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Plot

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{{multiple issues|
{{more citations needed|date=October 2016}}
{{original research|date=October 2016}}
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{{Infobox television episode
| series = [[The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series)|The Twilight Zone]]
| image = Jim Hutton Sue Randall Twilight Zone.JPG
| caption = [[Sue Randall]] and [[Jim Hutton]]
| season = 1
| episode = 11
| airdate = {{Start date|1959|12|11}}
| production = 173-3611
| teleplay = [[Rod Serling]]
| based_on = {{Based on|"Disappearing Act"|[[Richard Matheson]]}}
| director = [[Douglas Heyes]]
| photographer = [[George T. Clemens]]
| guests =
*[[Rod Taylor]] as Lieutenant Colonel Clegg Forbes
*[[Charles Aidman]] as Colonel Ed Harrington
*[[Jim Hutton]] as Major William Gart
*[[Maxine Cooper]] as Amy
*[[Sue Randall]] as Nurse
*[[Paul Bryar]] as Bartender
*[[Joe Bassett]] as Medical officer
*[[Gloria Pall]] as Girl in bar
*[[Elizabeth Fielding]] as Blond Nurse
| music = [[Leonard Rosenman]]
| season_article = The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series, season 1)
| episode_list = List of The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series) episodes
| prev = [[Judgment Night (The Twilight Zone)|Judgment Night]]
| next = [[What You Need (The Twilight Zone)|What You Need]]
}}

"'''And When the Sky Was Opened'''" is episode eleven of the American television [[anthology series]] ''[[The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series)|The Twilight Zone]]''. It originally aired on December 11, 1959.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.cbs.com/shows/the_twilight_zone/video/4bTuEguACuKEAXZOXmrruLg6mKNhvXpn/the-twilight-zone-and-when-the-sky-was-opened/|title=Watch The Twilight Zone Season 1 Episode 11: And When the Sky Was Opened - Full show on CBS All Access|website=CBS|access-date=2016-12-01|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161201143828/http://www.cbs.com/shows/the_twilight_zone/video/4bTuEguACuKEAXZOXmrruLg6mKNhvXpn/the-twilight-zone-and-when-the-sky-was-opened/|archive-date=2016-12-01|url-status=dead}}</ref> It is an adaptation of the 1953 [[Richard Matheson]] short story "Disappearing Act".<ref name="auto">{{cite book|title=The Twilight Zone Companion|last=Zicree|first=Marc Scott|publisher=Sillman-James Press|year=1982|edition=second|location=Hollywood|page=61}}</ref>

==Opening narration==
{{cquote|Her name: X-20. Her type: an experimental interceptor. Recent history: a crash landing in the Mojave Desert after a thirty-one hour flight nine hundred miles into space. Incidental data: the ship, with the men who flew her, disappeared from the radar screen for twenty-four hours.}}

The narration continues after Forbes' introduction.

{{cquote|But the shrouds that cover mysteries are not always made out of a tarpaulin, as this man will soon find out on the other side of a hospital door.}}

==Plot==
[[United States Air Force]] [[Colonel]] Clegg Forbes arrives at a military hospital to visit his friend and co-pilot [[Major]] William Gart. The two had recently piloted an experimental [[spaceplane]], the [[X-20 DynaSoar]]. During their voyage the craft disappeared from radar screens for a full day before reappearing and crash landing in the desert, leaving Gart with a broken leg. Forbes is agitated and asks Gart if he remembers how many people were on the mission. Gart confirms that only he and Forbes piloted the plane, but Forbes insists that a third man – Colonel Ed Harrington, his best friend for 15 years – accompanied them.

In a flashback, Harrington and Forbes are discharged from the hospital after passing their physical exams and visit a bar downtown. While there, Harrington is suddenly overcome by a feeling that he no longer "belongs" in the world. Disturbed, he phones his parents, who tell him they have no son named Ed and believe the person calling them is a prankster. Harrington then mysteriously vanishes from the phone booth and no one but Forbes remembers his existence. Increasingly desperate, Forbes fruitlessly searches for any trace of his friend.

Back in the present, Forbes finishes recounting the story to Gart and is dismayed by his friend's claim that he doesn't know anyone named Harrington. Forbes then glances at a mirror and discovers he casts no reflection, causing him to flee the room in terror. Gart tries to hobble after him only to find that Forbes has disappeared. Calling the duty nurse to ask if she saw where Forbes went, Gart is stunned by the nurse's claim that nobody named Forbes has been in the building and that Gart was the only man who was in the hospital room. Horrified, Gart also disappears.

An officer enters the building and asks the duty nurse if there are any unused rooms available to accommodate new patients. The nurse takes him to the now completely empty room which hosted the three astronauts, telling him that it has been unoccupied. The hangar which previously housed the X-20 is then shown, with the sheet that covered the craft lying on the ground. There is no trace of the plane.

==Closing narration==
{{cquote|Once upon a time, there was a man named Harrington, a man named Forbes, a man named Gart. They used to exist, but don't any longer. Someone – or something – took them somewhere. At least they are no longer a part of the memory of man. And as to the X-20 supposed to be housed here in this hangar, this, too, does not exist. And if any of you have any questions concerning an aircraft and three men who flew her, speak softly of them – and only in – The Twilight Zone.}}

==Episode notes==
This episode is loosely based on the short story "Disappearing Act" by [[Richard Matheson]].<ref name="auto"/> The story was first published in ''The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction'' (March 1953).<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?61245 | title=Contents|work=[[Internet Speculative Fiction Database]]|date=11 January 2017|access-date=11 January 2017}}</ref>

[[Rod Taylor]] and director [[Douglas Heyes]] later worked together on the TV series ''[[Bearcats!]]''<ref>Stephen Vagg, ''Rod Taylor: An Aussie in Hollywood'', Bear Manor Media, 2010 p69</ref>

Toward the end of the episode, Rod Taylor's character, Clegg Forbes, panics when he appears to cast no reflection when looking at a mirror in the hospital room. Due to a production error in crafting this illusion, Taylor's right elbow is, in fact, visible in the mirror throughout the duration of this shot, with three fingers of Taylor's right hand appearing in the mirror as well when Taylor raises his hands in horror.

==See also==
* "[[Remember Me (Star Trek: The Next Generation)|Remember Me]]", an episode of ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation]]'', in which ship's doctor [[Beverly Crusher]] undergoes a comparable experience.
* "[[Revisions_(Stargate_SG-1)|Revisions]]", a ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'' episode with a similar plot.
* "[[List of Eureka episodes#Episodes|Games People Play]]", a ''[[Eureka (U.S. TV series)|Eureka]]'' episode with a similar plot.

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Bibliography==
*DeVoe, Bill (2008). ''Trivia from The Twilight Zone''. Albany, GA: Bear Manor Media. {{ISBN|978-1-59393-136-0}}.
*Grams, Martin (2008). ''The Twilight Zone: Unlocking the Door to a Television Classic''. Churchville, MD: OTR Publishing. {{ISBN|978-0-9703310-9-0}}.

==External links==
* {{IMDb episode|0734555}}
* [http://tzone.the-croc.com/tzeplist/sky.html And When The Sky Was Opened | John's Twilight Zone Page]

{{The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series) episodes}}
{{Richard Matheson}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:And When The Sky Was Opened}}
[[Category:1959 American television episodes]]
[[Category:Adaptations of works by Richard Matheson]]
[[Category:Television shows based on short fiction]]
[[Category:The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series season 1) episodes]]
[[Category:Films scored by Leonard Rosenman]]
[[Category:Television episodes about multiple time paths]]
[[Category:Works about astronauts]]
[[Category:Films directed by Douglas Heyes]]

And When the Sky Was Opened - Revision history

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