King Nine Will Not Return

Infobox Television episode
Title = "King Nine" Will Not Return
Series = The Twilight Zone


Caption = Publicity photo from King Nine Will Not Return
Season = 2
Episode = 37
Airdate =September 30, 1960
Production=173-3639
Writer =Rod Serling
Director =Buzz Kulik
Guests =Robert Cummings : Captain James Embry
Paul Lambert : Doctor
Gene Lyons : Psychiatrist
Jenna McMahon : Nurse
Seymour Green : British officer
Music = Original score by Fred Steiner
Episode list = List of Twilight Zone episodes
Prev = A World of His Own
Next = The Man in the Bottle

"King Nine" Will Not Return" is an episode of the American television anthology series "The Twilight Zone".

Opening Narration

ynopsis

The World War II bomber, "King Nine", has crashed in the desert. Captain James Embry finds himself stranded, alone except for the wreckage and the mystery of what happened to his crew, all of whom have disappeared. The movement of the plane in the wind and his visions of his missing crew serve to heighten Embry's disorientation.

Embry finds a grave of one of his crew and sees jets in the sky, anachronistic for the time. He collapses in the sand, and we discover that he is actually suffering hallucinations from a hospital bed, years after being scheduled to be aboard the fatally missing flight of "King Nine". Guilt-ridden, he is punishing himself. A newspaper shows a headline about the wreckage of a plane that has been found in the desert that triggered his shock and hallucinations.

The nurse, fetching his shoes, discovers that they are mysteriously filled with sand.

Closing Narration

Preview for Next Week's Story

Inspiration and Production

The episode was based on the discovery of the B-24 Liberator bomber "Lady Be Good" and her crew which crashed in the Sahara desert in mysterious circumstances.

This was the first episode to feature the familiar Marius Constant "Twilight Zone" theme and the first to feature an on-camera Rod Serling narration at the beginning of the episode.

The aircraft used was a B-25C-10NA "42-32354" which still exists in storage with Aero Trader, Borrego Springs, CA.

External links

*
* [http://www.tv.com/the-twilight-zone/king-nine-will-not-return/episode/12621/summary.html TV.com episode page]

References

*Zicree, Marc Scott: "The Twilight Zone Companion". Sillman-James Press, 1982 (second edition)
*DeVoe, Bill. (2008). "Trivia from The Twilight Zone". Albany, GA: Bear Manor Media. ISBN 978-1593931360
*Grams, Martin. (2008). "The Twilight Zone: Unlocking the Door to a Television Classic". Churchville, MD: OTR Publishing. ISBN 978-0970331090

Twilight Zone links

*The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series)
*Episode List
*Season 2