While the actors were fine, the episode was poorly written. When the writer tells you the planetary system is 140 light years away and that your ship travels at 70 times the speed of light, the whole voyage should take 4 years, not 40. That's just sloppy, unless I mis-heard.
But what really bothers me, and yet is fascinating at the same time, is not the intended re-rendering of O. Henry's Gift of The Magi, instead it's the total focus of the script on the sacrifice Robert Lansing's character made for "love", with Edward Binns at his side, singing his hosannas.
Stunning.
First of all, the Mariette Hartley character sacrificed equally: losing her world, everyone she ever knew dead or 40 years older; and yet she was just dismissed, and then the script had her walk away without a comment.
And secondly, if he could just dismiss her like that, it wasn't love he felt for her, it was probably just narcissism; she actually wasn't real to him, he showed no empathy for her or her situation, his concerns were all about his precious feelings.
Finally, I know this episode was made in the mid 60s, but the cultural construct revealed is totally a 50's pre-woman's liberation mentality where woman's lives were totally marginalized, and like planetoids they only glowed by reflected light (at least in the 40s women were equal partners in the war effort i.e. Rosie the Riveter).
A fascinating and unconscious cultural artifact.
But what really bothers me, and yet is fascinating at the same time, is not the intended re-rendering of O. Henry's Gift of The Magi, instead it's the total focus of the script on the sacrifice Robert Lansing's character made for "love", with Edward Binns at his side, singing his hosannas.
Stunning.
First of all, the Mariette Hartley character sacrificed equally: losing her world, everyone she ever knew dead or 40 years older; and yet she was just dismissed, and then the script had her walk away without a comment.
And secondly, if he could just dismiss her like that, it wasn't love he felt for her, it was probably just narcissism; she actually wasn't real to him, he showed no empathy for her or her situation, his concerns were all about his precious feelings.
Finally, I know this episode was made in the mid 60s, but the cultural construct revealed is totally a 50's pre-woman's liberation mentality where woman's lives were totally marginalized, and like planetoids they only glowed by reflected light (at least in the 40s women were equal partners in the war effort i.e. Rosie the Riveter).
A fascinating and unconscious cultural artifact.