The Time Tunnel

[Megotastrophe]

The Time Tunnel Episodes 1-4
MeTV Sci Fi Saturday has always been hard for me to catch. But my new cable package lets me record and watch later a certain amount of programming.
I tried to watch Lost in Space and Land of the Giants. And yes Irwin Allen is over represented in this. I can’t take Dr Smith in any amount. And the portly guy in Land of the Giants is pretty much just as bad. The Barry kid from Land and Will Robinson from Lost both have that Wesley Crusher vibe.
That brings us up to Time Tunnel. I always knew it existed but had never really watched it. And I apparently caught it at the pilot.
Episode 1 Rendezvous With Yesterday
The pilot does a lot of heavy lifting on what the Time Tunnel is and what it can do and sets up the basic idea of two scientists lost in time. It’s a little bit like Dr Who and Quantum Leap got drunk together had a kid really heavy into High School Drama. And wow is the drama heavy. The earnestness of everyone involved seems to almost drip. It’s Adam West and William Shatner level deadpan. Lee Meriwether seems to have a nervous breakdown from the tension. Spoiler Alert: this seems to happen every episode. Anyway it does explain why the lead Time Traveller has such an odd looking suit. It does not explain how it gets so clean after the third episode. Anyway. The first episode involves the Titanic and apparently there is no problem with messing up the timeline. They had newspapers from the future and telling people they were time travelers. Trying to alter history and it didn’t seem to work. And then leaping away just in time.

[Megotastrophe]

Episode 2 One Way to the Moon
Is That a Honeymooners Reference? One day, Alice! To the moon!!!
so Doug and Tony show up on a mission to Mars. And people are suspicious but nowhere near suspicious enough. It reminded me a little bit of the old short story Cold Equations from 1954 where a space pilot has to eject a teen stowaway into space to save a stranded science expedition that includes her brother. Great story from 1954.

In real life, USA had not quite landed on the moon yet but the episode sends them to the first Mars expedition. Things are going badly on the trip. Such rotten luck but then it turns out it is a saboteur. On the Mars expedition. Doug and Tony are in their future but the future people have not heard of the TicToc secret project and people at TicToc reach out to the Space Agency and get their experts who can now see the rocket in use that they are just designing. Which I guess should help. One of the experts turns out to be a spy and one is the saboteur and I’m trying not to spoil things but if Doug and Tony ever get back to TicToc they really should tell the police about that guy on the space ship.

I was really hoping that the spy and his organization might have been more prominent in later episodes as a long running enemy. No sign of that though

[Megotastrophe]

Episode 3 End of the World
Halley’s Comet 1910
ok first Episode was 1912 then 1978 in their future. Now it’s back to the past 1910. Doug’s suit gets covered in coal dust as they land in a mining disaster with 200 trapped miners. But nobody cares because one nearby scientist has proven beyond any doubt that Halley’s Comet will destroy Earth so to heck with miners. The whole town, because of one scientist and his chalkboard, hang out on a hill and watch the comet come to kill them. Calmly. So Doug using the science of the day proves there is an invisible thing that will keep Earth safe from the comet (is that real? Is there some invisible thing that keeps Halley’s Comet from hitting Earth? Why haven’t I heard about this before?) and this one single scientist in ten seconds basically convinces the whole town to go save the miners by saying trust me.
and then they leap again.
Interestingly, Tony ends Episode 3 back at Tic Toc HQ but six years early and nobody knows him and he is too dramatic to just say guys we work on time travel I’m from the future it’s cool. No, Tony has to be a jerk and then he leaps again.

[Megotastrophe]

Episode 4 A New Hope
just kidding it’s about Pearl Harbor. I do plan to go back and put the episode titles here. This was a fun episode. It very briefly touched on the idea of time paradoxes and features Tony, our younger more temperamental time traveler, as a tween and his reunion with his long lost father. Could have handled things differently but it was ok. Interestingly for the time, the Japanese characters both spies and loyal to USA are treated like people and not caricatures. Well mostly like people. For 1968 it was downright progressive.

[palitoy]

I watched the Time Tunnel TV movies a whole bunch as a kid. It's not a great series but there is something really cool about it's design, it's loud music and ambitious use of stock footage.

One of my favourite things about it is the tremendous use of silver paint for future people or aliens. Irwin Allen must have got an amazing deal or he found a oil drum full of it on the side of the road.

[Megotastrophe]

Not a great show at all. So far it is winning by avoiding the Will Robinson and Wesley Crusher and Carl Grimes kid in constant danger trope. And the Dr Smith and Fitzhugh conniver schemer stuff. I just can’t watch those character types anymore.

[palitoy]

Not a great show at all. So far it is winning by avoiding the Will Robinson and Wesley Crusher and Carl Grimes kid in constant danger trope. And the Dr Smith and Fitzhugh conniver schemer stuff. I just can’t watch those character types anymore.

I get that. These guys suffer from "Verdon and Burke" syndrome though, they're experts in EVERYTHING! Now, I know they're scientists but they're both also amazing fighters, marksmen and well I know James Darren can sing and dance. They're extremely well rounded men, the big difference is one is slightly younger?

[apes3978]

I
One of my favourite things about it is the tremendous use of silver paint for future people or aliens. Irwin Allen must have got an amazing deal or he found a oil drum full of it on the side of the road.

He got a deal on the leftover Tinman paint from 'The Wizard of Oz'.

[palitoy]

He got a deal on the leftover Tinman paint from 'The Wizard of Oz'.

It feels like that, every baddie looks like the Tin Man.

[Megotastrophe]

Before I started this episode one watch up I did see a late episode with some vaguely solar powered robots with a silver tint. This was really what made me think of the less interesting DrWho episodes.

[Megotastrophe]

Episode 5 War of 1812
kind of weird seeing Archie Bunker playing two different Bri’ish military men. Interesting in that they changed clothes but at the end their clothes suddenly appeared back on them for unexplained science reasons. Someone from 1968 dies back in 1814 and they leave the body there in modern clothing. None of this causes problems? Carrol O’Connor tries to change the outcome of the Battle of New Orleans and nobody had an issue with that?

[Megotastrophe]

Episode 6 the Crack of Doom
Krakatoa! 1883! Late August! The episode opens with the usual tumble into the obvious soundstage left over from Gilligan island and we meet several Pacific Islanders with very European faces and Republican haircuts.
Apparently, Doug is one of the leading experts on volcanoes. Of course. I’m assuming Vulcanology is a precursor study to TimeTraveloctology.
British Scientist whose name may as well be Dr British Scientist. And his daughter. Dr Miss British Scientist.
Doug’s suit reminds me of the sword I used in a Dungeons and Dragons campaign back in high school. I would sell it for a few coins and carry a stick around when I attempted to attack it would turn into my Cursed-1 sword. And since it was magic it would injure werewolves and undead. So I never had to worry about carrying it around. Or damaging it. Like Doug’s suit. He can get it dirty or take it off or whatever and at the end of the episode it show up cleaned and pressed and mended. Damned handy.
Anyway Mt Explodyexplodyface is gonna blow up and they have to save the British Scientist family and a handful of Indigenous people. The music is really intense and the stakes are high but I’m just not feeling a sense of urgency here. Lee Meriwther aka the third best Catwoman from Adam West’s career really emotes hard here. If you were to tell me she was in a throuple with Doug and Tony I could totally believe it. I know there has to be fanfic about this. Dr Scientist being obstinate apparently causing problems.
Apparently Scientists have issues with calendars and their dayrunner nearly kills them. Tony gets pulled back to TicToc but everyone is frozen. It’s like he arrives at a single moment doesn’t continue. Like the Langoliers. Anyway it’s the way they let Tony have information without letting him really come back.
Oh look Doug has his suit back The end of the episode is at hand. The drama builds and then they leap away and they do their glitter ballet thing.

[MysteryWho]

Time Tunnel is my favorite of the Irwin Allen bunch. I'm not sure it is a good show but it is very entertaining. As a kid I saw very little of Allen's four shows and I didn't see the Time Tunnel until the early 90s on CKVR in Ontario. Although I didn't watch it as kid, it still transports me back, at least I feel a little like a kid when I watch it.