Third from the Sun story
With an atomic war on the horizon, a scientist and his co-worker plot to board their families on a spaceship and escape to another planet. Directed by: Richard L. Bare. Story by: Richard Matheson, Rod Serling.
13 total · 1 choice · 3 major · 9 minor
| Theme | Level | Motivation |
|---|---|---|
| nuclear holocaust | choice | The story followed the efforts of Bill and Jerry to escape together with their families from a planet on which a nuclear war was imminent. |
| extraterrestrial being | major | Bill and Jerry marveled at the notion that there were people just like them on the world where they were headed, which, in a surprise twist, turned out to be Earth. So from Bill and Jerry's point of view the people of Earth were aliens, while from the viewer's point of view Bill and Jerry were the aliens. |
| husband and wife | major | Bill and Eve Sturka. Jerry and Ann Riden. |
| leaving one's old life behind | major | We saw the trepidation expressed by the two families as they planned to leave their doomed world behind. |
| biological weapons | minor | A man named Mills was admitted to a government facility for some purpose related to germ warfare research. |
| chemical weapons | minor | A man named Parkinson was admitted to a government facility for some purpose related to chemical warfare. |
| father and daughter | minor | Bill and his teenage daughter Jody. |
| fear | minor | Bill's daughter in particular asked him why everyone felt so afraid. |
| first strike tactic | minor | Carling emphasized that it was imperative that their nation launch a nuclear strike on an enemy state, before the enemy state launched just such an attack on them. |
| flying saucer | minor | The protagonists safely escape their doomed planet in a stereotypical flying saucer. |