One Step Beyond: Tonight at 12:17 (1960)
Season 3, Episode 11
7/10
"I was not dreaming!"
14 February 2015
Warning: Spoilers
In a suspenseful episode, a pregnant woman (Peggy Ann Garner) about to give birth consistently hears the sound of an airplane's sputtering engine directly over her house at around 12:17 each night. The sound of the engine gets louder with each occurrence signaling to the woman that it's getting closer each time and may in fact crash into the house. Because her husband (John Perkins) doesn't hear the plane he simply chalks it up to a nightmare or his wife's own distress over having the baby.

Laura Perkins' vision on the third night was the most ominous of all; she 'saw' the plane's wing crash through the ceiling well enough to make out the it's call letters: N-5227-K. Begging her husband to check with local air fields, he finally finds one where a plane matching this description is being stored. The owner states that the plane's engine needs an overhaul and isn't air worthy.

Even with this information, Laura's not convinced that staying home is safe, and prevails upon her husband to rent a motel room for the night. Here's where I got a genuine kick out of the story because John Perkins complained about having to spend ten dollars for a crummy motel room! Can you imagine?

Back at the airfield, the owner goes into a frenzy when he finds the plane missing and learns that his mechanic rented it out after doing some work on it. Even so, he never saw a note about a faulty crankshaft. So with everything we know now, one would expect the mystery plane would wind up crashing into the Perkins home, but instead it lands in their motel room just after they scurry to safety.

Believe what you will, as series host John Newland expounds on the ideas of psychic phenomena and a mysterious sixth sense that's presumably heightened when a woman is pregnant. For the doubters out there, chalk up this one as just another fly by night story.
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