The Twilight Zone 1.15

I Shot an Arrow into the Air

starring Dewey Martin, Edward Binns

written by Rod Serling, Madelon Champion

directed by Stuart Rosenberg

A rocket ship carrying eight men takes off from Earth but not long afterwards it loses contact with ground control and disappears from all radar screens. The rocket crash lands on an asteroid. Four of the astronauts are killed during the landing. Another is seriously injured and dies hours later.

Corey (Dewey Martin), one of the three survivors, starts questioning everything that the mission's commander, Colonel Bob Donlin (Edward Binns), one of other two survivors says. Pierson, the third survivor, and Corey explore the rocky area where they have landed but only Corey returns. He claims at first that he doesn't know why Pierson hasn't returned yet. Donlin insists that they go looking for him.

Corey and Donlin find Pierson almost dead. Donlin drops his guard. Corey gets his weapon and kills Colonel Donlin. Not long after that he discovers that they haven't landed on an asteroid but back on Earth, not far from Reno, NV.

Thoughts

This episode aired in Jan 1960, about 15 months before the first person, Yuri Gagarin, traveled into space.

This episode depends to some degree, as much science fiction did at that time, to the belief that atmosphere on asteroids and other planets are breathable for humans. 

This was a decent episode but I guessed the twist ending well before it arrived. I found the idea behind it to be interesting but the performances by the lead actors didn't excite me very much.

Notes

This is the only episode of this show in which Dewey Martin appeared. He also appeared in one episode of The Outer Limits (1963). This is the first of two episodes of this show in which Edward Binns appeared. He also appeared in one episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955).

Madelon Champion came up with the idea for this episode. It is the only episode of the show that she had a hand in writing. Narrator Rod Serling bought the story idea from Champion. Serling had a hand in writing all 156 episodes of The Twilight Zone.

This is the first of three episodes of this show that Stuart Rosenberg directed. He also directed five episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955).