Every now and then, the TZ (1985) had some absolute gems. The Cold Equations may be the most compelling thing I've seen on TV in all my life. The acting was convincing and the story was straight forward, simple, yet uniquely profound.
Anyone else emotionally moved by this episode like I was?
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Go back and read the original story. It packs an much bigger wallop. I call the TZ version, "The Lukewarm Equasions."
shareIt was a failure of set design. At one point they've got a torch and are cutting pieces of metal off the ship to equal the girl's weight but they can only come up with about half her weight. Then in the next scene they're walking through a room with big foot-thick metal pillars. They could have cut one of those and done the job. Or ditched some of the chairs, flooring, etc. The ship was way too bulky for them not to be able to come up with her weight. It should have been a much more spartan design to be believable.
It was also made for radio in 1955 as an episode of X-1. You can get it, free, here:
http://www.archive.org/details/XMinus1_A