Beyond the Horizon, Part I
Rod Serling, a Civil War and World War II veteran, who had seen extensive action in both Europe and Asia, became involved with radio and television collectives after the war had ended, primarily on the writing side. His most notable credits were for Crime Never Pays, the Ohio based crime radio show narrated by Ohio radio personality Ronald Reagan, which Serling wrote during his time at Antioch College, and The Revolution Express, a show about two children travelling through America on a train, and seeing the effect of the revolution on everyday people. After realizing that the radio format was declining, he moved on to television. He wrote for drama anthologies throughout the fifties. His dramas would receive critical acclaim for their biting look at society and culture, particularly the revolutionary spirit. However, he grew frustrated with having to write for other's shows, and how production committees would modify his original works (though not much). He realized the only way he could truly control his own output was to make his own television show. He also took inspiration from his youth reading pulp novels. He felt that a science fiction/fantasy format would be a way of making social commentary, without conflicts with the writer cooperatives. He wrote a screenplay called "The Time Element," where a revolutionary war veteran, who was the sole survivor of a White attack which killed all of his friends, who is transported back to before the incident, where he tries to prevent the incident from happening, but is too late. However, he has a chance to sacrifice himself to save at least of his old squadron. It was made into an episode of the anthology "Studio 5," which became so acclaimed, that Serling was able to create a show cooperative to produce this show, called "Beyond the Horizon." Joining him were the likes of Richard Matheson and Ray Bradbury, who formed the trifecta of the early show. At the same time, playwright Leslie Stevens and screenwriter Joseph Stefano tried to start their own anthology show. When that endeavor failed, they folded what was left of it, and joined "Beyond the Horizon," with those ideas. The addition of Stevens and Stefano will define the early years of "Beyond the Horizon."
Anyway, I think the main lean they try is "Nod did it" whenever you see something too implausible. Since Nod is supposed to be Kane's ancient secret society, I could see them having the clout to try and get an ardent enough anti-communist in power in the big empires of the world to cause the damage they needed to start expanding through the disaffected and the displaced the war would create.
