User reviews

This is the best entry in the series I watched in tribute to its creator William Castle; the plot is certainly the most original and intriguing and, incredibly enough, somewhat predates James Cameron's THE TERMINATOR (1984) by a decade. A man (James Franciscus) is estranged from his wife (Elizabeth Ashley) over what she deems the excessive attention he gives to tragic premonitions received via recurrent nightmares. Though Franciscus had failed to save his father, he determines not to repeat the same error with his little daughter – and, in this case, manages to get Ashley involved as well (she even begins to have visions of her own!). The event that he witnesses this time around is his girl's death (shot while riding a horse in a carousel!) in the distant future – at the hands of a young man who, as it turns out, has yet to be born…so he has a hard time preventing the murderer's would-be parents from getting hitched!! What he tries to do, in fact, is seduce the boy's mother (Meg Foster from Laurence Harvey's WELCOME TO ARROW BEACH {1974}) away from her fiancé – even if it means Ashley has to witness the 'affair'! This seems to work because the prospective husband confronts them on the point of jointly leaving town and, in a tussle for his gun, ends up killed by Franciscus! The irony is that Foster is already pregnant…yet Ashley persuades her former hubby to spare her and, by extension, the baby too – arguing that the incident has brought the couple back together again, so the best they could hope for is to reshape their daughter's grown-up life! The title refers to a quotation imprinted over the entrance of the local courthouse – where Franciscus first sees the trial of his daughter's killer, but is then himself arraigned over the death of that same man's dad! An amusing idea during the prophetic passages – lifted outright, incidentally, from Castle's own comic fantasy ZOTZ! (1962) – involves a slowed-down soundtrack whenever the characters speak.

I read the story line and a review regarding this episode and they were incorrect. Julie Barnes(Meg Foster) fiancée was Rafe Norris(Jeremy Slate), not Ed Barnes(Karl Swenson)he was her Dad?? Once I saw the episode it made more since, Ed was way to old for Julie's fiancée for 1972, audiences would not have approved. This would not be and issue now a days. Storyline needs to be corrected.

James Franciscus plays Paul Dover, who has been troubled with recurrent nightmares of his daughter Emily being shot to death while riding a carousel. He views this as a premonition of the distant future, and so decides to go to the town this will happen in to stop it from happening. While staying there, he falls for the owner of the hotel called Julie(played by Meg Foster) who will play a part in this event, since her fiancée Ed turns out to look like the man who murders Emily! He confronts Ed, where a drastic turn-of-events will propel him even more into his daughter's possible fate...Intriguing episode plays around with fate & destiny with interesting results, leading to a subtle but effective ending.

This series is what The Twilight Zone might have been had it persisted into the 70s and taken on 70s ESP sensibilities. This episode features the great James Franciscus, who is appeal as an actor elevates everything he was in. The tale itself is pretty conventional but none the less entertaining, and one of the darker episodes of the series, rooted as it is in the idea of seemingly unavoidable fate.