But he can't do that now, because whether he knows it or not his friend's shortcut has led him right into the capital of the Twilight Zone.Reporter Philip Redfield gets lost while driving with his dog, Rollie, on unfamiliar back roads, and stops in Peaceful Valley, New Mexico, seeking food, directions, and gasoline.
The elders refuse to share this technology, given to the town 104 years earlier by a scientist from an unknown planet, until "men learn the ways of peace."
Philip rebukes them for decreeing themselves the sole people capable of using these extraterrestrial gifts responsibly, and for squandering technology that could be used to cure all illness and end hunger.
Seemingly persuaded that he cannot reciprocate her love unless she sets him free, Ellen disables the invisible wall and offers to drive Phillip out of town.
He arms himself by replicating a revolver and steals a book containing the equations that explain the town's technology, but sets off an alarm in the process.
The elders "execute" Philip by rendering him unconscious, erasing his memories of Peaceful Valley, and returning him and his car to the gas station.
He asks for directions and drives out of town, experiencing a moment of déjà vu when he sees Ellen, who has tears in her eyes.
The episode includes what are effectively mini-transporters (disassembling people's atoms and reassembling them elsewhere), replicators (creating a meal, for instance, out of a printed pattern) and what could be described as force fields.
The overall premise of a hidden civilization hiding futuristic technology until the world becomes peaceful also foreshadows Marvel's Black Panther comic book series (1966) by three years.