“One Way to the Moon” is episode two of season one of The Time Tunnel.
At the end of the first episode, “Rendezvous with Yesterday”, Tony and Doug were taken from the Titanic by Tic Tok and appeared inside a rocket just as it was about to launch. They are in the rocket now, at T-45 seconds, and Doug is concerned because, if it’s one of the early Canaveral jobs, it could blow up on the pad. They can’t get out and, with it about to lift off, they lay on the floor. Standing up would be bad. The floor is hardly a great place to experience the G-forces of lift-off either.
They briefly end up weightless, then crash to the floor. The capsule must be spinning to create gravity. Which means there must be someone else aboard and that this is a sophisticated module. Various containers have ‘M.E.M.’ written on the side; Mars Excursion Module according to Doug.
In the command module, the commander, Col. Kane, is told they haven’t reached escape module and can’t reach Mission Control. There’s excess weight in the service module, so Kane orders it sealed off and cut loose. They’re going to scrub the mission, as they won’t reach escape velocity. One of the others, Nazarro, sends to Mission Control anyway that they are going to release the module and destroy it, and Doug and Tony hear what is said. They can’t contact the crew or get out of the service module.
At Tik-Toc, they have an image of the rocket, which is definitely part of the M.E.M. flight series. Tony and Doug are ten years in the future. Kirk has reported this to Washington, and Vice-Adm. Killian is being sent down to observe. However, they lose the picture.
Rather than jettison the module, the rocket increases in speed and they reach escape velocity. The boosters were fired, even though Kane gave no order to do such. Beard, another of the crew, says he doesn’t know how it happened, but they don’t need to scrub the mission now. They don’t have enough fuel to get to Mars, so they will land on the Moon to refuel from the Luna stockpiles.
Tony and Doug hear all of this, as Nazarro attempts to let Mission Control know what is happening. The crew open up the service module and discover they have stowaways, the source of their excess weight. Tony and Doug explain that they are from the Time Tunnel complex, but the crew has never heard of it. The year is 1978, and they thought the complex would be known of by now. Kane thinks it’s a wild story but Maj. ‘Doc’ Harlow, M.D. says it could be true. A friend of his who went to medical school with him was transferred to Arizona to a government project. It could be time travel.
Kane is not convinced. They are trying to be the first people on Mars, and other governments would do anything to stop it. So, he wants them locked back up. Doc is more willing to believe them, and doesn’t think Tony and Doug’s story is really more fantastic than their own. Kane thinks they are probably foreign agents. Although how they got onboard is a mystery. First, they need to see if they can soft land on the Moon.
The Space Department people arrive at Tik-Toc; the admiral, Dr. Brandon and the admiral’s aide, Ensign Beard. The same Beard as is on the rocket in the future. Future Beard thinks the stowaways should be shoved off the rocket. Present Beard can’t believe he’s doing such things. Dr. Ann MacGregor wants to transfer Tony and Doug now. First, though, they want to see if a landing’s possible. If it isn’t, they will risk shifting Tony and Doug, a good fix or not.
The communications system on MEM4 has been sabotaged. Doug and Tony, to Nazarro and Kane, seem the most likely suspects, and Kane sends Nazarro to get them. Then the rocket is hit by a meteor in the service module, and Doug, Tony and Nazarro have to get into spacesuits. Then the rocket needs repairing.
There’s definitely a saboteur onboard, but it’s also definitely not Doug or Tony. Which means it has to be one of the four crew. Someone doesn’t seem to want the rocket to reach Mars. Although Beard calculates they can make a soft landing on the Moon, Tik-Toc’s computers don’t agree with his calculations.
This is rather old now, and what looked futuristic in the 60s looks dated now. And the inaccuracies in it are very numerous.