Why do the lights go out when someone enters the dining room on this ship?
In the tenth episode of the first season of The Twilight Zone named Judgment Night which takes place during the 2nd World War a civilian ship is on its way from London to New York and is trying to escape a submarine attack from the Germans.
Whenever a character enters or leaves the dining room of the ship the lights go out as long as the door is open.
What is the reason behind this?
Best Answer
Because they have a limit switch on the door, which does this automatically when enabled. It's manually set by crew as part of dog-zebra procedure, or relay-controlled from the bridge.
The underlying purpose is to darken the ship to avoid sighting by the submarine at night. This is done in a ship's state known as Dog Zebra material condition in the US Navy, and other navies have similar procedures, as do merchant marines, for the same reason.
In movies/TV, the most well-known example of material conditions is the "Set Condition One throughout the ship" callout, used in in Battlestar Galactica 2004 and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (on Klingon vessels), both Ronald D. Moore joints.
If you're wondering... X-ray, Yoke and Zebra are elevating levels of securing internal hatches and valves to improve watertightness. "Dog" is an amendment to "Zebra" that means "also do not emit light".
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Answer 2
If you look closely you can see blackout curtains on the windows.
The door leads to an internal passageway that is open on both ends and from there allows light to leak.
Blocking out light-emitting sources to hide is important in wartime, such as in air raid blackouts.
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