The Odyssey of Flight 33

In one of the simplest and yet most effective twilight zones, a passenger jet full of people unexpectedly accelerates to unheard of speeds and suddenly finds itself transported into the distant past. Time travel is one of the few endlessly entertaining storytelling premises, and although this story is presented almost entirely through dialogue, it is still one of the more vintage twilight episodes that I've seen. The first half of the episode is a little too simplistic, if only because we are trying to believe an airplane is travelling at thousands of knots, and yet there is not the slightest bit of vibration or noise in the cockpit. It looks more like they're sitting on the ground on a movie set, which they are.

But when the time travel takes place, I have to think that it had some inspiration on some later time travel movies, most notably the Back to the Future films, given the acceleration to a certain speed and the rather violent shock that accompanies the, uh, temporal displacement, if you will.

The payoff of the show is nothing more than a primitive go-motion dinosaur and some stock footage of the World's Fair in New York (which gives it the feeling that the entire episode was made to fit around that aerial stock footage of the World's Fair like a raindrop around a bit of dust), but this is an excellent example of how a simple idea and some quality writing and performances can make for a highly entertaining half hour. Excellent!

The Twilight Zone reach at top rated # 21 means a highest series ever made, Rod Sterling create a fabulous concept around of the unknown, parallel worlds, weirdest tales that never came to screen before, The Odyssey of Flight 33 fits perfect in this concept, a flight from London to New York has been a usual approaching, suddenly a tail wind takes the Airplane reaching a supersonic speed, aftermath a strange shake and bright lights shines through, they see the Manhattan island, the Hudson river, nevertheless no city down bellow, just a forest with dinosaurs, they perceived back in time at Jurassic era, they replicate the same process, now they reach at 1939, sadly the airport don't fits the large aircraft, then they speed again until to be back at 1961, the fuel is running out, one the most imaginative episode of the entire series having John Anderson as the leading role!!

Resume:

First watch: 2019 / How many: 2 / Source: DVD / Rating: 8.5

Yes that's right, they should have landed somewhere in 1939, perhaps not Idlewild Airport (JFK), but somewhere, find a way to steal some gas...A LOT of gas for that jetliner and then take another shot at the time travel with the supernatural jet stream that time jumps them. Why risk being thrown backwards in time again and continue being low on fuel? And worst comes to worst, 1939 is a better alternative to people from 1960 then prehistoric times. It would have been great to have a sequel episode to this in one of the modern Twilight Zone revamps, with Flight 33 being confused as to why Idlewild airport is now called John F. Kennedy airport.

While traveling from London to New York, the pilot and crew of Global Flight 33 discover that the airplane is mysteriously increasing the speed and breaking the sound barrier. Soon they realized that they have traveled in time to the human prehistory. The pilot increases the speed trying to return to 1961, but they learn that they reached New York in 1939. What will they do since they are short of fuel?

"The Odyssey of Flight 33" is an intriguing episode of "The Twilight Zone". Time travel is an attractive theme and Rod Serling writes a great episode with magnificent open conclusion. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Odisséia do Voo 33" ("Odyssey of Flight 33")

Although there was a flaw that a geologist would have easily recognized in this Twilight Zone story, it still ranks for me as one of the scariest episodes ever done.

John Anderson is just about to head into American air space after captaining a transatlantic flight on a jet. Suddenly the crew is caught in some kind of maelstrom and they are over New York City but in prehistoric times. That brontosaurus on the ground was a convincer.

Back Anderson takes his plane into the maelstrom and at this point I say no more. But given the limiting fuel factor among others the passengers and crew on this airline face a most uncertain future in time and space.

Don't miss this one if broadcast.