OneStepBeyond

One Step Beyond season 1 (1959)

I’m embarrassed to say that as big of a fan that I am of older stuff from the 50s I had managed to never catch an episode of One Step Beyond. Not only that but I had always thought that it was a Twilight Zone rip off (it wasn’t it debuted before the Twilight Zone). If you haven’t seen One Step Beyond before then let me fill you in on what the show is about. You have a narrator that comes out and sets up each show, though they tend to reuse many of the intros for more than one episode. His name is John Newland and he also directs the episodes as well. All of the stories focus on some sort of supernatural goings on like E.S.P, ghosts, telepathy, or reincarnation.

The DVD that just came out contains all 22 season 1 episodes on 3 DVDs. I can honestly say that there isn’t a bad episode in the set. At worst there are a few average episodes scattered thru the season with the rest being very creepy and cool to watch. I suppose some of the weaker episodes are The Return of Mitchell Campion about a man that visits an island for the first time in his life, but is somehow recognized by everyone. Of all the episodes I found that this one had the least satisfying twist at the end. The other one that jumps out at me as not being all that great is the Night of April 14th, which involves a very famous shipwreck that kind of takes all the suspense out of the story.

But like I said most of the episodes are great. Some of my favorites from the set are The Dead Part of the House, which is a great haunted house story with a neat twist. The ghosts in this story are trying to help a young girl and her father connect after the death of his wife, her mother. It really is a neat and cool story. On the other end of the haunted house spectrum is The Captain’s Guests, where the spirit of a nasty old sea captain tries to replay the events of his miserable lift thru the young couple that has moved into his home. Ghosts also make an appearance in The Haunted U-Boat, which stars a pre Hogan’s Heroes Werner Klemperer as a Nazi party member that is trying to keep the Reich alive by escaping on a U-Boat at the end of WWII. One more ghost story that I wanted to mention is The Navigator. This is a predictable story that I still found satisfying and fun to watch. To be honest I’m a real sucker for ghost stories and One Step Beyond Season 1 has some great ones. Other stories that don’t have ghosts like The Devil’s Laughter about a convicted killer that gets saved from the gallows under mysterious circumstances is great as well. Finally one of my favorites from the set is The Dream. Here an older married couple manages to warn each other in their dreams just in time to save each other’s lives and stop a raiding party of Nazi commandos! Sounds kind of silly, but it really is a great story.

I’ve very quickly gone from never having seen an episode of One Step Beyond to being a big fan. This is a great old T.V. show that belongs in every genre fan’s collection. I highly recommend One Step Beyond.

3 ½ out of 4

reviewed by John Shatzer