episode #11 - And When the Sky Was Opened

**BoG** Mon Dec 06, 2010 11:37 pm

Air Date: 12/11/59

written by Rod Serling

Director: Douglas Heyes
PLOT: 3 astronauts (Rod Taylor, Jim Hutton, Charles Aidman) return from a trip in outer space; one-by-one, they disappear as if they never existed. This reality shift is similar to Person or Persons Unknown, in that one person insists that someone exists while everyone else denies this.

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The puzzler to this episode, as has been written about quite a lot I wager, is that rather than just disappearing, the 3 astronauts are also erased from history. The intent at the beginning, it seems, was that the 3 men were not meant to return from their space trip; all well and good. But, why is it necessary to delete them from the memory of man? It's almost as if 'something' is going too far - instead of rewriting the past couple of days, it goes all the way back to when the men were born. Of course, this detail lends an additionally eerie aspect to the story.

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Pragmatically speaking, perhaps erasing all trace of their existence like that, as well as the ship, also assures that no further such space trips will be planned; in theory, if the men had just never returned and everyone was aware that they did exist, then there would be another trip to space being planned soon anyway. It looks to me like 'something' doesn't want any further such trips and is taking those extra-drastic steps. It also indicates godlike power, about limitations imposed on mankind and the unknowable in relation to outer space back then. Eerie, eerie...

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This one succeeds at suggesting some frightening and mysterious facets to existence. Poor humanity certainly has no control over destiny as we see here. Much of this mystery and fear is conveyed through the 3 main characters, of course, via the actors. Take that moment that Charles Aidman's character first gets that chilling look on his face, perhaps realizing that his existence is in the process of being obliterated. There is no frame of reference for such an experience - we can only guess what it must feel like; judging by Aidman's performance, it doesn't feel good; it may just feel horrifying.

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At the same time, there is a suggestion of euphoria just before the actual disappearance. This is most evident with Taylor's character but Aidman gets that similar look on his face in the phone booth seconds before he evaporates. This recalls the old saying about how all troubles melt away; at the same time, it's quite frightening for the men. It's a perplexing combination of emotions. Perhaps the men aren't simply being deleted; maybe they're being transported elsewhere as all trace of them on this Earth is eliminated. That's a somewhat comforting thought. BoG's Score: 8.5 out of 10

**BoG** Tue Dec 28, 2010 10:58 pm

The original television script for this episode was printed in The Twilight Zone Magazine (June, 1985 issue). It was based on a story by Richard Matheson, called "Disappearing Act" - in the original story, there was no mention of astronauts or outer space; in the original, it was just two guys meeting in a bar, and one of them is in the process of getting deleted. Serling felt that including the outer space angle would at least give the semblance of some rationale for why this weird stuff was happening.

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There are a couple of tiny details in the script which differ from the final episode, for reasons unknown to me: the ship is written as the X-6 in the script; it's the X-20 in the episode; I think Serling found out that an X-15 already existed in real life so an X-6 wouldn't make much sense. At the end, in the script, the nurse refers to room #14; it's room #15 in the episode. The narration at the end in the script: "As to the aircraft... the X-6 ...it's supposed to be housed here in this hangar. It hasn't been built yet. It's on a drawing board someplace." This suggests some kind of time travel backwards or something. Strange differences.

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The definitive edition DVD of the first season of The Twilight Zone contains an audio commentary by Rod Taylor for this episode (Taylor is still kicking around, btw, at age 81 - his birthday is on 1/11/11). He has good memories of shooting the episode, has high praise for Serling the writer and the other actors. He mentions that many actors in Hollywood wanted to be in a Zone episode, just for the chance to work with Serling. Taylor himself appeared in this just before he hit it big in his first starring movie role in The Time Machine (1960), but he'd already been in Hollywood for about 5 years at that point.

There's also an interview with Douglas Heyes, the director; he mentions that in an early version, there were 4 astronauts and Taylor's character was trying to convince Aidman's character that a 4th astronaut existed just before Aidman disappeared. Heyes also recalls how Taylor decided to crash through the glass when he was breaking back into the bar; his method was a bit unexpected and impressed Serling. He also describes how he decided to shoot the key scene of Taylor just before his character disappears. Taylor looks like he is rising or levitating as that feeling of euphoria briefly overcomes him - about to go off into the heavens or another dimension? In a recorded lecture by Serling at some college, Serling had a lot of praise for the director, who imparted an interesting style to many scenes, none of which were spelled out in the script.

Here's a blog on the episode by writer Ryan Harvey (click image):

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And When the Sky was Scripted