Destination Space (1959)
Article 5793 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 6-17-2020
Directed by Joseph Pevney
Featuring Harry Townes, John Agar, Charles Aidman
Country: USA
What it is: Failed TV Pilot

When a meteor does damage to a space station, an attempted mission to the moon must be postponed. The head of the space station must then keep it from being defunded by a senator eager to stop the project.

As an attempt to start a serious (non-juvenile) hour-long science fiction series, my heart can’t help but go out to this one. But I’m not surprised it didn’t sell. Part of the reason is that the pilot fails to effectively milk the suspense from its two “action” sequences. It also probably wasn’t the best idea to make the primary story of this one be an Earth-bound battle for funding. Furthermore, the hint that a possible plot element being a romantic triangle certainly doesn’t bode well for where the series would go. Ultimately, this pilot is rather dull, nor did it show any promise of becoming less dull as a continuing series. There’s some interesting names and faces in the cast, but they don’t really add much to the proceedings. It’s more of an interesting footnote rather than an interesting movie.