The Twilight Zone: Season 1, Episode Fourteen “Third From The Sun”

Original Air Date: January 8, 1960
Writer: Rod Serling (based on Richard Matheson’s short story of the same name)
Director: Richard L. Bare

“A lot can happen in a week. A lot can happen in forty-eight hours…”

Based on Richard Matheson’s 1950 short story of the same name (which first appeared in the October 1950 issue of Galaxy Science Fiction magazine), Rod Serling stayed mostly true to the original concept when he adapted the teleplay for “Third From The Sun” while expanding on the characters names and identities, and entirely adding the chief antagonist character of Will Sturka’s boss. As is often the case, Richard Matheson’s zany and paranoid characters showcase some of the best inner conflicts in The Twilight Zone. He once described the summum bonum of his writing philosophy as follows: “the individual isolated in a threatening world, attempting to survive.” And this guiding principle holds true for much of his work in The Twilight Zone.

“Quitting time at the plant. Time for supper now. Time for families. Time for a cool drink on a porch. Time for the quiet rustle of leaf-laden trees that screen over the moon. And underneath it all, behind the eyes of the men, hanging invisible over the summer night, is a horror without words. For this is the stillness before the storm. This is the eve of the end.”
-Rod Serling

Will “Bill” Sturka (played by Fritz Weaver) is a scientist who works in the “hydrogen armament” division of a covert military base developing large quantities of atomic bombs. Sturka is kept very busy, each bomb requires over a thousand pieces to construct, and every piece needs a team of 50, 60, or 70 people working on it. The company is currently preparing for imminent nuclear war in about 48 hours (note: this episode was released a little over a year before the infamous United States “Bay of Pigs” invasion). In an effort to escape this certain death, Sturka and his friend and colleague, Jerry Riden (played by television actor Joe Maross), spend some three months planning to flee in a spacecraft to bring their families along and escape the planet. They have bribed a lot of people and the preparations are all finally in order. Jerry works somewhere “up north” on this experimental aircraft and he is more of the expert on it. However, just as they attempt to escape in the ship, their weasel-faced creepy boss named Carling (played by Edward Andrews) interrupts them. He makes it clear that government crackdowns are common for men working in top-secret positions like theirs.

“You ever think, Sturka, there may be people on those stars too?”

This whole episode beautifully builds tension as Carling seems to be lurking around every corner. Great beads of sweat drip down the men’s faces as they hide their plans beneath a facade of politeness. Jerry pops over to Will’s house under the pretense of needing his stopwatch repaired. They quietly talk over the sound of the machine, Jerry says the guard he was friendly with has been reassigned to a different shift. Meanwhile their boss Carling relentlessly shows up in every scene seemingly out of nowhere, even at their homes, offering them ominous veiled warnings. There is one particularly memorable scene that is shot from beneath the glass coffee table at the Sturka home, showing the men’s escape plan on an upside-down piece of paper, along with their nervous faces, as Carling’s eyes looming down over them. In fact, the whole episode is an anxious hand-wringer. Can Bill and Jerry possibly escape without Carling catching them?

When Carling finally leaves the Sturka home, Bill and Jerry quickly depart in the night with their families. A phone call from Will’s “division head” adds to the urgency when he says they are working at night this evening and sending a car over for him. When the two families arrive at the military base to fly away, their inside contact is waiting for them beyond the fence –a shadowy man who flashes a light at them. When the mystery man steps forward, he is revealed to be none other than Carling himself. After a brief standoff they get into an altercation with Carling and subdue him before running to the base (or “government field”), overpowering several guards, and commandeering the escape craft.

A short time later we see both families safely fleeing the planet. They wonder if there really is another planet out there populated by humans just like them. As the plot twist is revealed, Riden looks over at Bill and reveals where they are headed: “It’s the third planet from the sun, Bill. It’s called ‘Earth.'”

“Behind a tiny ship heading into space is a doomed planet on the verge of suicide. Ahead lies a place called Earth, the 3rd planet from the sun. And for William Sturka and the men and women with him, it’s the eve of the beginning in the Twilight Zone.”
-Rod Serling

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My Thoughts on “Third From The Sun”

“Third From The Sun” is a classic, engrossing, ominous episode of The Twilight Zone. It flips the standard “space invader” narrative on its head as the protagonists are more focused on escape rather than arrival. And the shocking twist ending is a surprising inversion of the paranoid, nuclear-scared culture of 1950s America. We tend to think of nuclear war as our own unique dilemma, but what other forms of life just might be lurking out in the far reaches of infinitely expanding space. Who’s to say there are not others just like us wondering the exact same thing?

Harry Wild’s disorienting cinematography particularly stands out in this episode with his strange oblong shots tilted at Expressionist angles (his prolific use of the “Dutch Tilt” shot throughout this episode is remarkable), in addition to other unique shots, such as from beneath the glass card table or behind an antique sculpture and so on. The jarring angles showcase how utterly entrapped these characters truly must feel. And no review of this episode would be complete without a sufficient praise of Edward Andrews’ unsettling portrayal of Carling, Will’s wormy, ever-present, lurking boss who is constantly surveilling his employees before suddenly popping up at the most inconvenient moments.

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Credits:

• Director: Richard L. Bare
  • Richard L. Bare, whose last name is pronounced like “care” (1913-2015) was born in Turlock, California. He studied at the New York Institute of Photography and USC School of Cinematic Arts. He ran a movie theater in Carmel, California and later got his start in early comedy shorts before directing television shows. He directed nearly every episode of Green Acres and seven episodes of The Twilight Zone (he directed “Third From The Sun,” “The Purple Testament,” “Nick of Time,” “The Prime Mover,” “To Serve Man,” “The Fugitive,” and “What’s in the Box“). He later became good friends with star of “The Purple Testament” William Reynolds. Actress Jean Evans became his fourth wife, she appeared in a minor role in “Third From The Sun” and again more prominently in “To Serve Man.” He published a memoir entitled Confessions of a Hollywood Director and a guidebook entitled The Film Director: A Practical Guide to Motion Picture and Television Techniques. He was married five times and had two children. He died at his home in Newport Beach, California in 2015 at the age of 101.
  • At the time that “Third From The Sun” was filmed, Richard L. Bare had recently won a Directors’ Guild Award for best-directed television film of 1958 for “All Our Yesterdays.”
• Written by: Rod Serling (based on “Third From The Sun” by Richard Matheson, which was originally published in the October 1950 issue of Galaxy Science Fiction, his second published story in the very first issue of Galaxy Science Fiction)
• Music: Stock
• Director of Photography: Harry Wild
  • Harry Wild filled in for typical Twilight Zone cinematographer George T. Clemens on this episode, offering a unique perspective that I found to be quite striking.
• Production Manager: Ralph W. Nelson
• Art Directors: George W. Davis and William Ferrari
• Film Editor: Bill Mosher
• Assistant Director: Edward Denault
• Set Decorations: Henry Grace and Rudy Butler
• Sound: Franklin Milton and Philip Mitchell
• Casting Director: Mildred Gusse
• Starring:
  • Fritz Weaver…..Will Sturka
    • Fritz Weaver (1926-2016) appeared in over 170 theatre, television, and film productions in a career spanning nearly 60 years. He won the 1970 Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Performance for his performance as Jerome Malley in the original Broadway production of Child’s Play, and was nominated for Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play for The Chalk Garden (1958). He was also well-known as a Shakespearean actor, and regarded for his portrayal of Sherlock Holmes in the musical Baker Street. He appeared in many science fiction and fantasy shows, including ‘Way Out, Night Gallery (episode “A Question of Fear”), The Martian Chronicles, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (episode “Tribunal”), and The X-Files (episodes “Tunguska” and “Terma”). He began his career appearing in television shows like Kraft Theater, Studio One, and Playhouse 90, and later appeared in such popular shows as The Man From U.N.C.L.E., Rawhide, Gunsmoke, Mission: Impossible, Wonder Woman, Hawaii Five-O, Murder, She Wrote, Matlock, and many others. He had previously served in the Civilian Public Service as a conscientious objector during World War II. He was married twice and had two children. Years later, Fritz Weaver described his experience on The Twilight Zone as “a baptism by fire.” The actor was unfamiliar with performing in front of cameras, having spent his career onstage in the theater, and during filming, director Richard Bare had to guide Weaver along on how to use the props and appear more natural in his performance. He appeared in two Twilight Zone episodes (“Third From The Sun” and “The Obsolete Man“). He died at his home in New York City in 2016 at the age of 90.
  • Edward Andrews…..Carling
    • Edward Andrews (1914-1985) was born in Georgia and grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He attended the University of Virginia and began a career on Broadway before the outbreak of World War II. He served as a captain and commanding officer of Battery C within the 751st Field Artillery Battalion of the U.S. Army during the war, for which he was awarded the Bronze Star Medal. Afterward, he became a memorable character actor in television and movies who often played a dislikable boss or scheming bureaucrat. He appeared in many popular films, including Elmer Gantry (1960), in which he was memorable as George F. Babbitt, as well as in The Absent-Minded Professor (1961), Son of Flubber (1963), Advise & Consent (1962), Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970) and many others. He played Molly Ringwald’s grandfather in the John Hughes film Sixteen Candles (1984) and made his final feature-film appearance in Gremlins (1984). Throughout his career, he appeared in numerous television shows like The United States Steel Hour, The Real McCoys, Route 66, Gunsmoke, Rawhide, The Untouchables, Bonanza, The Wild Wild West, The Beverly Hillbillies, Sanford and Son, Bewitched, Hawaii Five-O, Charlie’s Angels, The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, The Love Boat, The Andy Griffith Show, Fantasy Island, Three’s Company, and many others. He appeared in two episodes of The Twilight Zone (“Third From The Sun” and “You Drive“). He and his wife had three children. He died of a heart attack in Pacific Palisades in 1985 at the age of 70.
  • Joe Maross…..Jerry Riden
    • Joe Maross (1923-2009) was born in Pennsylvania and served in the U.S. Marine Corps during World War II (he was stationed in Hawaii). After the war, he attended Yale University and studied theater arts. He embarked in a career on Broadway before turning to television and movies. performed in a wide variety of series and made-for-television movies from the early 1950s to the mid-1980s, such as Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Perry Mason, Mission: Impossible, The Fugitive, Wanted: Dead or Alive, The Invaders, Gunsmoke, The Virginian, Twelve O’Clock High, Kentucky Jones, The Time Tunnel, Bonanza, and many others. He appeared in an episode of The Outer Limits (“The Invisible Enemy”) and starred in two episodes of The Twilight Zone: “Third From The Sun” and “The Little People.” He was married once (he and his wife were married in 1958 and divorced in 1962 after having one son together). He died of cardiac arrest in 2009 at the age of 86.
  • Denise Alexander…..Jody Sturka, daughter of Will
    • Denise Alexander (1939-2025) was born in New York City, raised on Long Island, and relocated to Los Angeles. She was the daughter of a talent agent. She got her start in thousands radio programs and later television shows like The Virginian before turning to soap operas. Her best known for her role as Lesley Webber on General Hospital. She later reprised her role in several anniversary episodes. She died in Boulder, Colorado in 2025 at the home of a nephew at the age of 85. According to her stepson, she died of natural causes. Apparently, she did not have any biological children but had stepchildren through her husband actor-director Richard Colla.
  • Lori March…..Eve Sturka, Will’s wife
    • Lori March (1923-2013) was born in Hollywood. Her mother was a screenwriter and her father was a silent film character actor. She was best known for her roles on daytime soap operas like The Secret Storm, an appearance on an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, and six episodes of Perry Mason. Her obituary on the Television Academy’s web site noted that she was dubbed “First Lady of Daytime Television.” She was married three times and apparently had one daughter and a couple stepchildren. She died in Redding, Connecticut in 2013 at the age of 90.
  • Jeanne Evans…..Ann Riden, Jerry’s wife
    • Jeanne Evans (1924-2012) was the wife of director Richard L. Bare. She appeared in two episodes of The Twilight Zone (“Third From The Sun” and “To Serve Man“), both of which were directed by her husband Richard L. Bare. She appeared in a handful of other minor roles in television shows like 77 Sunset Strip and The Virginian, though her brief acting career primarily lasted from the late 1950s to the early 1960s (she had two minor appearances later in life in 1983 and 1993). She and Richard L. Bare divorced in 1965. She later remarried and had one child. Jeanne Evans died in 2012 at the age of 88.
• Extras:
  • Marv Goux…..workman (uncredited)
    • Marv Goux, pronounced “Marv Goo” (1932-2002) was a star USC football player in the 1950s, playing in two Rose Bowl games and being elected team captain. He later became an assistant football coach at USC for 26 years before taking an assistant job with the Los Angeles Rams from 1983 to 1994. During his brief acting career, he appeared (mostly uncredited) in movies like Spartacus (1960) and Taras Bulba (1962) as well as episodes of television shows like Playhouse 90, The Man From U.N.C.L.E., and Columbo. He died of cancer in 2002 in Los Angeles at the age of 69. He and his wife had one daughter.
  • S. John Launer…..voice over loudspeaker (uncredited)
    • Saul John Launer (1919–2006) was born in Cleveland, Ohio. He was an American television actor (often appearing in uncredited roles) best known for playing a criminal court judge on Perry Mason. He also appeared in television shows like Batman, The Wild Wild West, Peyton Place, Gunsmoke, Have Gun – Will Travel, The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, Bonanza, and many others. He appeared in films like Alfred Hitchcock’s Marnie (1964). He appeared in four episodes of The Twilight Zone (“And When The Sky Was Opened,” “Third From The Sun,” “The Purple Testament,” and “In Praise of Pip“). In his later career, he was badly injured in a stagecoach accident on the set of the show Laramie in 1960, an incident that led to his co-actor, Bert Spencer, requiring a leg amputation. Interestingly enough, Launer supplemented his acting career with real estate investments and an invention called the “Kelly Klozer,” a device he built and marketed that automatically closes a sliding screen door. He invented it when he got frustrated with letting out the family dog, Kelly. Launer and his wife had two children. He died at the age of 86 in 2006 in Tarzana, California of natural causes. His son is screenwriter, producer, and director Dale Launer (1952-present) who is primarily known for his work on comedy films like My Cousin Vinny (1992).
    • In this episode, Launer’s voice can be heard over the loudspeaker saying: “Unauthorized vehicle on field… Unauthorized vehicle on field… Guard Unit Seven approach unauthorized vehicle. Approach unauthorized vehicle and request it to halt.”
  • Ray Pourchot…..workman (uncredited)
    • Ray Pourchot (1924-2010) was drafted to serve in the United States Marine Corps during his senior year of high school. He played football while stationed at Goleta Air Force Base. After the war, he attended USC and played football before embarking on a career as a Hollywood extra in uncredited roles in films like Around The World In 80 Days (1956), Orson Welles’s Touch of Evil (1958), All The President’s Men (1976), as well as television shows like Wagon Train, The Virginian, Perry Mason, Leave It To Beaver, Charlie’s Angels, and Matlock. He appeared in two episodes of The Twilight Zone (“Third From The Sun” and “A Kind of Stopwatch“). His career wound down in the late 1980s and he retired to Pacific Palisades until his death in 2010.
  • Will J. White…..a guard (uncredited)
    • Will J. White (1925-1992) was a successful Canadian figure skater prior to embarking on a career in entertainment. His mother was also a former “Miss Canada” and his father was a concert entertainer. Also his sister was a fellow actor in the 1950s, Suzanne Alexander (1931-1975). He appeared in many television episodes of shows like The Lone Ranger, Wagon Train, Rawhide, Maverick, Leave it To Beaver, Lassie, The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, Perry Mason, The Wild Wild West, The Man From U.N.C.L.E., Bonanza, Mission: Impossible, and many others, as well as uncredited roles in feature films like Spartacus (1960) and others. He appeared in two classic episodes of The Twilight Zone (“Third From The Sun” and “To Serve Man“). He and his wife Elaine had no children. He retired in 1979 and died in 1992 in Grants Pass, Oregon.

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The Twilight Zone Trivia:

• Both Fritz Weaver and Edward Andrews later appeared in other Twilight Zone episodes. Fritz Weaver starred in “The Obsolete Man” and Edward Andrews starred in “You Drive.”
• Stock footage of the alien spaceship in this episode cost $500 to borrow from the science fiction film Forbidden Planet (1956), a film whose stock footage was borrowed again and again throughout The Twilight Zone series. The initial glimpse of the spaceship as seen by the audience is a matte painting from Forbidden Planet. The interior set used for the United Planets Cruiser C-57D was also the same one used in Forbidden Planet, as was the glass dome at the center of the controls (it was later reused in The Twilight Zone episode “Hocus-Pocus and Frisby“). In fact, many of the props featured in this episode can be found in future Twilight Zone episodes like “People Are Alike All Over,” “I Shot an Arrow into the Air,” and “In His Image.”
• The original story “Third From The Sun” by Richard Matheson was purchased by Cayuga Productions for $1,000.
• Some notable differences between Matheson’s original short story and the episode include: Matheson’s short story is only a few pages long and it never mentions any of the character’s names. Also there are a couple families mentioned in the short story, their intent is to flee their planet in order to repopulate another (they are concerned about avoiding “inter-breeding” with their own children), and they all have children as opposed to the episode which shows Jodi, Will Sturka’s only daughter, while Jerry Riden apparently has no children. In the short story, the unnamed protagonist believes a horrible war is coming in a few years. He is an experienced test pilot for the spacecraft they intend to flee in, whereas in the episode the launch of the spacecraft is described as incredibly risky, with neither Will nor Jerry certain it will leave the planet’s atmosphere. The ship in the short story is described as being And whereas the short story describes the confiscated space ship as a huge towering hulk of machinery, in the The Twilight Zone episode we simply see the reused saucer-shaped space ship (United Planets Cruiser C-57D) from the classic science fiction film Forbidden Planet (1956). Click here to read my full review of Richard Matheson’s short story.
• Rod Serling named Sturka’s daughter in this episode after his own daughter Jodi. Also Jerry’s wife is named after Serling’s second daughter Anne (though her character name in this episode is actually spelled “Ann” without the “e”).
• The Earth is said to be 11 million miles from the unnamed planet in the episode, even though in reality the planet Venus is considerably further away, at approximately 24,600,000 miles from Earth.
• The opening scene of this episode featuring William Sturka leaving the security plant for the day (which is apparently called the “Ministry of Science” according to a sign on the chain-link fence), was filmed on location at the Southern California Edison Substation, located at Culver and Overland Boulevards in Culver City, adjoining the MGM Transportation Pool. Permission to film on location was granted by Mr. John Davies, district superintendent, and Mr. Aughy (pronounced “Oye”). There was no charge for filming. These outdoor scenes were shot on the third day of filming.
• The automobile that Sturka and Jerry use to flee with their family is the “Blue Danube” which was designed and built by George Barris who customized the Buick (and a number of other cars) for use in a key scene in The Time Machine (1960).
• The “Time Passage” musical theme that recurs in this episode was taken from Bernard Herrmann’s Outer Space Suite.
• The odd looking telephone that Sturka uses was actually considered a newer model at the time (an “Ericofon”). It was a Swedish design that was largely prohibited from use in the United States due to AT&T’s monopolistic control of the market. It was built to appear futuristic but the trend never really caught on. The same phone would later be featured in the episode “One More Pallbearer.” If you look closely, the dial on the Ericofon is missing the number “9”. This wasn’t a prop error. Some models of the Ericofon “Cobra” had the cord entry where the 9 would have been.
• The painting hanging on the wall behind the card table is also featured in the episode “The Midnight Sun.”
• The sign reading “Security Gate 22” might have been a reference to Stage 22 where scenes for this episode were filmed. The gate and signs from this episode were reused in the episode “People Are Alike All Over.”
• The people who exit Security Gate 22 at the beginning of the episode are identified as “Parkinson, Chemical Warfare,” “Amberly, Hydrogen Armament,” “Mills, Germ Warfare Research,” and “Sturka, Hydrogen Armament.”
• Sturka’s employee badge reads: “Employee 369-MI5 Restricted.”
• In this episode, Jerry Rider mentions the third planet as “Earth” but in Richard Matheson’s original sort story “Earth” is never explicitly mentioned, only heavily implied.
• The gate where the two families enter the top-secret government facility is “Gate 6A.”
• According to various resources, elements of this episode were incorporated into the original Battlestar Galactica series.
• Per a June 20, 1983 newspaper article, this episode was Stephen King’s favorite of the series.
• The odd music playing when Sturka goes home is actually a piece called “Teddy’s Blues” by French avant-garde Jacques Lasry. Lasry wrote the song for his son Teddy. Lasry had formed a musical group with his wife and their music was featured in Jean Cocteau films. One of their unusual instruments was featured in this episode (this is one of several little clues in the show that suggest the men are not on planet Earth).
• For this episode, director Richard L. Bare chose to shoot all the long-shots through a “bug-eye” lens while his close-ups were shot on 255mm. Marc Scott Zicree offers an interesting quotation from producer Buck Houghton in The Twilight Zone Companion essentially stating that Bare used wide-angle lenses to subtly highlight the disorienting idea that these characters are actually on another planet. This effect was also accomplished with the unusual sculptures and artwork situated around the Sturka house as well as the jarring avant-garde musical score.
• Apparently Vince Gilligan worked elements of this episode (and other episodes of The Twilight Zone) into his Apple+ post-apocalyptic science fiction series Pluribus. In fact, the protagonist’s last name is Sturka in Pluribus.

Click here to return to my survey of The Twilight Zone series.

Click here for my Short Story Review of “Third from the Sun” by Richard Matheson