"Moonstone"
 
Production Order #13 and Broadcast Order #24
Shooting Days: 5-12 September 1963
First Air Date: March 9, 1964
 
Production Credits:
Teleplay: William Bast
Story: Lou Morheim and Joseph Stefano
Director: Robert Florey
Assistant Director: Robert H. Justman
Director of Photography: John Nickolaus, Jr.
Composer: Dominic Frontiere (stock music)
Cast of Characters:
Ruth Roman as Professor Diana Brice
Alex Nicol as General Lee Stocker
Tim O'Connor as Major Clint Anderson
Curt Conway as Dr. Philip Mendl
Hari Rhodes as Lt. Ernie Travers
 
Opening Narration:
"In Man's conquest of space, his own moon must be the first to surrender. From there he will step his way across the heavens to the edge of infinity. Each step will be as uncertain as the last, yet each will bring him closer to ultimate truth. Lunar Expedition One: Here a handful of brave scientists and technicians pave the way to the future. Their mission: to collect information that will eventually enable Man to inhabit the Moon; to use the Moon as a springboard to the stars. Once during each twenty-four hour period, a force of three, commanded by General Lee Stocker and including Lieutenant Travers and Major Clint Anderson, makes its slow, uncharted way across the lunar surface, a surface whose depths and desires are, as yet, unprobed..."
 
Plotline:
Nearby a lunar moon base, three astronauts find a spherical white stone which is, actually, an alien space craft containing the intellectual elite ones which flee from the imperialistic rulers of their homeland that wish to conquer the galaxy by absorbing all the knowledge. Instead of a rescue ship that they have expected, it's the warmongers' one that stop by and ask for them. They decide to commit suicide to save the base and therefore the whole world.
 
Closing Narration:
"The steps Man takes across the heavens of his universe are as uncertain as those steps he takes across the rooms of his own life. And yet if he walks with an open mind, those steps must lead him eventually to that most perfect of all destinations, truth."
Quote:
"The mind earns by doing. The heart earns by trying."
—The Grippian Collective Voice (Ben Wright)
Comments:
The circular look of the aliens is a neat artifact (a sort of cyclop jellyfishes who float in a watery lampshade; the lampshade symbolizes a thrown bottle and, space, the ocean) but the anti-totalitarian plot is too conventional and linear as the character's behaviours—a Korean War background (see "Nightmare") is highlit to save the two male characters from nothingness. The theme of this episode is the redemption, the redemption of General Lee Stocker (Cf. "Tourist Attraction"). Most lunar footages are from "Men into Space". As in many episodes ("Nightmare", "The Zanti Misfits", "The Chameleon"), the militaries remain doubtful ("All my life... I thought that science and the military are opposed. That the military is dedicated to destruction and the aim of science is peace and human advancement", said Professor Brice). The Grippian Collective Voice ("Our minds are linked. We share the same thoughts and one voice—the voice you hear—speaks for all of us.") makes reference to the constellation Zenniniz (Cf. "The Zanti Misfits"). Zenniniz may refer to Zen's philosophy (see Leslie Stevens' belief) and a Zanti's lingo extension. Both Major Clint Anderson and The Grippian Collective Voice consider Earth as lethal: Anderson as a punishment ("I've been transfered... to that Siberia known as... Earth.") and the Grippian as a death threat. The way the Grippian Collective Voice describes the totalitarian Grippians ("They have not the rationality of the less powerful.") can make you think of two historical events: World War II ("There are partisans. They are coming. A rescue ship... bringing us energy", said the Grippian Collective voice) and the atomic bomb ("... because it will be we who will invent those constantly improved methods of accomplishing it...", said the Grippian Collective voice). The language of the alien is on a saturated sound frequency (again, the importance of sound and radio transmission) and John Elizalde re-uses the "O.B.I.T." and the Chromoite electronic vibrations. Hari Rhodes is the second actor that plays in Samuel Fuller's 1963 "Shock Corridor". Notes: Ben Wright is the Grippian Collective Voice and Vic Perrin is the voice of the Scanner Unit. Tim O'Connor returns in "Soldier" and Curt Conway in "Keeper of the Purple Twilight".