The short story "Private -- Keep Out!" begins when the narrator bumps into his old friend Charles one day after work. At their old haunt for drinks, Charles nervously asks about a man named Adrian Archer. The narrator has no recollection of this man, however, which makes Charles extremely paranoid, since Charles claims all three were good friends and that Adrian Archer had become an overnight Hollywood star. Charles had hoped that the narrator would have remembered Adrian, but apparently no one, including Adrian's parents, believe he ever existed. At the narrator's ignorance of Adrian, Charles suddenly feels like he doesn't belong -- that he will be the next person to be wiped from existence! He goes to the phone to make a call, but doesn't return for 30 minutes. The narrator asks the bartender if Charles is still in the phone-booth, but the bartender has no memory of serving anyone else. Uneasy, the narrator gets a feeling that he will be the next to be erased. The Twilight Zone episode basically steals this story and juxtaposes it with paranoia over space flight. Shot in 1959, two years before the first man orbited the Earth, viewers may have felt such nervousness over what may lie out there in the great void. Personally, I like the short story much better, because it doesn't hint at a cause for the characters' disappearances. Although I wonder how Philip MacDonald felt about having his story ripped off, this episode is well done.
Review of And When the Sky Was Opened
Very similar to "Private -- Keep Out!" a short story by Philip MacDonald
1 June 2006
Warning: Spoilers