The Parallel

Episode aired Mar 14, 1963
TV-14
51m

IMDb RATING

7.6/10

YOUR RATING

Steve Forrest in The Twilight Zone (1959)

Drama Fantasy Horror Mystery Sci-Fi Thriller

Astronaut Robert Gaines returns from space to a world that is not exactly the one he left from.Astronaut Robert Gaines returns from space to a world that is not exactly the one he left from.Astronaut Robert Gaines returns from space to a world that is not exactly the one he left from.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

7.6/10

YOUR RATING

25User reviews

See production info at IMDbPro

Trivia
The comic book that Maggie is reading in the living room (just before she goes to get her father a cup of coffee) is Mysteries of Unexplored Worlds #32 (October 1962), a science fiction title published by Charlton Comics. Appropriately, the cover depicts a man floating helplessly in outer space.

Goofs
By the time the astronaut is seeing fire out his window. He would not be able to be communicating with ground control. As the spacecraft reenters the atmosphere and the outside of craft heats. Ionization occurs and radio traffic is impossible.

Quotes
Narrator: [Opening Narration] In the vernacular of space, this is T minus one hour, sixty minutes before a human being named Major Robert Gaines is lifted off from the Mother Earth and rocketed into the sky, farther and longer than any man ahead of him. Call this one of the first faltering steps of man to sever the umbilical cord of gravity and stretch out a fingertip toward an unknown. Shortly, we'll join this astronaut named Gaines and embark on an adventure, because the environs overhead - the stars, the sky, the infinite space - are all part of a vast question mark known as the Twilight Zone.

Crazy credits
Rod Serling's title narration includes the catchphrase "Submitted for your approval".

Connections
Featured in Atop the Fourth Wall: See You Next Mirror: Exiles Retrospective, Part 1 (2017)

Soundtracks
Twilight Zone Theme
(theme song)
Composed by Marius Constant
(seasons 2-5)

User reviews25

Featured review

10/10

An Infinity Of Worlds

Scientists have just now concluded that our universe is likely flat and infinite. Therefore, given that the possible set of all arrangements of atoms is finite, it follows that there are an infinite number of other planets nearly identical to ours. The premise of this episode is precisely that. There is another earth very similar but not identical in every respect to ours. I find this particular scenario very interesting in that it explores, abet in a rudimentary way, the concept of multiple realities existing along side ours. As a practical matter we will never meet our other "Parallel" selves since they would be billions of light years away but it's fun to realize that they do indeed exist according to these recent findings. Just another example of just how prescient the Twilight Zone series was.