"The Encounter"

"The Encounter"

(Note: This episode is not shown on the Sci Fi Channel. It is available only on home video.)

An ex-Marine and a Japanese-American relive memories of World War II.

Stars Neville Brand, George Takei.
Original air date: May 1, 1964.

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only seen it once, it was pretty good.

gave it a 5. just average. That was one weird diatribe there about him guiding the fighters in for the attack at Pearl!?!? Ending wasn't up to snuff either. One thing I liked a lot - how many times the Marine said "Beers," or "beer." Just amused me for some reason...

That should be a drinking game--every time he says "beer" or "beers," you have to take a swallow of your own.

This episode had promise, but just didn't gel for me.

yeah, there's a version of that that friends and I used to play watching the Simpsons. Every time a minor character did their trademark "thing" you drank. Bumble bee man would by "ay ay ay" or the sea captain's would be "arrrggh."

Frasier used this game once. To the surprise of all three Crane men, they learned they were fans of the same program: Antiques Roadshow. We then see them watching together, taking a drink every time they hear the word "veneer" (and shouting it out themselves).

Here's a video of George Takei talking about "The Encounter": http://www.georgetakei.com/video.asp. You have to download it from the site, which I chose not to do, but anyway, if you want to download it, here it is.

As I just mentioned in the "Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge" thread (here), "The Encounter" is included on both the "Treasures Of The Twilight Zone" DVD and on one of the numbered volumes. That's the only episode to be on the five-box collection set twice without any differences in the two versions (as far as I know). Seems like an odd choice on the face of it, but at the time they put this ep on Volume 33, Image-Entertainment might not have decided to issue "Treasures," "More Treasures," and the numbered volumes in the same boxed DVD set.

Someone asked in another thread why "The Encounter" was not syndicated. To my knowledge, the reason is not officially known, but by far the most common speculation is that there were objections to the use of the word "Jap" and other ethnic insults and/or to the description of a Japanese-American being a traitor at Pearl Harbor. (In actual fact, there is no known case of sabotage by a Japanese-American during all of World War II. Or at least that's what Zicree says, and I hope he wouldn't make a mistake on an important issue like that.*)

Personally, I've wondered if anyone ever objected to the statement that the Marines were ordered to take no prisoners on Okinawa. I also wonder if that statement was true, or if it was even meant to be understood as true. It could just be Fenton's false explanation for what he did. Fenton also claims that he was taught that the Japanese were a subhuman species. I don't remember exactly who he said taught him this, but I have the vague impression that he attributed this indoctrination to the Marines, too. It's not hard to imagine that the episode might also have received protests from Marines, as well as Americans of Japanese descent.


*Zicree does make a mistake about Neville Brand being the fourth-most decorated U.S. Army soldier in World War II. Brand was in fact awarded a Silver Star, which I think was officially the fourth-highest decoration the U.S. Army awarded in World War II, behind the Congressional Medal of Honor, the Distinguished Service Cross, and the Legion of Merit or Distinguished Flying Cross (gotta check on that). Some studio publicity department apparently put its own spin on that (i.e., they either lied or at least were negligent with the truth). Brand apparently never made that claim about himself.

I posted my own hypothesis as to why "The Encounter" isn't syndicated when its unavailability for voting during the Sci Fi New Year's marathon was discussed under a thread devoted to the marathon:

Here's a completely hypothetical and most likely fictional argument for "The Encounter," but it resembles what has arisen for films outside of TZ: Neville Brand felt that he deserved more money for each subsequent airing of "The Encounter" than he was set to receive. (As a digression into reality, some actors of this era received no residuals at all and were kicking themselves as they watched the series in which they appeared become cult favorites.) His actions led to a court order not to syndicate "The Encounter" until a legal decision was made. The syndicators said the polite version of "!@#$% you, Brand! We're getting over 150 episodes as it is, so we don't need yours!" So the issue lay in legal limbo until some resolution occurred to allow a home video release, which was a product that didn't exist when the issue arose.

I mean no disrespect to the late Brand here; again, I was being completely theoretical. I do know, nevertheless, that when Star Trek was released on VHS, I saw comments on the packaging that the background music differed from what's televised. I have all six Police Squad! episodes on VHS, and some copyrighted music integral to the plot has been replaced by generic substitutes.

I have those tapes, too. Absolutely priceless!
I had no idea about differences in the music.
Possibly the reason for no DVD release yet?

I apologize for getting off the subject of this episode, but I want to address what happened to the Police Squad! music while it's fresh in my mind.

In "The Butler Did It" (I'm using the written titles, not the spoken ones):

At the party, the background music was originally "Satin Doll," but it was replaced by something I can't identify.

The party guests originally sang "Happy Birthday," but it was replaced by a new composition entitled "Something Different." This was arguably an improvement, because it's a response from the father for the band to play "something different," but it's clearly a way of removing "Happy Birthday" (yes, it's copyrighted, and one of my distant cousins once owned its rights), as the substitute song has precisely the same rhythm. That's so it matches the mouthing of the guests.

Drebin plays a tape called "Holiday Tubas." Originally it was a solo tuba rendition of "Holiday for Strings," but it was changed to a generic "oom-pah-oom-pah." This completely destroyed the delightful joke of having the spritely "Holiday for Strings" played by a totally inappropriate plodding tuba.

In "Testimony of Evil":

Drebin originally did a Judy Garland tribute, including "The Trolley Song" and "Over the Rainbow." This was altered by deleting Garland's name from his introduction to the tribute and then dubbing in generic nonsense lyrics and melodies that matched his lips.

There may be other substitutions, but these are the ones I caught.

7.5

I like it. I was also amused by the use of the beer cans. I will view it again but the cans clearly have pop tops. But upon opening the first two for himself and Sulu Neville uses a can opener and I see that these cans were upside down!

Beev suggested to me that perhaps opening them this way was for effect. Then later in the scene the cans they are drinking from were turned right side up again.

Or maybe it's just me...

Interesting. I have only seen this epidsode one time. Will watch for this the next time I see it.

Okay I've rewatched and captured some pics.

I call it Incident of the beer cans blooper

WARNING: This post made only over the over-analyzing, too much time on their hands members

Here we have Neville opening a pop top beer can. You can also see some dead soldiers with the clear pop top opening

http://img205.echo.cx/img205/5558/encounter01nk.jpg

And now Neville offers Sulu a beer and uses a can opener, it is clearer to figure out while watching it real time

http://img214.echo.cx/img214/3179/encounter27el.jpg

Counter 6.25 you see beer can striped border on top

http://img210.echo.cx/img210/360/encounter5km.jpg

Then in the next counter 6.26 can is clearly upside down, stripe border down

http://img214.echo.cx/img214/9192/encounter46vd.jpg

Now Sulu holds up his upside down can, the label clearly says so

http://img210.echo.cx/img210/4615/encounter53cx.jpg

And this looks like a pop top on the "bottom" to me

http://img210.echo.cx/img210/3382/encounter61uq.jpg

And this continues on through counter 6.54.

The end.

Leen, real men don't use pop-tops. Silly you.

However, I do look forward to the over-analysis of this one...

What you're really saying is real men don't use pop tops in front of other men. You notice Fenton used one to open the first beer. But when Taro was in the room he broke out the can opener, lol.

i agree with bevis on this one.

to me it seemed that the sword had some sort of magical effect on taro when he held it. didn't like the ending.. made me chuckle when taro yelled "banzai".

-ag

Is that 60's lingo Beev?

This reminds me of a great line from the movie "Psycho" spoken by TZ alum Martin Balsam to Norman: "If it doesn't gel, it isn't aspic. And this isn't aspic."

For those of you not familiar here's the def:

A clear jelly typically made of stock and gelatin and used as a glaze or garnish or to make a mold of meat, fish, or vegetables.

My mother used to make tomato aspic with vegetables. I thought it was the most awful tasting thing I'd ever had.

Underrated to me. A guilty pleasure.

You will be waiting to see this one for this one for a long, long, loooooong time, unless you have it on DVD or VHS.

You will be waiting to see this one for this one for a long, long, loooooong time, unless you have it on DVD or VHS.

Hey conratulations on your 100th post Mr. Drain!

Congratulations, SD! Now that Brand is dead, why can't they syndicate it? This isn't the only episode where another race is racially profiled . Such as: Jeffrey the butler in "The Masks"

I don't see how Brand's death has anything to do with it. I presented a very hypothetical scenario to explain the failure of this episode to be syndicated, and Brand's life or death doesn't play a part.

Spoiler: Exactly how does Fenton die? No matter how many times I watch, I don't quite see how he makes contact with the sword.

...to say the least.

The episode was cut (I'm 99.9% certain) because of the implications of there being a Japanese-American traitor at Pearl Harbor, which we all know to be false. That was just a little too over the top for televison in the mid 1960's.

I'm sure the "dirty jap" lines didn't help either.

It's such an awful episode that that fact alone should keep it out of syndication! I remember watching this on original broadcast. It's as baffling today as it was then.

Finally saw this one for the first time. Not too bad. The ending was a little subpar but the back and forth exchanges were good. I'd give it a 7 or 8. I'll decide later.

Spoiler question: How does Fenton die? My impression is that he is accidentally stabbed as the two are struggling, but try as I may, I can't detect where this occurs.

I think that the Spirit of the slain soldier took over and took revenge, and then maybe that's what made Taro jump out the window , he was afraid of the spirit

Thanks, but I'm looking for a more visual explanation, which I might not have made clear. In other words, I can't literally see where and how the sword makes fatal contact with Fenton.

This episode is painful to sit through.

...to say the least.

The episode was cut (I'm 99.9% certain) because of the implications of there being a Japanese-American traitor at Pearl Harbor, which we all know to be false. That was just a little too over the top for televison in the mid 1960's.

What is it by this episode that makes it a forbidden Zone even in 2005? It is still not shown on Sci-Fi channel. I can understand some reactions back in the 60's when Pearl Harbour was fresh in peoples minds, but to cut it out from the show for 40 years? Come on! The Twilight Zone is fiction, not reality. It must be possible at least in 2005 to play around with the idea of a japanese-american traitor at Pearl Harbour.

...to say the least.

The episode was cut (I'm 99.9% certain) because of the implications of there being a Japanese-American traitor at Pearl Harbor, which we all know to be false. That was just a little too over the top for televison in the mid 1960's.

What is it by this episode that makes it a forbidden Zone even in 2005? It is still not shown on Sci-Fi channel. I can understand some reactions back in the 60's when Pearl Harbour was fresh in peoples minds, but to cut it out from the show for 40 years? Come on! The Twilight Zone is fiction, not reality. It must be possible at least in 2005 to play around with the idea of a japanese-american traitor at Pearl Harbour.

Very good points! I think they should air it also! I seriously doubt they'll ever air An Occurance At Owl Creek Bridge because it's a foreign film and apparently would cost a lot for the rights.

An educated guess concerns broadcast rights. For example, "Sounds and Silences" and "Miniature" were withheld for over 20 years because they were in litigation when the syndication package was put together. That litigation was settled shortly afterwards, but the package was a done deal that wouldn't have been worth renegotiating. It required a special occasion, namely the 25th anniversary of TZ's premiere, to give them their due.

In the case of "The Encounter," it might simply have been one episode too many to put into the anniversary special. Once that window of opportunity had closed, the next one was home video. The unavailability of this episode and "Owl Creek" on TV was a selling point for the video (that's why I bought "Treasures of the TZ"), and the distributors probably wanted to keep it this way.

The rights to televise these two episodes might not be for sale or, even if they are, they could be too pricey for Sci Fi. That's basically what TZF is suggesting for "Owl Creek," but I'm guessing it somewhat applies to "The Encounter" as well.

You are probably right, Dan. However, I believe airing those excluded episodes would get some new audience, if Sci-fi channel advertise the episodes as "never seen since the 60's". Now I don't think The Encounter would get much new audience to the classic Twilight Zone, but Owl Creek would definitely.

I for one, have liked this one when I had those 5 episodes on VHS tapes. I can see why it would be considered controversial in the 60's.

"The Encounter" was not much of a story. It features two characters who both carry incredible guilt about their WWII related pasts. I thought Neville Brand as Fenton was mostly an insufferable, beer-swilling loser. There was nothing to like about Fenton.

George Takei as Taro is a bit easier to appreciate but his obsession by the "force" within the house is too vague. The shot of the door opening is intriguing.

This gets a "4" from me.

Great episode. Doesn't entirely feel like a Twilight Zone episode as it's driven by the characters, rather than the story itself. The dialouge between the two was amazing. I was very impressed with it.

Shinyahashimoto: