View source for The Parallel

{{episode stub}}
{{Infobox Episode
|Episode Title    = The Parallel
|Image File       = Tumblr m03sldbwDL1qz9ut1o1 500.jpg|300px
|Series           = [[The Twilight Zone (original series)]]
|Episode          = [[Season 4]], Episode 113 (S04E11)
|Production Code  = 4859
|Produced         = 
|First Aired      = March 14, 1963
|Teleplay         = Rod Serling
|Story            = Rod Serling
|Director         = Alan Crosland, Jr.
|Music            = Stock
|Guest Stars      = Steve Forrest
|Lead Character   = Major Robert Gaines
|Previous Episode = [[No Time Like the Past]]
|Next Episode     = [[I Dream of Genie]]
}}
'''"The Parallel"''' is an episode of the [[The Twilight Zone (original series)|The Twilight Zone]].

==Episode Details==
===Opening Narration===
<blockquote>"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. In a moment, we'll join this astronaut named Gaines and embark on an adventure, because the environs overhead - the stars, the sky, the infinitive space - are all part of a vast question mark known as the Twilight Zone."</blockquote>

===Episode Summary===
An astronaut, Major Robert Gaines, is orbiting the Earth in his space capsule. Suddenly, his communication systems stop functioning and he blacks out, waking up on Earth with no memory of his return. He appears to be none the worse for his experiences and is released to the custody of his family.

However, inconsistencies quickly pop up. His daughter senses that he is not the same person. His house has a white picket fence that he's never seen, though his wife insists that it was there when they bought the house. Everyone calls him Colonel (confirmed by the rank insignia on his uniform) when he knows he's a Major, and he insists that the President of the United States is John F. Kennedy, a man no one else has heard of. Gaines concludes that he must have slipped into a parallel universe and tries to return to his space capsule, but blacks out again before he can do so.

He immediately finds himself back in orbit and lands his craft safely. He is prepared to write the whole thing off as a nightmare, but controllers on the ground subsequently receive another transmission — from '''Colonel''' Robert Gaines...

===Closing Narration===
<blockquote>"Major Robert Gaines, a latter-day voyager just returned from an adventure. Submitted to you without any recommendation as to belief or disbelief. You can accept or reject; you pays your money and you takes your choice. But credulous or incredulous, don't bother to ask anyone for proof that it could happen. The obligation is a reverse challenge: prove that it couldn't. This happens to be... the Twilight Zone."</blockquote>

===Preview for Next Week's Story===
<blockquote>"A new author joins the ranks of the ''Twilight Zone'' crew when John Furia, Jr. gives us several stunningly new twists to a classic character in '[[I Dream of Genie]]'. Join Howard Morris, Patricia Barry and Loring Smith as they take their trip into ''The Twilight Zone''."</blockquote>

===Cast===
* [[Rod Serling]] ([[Narrator]])
* Steve Forrest (Major Robert Gaines)
* Jacqueline Scott (Helen Gaines)
* Frank Aletter (Colonel William Connacher)
* Paul Comi (Psychiatrist)
* Shari Lee Bernath (Maggie Gaines)
* Morgan Jones (Captain)
* William Sargent (Project manager)
* Philip Abbott (General Stanley Eaton)

===Production Companies===
*[[Cayuga Productions]]
*Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) (in association with)

===Distributors===
*Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) ([[1959]]) (USA) (TV) (original airing)

===Home media release===
This episode is included on the Image Entertainment Vol. 35 DVD along with "[[Static]]" and "[[Four O'Clock]]".

===Memorable Quotes===
{{main|List of memorable quotes from the first series}}

==External Links==
*http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0734670/

{{TZ1 Episodes}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Parallel, The}}

[[Category:Episodes]]
[[Category:First Series Episodes]]
[[Category:Season 4 (original series)]]