And When the Sky Was Opened

Cast

• Col. Clegg Forbes: Rod Taylor
• Col. Ed Harrington: Charles Aidman
• Major William Gart: Jim Hutton
• Amy: Maxine Cooper
• Nurse: Sue Randall
• Bartender: Paul Bryar
• Medical officer: Joe Bassett
• Girl in bar: Gloria Pall
• Blonde nurse: Elizabeth Fielding

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. But the shrouds that cover mysteries are not always made out of tarpaulin, as this man will soon find out on the other side of the hospital door."

Synopsis

Three astronauts flying the X-20 DynaSoar into space for the first time disappear from radar on a test flight, then reappear. Rod Serling's voiceover is spoken showing the ship represented in a hangar by a canvas-covered form.

However, all is not as it seems upon their return to Earth. After they land, Gart is sent to the hospital with a broken leg. During the evening, the other two, Forbes and Harrington, go to a bar. There, Harrington suddenly gets a strange feeling. He immediately goes to a phone booth to call his parents, but they tell him they have no son. Then Harrington mysteriously disappears, and no one but Forbes remembers his existence. Forbes tells his story to Gart, who says he does not know any person named Harrington. Then Forbes looks in the mirror, sees no reflection and runs out of the room. By the time Gart gets up to run after him, Forbes has mysteriously disappeared too, and nobody remembers him. Then Gart himself mysteriously disappears, and the ship does too—wiping them off the face of the earth.

Although there are no special effects showing the spacecraft in flight, the disappearances are emphasized by props. The headline on the newspaper first says "Three Men..." then "Two Men..." and finally "One Man..." There is one fewer bed in the hospital room when one man disappears. At the end, the hospital room is shown empty, and there's a sheet of canvas spread out on the floor of an empty hangar.

Closing Narration

"Once upon a time, there was a man named Harrington, a man named Forbes, a man named Gart. They used to exist, but don't any longer. Someone or something took them somewhere. At least they are no longer a part of the memory of man. And as to the X-20 supposed to be housed here in this hangar, this too does not exist. And if any of you have any questions concerning an aircraft and three men who flew her, speak softly of them, and only in the Twilight Zone."

Errors

When Forbes looks in the mirror and doesn't see his reflection, his elbow and hand can actually be seen in the mirror.

Note

This episode is based on the short story "Disappearing Act" by Richard Matheson. The story was first published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction (March, 1953).

Trivia

• The episode Remember Me from Star Trek: The Next Generation has a similar theme.

• An aircraft concept of the same name as the craft in the episode actually existed, see X-20 Dyna-Soar.

• Some Soviet cosmonauts who were in disgrace had their images airbrushed out of photos (refer to Grigori Nelyubov)

External links

• And When the Sky Was Opened at IMDb
• TV.com episode page
• Airbrushed cosmonauts