Episode #20 - Elegy

Air Date: 2/19/60    written by Charles Beaumont    Directed by Douglas Heyes

Three astronauts (Jeff Morrow, Kevin Hagen, Don Dubbins) lost in space about 200 years in the future land on an unknown asteroid where they find an environment which looks like rural America, circa the mid-20th century. They realize that it can't be Earth because there are two suns in the sky and, besides which, the inhabitants appear to be frozen in place, like showpieces in some outdoors museum.  They finally meet a living, breathing subject, a strange old coot who calls himself Wickwire (Cecil Kellaway), but the answers he will provide may not be to their liking.
This episode combined the usual presentation of TZ future space travel with a bit of Grand Guignol, sort of like running into a serial killer in outer space (though tempered, of course, by the usual limitations of what could be shown on TV back then).  This episode also demonstrates the usual limited knowledge of astronomy during the show's original run - it's mentioned that the astronauts are 655 million miles from Earth, which sounds like a lot, but places them well within our solar system, say, somewhere in-between Jupiter and Saturn (perhaps an undetected asteroid?).  The ending is pretty chilling, especially as a contrast to Wickwire's seemingly friendly personality.  BoG's Score: 6.5 out of 10