Episode #113 - The Parallel

Air Date: 3/14/63    written by Rod Serling    directed by Alan Crosland, Jr.

A straight-up science fiction episode which preconfigured the premise of the later film, Journey to the Far Side of the Sun (1969): an astronaut (Steve Forrest) rockets up into Earth orbit (real life astronaut John Glenn went into orbit months before the first draft of this episode was written in 1962); he's hit by some bright light and konks out, waking up in the hospital. Evidently, his ship was found undamaged, landed by some means. Since he blacked out, he can offer no explanation or statement of events to the military brass.
He goes home to his wife (Jacqueline Scott) and daughter; the first indication that something is 'off' is the white picket fence in front of his house - he remembers no fence there. Then he finds out that he's a colonel; he'd been a major before the orbital mission. Most telling, however, is the feeling from his wife and daughter that he is not the same man that they love. The audience finally gets some revealing info after the military psychiatrist speaks with the astronaut - no one on this Earth have ever heard of a President John F. Kennedy - this is some kind of parallel Earth.

The set-up for this one is good but it falls apart in the last act. The astronaut ends up back on his own Earth through means which make no sense. I think Serling just had no feasible way in mind to facilitate his return.  The best scene is at the midpoint, after the wife kisses the man who is not really her husband. Her stunned reaction, the music - it's chilling for no apparent reason and is what TZ is best at - that strange taste of horror that one can't describe, but which suggests all manner of possibilities: aliens? monsters? something even worse? It turns out to be not that bad, which is why it's not one of the more memorable episodes. BoG's Score: 6 out of 10
Star Trek TOS actor alert: Paul Comi has the small role of the psychiatrist here; he played the bigoted officer in Balance of Terror; Comi also showed up in 2 other TZ episodes - People Are Alike All Over and The Odyssey of Flight 33.