Screen version of H.G. Wells sci-fi novel, adapted by 'Quatermass Experiment' writer Nigel Kneale. At the end of the 19th century, a team of UN astronauts are planning a trip to the moon and in the process meet a man (Edward Judd) who claims that he and 2 others landed on the moon 65 years previously, where they were attacked by an ant-like lifeform known as the Selenite. The UN crew have to then decide how to attempt their lunar landing knowing they could be attacked.