiritual sense. The imagination soars when the strains of "Fear" quiver in the air around me. I am given wings to fly to beyond the beyond. Godly indeed...James in Palo Alto,Ca.
ReplyDeleteI've only recently become interested again in public domain television, such as "one step beyond". When I previously had an interest, it was because there was nothing else available on the net to watch, legal or otherwise. That's still the case with legal shows in Canada, as most internet broadcasters (such as Hulu) are blocked here, even on you tube or dailymotion. Because of this, I happened to recall my interest in PD shows, so chanced on this series at Archive.org. Although thery only have a couple of dozen episodes, luckily they do have the one reviewed here. Definitely surprisingly good.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, in my search for the episodes I do not have I chanced upon the dirty dark secret of Itunes and DVD sellers etc.. Apparently they're all big tiime involved in obtaining these PD shows for free, and selling them for 3.99 a pop. THat Apple would do such a thing is offensive, IMHO. If I didn't live in Canada I could of course watch them on You Tube's HULU channel, but sadly that option is not open either. THat Corporate greed is preventing me from watching freely available PD shows is pretty sickening.
At least I got to watch this one. However, it appears that another honest person is being driven into the grey market for video, a sadly extremely common occurence here in CAnada.. ever since You Tube and Dailymotion started region locking their videos.. "sigh"