Set in 17th century Scotland, this episode begins with a distraught Earl Of Donamoor(played by Torin Thatcher) pleading with his court doctor to save the life of his dying eldest son, threatening his own life if his son dies. Instead, the son's lover is accused of witchcraft, and sentenced to death, proclaiming her innocence, though still issuing a curse upon the Earl that all his descendant's eldest sons will predecease their fathers - a prophecy that eight generations later has indeed held true, as the modern eldest son fears... Ironic tale of fate vs. self-fulfilling prophecy is morally ambiguous, though the final twist is most effective.
6 Reviews
Bewitched! Bewitched! You've got me in your spell! Bewitched! Bewitched! You know that craft so well.
sol121814 April 2011
Warning: Spoilers
***SPOILERS*** With his father the Earl of Culdance on his death bed his young and healthy 28 year old son William is on the verge of having a complete mental breakdown in the fact that he would not outlive is old man! Like the eight generations of the oldest sons of previous Earls of Culdance didn't! This all started back in the late 15th century when the then Earl of Culdance had the young peasant woman Catherine burned at the stake for practicing witchcraft in accusing her for the premature death of his eldest son Jamie. Catherine and Jamie who were in love with each other was accused of putting a hex on Jamie when his father The Earl broke up their relationship. As she was taken away to be executed for being a witch Catherine let out a blood curdling scream cursing all of the Earl's descendants to have, like he did, their eldest sons die before them! Sure enough for the next 500 years that's exactly what happened!
As the minutes slowly tick away with his father just about to expire William feels that no matter what happens to pop he's somehow someway going to get it first! Just like the previous eight eldest sons of the previous Earls of Culdance did before him! With him completely losing it by the minute William's wife Harriet in trying to get her husband to clam down and relax tells William that his father had just suddenly passed away. Feeling a sense of relief as well as deep sadness at the same time, in not worrying about dying as well as feeling guilty in wanting his father to die, William goes into the master bedroom where his father is lying in state to pay him his last respects.
***MAJOR SPOILERS*** Begging his father's forgiveness for wanting him dead William gets his wish come true with his father suddenly coming back to life to forgive him! It's then that William's fragile and guilt ridden mind snaps, in seeing his dead father rise from the dead, as he gives out a scream and fall backwards to his death from off his father's bedroom balcony! As it turned out it was Harriet in trying to keep her husband from going insane and hurting himself who lied to him about his father being prematurely dead. This in order to have William take a strong sedative that the family doctor Al was preparing for him to knock him out and have him sleep it all off that brought this tragedy all about! All Harriet had to do is just wait a few more minutes for William's father to die to break he both good and sad news to him. But in her fearing for William's health and well being Harriet jumped the gun which brought about William's shocking death. With William dying right before his father's eyes just like the previous first born sons of the past cursed Earls of Culdance did!
As the minutes slowly tick away with his father just about to expire William feels that no matter what happens to pop he's somehow someway going to get it first! Just like the previous eight eldest sons of the previous Earls of Culdance did before him! With him completely losing it by the minute William's wife Harriet in trying to get her husband to clam down and relax tells William that his father had just suddenly passed away. Feeling a sense of relief as well as deep sadness at the same time, in not worrying about dying as well as feeling guilty in wanting his father to die, William goes into the master bedroom where his father is lying in state to pay him his last respects.
***MAJOR SPOILERS*** Begging his father's forgiveness for wanting him dead William gets his wish come true with his father suddenly coming back to life to forgive him! It's then that William's fragile and guilt ridden mind snaps, in seeing his dead father rise from the dead, as he gives out a scream and fall backwards to his death from off his father's bedroom balcony! As it turned out it was Harriet in trying to keep her husband from going insane and hurting himself who lied to him about his father being prematurely dead. This in order to have William take a strong sedative that the family doctor Al was preparing for him to knock him out and have him sleep it all off that brought this tragedy all about! All Harriet had to do is just wait a few more minutes for William's father to die to break he both good and sad news to him. But in her fearing for William's health and well being Harriet jumped the gun which brought about William's shocking death. With William dying right before his father's eyes just like the previous first born sons of the past cursed Earls of Culdance did!
"How is it possible, how can I die?"
classicsoncall31 January 2015
Warning: Spoilers
There must have been something intriguing about writers having their characters fall out of windows to their death back in the Fifties. "One Step Beyond" would revisit the idea in their third season story 'Moment of Hate', while Rod Serling's 'Twilight Zone' also did it a couple of times. In fact, that series' Episode #2.10, 'A Most Unusual Camera' asks the viewer to accept that four people could fall out of a high rise in the same story! Serling repeats the gimmick in Season Five of his show in a tale called 'What's in the Box'; by that time it looked like the show was starting to run out of original ideas.
And so we have the same situation here. The set-up has a centuries old prophecy making it's way to present day when the oldest son of a dying man fears he'll die first, fulfilling an accused witch's curse upon being sentenced to burn at the stake ages ago. The opening scene was actually quite comical to me, because the ancient nobleman who's son was being treated for his illness would grab the man in his sickbed and just about whipsaw the poor guy to death himself.
Well the sight of the old man who the son believed had already expired getting up from his bed managed to do the trick here. You know, the only way any of these stories could have worked is if the soon to be deceased happened to be a fair height above ground. When's the last time you heard of someone falling out of a ground floor window?
And so we have the same situation here. The set-up has a centuries old prophecy making it's way to present day when the oldest son of a dying man fears he'll die first, fulfilling an accused witch's curse upon being sentenced to burn at the stake ages ago. The opening scene was actually quite comical to me, because the ancient nobleman who's son was being treated for his illness would grab the man in his sickbed and just about whipsaw the poor guy to death himself.
Well the sight of the old man who the son believed had already expired getting up from his bed managed to do the trick here. You know, the only way any of these stories could have worked is if the soon to be deceased happened to be a fair height above ground. When's the last time you heard of someone falling out of a ground floor window?
Be Careful About What You Wish For?
theowinthrop14 October 2006
Warning: Spoilers
The story line in this episode of ONE STEP BEYOND is actually fairly straightforward. It deals with a curse on a Scotish noble family, the House of Culdane. In the 16th Century, the head of the house (Torin Thatcher) confronts his heir on an issue of personal courage, and says that the young man's failure to show it has made him unworthy of succeeding to the title he will eventually get. He never will deserve to get it. Shortly afterward the oldest son dies, and (unfortunately) the Lord of the Universe, of the Lord in control of weird curses, decides that in each generation the heir apparent will die, and his younger brother will succeed. In any case the heir apparent will not survive the father. And in one memorable sequence we hear the scream of personal anguish of Thatcher's voice as he says, "NOOOOO!!!" in each generation, upon hearing the news of the death of his oldest heir (and we see their portraits flash on the wall in period costumes up to the 20th Century).
It is now modern times, and the heir is William (Donald Harron). He is fully aware of the curse, and that he must die before his father. Yet the current Earl (also Thatcher) is lying on his death bed right now upstairs. The pressure of this peculiar death race is on William's mind. He can barely stand it at all: he has to hope his beloved father will die before him, a most unfilial desire.
SPOILER COMING UP:
The old man has apparently breathed his last, and a saddened but curious William goes to the death chamber to pay his respects. He is standing by the window, when the Earl (presumably in a deep coma-like slumber) arouses himself, sees William, and starts moving towards him - possibly to get him away from the open window behind him. Of course, William is scared out of his wits, backs up and falls through the window to his death!
At the end of the episode John Newland states that the current Earl Of Culdane has decided not to marry and have children, so that this curse can be laid to rest.
How realistic is such a dynastic curse? I can't answer for Scotland, but in French history it is quite powerful. From 1715 to 1879 every heir to the French throne who succeeded to the title KING or EMPEROR of France was singularly unlucky in the result or had no eldest son who succeeded to the title. Louis XIV survived his sons (except Philip, who became King of Spain - Juan Carlos is his direct descendant - but had to sign away his rights to the French throne), and was succeeded by his great - grandson, Louis XV. Louis XV was succeeded by his grandson Louis XVI, who was beheaded (as was his wife). Both Louis and Marie Antoinette were predeceased by his oldest son in 1789. So Louis XVII (the subject of the movie DANGEROUS EXILE) was their second son. His fate is still debated. His uncle Louis XVIII never had any heirs. His brother Charles X, had two sons, the older of them (the Duc De Berry) was assassinated in 1820. Berry's wife gave birth to a posthumous son, known historically as the Comte De Paris. He died in 1883 childless.
From 1797 - 1815 France was ruled by Napoleon Bonaparte as Napoleon the First. Bonaparte's only legitimate son (by Marie Louise) was briefly (in July 1815) Napoleon II, but Metternich (who supported the restoration of Louis XVIII) made Napoleon an Austrian Hapsburg Archduke, the Duke of Reichstat. He died in 1830, having never really reigned at all. That same year the Duc of Oleans (his family came from a younger son of Louis XIV) became King Louis Phillipe. Although his family remains the claimants to the French throne today, Louis Phillipe's oldest son was killed in a carriage accident in 1842. Louis Phillipe was overthrown in 1848.
Louis Napoleon Bonaparte was elected President of the Second Republic in 1848, but in 1851 he seized the government as Emperor Napoleon III. He would rule (fairly well) until the Franco Prussian War showed vast incompetence in conducting a war. He was overthrown. His son and heir was the Prince Imperial. He was brought up in England, and joined the British Army to fight in the Zulu War of 1879. He was abandoned by his orderly, Captain Carey, when in an isolated spot in the jungles of Zululand, and was killed before he could escape. As Napoleon III was the last French leader to try to establish a lasting royal family, his son was as unlucky an heir as Louis XVII or the Duc De Berri was. So such odd curses do exist - hopefully not forever.
It is now modern times, and the heir is William (Donald Harron). He is fully aware of the curse, and that he must die before his father. Yet the current Earl (also Thatcher) is lying on his death bed right now upstairs. The pressure of this peculiar death race is on William's mind. He can barely stand it at all: he has to hope his beloved father will die before him, a most unfilial desire.
SPOILER COMING UP:
The old man has apparently breathed his last, and a saddened but curious William goes to the death chamber to pay his respects. He is standing by the window, when the Earl (presumably in a deep coma-like slumber) arouses himself, sees William, and starts moving towards him - possibly to get him away from the open window behind him. Of course, William is scared out of his wits, backs up and falls through the window to his death!
At the end of the episode John Newland states that the current Earl Of Culdane has decided not to marry and have children, so that this curse can be laid to rest.
How realistic is such a dynastic curse? I can't answer for Scotland, but in French history it is quite powerful. From 1715 to 1879 every heir to the French throne who succeeded to the title KING or EMPEROR of France was singularly unlucky in the result or had no eldest son who succeeded to the title. Louis XIV survived his sons (except Philip, who became King of Spain - Juan Carlos is his direct descendant - but had to sign away his rights to the French throne), and was succeeded by his great - grandson, Louis XV. Louis XV was succeeded by his grandson Louis XVI, who was beheaded (as was his wife). Both Louis and Marie Antoinette were predeceased by his oldest son in 1789. So Louis XVII (the subject of the movie DANGEROUS EXILE) was their second son. His fate is still debated. His uncle Louis XVIII never had any heirs. His brother Charles X, had two sons, the older of them (the Duc De Berry) was assassinated in 1820. Berry's wife gave birth to a posthumous son, known historically as the Comte De Paris. He died in 1883 childless.
From 1797 - 1815 France was ruled by Napoleon Bonaparte as Napoleon the First. Bonaparte's only legitimate son (by Marie Louise) was briefly (in July 1815) Napoleon II, but Metternich (who supported the restoration of Louis XVIII) made Napoleon an Austrian Hapsburg Archduke, the Duke of Reichstat. He died in 1830, having never really reigned at all. That same year the Duc of Oleans (his family came from a younger son of Louis XIV) became King Louis Phillipe. Although his family remains the claimants to the French throne today, Louis Phillipe's oldest son was killed in a carriage accident in 1842. Louis Phillipe was overthrown in 1848.
Louis Napoleon Bonaparte was elected President of the Second Republic in 1848, but in 1851 he seized the government as Emperor Napoleon III. He would rule (fairly well) until the Franco Prussian War showed vast incompetence in conducting a war. He was overthrown. His son and heir was the Prince Imperial. He was brought up in England, and joined the British Army to fight in the Zulu War of 1879. He was abandoned by his orderly, Captain Carey, when in an isolated spot in the jungles of Zululand, and was killed before he could escape. As Napoleon III was the last French leader to try to establish a lasting royal family, his son was as unlucky an heir as Louis XVII or the Duc De Berri was. So such odd curses do exist - hopefully not forever.
The Curse of the Open Window
wes-connors14 March 2010
In medieval Scotland, "Earl of Culdane" Torin Thatcher blames the death of handsome son Donald Harron (as Jamie) on his affair with sexy Pat Michon (as Catherine). The villagers claim the shapely dancer is a witch, so Mr. Thatcher orders her to be burned at the stake. Before she is taken to the wood, Ms. Michon shouts out a curse on Thatcher's family, "Your the first born son died before his father, so will it be in every generation! I curse you! I curse you! I curse you!"
Flash-forwarding to the 1950s, Mr. Harron (now playing descendant William) frantically waits while his father lays in a death bed. Although he appears hale and hearty, Harron is convinced he will somehow die before his ailing father, extending the family curse to another generation. Wife Fintan Meyler (as Harriet) thinks otherwise... "Doomsday" could only be more predictable if you played it backwards. But the cast is entertaining, especially the dependable Thatcher.
**** Doomsday (10/13/59) John Newland ~ Donald Harron, Torin Thatcher, Edward Atienza, Fintan Meyler
Flash-forwarding to the 1950s, Mr. Harron (now playing descendant William) frantically waits while his father lays in a death bed. Although he appears hale and hearty, Harron is convinced he will somehow die before his ailing father, extending the family curse to another generation. Wife Fintan Meyler (as Harriet) thinks otherwise... "Doomsday" could only be more predictable if you played it backwards. But the cast is entertaining, especially the dependable Thatcher.
**** Doomsday (10/13/59) John Newland ~ Donald Harron, Torin Thatcher, Edward Atienza, Fintan Meyler
We swear...this is TRUE...it was told to us by a friend of a friend of a friend's ex-wife's uncle...
planktonrules1 April 2014
Like the rest of the stories on "One Step Beyond", this one claims that the supernatural stuff that occurs in the show is 100%. Yeah...sure. However, the story is reasonably interesting though a tad predictable.
The show starts hundreds of years ago. I rich Lord's son is dying and he vows to kill the Doctor if the young man dies. The Doc does what any responsible doctor would do after bleeding the guy repeatedly--claim he's not at fault and say that a local woman bewitched the son! So, they did what any responsible rich Lord would do--they have a quickie trial and then execute the lady! As she was about to be taken away to her death, she curses the family--saying that the eldest son will ALWAYS precede the father in death (what an oddly specific curse--I would have thought toads in their underwear or horns growing out of their heads would have sufficed).
Centuries have passed. And, like the woman's curse said, eight generations of first-born men have died before their fathers. Now, the soon to be number nine is about to jump out of his skin! Why? Because dad is dying--and that means he must die first...and quite soon. What's next? See the show.
The biggest problem I had with the show was having the same actor (Donald Harron) playing the original father AND the father in the present day. Genetics do NOT work that way---even if you marry successive generations of your own sisters! What a dumb cliché--and it tended to cheapen the show. Plus, the ending was pretty easy to predict.
The show starts hundreds of years ago. I rich Lord's son is dying and he vows to kill the Doctor if the young man dies. The Doc does what any responsible doctor would do after bleeding the guy repeatedly--claim he's not at fault and say that a local woman bewitched the son! So, they did what any responsible rich Lord would do--they have a quickie trial and then execute the lady! As she was about to be taken away to her death, she curses the family--saying that the eldest son will ALWAYS precede the father in death (what an oddly specific curse--I would have thought toads in their underwear or horns growing out of their heads would have sufficed).
Centuries have passed. And, like the woman's curse said, eight generations of first-born men have died before their fathers. Now, the soon to be number nine is about to jump out of his skin! Why? Because dad is dying--and that means he must die first...and quite soon. What's next? See the show.
The biggest problem I had with the show was having the same actor (Donald Harron) playing the original father AND the father in the present day. Genetics do NOT work that way---even if you marry successive generations of your own sisters! What a dumb cliché--and it tended to cheapen the show. Plus, the ending was pretty easy to predict.
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