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Nov. 14, 1969: Lightning strikes Apollo 12 — twice — shortly after liftoff. Unlike a SpaceX launch it didn't explode, and after a quick sweaty reboot of an internal operating system, the mission continued successfully.

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Black-and-white footage from 1964 shows the commandos giggling as they stagger around a forest as part of a secret chemical weapons experiment at Porton Down, Wilts

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There's a flying saucer approaching Earth, and it touches down on a softball field outside Washington DC. A lanky man in a spacesuit emerges from the craft, bearing a gift for the American President, but — oops — he makes a sudden move, so of course the strange visitor is shot. Welcome to America!

There are lots of quiet but delightful moments, as the outer-space newcomer, Klaatu (Michael Rennie), gets to know our puny planet. Meanwhile, his giant robot companion Gort stands guard outside the spaceship, unmoving and unmovable, and ready to raise his visor and obliterate the earth if things go wrong.

Minimal special effects, but in any good story it's the writing that matters, and it's excellent. "Get that message to Gort, right away."

My wife and I agreed on almost everything, including our taste in movies, but this was one of our rare disagreements. I think TDTESS is terrific, but when we watched it together she was bored silly.

I will therefore issue a warning: Stylistically the movie is very dated, made in the 1950s with acting and assumptions of that rather quaint era. Most of the humans here would be at home on The Andy Griffith Show, and Frances Bavier (Aunt Bee) has a small role. Several famous news personalities of the time make cameo appearances, which will mean little or nothing to anyone born in the past 50 years.

To me, it's an intriguing think piece, straightforwardly told, with some funny dialogue and goosebump-raising moments — a fine piece of science fiction, which I've seen perhaps twenty times. If it puts you to sleep, well, that would make my wife happy. She dearly loved being right about things, and she usually was.

Also, please don't mistake this for an unnecessary and inferior movie with the same title, starring Keanu Reeves.

They had me at about 2:30, when a couple of kids want to high-five a third kid, but he reaches for a bottle of hand sanitized instead. Where can I sigh up?

And oh man, the drugs...

This is a fascinating walk back in history.