Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse
The Time Element still
S01E0660 min· aired 11/10/1958

The Time Element

TMDb8.0
Nexus es1174595TMDb ep 397582TVDb ep 198820

Overview

A patient visiting a psychiatrist complains of recurrent dreams in which he imagines he is living in Hawaii just before the attack on Pearl Harbor. A series of flashbacks shows him living with his knowledge of what has happened in the seventeen years since, betting on sure winners in sports events, but also seeking to warn a newly-married couple, newspaper editors, and anyone else who will listen that they will be attacked by the Japanese. Everyone is either too interested in a good time or too determinedly patriotic to give heed; the man only gets punched on the jaw. In the end the psychiatrist is left looking at a blank couch, and to steady his own nerves he goes to a bar to get a drink. There he learns his patient was killed at Pearl Harbor.