Air date: March 16, 1962
Chris Miller (Robert Sampson) and his wife Ruth (Sarah Marshall) are awakened from their late-night slumber when they hear their six-year-old daughter Tina (Tracy Stratford) crying out for their help. Chris goes to comfort his little girl, assuming that she had a nightmare, but he and his wife find her missing. They frantically search for Tina, but fail to find her anywhere in the room, and her voice seems to be coming from someplace both near and far away. Growing desperate, the Millers call in Chris' friend Bill (Charles Aidman), a noted physicist.
As the family dog Mack goes missing as well after he is tasked with finding Tina, Bill discovers that a section of Tina's bedroom wall has formed a strange portal into another dimension, which Tina ended up trapped in after falling out of bed. Bill also notes that the portal is slowly closing, so they have only a limited amount of time to rescue Tina and Mack. Chris bravely enters the portal to discover the other dimension for himself. He is able to locate Mack and Tina, and saves them just in time. While Tina is comforted by her mother, Bill talks to Chris and reveals that the portal has fully closed. He expresses his relief with how fast Chris rescued his daughter and pet, telling him; "Another few seconds, and half of you would have been here, and the other half..."
For the short story this episode was based on, see Little Girl Lost.
Little Trope Lost:
- Adaptational Job Change: In the short story, Bill is a CalTech engineer. In the episode, he's a physicist.
- Adaptation Species Change: In the short story, Mack, the family dog, was a Collie. In the episode, he's a mutt. The dog who played him may have had some Collie traits, but he's still much smaller than intended in the story.
- Another Dimension: Tina falls out of bed and rolls into another dimension, a portal to which sponatneously formed in her room. (It's suspected to be the fourth in the short story and the episode, or perhaps the fifth.)
- Ascended Fridge Horror: Chris and Bill slowly come to the harrowing realization that the portal was closing around Chris, and it would have cut him in half if he didn't get out in time.
- Damsel in Distress: Tina, who falls out of bed and ends up lost in another dimension. It's justified in that she's a child, and she has absolutely no idea where she is.
- Dutch Angle: They are used throughout the other dimension to showcase just how irregular it is.
- Eldritch Location: The dimension Tina and Mack get lost in is a bizarre, abstract realm which frequently distorts perceptions. Chris, for instance, believed that he was standing upright in spite of the fact that his legs were still on the other side of the portal.
- Evil-Detecting Dog: Mack starts barking furiously after Tina vanishes. When he's let inside, Mack runs into the portal and finds Tina in the other dimension.
- Happy Ending: Chris reaches Tina and Mack in the nick of time, rescuing them from the alternate dimension when the portal was incredibly close to closing completely.
- Heroic Dog: Mack leads Tina back to her father so they can all escape the other dimension.
- Mama Bear: Ruth prepares to go into the portal herself to save her daughter. Bill convinces her not to, but he can't dissuade Chris from doing the same.
- Missing Child: Tina begins crying late at night, and when her father goes to comfort her, he finds her missing. He checks under her bed, but she's not there and still crying. Ruth becomes hysterical when she hears Tina crying for her. (This actually happened to writer Richard Matheson and his wife, only they did find their daughter had just rolled under the bed.)
- Named by the Adaptation: Chris, Ruth, and Tina are given the last name Miller in the episode.
- Oh, Crap!: Chris has a pretty big one when he goes to Tina's room and discovers that she's not in bed.
- Papa Wolf: After charging into the portal, Chris calls for Mack to bring Tina to him, and he hugs them tightly as Bill and Ruth pull them out.
- Portal Cut: In the end, Bill shows Chris that the portal has closed shortly after he rescued Tina and Mack. If Chris hadn't gotten out in time, the portal would have severed his legs.
- Setting Update: In the short story, the family share a one bedroom apartment. The episode shows that they own a house.
- Tuckerization: Ruth and Tina are named after Richard Matheson's wife and daughter.
- Vocal Dissonance: Rhoda Williams voices Tina while she's stuck in the other dimension, despite the fact that Tracy Stratford plays her, resulting in Tina sounding quite a bit older than six.
- Wham Shot: Bill reveals at the end why he was insistent that Chris not go through the portal, and why he pleaded Chris to hurry when he went through regardless: he smacks the portion of the wall where the portal was to reveal it's now solid.
- Who You Gonna Call?: While more in the dimensional sense than the ghostly sense, Chris calls his physicist friend Bill to assist him and Ruth in getting Tina back.
