And When the Sky Was Opened (11 Dec. 1959)
"The Twilight Zone" And When the Sky Was Opened (original title)

Three U.S. astronauts blast off from Earth on an initial test flight in an experimental rocket-ship, but during the flight into space the ship disappears from radar, then reappears. On ... See full summary »

Director:

Douglas Heyes

Writers:

Rod Serling (teleplay by), Richard Matheson (based on a short story by),

Stars:

Rod Taylor, Jim Hutton, Charles Aidman

Cast

Episode complete credited cast:
Rod Taylor	...	Lieutenant Colonel Clegg Forbes
Jim Hutton	...	Major William Gart (as James Hutton)
Charles Aidman	...	Colonel Ed Harrington
Maxine Cooper	...	Amy
Paul Bryar	...	Bartender
Sue Randall	...	Nurse
Joe Bassett	...	Medical Officer

Storyline

Three U.S. astronauts blast off from Earth on an initial test flight in an experimental rocket-ship, but during the flight into space the ship disappears from radar, then reappears. On return, the rocket-ship is hangared and put under a tarp, pending an investigation. One crewman is hospitalized for a leg broken on landing, and is visited by the other two. Next the pair go for a drink, and then one crewman phones his parents from a bar phone-booth - but they say they have no son! The astronaut immediately disappears, and no one in the bar remembers him, except the other astronaut in the bar, the Captain.

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Plot Keywords:

bar | astronaut | space station | erased from existence | mirror | 

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Genres:

Fantasy | Horror | Mystery | Sci-Fi | Thriller

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

11 December 1959 (USA)

Filming Locations:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios - 10202 W. Washington Blvd., Culver City, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Cayuga Productions, Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

25 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The title is a parody of a line from the children's nursery rhyme "Sing a Song of Sixpence". "When the pie was opened, The birds began to sing; Wasn't that a dainty dish, To set before the king?"

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Goofs

In Rod Sterling's opening narration, we are told that the 'X-20 is an experimental Air Force interceptor that has been 900 miles into space'. That altitude is far beyond the capability of fighter jets; even if the X-20 *did* attain that high of an altitude, the aircraft and its crew would be exposed to the radiation of the Van Allen belts. By comparison, the space shuttle typically operates at altitudes between approximately 180-240 miles. To be fair, this episode was filmed in 1959 when travel/exploration beyond low Earth orbit was not well understood.

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Quotes

Narrator: [Opening Narration] Her name: X-20. Her type: an experimental interceptor. Recent history: a crash landing in the Mojave Desert after a thirty-one hour flight nine hundred miles into space. Incidental data: the ship, with the men who flew her, disappeared from the radar screen for twenty-four hours.
Narrator: [continuing narration, subsequent to character dialogue] But the shrouds that cover mysteries are not always made out of a tarpaulin, as this man will soon find out on the other side of a hospital ...

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Connections

Referenced in Atop the Fourth Wall: Twilight Zone #9 (2011)

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Soundtracks

"No Tricks"
(uncredited)
Music by Bruce Campbell

User Reviews

Consummate Twilight Zone

This is a really wonderful episode. Rod Taylor has supposedly returned from a space trip with two of his fellow astronauts. Their ship has crashed. The story begins as he visits Jim Hutton in the hospital. He is beside himself because it seems that there was a third member of the team who, according to him, has disappeared. As a matter of fact, it's as if he never existed. We then go to flashback and are treated to an eerie sense that not only do these men disappear; then sense their own passage to nothingness. It is never explained to us, but we are quickly pulled into the psyches of the two remaining men. They try to figure out their sense of being and aren't able to do so. This is what The Twilight Zone was all about. It feeds us an enigma and then lets us try to put it all together. One can wax philosophical, but somehow these men disappear and we don't know why.