"Moonstone" is an episode of the original The Outer Limits television show. It first aired on 9 March 1964, during the first season.
Opening narration
Plot
Scientists and researchers in a base on the Moon discover living creatures, encased in a seamless, perfectly round orb, which proves to be the repository of a benevolent alien intelligence that is fleeing tyranny in its own system. The beings inform the startled scientists that they are the five greatest minds in the universe, having escaped their home planet, Grippia, located in the constellation Xenes, to prevent their advanced knowledge from being used to conquer the galaxy. They had landed on the Moon due to a lack of sustainable energy, with our sun being too weak to provide them with enough power to continue their flight. The scientists offer the aliens sanctuary while they attempt to re-energize; and, in exchange, they begin to record their combined wisdom on the base's computers to preserve it before they are captured. When the Tyrants arrive in pursuit, the researchers have to decide how much they should risk in the gathering of knowledge. The Grippians convince the scientists to release them to the Tyrants to prevent their imminent destruction, following the death of one of the researchers when trying to defend them. This act of compassion and sacrifice, in the face of almost certain death, is demonstrated as the Grippians self-destruct before allowing to be taken aboard the Tyrants craft, thus denying them the knowledge that they were so desperately seeking.
Closing narration
Quotes
"Their power is too great...their madness, even greater". "If you are ever to destroy evil, you must survive to fight it". "In the end, it is usually the good mind who enables evil to thrive". "You did what you had to do...perhaps, that is the most subtle definition of bravery". Stocker: "We didn't earn your thanks". Grippians: "The mind earns by doing...the heart earns by trying".
Production
The Lunar landscape exterior was constructed by Jack Poplin and his team on Soundstage #2 at KTTV and the Moon backdrops were from M.G.M. The jagged mountains and rock columns were placed so as to hide the gaps in these backdrops. The Moon surface itself was a four inch deep layer of sand that had been dyed different colours to give the moonscape different gradations of tone when filmed in black and white. Paintings by astronomical artist Chesley Bonestell were used as background plates for sequences of the two Moonstones moving over the lunar surface. The Grippians were designed at Projects Unlimited by father and son team Marcel and Victor Delgado. The eyes of the Grippians were dressed-up ping pong balls held on sticks with added tendrils, and the models were filmed inside a water tank so that their 'hair' would drift about as they swayed and moved. The Grippian sphere itself was one of the milky oversized Beverley Hills street lamppost globes, and cries of "Bring on the Street lamp" greeted the prop during filming. William Bast's original script contained many spectacular action scenes, most of which were either simplified or not done at all for logistical and budgetary reasons.
