Third from the Sun
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
“Third from the Sun” is an episode of the television series The Twilight Zone.
Details
|
[edit] Cast
- Fritz Weaver,
- Joe Maross, and
- Edward Andrews.
[edit] Synopsis
Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.
Certain that a nuclear war is imminent, a scientist (Fritz Weaver) and a pilot (Joe Maross) plot to steal an experimental spaceship and escape with their families to a planet eleven million miles away. They are almost stopped by a government agent (Edward Andrews), but manage to overpower him. Once up in space, they wonder what their new home will be like—from radio broadcasts, they know it is called Earth.
[edit] Trivia
- The experimental spaceship shown is the saucer-shaped cruiser seen in MGM's 1956 film Forbidden Planet, there described as the United Planets Cruiser C-57D. For the episode, the full-size lower underside with retractable stairs was modified, along with a smaller command/pilot center.
- No explanation is given as to how a planet could be ' 11 million miles away '. Even the closest approach to Earth from Mars is 34M miles (2003), and asteroids are even further away, between Mars & Jupiter. Furthermore, it is heavily implied that travel to Earth requires traveling to a different star, and the nearest star to Earth is about 25 trillion miles away. Of course, the alien characters may not share our definition of a mile.