When a spaceship lands on the moon, it is hailed as a new accomplishment, before it becomes clear that a Victorian party completed the journey in 1899, leading investigators to that mission's last survivor.
In present day, an international team, to great worldwide fanfare in the accomplishment, has just landed on the moon, the first time humans have both landed and stepped foot on the satellite. The astronauts/cosmonauts, however, make an unusual discovery on the moon's surface: a Union Jack and a summons issued to a Katherine Callender of Dymchurch, England dated 1899. Upon investigation, the UN Space Agency does discover that a Katherine Callender of Dymchurch did exist, has since passed away, but married a Arnold Bedford who is still alive and residing in an area nursing home. At the nursing home, the matron states that Bedford is prone to delusions, but when the team speaks to Bedford directly, he tells them a story that may sound delusional to the uninformed but makes sense as to the moon finding. An aspiring playwright deep in debt at the time, Bedford tells of how he and Kate, not yet married, met their eccentric neighbor, scientist Joseph Cavor, and how that meeting led to the three of them making an expedition to the moon, complete with how they made it there. With their misadventures and his worries for the current expedition team as to his and his compatriots' experience, Bedford completes the story with what happened to Cavor at the time (with Kate's fate already known) and why the world never knew of their moon landing.—Huggo
Based on the HG Wells story. The world is delighted when a space craft containing a crew made up of the world's astronauts lands on the moon, they think for the first time. But the delight turns to shock when the astronauts discover an old British flag and a document declaring that the moon is taken for Queen Victoria proving that the astronauts were not the first men on the moon. On Earth, an investigation team finds the last of the Victorian crew - a now aged Arnold Bedford and he tells them the story of how he and his girlfriend, Katherine Callender, meet up with an inventor, Joseph Cavor, in 1899. Cavor has invented Cavorite, a paste that will allow anything to deflect gravity and he created a sphere that will actually take them to the moon. Taking Arnold and accidentally taking Katherine they fly to the moon where, to their total amazement, they discover a bee-like insect population who take an unhealthy interest in their Earthly visitors...—Lee Horton <[email protected]>
Going back in time to 1899, Arnold Bedford and his fiancée, Kate Callendar, learn that their neighbor, Joseph Cavor, has developed a substance he calls "cavorite," which counters gravity. They travel to the moon in a spherical vessel he has built, parts of which are coated with "cavorite."—Michael