Jerry Riden

Jerry Riden is the secondary protagonist of "Third from the Sun," the fourteenth episode of the first season of The Twilight Zone, which aired in 1960. He is an alien military test pilot from an unidentified nation on an unidentified planet in a nearby star system, and sought to escape an impending nuclear war on his homeworld. Like the rest of his species, Jerry is externally identical to a human. The episode was framed in a way to trick the audience into believing that Jerry and the other characters were humans living in an unidentified point in the future, until the twist was revealed at the end.
Jerry Riden was portrayed by the late Joe Maross, who also played Peter Craig in a later episode "The Little People".
==Biography==
===Early life===
Jerry served the government of his nation as a military test pilot. At some point, he married a woman named Ann, and befriended a government scientist named Will Sturka. While threat of nuclear war between his nation and another threatened to destroy their planet, Jerry tested an experimental military spacecraft capable of ferrying a crew of five to the nearest solar system, also receiving and decoding radio transmissions from the third planet in the nearest system. Will and Jerry made a plan together to use the ship to escape the incoming war with their families.
===Third from the Sun===
After two months of plotting, Jerry secured the contacts he needed to bribe his way to getting the ship fully stocked and ready to launch, informing his wife of the plan, and one day, he visited the Sturka home, where Will took him to the basement under the pretense of helping Jerry fix his watch. The noise made by the machine used to fix the watch allowed the two to converse, with Jerry expressing some doubt in the plan working, but Will insisted that they had to go ahead by the next day, especially after news that the war could start in as little as 48 hours. Unbeknownst to the two, they were being spied on by Carling, another government scientist who was suspicious of Sturka. After going home, Jerry got his contacts into position, fueling and stocking the ship. That night, the Sturkas were met with Jerry and Ann, supposedly to play a game of cards. In reality, the game was a cover for going over the plan. Suddenly, Carling arrived, and while Will seemingly managed to brush off Carling's questioning with the cover of a high-stakes card game, Carling still left Will with an ominous warning that a lot could happen in 48 hours.
After seeing Carling to the door, Will got a phone call from the military, ordering him to return to the base. Deciding they could wait no longer, Will, Jerry, and their families packed up, driving to the airfield where the ship was held. When they arrived, Will saw who he thought was Jerry's contact, both men getting out of the car to meet him at the gate, only to find that it was actually Carling, who had taken the contact's place. Carling attempted to apprehend them, but Jody quickly opened the car door when Carling was by it, hitting Carling's hand and knocking the gun away, allowing Will and Jerry to knock him out. They then quickly drove to the ship, getting inside while kicking guards away and taking off. Aboard the ship, Will and Jerry set the course, successfully escaping the planet and flying to the next system. While their wives and Jody rested, Will and Jerry stared out of the ship's viewer at their destination, Earth, now 11 million miles away. Behind them, their homeworld was destroyed in nuclear war, leaving Will, Eve, Jody, Jerry, and Ann as the last of their species.
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