'One Way to the Moon' Story Code '9603' by William Welch

1978: Doug and Tony arrive aboard a U.S. Mars Excursion Module. As the ship blasts off into space, Commander Kane learns that the vessel is carrying three-hundred-and-thirty-five pounds extra weight – which will prevent the vessel from achieving escape velocity. Unaware that the discrepancy is due to the two time-travellers, Kane gives the order to jettison the service module and abort the mission; however, flight engineer Beard activates the ship’s boosters, achieving the required velocity, but causing them to make a stop at the Moon for refuelling. Doug and Tony are discovered by the spaceship’s crew; the two scientists are immediately suspected of being saboteurs, and face being cast out into space. They are given a reprieve, but their extra weight then causes the ship to crash-land on the lunar surface; luckily everyone survives unharmed, and, while Doug and Tony are held under guard, Beard and Harlow leave the ship to obtain fuel. Unknown to everyone, Beard is the real saboteur, his mission to prevent the U.S. from reaching Mars first; he kills Harlow, and then plans to use explosives to destroy the spaceship. Back in the present, at the Project Tic-Toc , Doctor MacGregor, Doctor Swain and Lieutenant General Kirk are visited by two observers from Washington D.C.: a man named Brandon, and his colleague – a younger version of the saboteur, Beard…

Cliff-hanger: Separated by the time / space vortex, Doug and Tony arrive in different areas of a mine shaft – just as a violent cave-in starts…

James Darren (Tony Newman), Robert Colbert (Doug Phillips), Whit Bissell (Lieutenant General Heywood Kirk), John Zaremba (Doctor Raymond Swain), Lee Meriwether (Doctor Ann MacGregor), James T. Callahan (Beard), Ben Cooper (Nazarro), Warren Stevens (Harlow), Larry Ward (Kane), Wesley Lau (Sergeant Jiggs), Barry Kelley (Admiral Killian), Ross Elliott (Doctor Brandon)

Directed by Harry Harris
Produced and created by Irwin Allen
An Irwin Allen Production in Association with Kent Productions, Inc. and Twentieth Century-Fox Television, Inc.

TX:
US TX - 16th September 1966

Notes:
*Featuring Doctor Tony Newman, Doctor Doug Phillips, Lieutenant General Heywood Kirk, Doctor Raymond Swain and Doctor Ann MacGregor