Air date: March 14, 1963
While orbiting Earth in his space capsule, Major Robert Gaines (Steve Forrest) suddenly experiences a communications malfunction and passes out. He wakes up on Earth, with no memories of returning to the planet's surface. After he is released into the custody of his family, Robert begins to observe a number of differences between the world he is now living in and the one he remembers from before. These differences range from minor, including a fence his house never had before, to major, such as John F. Kennedy not being President of the United States. Even details about his personal life have changed, as he is puportedly a Colonel instead of a Major. Robert comes to discover that for reasons unknown, he has been transported to a parallel universe, and becomes desperate to return to his own world.
The Parallel Tropes:
- Alternate Universe: While orbiting Earth in Phoebus 10, Robert is sent to a parallel universe which is highly similar to his own, but with some important differences, major and minor in nautre. In terms of his personal life, he is a full Colonel as opposed to a Major, his house has a white picket fence he says was never there before, and he takes sugar in his coffee. In terms of wider history, John F. Kennedy isn't President in 1963 and no one has even heard of him, a man named Anderson supervised the construction of the Panama Canal rather than George Washington Goethals, and the World War I flying ace Eddie Rickenbacker was never found when his B-17 disappeared in October 1942. Robert also mentions that he has determined from reading the encyclopedia that there are numerous other differences between the two universes, but he doesn't elaborate.
- Dutch Angle: Several are used to represent Robert's disorientiation upon hearing a cacophany of radio signals, immediately before he is sent back to his own universe.
- Equivalent Exchange: Robert loses contact with Earth and is accidentally transported to a parallel universe where he's a full on Colonel. At the end of the episode, shortly after he returns home, the controllers receive a transmission from Colonel Robert Gaines.
- The Multiverse: Robert discovers that parallel universes exist, as he is accidentally transported to one that has a similar timeline to his own.
- Riddle for the Ages: The exact mechanism as to how Robert is taken to and from the parallel universe is left unexplained.
- Ripped from the Headlines: The episode was inspired by John Glenn becoming the first American to orbit Earth aboard Friendship 7 on February 20, 1962.
- Stock Footage: Footage of a space capsule being launched is used to represent Robert departing aboard Phoebus 10.
