Suspend all disbelief before watching this episode! If I didn't know better I would have thought the story was written by a third grader. Here are just some of the things the script had to offer:
An experimental rocket called the Aerobee-76 is shot into space and goes missing for a period of time. OK, so far, so good. When it's finally seen again, it's crash landed on a ranch ten miles from the launch point. Inside the rocket is a huge cube of what appears to be blue ice. How did it get there? Chief project manager Major Dozier (Edmon Ryan) and his team can't figure it out. The object begins to freeze everything in its immediate surroundings until at one point an area three hundred miles surrounding the 'ice' has been frozen solid. So what does Dozier do? He decides to launch the AR-76 into space again with him aboard to blow it up while sacrificing himself. But wait a minute - why didn't the rocket ship freeze with everything else around it? How does a rocket ship get launched without any preparation on a moment's notice? For that matter, how does Major Dozier get the space ship off the ground without anyone else knowing about it?
Look, I know this was an early television sci-fi story, but it's not like other competent TV and movie scripts hadn't been written before. The circumstances in the program are contradictory in and of themselves. It appears that I'm an outlier here since most of the other reviews here are fairly complementary, so I have to assume that the writers are willing to give the story a major pass on the inconsistencies. In my case, I just can't suspend critical thinking when I watch something.
Look, I know this was an early television sci-fi story, but it's not like other competent TV and movie scripts hadn't been written before. The circumstances in the program are contradictory in and of themselves. It appears that I'm an outlier here since most of the other reviews here are fairly complementary, so I have to assume that the writers are willing to give the story a major pass on the inconsistencies. In my case, I just can't suspend critical thinking when I watch something.