The Classic/Retro Pop Culture Thread

[The Old Mixer]

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Post-58th Anniversary Viewing

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The Time Tunnel
"Night of the Long Knives"
Originally aired December 16, 1966

In 19th-century India, Tony and Doug join forces with Rudyard Kipling to forestall an uprising by mountain tribesmen.

Tony and Doug tumble out close together for once, in a hot desert that's totally not Southern California. They're preparing to dig cool pits for daylight shelter when they're approached by rifle-armed horsemen in robes and turbans. A confrontation ensues in which Doug is rifle-butted and dragged away, while Tony is left for dead with a bullet graze on his head.

Assuming that Tony's dead, Ann doesn't take it well...

With a sudden lack of radiation readings, TT find their fix switching to a cabinet meeting in London, 1,000 miles away from where it had been, in which William Gladstone (Dayton Lummis) and a cabinet minister (Ben Wright) exposit about the Empire's fear that northern Indian tribes will unite in unrest unless they can contain the most likely instigator, Hira Singh. Back in the desert, Tony's found by a khaki-clad Westerner on horseback (David Watson) who revives and hydrates him, and learns that he's in India near the Afghan border in 1886. The Westerner introduces himself as journalist Rudyard Kipling (who's supposed to be English, though the actor sounds like he's doing an Aussie accent). Elsewhere, Doug comes to in a tent to be told by a blind man named Kashi (Peter Brocco) that he's been taken to Afghanistan and is the captive of Hara Singh (Malachi Throne)--whose bad side Doug gets on when he tries to save Kashi from a beating, getting slapped around himself. (The guys' amazing TV Fu skills are held back in this one for dramatic purposes, which is more the way things should be all the time.)

Singh interrogates Doug about Fort Albert, thinking he's a spy; and boasts of his plan to unite the tribes in an attack against the British stronghold, which has been named titularly. When Singh learns that the garrison is being resupplied, he changes his plan from having Doug's body dragged to the fort to ambushing the supply train and holding Doug for use as a hostage. Kipling takes Tony to Fort Albert to ask Col. Fettretch (Brendan Dillon) to mount a rescue expedition, which the colonel doesn't agree to, afraid that acting rashly could bring about the feared uprising. After Tony and Rudy leave, however, Fettretch orders Troop D to proceed with an attack plan that he didn't tell them about. Tony and Kip don pilfered uniforms to covertly tag along with them.

Singh uses explosives to cause an avalanche that blocks the supply train at a pass that's totally not Vasquez Rocks. Tony and Rudy come upon the ensuing rifle engagement and Kip's wounded. While the boss is away, Kashi helps Doug escape, but they're caught in the act by long knife-wielding guards and Doug finally gives a proper TV Fu demonstration, getting away and making it back to the fort. Kashi, however, is caught, tied to a horse, and sent with a ransom note about Kipling. The dying Kashi tells Doug that Singh will attack the next day, and urges that the British must attack preemptively that night.

Thinking along with Ann now that Tony and Doug are still alive and there must be some other explanation for the lack of fix (which is never given), Jerry (in his final appearance) requests that he be sent back to render medical aid.

After that request is shot down, he argues that they should bypass the breaker system to shoot a power surge through the Tunnel that could restore their fix, but this idea is also rejected, as it could incapacitate the Tunnel. When he sees an opportunity, Jerry sneaks over to a console and does it anyway, and TT gets their fix. The guys are trying to convince Col. F to attack Singh's camp and save the guy who'll be famous someday. The sly colonel officially refuses, but gives his right-hand man, Major Kabir (Perry Lopez), tacit permission to lead a troop of his people in such an attack, against orders.

The guys are given turbaned uniforms this time to accompany Kabir. As the operation commences, Doug frees Kip and is doing well in a brawl with guards when caught at gunpoint by Singh. Tony bursts in to tackle Singh, because there are only four minutes left and the guys have to be together for the pull-out. Following more TV Fu and fisticuffs, Singh ends up with a knife in his back from one of Kabir's men, and the troops return to the fort in triumph. As Rudy's bringing over the colonel to talk to them, the guys disappear, mystifying the two of them and Kabir.

IMDb indicates that footage in this episode was repurposed from 1953's King of the Khyber Rifles; and that "the character Hara Singh is loosely based on Hira Singh (1843-1911), ruler of Nabha in northwest India."

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The Invaders
"Moonshot" [Woodstock, Watergate, punk rock...]
Originally aired April 18, 1967

At Cape Kennedy, David investigates the invaders' interest in the manned lunar program.

The Florida Keys: Two astronauts, on pass, marlin fishing, eight days before the launching of the United States' first moon shot.

The astronauts are Major Clifford Banks (John Lupton) and Lt. Col. Howell (Robert Knapp). A beach bum (Strother Martin) watches as two of them in a helicopter barrage the astronauts' boat with a red mist that kills the occupants. Before dying, Banks radios a brief, cryptic message about the fog.

The nation had been stunned. The first screaming newspaper stories spoke of a fishing accident and a strange, inexplicable red fog. Two men slated to walk on the face of the moon had unaccountably perished. For David Vincent, there was an answer, terrifying in its implications. And so he came to the Florida Keys to find the radio operator who had heard the vacationing astronauts' final words.

Outside the Marlin Club, a NASA PR man named McNally (Ross Elliott) is questioned by a swarm of reporters. Inside, NASA security officer Gavin Lewis and his aide, Riley (Richard X. Slattery), question the bum, Charlie Coogan. David tries to slip in posing as a reporter and, after being identified, is let in to see Lewis. David tells Lewis that he's familiar with the red fog (Have we seen it before?) and is told about Coogan...whom, when Lewis is otherwise occupied, David slips out to see. On the beach, Coogan is being Crystal Them Persuaded by Officer Correll (Paul Lukather) of the Invader Highway Patrol. When David arrives, Coogan tells him that he made the story up, as instructed. David has a tussle with the officer and finds the SCID, but is overcome. Arriving in the aftermath, Lewis seems a little more receptive to David's warnings upon speaking to the brainwashed Coogan.

While Correll is planting a briefcase in Riley's car, Riley tells David how he was a candidate for the current mission before a mysterious incident in which he lost consciousness and woke up with high blood pressure got him removed from astronaut duty. David's sharing details about them with Riley in the parking lot when they both see Riley's car self-destructing in a red glow in five seconds. The next day, Riley sees Angela Smith, who's been desperately trying to talk to him about her husband, Hardy, the astronaut who's scheduled to go up in Lewis's place. She believes that there's been something wrong with him for months, which includes memory lapses and uncharacteristically detached behavior. At a press conference for Hardy (former private detective John Ericson), David takes interest in a program medic with a protruding fourth finger named Owens (John Carter). As fellow mission crewman Tony LaCava (Anthony Eisley) visits the Smith home, Hardy is occupied in the bathroom, using a device hidden in his electric razor to do something to his chest, which glows in a pattern (presumably a form of portable regeneration).

As the rocket waits on the pad, David questions Riley about why they're so eager to keep the timetable for the titular event despite alien infiltration concerns. Riley shows him a film about the mission crew, including the uncredited member who'll stay in the capsule, Lt. Col. Martin Daniels. The film highlights that Hardy Smith got plastic surgery after a hotel bombing in Vietnam. This causes David to zero in on Smith as the alien in the crew, which clicks with Mrs. Smith's concerns. David thinks it has something to do with classified recon photos taken of the Moon in preparation for the mission, which the astronauts have been assigned to investigate.

Riley goes to program commander Stan Arthur (Kent Smith) with concerns that if anything happens to LaCava, Smith will be the only one who reports on the mysterious objects found in the photos. His concerns intensify when he learns that Owens is the one who's been clearing Smith medically, which would cover for an alien's lack of heartbeat. Riley tries to out Owens as an alien and is dismissed out of hand, his credibility shot. David goes to talk to Angela Smith and finds that she's packed up to leave for Houston before the titular event in the morning. He confronts her about knowing that her husband has been replaced by an imposter. While she tries to deny it, David challenges her to call him and test him in some way. She wishes her husband luck, and his response, which doesn't reflect Hardy's longtime superstition against such gestures, causes her to concur with David. When she calls Arthur to back up Riley's imposter claim, this is enough for Arthur to try to call Smith back to mission control. Instead, Not Hardy breaks for the capsule and launches the rocket solo (which IMDb tells me isn't done from the capsule). The rocket explodes on live TV, with reporters initially believing that it launched unmanned.

In the Epilog, David reassures a concerned Gavin that this is a victory, and whatever the structures were, the aliens will remove them before the next mission, which they won't have time to infiltrate. Owens has disappeared, and Gavin shares the status quo-maintaining official report that Smith just went berserk, though a longer-term investigation will be undertaken.

In the far reaches of outer space, the invader reorganizes his plan for the conquest of the Earth. He's been delayed, but he hasn't been beaten.

IMDb informs me that this some of the rocket footage in this episode is of earlier Saturn models that weren't designed to get to the Moon.

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The Time Tunnel
"Invasion"
Originally aired December 23, 1966

June 1944. Near Cherbourg, France, Tony and Doug are captured by the Gestapo just before the Allied invasion.

Oh, sure, now Tony and Doug'll get all tight-lipped and not wanna blab to anyone who'll listen about what's about to happen!

Tony and Doug tumble out together near a backlot warenhaus (department store?) just in time to witness French Resistance fighters swoop in and attack the perimeter of a German prison with machinegun fire and grenades, to little apparent purpose. Guess which classic TV theme I'm thinking of!

While the fighters get away, the travelers are promptly captured and taken to Major Hoffman of the Gestapo (Lyle Bettger) for interrogation. He mentions their American accents, though it's not clear which language both parties are supposed to be speaking. The guys learn that they're on the Cherbourg Peninsula and it's June 4, 1944--the episode that aired two days before Christmas takes place two days before D-Day!

Kirk--who's somehow sure from his own time in the area that it's not the town of Cherbourg based on seeing the inside of an office--is motivated to get the guys out before the next day's pre-invasion barrage. Dr. Hans Kleinemann (John Wengraf) watches through a one-way mirror, eager to test his new brainwashing technique by conditioning one of the Americans kill the other. Hoffman has Doug taken into Kleinerman's lab while arranging for Tony to be allowed to escape. Wandering the swastika-adorned backlot with a Gestapo tail, Tony is quickly nabbed by the Resistance members who attacked the prison--Duchamps (Michael St. Clair), Mirabeau (Robert Carricart), and Verlaine (Joey Tata). They suspect that he was let go in order to betray their whereabouts...and clarify that everyone's conveniently speaking English. Back at Gestapo HQ, a serum is injected into Doug, who's tested by being asked about the Allied invasion plans. Doug readily blurts out some quick details, including the date it will happen, but Hoffman dismisses it as gibberish. With the help of a photograph of Doug that he took earlier and one altered to show him in a Gestapo uniform, Kleinerman starts to condition Phillips to believe that he's Gestapo officer Heinrich Kreuger.

Tony's happy to blab about his knowledge of the invasion to the Underground members, though he can't remember what coded message to coordinate their actions they're supposed to be listening for on the BBC. Learning that Tony has expertise in electronics, they let him in on their plan to hit the local refineries. At Gestapo HQ, the Germans are making progress as Doug is fed information about Tony (we didn't see his picture being taken) being responsible for the death of his father. Aided by Tony, the Underground engages in their preliminary operation, getting into the refinery and blowing the single tank that will cause the rest to go like nitro-dominoes. TT, having narrowed down the town and the location of their Gestapo HQ, tune in just in time to see Doug proudly sporting his new uniform and German accent.

"Kreuger" proceeds to shoot a life-size stand-up of Tony--Where did they get this again?


Kreuger is assigned to lead a raid of the Underground hideout, during which Tony finds himself face-to-Luger with a vengeful Heinrich Kreuger. Tony stops Verlaine from shooting Doug and gets away with the Resistance, who go back to listening to the Beeb somewhere else...Verlaine now certain that Tony is a spy. After the operatives hear the coded message they were waiting for, Gestapo HQ gets a visit from their informant in the Underground--Mirabeau, who tries to sell them information about the invasion, which they dismiss as inaccurate, being more interested in the Underground cell's operation to sabotage the phone cable under Gestapo HQ. Kreuger is put in charge of foiling the operation.

As the backlot alley action proceeds, Tony finds himself shooting a Gestapo officer who turns out to be Doug! Tony has the head-grazed Doug brought to UHQ, where Dr. Shumate (Francis De Sales) is summoned. While Doug is trying assert his Heinrich Kreuger identity, he inadvertently outs Mirabeau, who's promptly stabbed in the back by Verlaine, who apologizes to Tony. Shumate speculates that Kleinemann would have the means to return Doug to normal.

The Underground operation resumes as Tony and the Resistance cut power lines and plant a bomb in the Gestapo HQ basement. Then they gun their way into the front and Tony nabs Kleinemann, taking him back to UHQ. Kleinemann injects Doug with an antidote and gives him new commands to reassert his true identity. Doug comes to and recognizes Tony. Tony realizes that it's now the morning of June 6 as the assembled time travelers, Resistance fighters, and doctors hear Allied planes overhead. TT watches TunnelVision footage of the titular event while waiting for the right moment to transfer Tony and Doug. Doug fades out still wearing his Gestapo uniform, which will of course be gone next week.

Merry Christmas, 1966!

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I absolutely love this one. It equals "Born to Run" for greatness. The whole album is definitely a classic.

I've never been much of a Bruce fan, though I have his hits, and this album track because it was on the RS list. I do recall having been impressed with the album when I heard it as a teenager.

And what's with you suddenly being all into albums, anyway?

A literal case of dancing on the graves of your enemies.

Probably more like signing documents.

More dictators, more military coups. People gotta learn to chill out, man.

It was a slow week for events other than the usual coups and other events of third-world intrigue, much of which I usually skip.

Sadly, I was not aware of this.

A quick query tells me that it was visible from North America.

Oh, yeah, I do know this. Nice. Mild nostalgic value.

It seems that Willie had been knocking around on the Country chart to varying degrees of success since 1962, but this version of a 1940s song--previously recorded by Hank Williams among others--was his breakout crossover hit.

Good one. Strong nostalgic value.

This memorable period hit was the breakout single of Nat's daughter.

Never heard of Jigsaw or "Sky High"

Another good one. Strong nostalgic value.

I have no distinct recollection of this from the era, though it is a catchy bit of power pop and seems vaguely familiar--though that could just be that it was already in my collection. It turns out that this singular hit for the band was the title song of The Man from Hong Kong, a martial arts/action film co-starring George Lazenby.

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Eventually "based on" becomes "inspired by."

Did you catch that he was originally from your neck of the woods?

 

[RJDiogenes]

Assuming that Tony's dead, Ann doesn't take it well...
View attachment 48341

"If it makes you feel any better, Doug's probably dead too."

With a sudden lack of radiation readings, TT find their fix switching to a cabinet meeting in London, 1,000 miles away from where it had been, in which William Gladstone (Dayton Lummis) and a cabinet minister (Ben Wright) exposit about the Empire's fear that northern Indian tribes will unite in unrest unless they can contain the most likely instigator, Hira Singh.

The TunnelVision randomly switches to a related conversation on another continent. I sense the fine hand of Al the Bartender here.

The Westerner introduces himself as journalist Rudyard Kipling

"I'm just getting experience. I really want to be a writer."

Hara Singh (Malachi Throne)

Noah Bain. Not to mention that Romulan guy.

(The guys' amazing TV Fu skills are held back in this one for dramatic purposes, which is more the way things should be all the time.)

Considering the situations they tumble into, they should be getting their asses kicked left and right.

he changes his plan from having Doug's body dragged to the fort to ambushing the supply train and holding Doug for use as a hostage.

Whew!

After Tony and Rudy leave, however, Fettretch orders Troop D to proceed with an attack plan that he didn't tell them about.

He just wants to pretend it was his idea.

Singh uses explosives to cause an avalanche that blocks the supply train at a pass that's totally not Vasquez Rocks.

I think Vasquez Rocks is at a point in its career where it should get top billing. "...and also starring Vasquez Rocks as Khyber Pass."

Jerry (in his final appearance) requests that he be sent back to render medical aid.
View attachment 48342

"I've been taking first-aid classes at night!"

When he sees an opportunity, Jerry sneaks over to a console and does it anyway, and TT gets their fix.

He is subsequently fired, not for disobeying orders, but because he said, "I toldja so."

The sly colonel officially refuses, but gives his right-hand man, Major Kabir (Perry Lopez), tacit permission to lead a troop of his people in such an attack, against orders.

In the epilogue, we learn that Kabir is Jerry's ancestor.

there are only four minutes left and the guys have to be together for the pull-out.

Has that been established? I can think of one time when one of them was plucked out and then put back, but that was a trip back to TT.

As Rudy's bringing over the colonel to talk to them, the guys disappear, mystifying the two of them and Kabir.

"I didn't see anything. Did you see anything?"

"Moonshot" [Woodstock, Watergate, punk rock...]

Capped.

A beach bum (Strother Martin)

Prolific character actor, mostly in Westerns.

NASA security officer Gavin Lewis

The secretary has no knowledge of this.

David tries to slip in posing as a reporter and, after being identified, is let in to see Lewis.

"No reporters! Oh, he's a UFO kook? Let him in."

David tells Lewis that he's familiar with the red fog (Have we seen it before?)

Perhaps it was in Lost Tales of David Vincent, brought to you by Gold Key Comics.

Coogan is being Crystal Them Persuaded

If the Thems were just patient and slowly persuaded themselves up the food chain, they wouldn't need to bother with all these other risky operations.

David's sharing details about them with Riley in the parking lot when they both see Riley's car self-destructing in a red glow in five seconds.

"See? That's the sort of thing I'm talking about."

David takes interest in a program medic with a protruding fourth finger

Haven't seen that in a while.

Owens (John Carter)

Of Barsoom.

using a device hidden in his electric razor to do something to his chest, which glows in a pattern (presumably a form of portable regeneration).

If it regenerates hair, the Thems could make enough money to just buy the world.

the uncredited member who'll stay in the capsule

I always felt bad for those guys.

David thinks it has something to do with classified recon photos taken of the Moon in preparation for the mission, which the astronauts have been assigned to investigate.

Phelps should slip in Barney and Willie and get it done right!

Owens is the one who's been clearing Smith medically, which would cover for an alien's lack of heartbeat.

They can grow human bodies, but they can't simulate a heartbeat?

Riley tries to out Owens as an alien

"He hangs out at an alien bar every weekend!"

He confronts her about knowing that her husband has been replaced by an imposter.

Doesn't everybody think that about their SO after a couple of years?

She wishes her husband luck, and his response, which doesn't reflect Hardy's longtime superstition against such gestures, causes her to concur with David.

That's a nice, subtle touch.

When she calls Arthur to back up Riley's imposter claim, this is enough for Arthur to try to call Smith back to mission control.

Another nice touch. He doesn't believe his colleague, but he believes his wife.

Instead, Not Hardy breaks for the capsule and launches the rocket solo (which IMDb tells me isn't done from the capsule).

Yeah, that would definitely not be possible. I suppose they could have had him fire the maneuvering rockets, which might have caused the booster stages to blow up on the pad.

The rocket explodes on live TV, with reporters initially believing that it launched unmanned.

So the first Moon landing mission launched prematurely and exploded in mid flight in this universe. That would have set back the first landing about ten years.

David reassures a concerned Gavin that this is a victory, and whatever the structures were, the aliens will remove them before the next mission

Maybe a base on the far side of the Moon is all they've got, which is consistent with my theory that they're really very weak.

IMDb informs me that this some of the rocket footage in this episode is of earlier Saturn models that weren't designed to get to the Moon.

The shots in the IMDB scroll looks pretty good.

Guess which classic TV theme I'm thinking of!
View attachment 48346

The crossover possibilities for this show are nearly endless.

He mentions their American accents, though it's not clear which language both parties are supposed to be speaking.

All time travelers speak Esperanto, courtesy of Al the Bartender.

Dr. Hans Kleinemann (John Wengraf) watches through a one-way mirror, eager to test his new brainwashing technique by conditioning one of the Americans kill the other.

"Ah, some new Guinea pigs. Sehr gut. Bwahaha!"

Doug readily blurts out some quick details, including the date it will happen, but Hoffman dismisses it as gibberish.

The old Tell-Them-The-Truth-So-They-Won't-Believe-It's-The-Truth Trick.

With the help of a photograph of Doug that he took earlier and one altered to show him in a Gestapo uniform

"Why does he have six fingers on his right hand?"

Aided by Tony, the Underground engages in their preliminary operation, getting into the refinery and blowing the single tank that will cause the rest to go like nitro-dominoes.

Presumably the mission went off just as well the first time, with no Tony.

TT, having narrowed down the town and the location of their Gestapo HQ, tune in just in time to see Doug proudly sporting his new uniform and German accent.

How did they respond to that?

"Kreuger" proceeds to shoot a life-size stand-up of Tony--Where did they get this again?

Okay, that's mighty weird. And kinda spooky looking.

Mirabeau, who tries to sell them information about the invasion, which they dismiss as inaccurate

These guys are really bad at evaluating intelligence. No wonder they lost.

Tony has the head-grazed Doug brought to UHQ

Now they're even. They've both been head grazed.

Kleinemann injects Doug with an antidote and gives him new commands to reassert his true identity.

But can he ever really be fully trusted now?

Doug fades out still wearing his Gestapo uniform, which will of course be gone next week.

And still no voice communication with Tik Toc.

Merry Christmas, 1966!

My Grandmother, on my Father's side, had one of those silver Christmas trees with the rotating color projector.

I've never been much of a Bruce fan

But... but... he's The Boss!

I do recall having been impressed with the album when I heard it as a teenager.

This one and Greetings From Asbury Park, NJ are both really good all the way through.

And what's with you suddenly being all into albums, anyway?

Well, I didn't actually buy the album until some years later when I was out of school and had disposable income for a change.

Probably more like signing documents.

Maybe he danced when nobody was watching.

It was a slow week for events other than the usual coups and other events of third-world intrigue, much of which I usually skip.

It's just one damn coup after another.

A quick query tells me that it was visible from North America.

Yeah, I probably could have seen it, had I known.

It turns out that this singular hit for the band was the title song of The Man from Hong Kong, a martial arts/action film co-starring George Lazenby.

There's a fun fact I never knew.

Did you catch that he was originally from your neck of the woods?

Yeah, for a couple of seconds I wondered if the show was set around here.

 

[The Old Mixer]

"If it makes you feel any better, Doug's probably dead too."

I'd actually accidentally typed Doug's name there first-pass.

I noticed after the fact that Ann's wearing a wedding ring in that shot. It could just be Lee Meriwether's--Did we already know that she was married to Frank Aletter at the time? Though it's possible that Ann's supposed to be married. How would we know when the show never gives us a hint that the TT crew ever clocks out and goes home? If they live in the vast complex that we never see much more of, I suppose that their families are there, too.

The TunnelVision randomly switches to a related conversation on another continent. I sense the fine hand of Al the Bartender here.

When that sort of thing happened previously, there was a brief handwave in the direction of the Tunnel being run by a complex computer. Par for the course for '60s TV supercomputers, I guess--feed it a bowl of alphabet soup and it decodes the message. If only it had vocal ability, it might save them a lot of trouble.

Noah Bain. Not to mention that Romulan guy.

And that you always forget that he was in one of TOS's most noteworthy installments first. I also seem to recall seeing him in background viewing of LIS in practically the same makeup as his TT appearance.

Considering the situations they tumble into, they should be getting their asses kicked left and right.

You'd think. I guess the audience had certain expectations of TV heroes at the time, but where the hell did a couple of scientists learn to go toe-to-toe with trained warriors of various historical cultures and get the better of them, using their own weapons or while unarmed?

I think Vasquez Rocks is at a point in its career where it should get top billing. "...and also starring Vasquez Rocks as Khyber Pass."

It probably wouldn't be as famous or noticeable if not for the obsessiveness of Trek fans....

"I've been taking first-aid classes at night!"

He said he was qualified. Makes more sense than Tony and Doug having mad intergalactic champion fighting skills.

Has that been established? I can think of one time when one of them was plucked out and then put back, but that was a trip back to TT.

They've pretty pretty consistent in trying to get them when they were close together because separate pull-outs were too risky.

Prolific character actor, mostly in Westerns.

And around this point in Cool Hand Luke.

The secretary has no knowledge of this.

This was a guest role just before his gig on M:I started, with the next TV season. I wasn't feeling inspired to thicken the post with cross-references, but there's a scenario in which all of David's alien encounters are the most elaborate, long-term IMF scheme ever....

"No reporters! Oh, he's a UFO kook? Let him in."

Pretty much! I think Lewis was motivated to get David involved by his own close encounter; and I didn't specify that David surmised after the fact that Gavin had deliberately prompted him to go see Coogan first.

If the Thems were just patient and slowly persuaded themselves up the food chain, they wouldn't need to bother with all these other risky operations.

The method is portrayed as too crude for long-term infiltration. It tends to be used to pull information out of people or persuade them to contradict previous stories in a way that fairly screams that the character has been gotten to and isn't acting like themselves.

"See? That's the sort of thing I'm talking about."

Pretty much.

Haven't seen that in a while.

It tends to get referenced if not shown.

Of Barsoom.

Inferentially Capped.

They can grow human bodies, but they can't simulate a heartbeat?

I'm pretty sure that came up early on, possibly in the first episode. That's a little something else to go along with the one-time faked skin thing.

Doesn't everybody think that about their SO after a couple of years?

Speaking of...

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Another nice touch. He doesn't believe his colleague, but he believes his wife.

There was a little bit of dramatic tension in this scenario because of a contrived history of Angela and Gavin being rumored to have had a thing going on.

So the first Moon landing mission launched prematurely and exploded in mid flight in this universe. That would have set back the first landing about ten years.

Yet they were farther along than us in being ready in early 1967, around the same time of the Apollo 1 disaster in our universe. And the idea that the invaders wouldn't have enough time to infiltrate the follow-up mission suggested that it wasn't going to be that far away.

The crossover possibilities for this show are nearly endless.

I had to wonder if that was the very same tower. In this case, the guards up there got shot, which you wouldn't see on HH.

"Ah, some new Guinea pigs. Sehr gut. Bwahaha!"

The Gestapo commander was getting a little impatient with the scientist's games when there were bigger things afoot, but he kept going along with them.

Presumably the mission went off just as well the first time, with no Tony.

My impression is that the TT adventures are all predestination paradox, hence the guys not being able to change history. They were part of it all along.

How did they respond to that?

Nothing remarkable, they'd been watching the brainswashing play out.

Okay, that's mighty weird. And kinda spooky looking.

But can he ever really be fully trusted now?

I suppose there could be running gag about his Nazi programming routinely coming out....

And still no voice communication with Tik Toc.

Nope.

Yeah, I probably could have seen it, had I known.

Unless the weather was lousy.

Yeah, for a couple of seconds I wondered if the show was set around here.

Nope, deep out West. The show completely blew its historical setting with the episode that aired this week. The guest character, played by Charles Martin Smith of American Graffiti, was an episode-titular tenderfoot who was trying to survive in the wilderness using book knowledge. At an appropriate act break well into the episode, this bespectacled, asthmatic young man properly introduced himself as...Theodore Roosevelt. Teddy Roosevelt was born in 1858, and they just said a couple episodes back that Millard Fillmore was president, which confirms an early 1850s setting.

 

[RJDiogenes]

I'd actually accidentally typed Doug's name there first-pass.

I still have a hard time remembering which is which.

It could just be Lee Meriwether's--Did we already know that she was married to Frank Aletter at the time?

I don't know, but it's pretty funny considering that they both starred in one-season time-travel shows. Maybe that's how they met. Ann fell into the tunnel and was transported to an alternate past where dinosaurs and cavemen co-existed.

Though it's possible that Ann's supposed to be married. How would we know when the show never gives us a hint that the TT crew ever clocks out and goes home? If they live in the vast complex that we never see much more of, I suppose that their families are there, too.

I wonder if anybody has ever compiled a list of shows where we never see the characters go home. Kolchak jumps to mind, of course, but there's also Columbo. Columbo at least talked about his wife-- assuming he was telling the truth.

When that sort of thing happened previously, there was a brief handwave in the direction of the Tunnel being run by a complex computer. Par for the course for '60s TV supercomputers, I guess--feed it a bowl of alphabet soup and it decodes the message. If only it had vocal ability, it might save them a lot of trouble.

It can do anything but bring the boys home.

And that you always forget that he was in one of TOS's most noteworthy installments first.

Aargh, I can't believe it. And I love Commodore Mendez. I always wanted his job.

I also seem to recall seeing him in background viewing of LIS in practically the same makeup as his TT appearance.

Yes, he was some kind of Space Arabian Knight or something. I can remember his cliffhanger moment: "Dogs! Infidels! Prepare to die!" --> To Be Continued.

You'd think. I guess the audience had certain expectations of TV heroes at the time, but where the hell did a couple of scientists learn to go toe-to-toe with trained warriors of various historical cultures and get the better of them, using their own weapons or while unarmed?

Well, you know, those poor primitive people were no match for Modern Man. In reality, the average ten-year-old from the old days could probably make mincemeat of the typical contemporary dude.

It probably wouldn't be as famous or noticeable if not for the obsessiveness of Trek fans....

But wasn't it always showing up in the plethora of Westerns that were on at the time?

He said he was qualified. Makes more sense than Tony and Doug having mad intergalactic champion fighting skills.

Yeah, it would make sense for them all to have some basic First-Aid training. But it would also make sense for them to have on-site medical personnel who could be sent back if necessary.

They've pretty pretty consistent in trying to get them when they were close together because separate pull-outs were too risky.

It would be kind of interesting to do a story where they each landed ten years apart and TT had to coordinate their actions to help each other out. "Doug, hide the gun on top of the ceiling lamp." "Tony, check the ceiling lamp for a gun."

And around this point in Cool Hand Luke.

And I think he showed up in every TV Western ever made.

This was a guest role just before his gig on M:I started, with the next TV season. I wasn't feeling inspired to thicken the post with cross-references, but there's a scenario in which all of David's alien encounters are the most elaborate, long-term IMF scheme ever....

Ohhh, I love that idea. It would explain so much.

The method is portrayed as too crude for long-term infiltration. It tends to be used to pull information out of people or persuade them to contradict previous stories in a way that fairly screams that the character has been gotten to and isn't acting like themselves.

Ah, well, at least there's an explanation. Unlike some of the other tech they've used.

Speaking of...

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I'll throw in a little Boss, since he came up earlier:

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There was a little bit of dramatic tension in this scenario because of a contrived history of Angela and Gavin being rumored to have had a thing going on.

Ah, interesting. Some decent personal dynamics in this episode.

Yet they were farther along than us in being ready in early 1967, around the same time of the Apollo 1 disaster in our universe. And the idea that the invaders wouldn't have enough time to infiltrate the follow-up mission suggested that it wasn't going to be that far away.

I wonder how well this meshes with the Six-Million-Dollar Man timeline.

I had to wonder if that was the very same tower. In this case, the guards up there got shot, which you wouldn't see on HH.

It probably is, considering how often they re-used sets and props.

The Gestapo commander was getting a little impatient with the scientist's games when there were bigger things afoot, but he kept going along with them.

Who can resist a little human experimentation?

My impression is that the TT adventures are all predestination paradox, hence the guys not being able to change history. They were part of it all along.

Or maybe the past just pops back to the way it was after they leave-- just like their clothes are restored on their side of the equation. That would open up a lot of possibilities.

Nothing remarkable, they'd been watching the brainswashing play out.

Oh, okay, I thought it was a shock moment.

View attachment 48360

And we go from spooky to horror movie.

I suppose there could be running gag about his Nazi programming routinely coming out....

"General Kirk, you need to bring more discipline to your underlings!"

Unless the weather was lousy.

Yeah, I think it was only visible for a few days. And I was nearsighted.

Nope, deep out West.

That's what I had thought from the clips I'd seen.

The show completely blew its historical setting with the episode that aired this week. The guest character, played by Charles Martin Smith of American Graffiti, was an episode-titular tenderfoot who was trying to survive in the wilderness using book knowledge. At an appropriate act break well into the episode, this bespectacled, asthmatic young man properly introduced himself as...Theodore Roosevelt. Teddy Roosevelt was born in 1858, and they just said a couple episodes back that Millard Fillmore was president, which confirms an early 1850s setting.

Wow, that's a major blunder. Sometimes I wonder if certain shows don't even have a bible.

 

[The Old Mixer]

---

Post-58th Anniversary Viewing

---

The Time Tunnel
"The Revenge of Robin Hood"
Originally aired December 30, 1966

In 13th-century England, Tony and Doug join Robin Hood's revolt against evil King John.

Tony lands in the dungeon of a castle, while Doug (back in his suit, natch), eavesdrops as King John (John Crawford) accuses the Earl of Huntington (Donald Harron) of treason for presenting His Majesty with the Magna Carta to sign. The earl attempts to escape by fighting off several armed guards with swordplay, but is captured...running into Doug along the way. Doug is assumed to be the earl's servant, and we learn that the earl is representing a council of barons, whom the king wants found and identified. Doug and the earl are put in irons in the dungeon, where the guards start to interrogate them with the threat of a hot iron...but the guards don't notice Tony, who knocks out one from behind and swordfights with the other. Of course, Tony proves to be a match for a trained warrior of the period. As a group of soldiers try to batter down the door, TT--who've determined that the guys are in June 1215--work at transferring the travelers. The guys use coal and a bellows to soften the iron bars in the window, facilitating their escape. As Tony and Doug are crawling out, one of the guards inside revives even as the group gets in the door, resulting in the earl's recapture.

Tony and Doug decide to try to help the earl by using their sketchy historical knowledge to find the council. In the forest, they're confronted by a familiar-looking band of good-tempered fellows. Tony ends up in a staff duel with Little John (John Alderson), which ends on good terms with John the victor, and he and Friar Tuck (Ronald Long) introduce themselves as associates of the earl, aka Robin Hood--the guys being astonished to learn that he's real. They're given setting-appropriate attire, and as the band plots to rescue the earl, they're found and pursued by a royal patrol...Little John taking a crossbow bolt in the shoulder. The happy hommes manage to split the guards up and take down a couple of them to make their escape.

They take John to the manor of Baroness Elmont (Erin O'Brien-Moore), where Doug uses medical knowledge more advanced than leeches to tend to John's wound, including cauterizing the wound with a hot blade. The baroness wants to know where the barons are meeting so she can send a messenger, and while Doug urges caution, the friar ends up slipping it out. Meanwhile, TT have sent back a homing post that will enable them to pull the guys back if they touch it, but it gets sent to the dungeon, where Huntington's in irons again.

The baroness gets the friar and Tony into the king's castle posing as monks. But while they're shown their quarters, she tells the king and his steward Dubois (James Lanphier) that Little John and another outlaw are at Kirkley Hall; that the council of barons is meeting at Runnymede; and that the monks are Robin Hood's men. Tony and Tuck proceed to the dungeon and free the earl. TT activates the homing post, which blinks to attract attention, but while Tony notices it, he and the others are busy escaping and locking the king and his guards into the dungeon. They rappel down the parapet and slip into the forest even as a the king's men ride to Kirkley. Inside the hall, Doug promptly brews up a gas to knock out the king's men as they enter.

The king sends out more men to gather forces to attack Runnymede. Robin, Tuck, Tony, and some Merrys ambush the couriers with bows and arrows as they ride through the forest, and learn where they were headed. While Robin and crew plot to assault the king's castle, Tony tells Doug about the homing post, which motivates them to accompany Robin so they can get back into the dungeon. A large force of Robin's men ambush the king's men in the forest, including many of the former swinging into the latter on vines. (IMDb gives a long list of previous Robin Hood films going back to the silent era on the dubious basis that this episode is a "version of" all of them, but doesn't specify which film it's drawing footage from. It does note that the episode makes use of Franz Waxman's score from 1954's Prince Valiant.) By night, Robin's men take out guards on the parapets with bows, and Robin fires a smoke-dispensing arrow whipped up by Doug into the castle. Robin, Doug, Tony, and Tuck scale the parapet and get down to swordplay and TV Fu. Tuck uses his belly as a weapon to help Doug fend off Dubois.

The guys proceed down to the dungeon to find that the homing post seems to have lost power. Robin and Tuck nab the king and take him to Runnymede, where he's compelled to impress his seal on the Magna Carta. Doug and Tony are satisfied to see fictionalized history play out just before they disappear in their period outfits.

Happy 1967!

---

The Invaders
"Wall of Crystal"
Originally aired May 2, 1967

The invaders kidnap David's brother in an attempt to get David to publicly discredit himself.

A pair of newlyweds (Jerry Ayres and...Julie!) have a near-collision with a pickup truck, the vehicles running off opposite sides of the road. The couple, both gasping for air, see the truck driver get out and "burn up" in a red glow.


The bride gets out to try to get help, but upon crossing the road to the truck and its spilled cannisters, collapses. The groom goes over, finding her dead and crystals strewn from one of the cannisters. He sees one of the crystals shrinking and tries to bury it, but falls dead himself.

An accident on a deserted highway. A honeymoon couple that dies by suffocation--in the open air. A chemical truck traced to a company that doesn't exist. Strange circumstances for which David Vincent can find one answer: Somehow, someway, alien beings from another world must be involved.

As David scopes out the accident site, a motorist pulls over to ask if he needs help. Taugus (whose billed name I never caught being dropped in the episode; and who gives me the impression that he doesn't like spunk)...

...watches with binoculars as David finds withered foliage and the buried crystal, which causes him to start to choke. He grabs a labeled plastic bag from his car to put it in. Tonight's Special Guest Villain Ally, crusading San Francisco Courier columnist (who also has a TV show) Theodore Booth...

...is assigned by his publisher, Joe McMullen (Lloyd Gough, recently of the Daily Sentinel), to talk to Vincent--whom they've both regarded thus far to be a crackpot--about the invasion proof that he claims to have found. David takes Booth to a safe deposit box holding the crystal, and upon opening it, Booth has trouble breathing. He asks to take the crystal to have it analyzed, and David warns him that taking it may place his life in danger...from those like Taugus, who's waiting outside the bank in a station wagon. As Booth gets into a cab, somebody already in back holds up a FIND, and David pulls Booth out. After the cab and Booth separately leave, Taugus approaches David to ominously bring up the well-being of David's brother and his wife.

David travels to the home of Bob and Grace Vincent (Linden Chiles and Julie Sommars) to warn them...but the brothers' relationship has become strained since Dr. Vincent lost his medical practice over David's publicity. (It's mentioned that Bob must think that David's doing it for a quick buck, implying that there's some kind of income involved.) David asks him to talk to Theodore Booth. After David leaves, Dr. Bob gets a call from a Mrs. Endicott (Mary Lou Taylor), who says her husband's having heart attack symptoms. After entering the house, an unconscious Bob is carried out into the back of a van by a pair of them. Taugus pays an unannounced visit to David's hotel room to deliver their demand that he's to have Booth publish a story in which David confesses to having lied about the invaders.

Grace is reluctant to cooperate with David in following their terms because she thinks that her brother-in-law is a psycho. A pair of them visits the lab where the crystal is being analyzed, unhook the oxygen that the technician is attached to, and lock him in the lab, causing him to suffocate and a Bunsen burner to go out. In the wine cellar where he's being held, Dr. Bob overcomes a guard to escape, finds a lab full of them packing the crystals into cannisters, and is surrounded as he has trouble breathing. Taugus comes to take Bob to make a scheduled ransom call, which Bob doesn't want to cooperate with. As Taugus is explaining how the crystals displace oxygen, and how they plan to use them to change Earth's atmosphere because oxygen forces them to have to regenerate, Mrs. Endicott brings Grace in and she's put in a chamber with the crystals. Bob finds himself with no choice but to cooperate.

Returned home, a distraught Grace--having been properly introduced to her brother-in-law's world--relates to David what happened, including how she was taken to what she thinks was a factory, before Bob makes his call. Bob conveys a message obviously coded with an in-reference, and David tries to explain to Taugus that he hasn't been able to reach Booth to kill the story. Meanwhile, we find that Booth, now a believer, has been getting David's messages and, sensing something's up, is sitting on his story. David realizes that Bob was referring to a childhood near-drowning at a now-dried creek that an old winery is sitting on. (Some locations just can't stay in business.) Booth catches up with David in person, and advocates that the good of the human race outweighs that of one man--recognizing the irony of now finding himself carrying on David's crusade against the invaders.

David explains to Grace, who's refused to leave town for safety, that with Booth not willing to meet their terms, he's planning to make them a better offer. After David leaves, Booth visits Grace and learns that he's probably planning to trade his life for Bob's. At the winery, David calls Taugus out of hiding to offer his new terms--that he'll die ostensibly at an institution, while his brother declares that he was insane. But Booth has arrived and been caught by an alien guard, who stands in a car door to guide Booth in driving in. Booth shakes him off and runs the car into Taugus, who's on the hood when an alien fires his zapper, sending the car, Burgess Meredith, and Ed Asner up in a red glow. Two aliens proceed into the main building and flip a destruct switch, sending the whole place up in the same manner. Detective Harding (Russ Conway) arrives with uniformed backup, having been called by Grace, and is incredulous to be told that Dr. Vincent's kidnappers were in a building that disappeared. David welcomes his outraged brother to his world, and afterward we see that the detective has a protruding fourth finger.

In the Epilog, David says his farewells to the family, who are apparently now expecting another member, and Bob offers to help David however he can in the future.

One man, fighting a secret war against a hidden enemy. Someday, when that enemy is defeated, David Vincent will no longer be alone. Someday...

---

I still have a hard time remembering which is which.

Well, young James Darren is kinda like, "Yo, Tony!"

But wasn't it always showing up in the plethora of Westerns that were on at the time?

Yeah, but I don't think we'd know it by name and be able to name it by sight if not for the Trek connection.

But it would also make sense for them to have on-site medical personnel who could be sent back if necessary.

We see a TT medic in the next episode. But is he the time-traveling type?

Ah, well, at least there's an explanation. Unlike some of the other tech they've used.

I'm recalling how Roddy McDowall's character was operating under long-term CTP, but that also had dramatic side-effects.

Ah, interesting. Some decent personal dynamics in this episode.

In the overall picture, though, that seemed to be a throwaway detail that went nowhere.

Or maybe the past just pops back to the way it was after they leave-- just like their clothes are restored on their side of the equation. That would open up a lot of possibilities.

I think we've seen evidence to the contrary in previous episodes.

Oh, okay, I thought it was a shock moment.

For the audience it was a dramatic reveal.

Wow, that's a major blunder. Sometimes I wonder if certain shows don't even have a bible.

I thought they were playing it fast and loose with when it took place from the Pinkerton episode, when his involvement in a major train robbery case was referenced, and the most prominently mentioned one on Pinkerton's Wiki page was from the 1860s. Then they made the Millard Fillmore reference in the next episode. (Norman Fell had a pair of trained dogs named Millard and Fillmore, who was referenced as the current president.)

Now if this were your typical TV Western set in the 1870s-1880s, the Pinkerton case reference and The Adventures of Young Teddy Roosevelt would fit right in. I'm sure that's a factor in these anachronisms having slipped in.


"I've had a bully, bully time!"

Grizzly: Funny thing about Teddy...
Mad Jack: What's that, Adams?
Grizzly: I got a gooood feelin' about him.
Mad Jack: Theodore...Roosevelt. He'll never amount to a hill o' beans, take my word for it.

 

[RJDiogenes]

King John (John Crawford) accuses the Earl of Huntington (Donald Harron) of treason for presenting His Majesty with the Magna Carta to sign.

"I do not accept these terms of service!"

Doug and the earl are put in irons in the dungeon, where the guards start to interrogate them with the threat of a hot iron

"I wrote a paper on the Magna Carta. What do you want to know?"

Of course, Tony proves to be a match for a trained warrior of the period.

"I was fencing champion two years in a row at my boys' school."

The guys use coal and a bellows to soften the iron bars in the window, facilitating their escape.

Clever, but it probably wouldn't work that quickly.

they're confronted by a familiar-looking band of good-tempered fellows.

Tony ends up in a staff duel with Little John

On a little bridge over a river?

the earl, aka Robin Hood--the guys being astonished to learn that he's real.

I can well imagine. Although it's true that there were probably real people who took that identity, the presence of Little John and Friar Tuck make it a little harder to swallow.

They're given setting-appropriate attire

"Doug and Tony out of time begotten
Put on outfits made of plain-grade cotton...."

The happy hommes

Doug uses medical knowledge more advanced than leeches to tend to John's wound

"I have some Band-Aid brand banages. They keep reappearing."

Meanwhile, TT have sent back a homing post that will enable them to pull the guys back if they touch it

I think I actually remember this, and I think it was a re-used prop from LIS.

But while they're shown their quarters, she tells the king and his steward

I knew it!

TT activates the homing post, which blinks to attract attention

--- ...- . .-. / .... . .-. . -.-.--

They rappel down the parapet and slip into the forest

"I took the Gold in Olympic rappeling, how about you?"

Doug promptly brews up a gas to knock out the king's men as they enter.

"It feels good to put the ol' gas-brewing skills to use again."

Tony tells Doug about the homing post

Which will never be used again. Or will it? I actually don't know.

including many of the former swinging into the latter on vines

Were there vines in Sherwood Forest?

(IMDb gives a long list of previous Robin Hood films going back to the silent era on the dubious basis that this episode is a "version of" all of them

Does IMDB know that they're all a "version of" Folk Tales?

Tuck uses his belly as a weapon to help Doug fend off Dubois.

Sounds like King Vultan in Flash Gordon.

The guys proceed down to the dungeon to find that the homing post seems to have lost power.

No wall outlets in 1215.

Robin and Tuck nab the king and take him to Runnymede, where he's compelled to impress his seal on the Magna Carta.

Kind of ironic that the Magna Carta was signed under duress.

Doug and Tony are satisfied to see fictionalized history play out just before they disappear in their period outfits.

History seems to have forgotten Maid Marian.

Happy 1967!

First Grade. Mrs Verona. Not a good year.

A pair of newlyweds (Jerry Ayres and...Julie!)

I was about to express dismay that Julie has been reduced to a Special Guest Victim, but this is actually before Mod Squad even began. Got my timeline straight for a change!

The bride gets out to try to get help, but upon crossing the road to the truck and its spilled cannisters, collapses. The groom goes over, finding her dead and crystals strewn from one of the cannisters. He sees one of the crystals shrinking and tries to bury it, but falls dead himself.

An intriguing teaser.

Taugus (whose billed name I never caught being dropped in the episode; and who gives me the impression that he doesn't like spunk)...
View attachment 48368

Man, he looks young.

He grabs a labeled plastic bag from his car to put it in.

"Alien Crystal Samples. Handle With Care. Date: ___/___/_____"

Tonight's Special Guest Villain Ally, crusading San Francisco Courier columnist (who also has a TV show) Theodore Booth...

Niiice.

As Booth gets into a cab, somebody already in back holds up a FIND

"I'm going to Zeta Reticuli, can I drop you somewhere?"

Taugus approaches David to ominously bring up the well-being of David's brother and his wife.

Who I'm sure have never been mentioned before.

the brothers' relationship has become strained since Dr. Vincent lost his medical practice over David's publicity.

This seems unlikely.

(It's mentioned that Bob must think that David's doing it for a quick buck, implying that there's some kind of income involved.)

Well, the guy may be just assuming that out of crankiness and loss of hiw own income.

Dr. Bob gets a call from a Mrs. Endicott (Mary Lou Taylor), who says her husband's having heart attack symptoms.

"I need an unemployed physician right away!"

Taugus pays an unannounced visit to David's hotel room to deliver their demand that he's to have Booth publish a story in which David confesses to having lied about the invaders.

Why don't they just grow their own Vincent to do these things?

Dr. Bob overcomes a guard to escape

Seriously, where do the bad guys get their guards?

Taugus is explaining how the crystals displace oxygen, and how they plan to use them to change Earth's atmosphere because oxygen forces them to have to regenerate

This is a clever idea, but they're going to need a lot of crystals-- and they're going to need to keep replacing them, unless they plan to wipe out all plant life. Actually, it would probably be quicker and easier to just wipe out all plant life..

Returned home, a distraught Grace--having been properly introduced to her brother-in-law's world--relates to David what happened, including how she was taken to what she thinks was a factory, before Bob makes his call.

Okay, so the aliens kidnapped Grace, threatened her life to make Bob cooperate, and then just took her home before he came through. These guys are really bad at crime.

Meanwhile, we find that Booth, now a believer, has been getting David's messages and, sensing something's up, is sitting on his story.

Cool, an intelligent character.

Booth catches up with David in person, and advocates that the good of the human race outweighs that of one man--recognizing the irony of now finding himself carrying on David's crusade against the invaders.

An intelligent, heroic character.

After David leaves, Booth visits Grace and learns that he's probably planning to trade his life for Bob's.

I cannot understand why he's not already dead. They've captured him a million times, they've killed a million other people. But they have to wait for him to trade himself in?

Booth shakes him off and runs the car into Taugus, who's on the hood when an alien fires his zapper, sending the car, Burgess Meredith, and Ed Asner up in a red glow.

And he meets a heroic end. Good character.

Two aliens proceed into the main building and flip a destruct switch, sending the whole place up in the same manner.

They always seem a little too eager to do that.

In the Epilog, David says his farewells to the family, who are apparently now expecting another member

Uh oh.

and Bob offers to help David however he can in the future.

"Not now. In the future. Don't call us, we'll call you."

Well, young James Darren is kinda like, "Yo, Tony!"

I'll try to keep that image in mind.

Yeah, but I don't think we'd know it by name and be able to name it by sight if not for the Trek connection.

True, that could be.

We see a TT medic in the next episode. But is he the time-traveling type?

Hmm. Tune in next week, same Time time, same Time channel.

I'm recalling how Roddy McDowall's character was operating under long-term CTP, but that also had dramatic side-effects.

Ah, yes, that's right.

I think we've seen evidence to the contrary in previous episodes.

They've changed the timeline? I don't remember. Maybe that's because I changed along with the timeline.

Now if this were your typical TV Western set in the 1870s-1880s, the Pinkerton case reference and The Adventures of Young Teddy Roosevelt would fit right in. I'm sure that's a factor in these anachronisms having slipped in.

Yeah, they probably solicited scripts from regular Western writers. But still, things must have been pretty sloppy behind the scenes.

Mad Jack: Theodore...Roosevelt. He'll never amount to a hill o' beans, take my word for it.

He'll charge that hill o' beans with the Rough Riders!

 

[The Old Mixer]

On a little bridge over a river?

Alas, no.

I can well imagine. Although it's true that there were probably real people who took that identity, the presence of Little John and Friar Tuck make it a little harder to swallow.

Robin Hood and the Merry Men being real is right in this show's wheelhouse.

"Doug and Tony out of time begotten
Put on outfits made of plain-grade cotton...."

Not sure what you're Capping at there.

"I have some Band-Aid brand banages. They keep reappearing."

Did he have money on him, and if so, does it regenerate?

OTOH, that newspaper he took back to the Titanic never reappeared.

--- ...- . .-. / .... . .-. . -.-.--

Is that "kw" at the end? Not sure what that means.

"It feels good to put the ol' gas-brewing skills to use again."

"I honed zem vhile serving ze Fatherland."

Which will never be used again. Or will it? I actually don't know.

I'd guess no. Plot Contrivance of the Week.

Were there vines in Sherwood Forest?

Probably not.

Sounds like King Vultan in Flash Gordon.

I don't remember that, but he just basically slammed his gut into somebody.

History seems to have forgotten Maid Marian.

Now that you mention it.

First Grade. Mrs Verona. Not a good year.

Aww...I had a really nice first-grade teacher.

I was about to express dismay that Julie has been reduced to a Special Guest Victim, but this is actually before Mod Squad even began. Got my timeline straight for a change!

Now you're catching on! You gotta keep an eye on those two numbers after the "19".

A portent of things to come:

Wall of Crystal (1967)

Peggy Lipton and Jerry Ayres in The Invaders (1967)

www.imdb.com

"I'm going to Zeta Reticuli, can I drop you somewhere?"

Who I'm sure have never been mentioned before.

The question is, will he ever be mentioned again?

Well, the guy may be just assuming that out of crankiness and loss of hiw own income.

It actually came from David's mouth...an "I know you think" or "You probably think" statement.

I wonder if David will ever pick up some alien conspiracist groupies....

"I need an unemployed physician right away!"

A license is a license.

Seriously, where do the bad guys get their guards?

Zeta Reticuli.

This is a clever idea, but they're going to need a lot of crystals-- and they're going to need to keep replacing them, unless they plan to wipe out all plant life. Actually, it would probably be quicker and easier to just wipe out all plant life.

If they have an aversion to oxygen, then killing surface-dwelling plant life would probably be their thing. Oxygen is probably also what makes them disintegrate. I guess they're highly combustible.

I cannot understand why he's not already dead. They've captured him a million times, they've killed a million other people. But they have to wait for him to trade himself in?

Just buy into the conceit that it'd attract too much attention.

They always seem a little too eager to do that.

It's all evidence.

Uh oh.

Sick.

They've changed the timeline? I don't remember. Maybe that's because I changed along with the timeline.

No, the opposite, that they were part of their own and the TT crew's past. They can't change history because they were already a part of it.

 

[RJDiogenes]

Robin Hood and the Merry Men being real is right in this show's wheelhouse.

True. I wonder what we would have gotten if the show had continued. Aliens building Stonehenge, Paul Bunyan, the Flinstones....

Not sure what you're Capping at there.

One of the greatest one-season wonders ever:

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Did he have money on him, and if so, does it regenerate?

I've wondered that too. Of course, it would be useless on most of their trips.

OTOH, that newspaper he took back to the Titanic never reappeared.

Hmm, good catch.

Is that "kw" at the end? Not sure what that means.

It should say "Over here!"-- minus the quotation marks. I assumed it was right because I used an online translator. I don't actually know Morse Code.

"I honed zem vhile serving ze Fatherland."

I'd guess no. Plot Contrivance of the Week.

Better than stealing everybody's jewelry....

Probably not.

They set up their own mass transit system.

I don't remember that, but he just basically slammed his gut into somebody.

In that case, I'm probably remembering the Buster Crabbe serial. The actors are similar and my memory is tricky.

Aww...I had a really nice first-grade teacher.

Luckily, my second-grade teacher was a very nice and kindly old lady.

Now you're catching on! You gotta keep an eye on those two numbers after the "19".

So much to keep track of.

A portent of things to come:

Wall of Crystal (1967)

Peggy Lipton and Jerry Ayres in The Invaders (1967)

www.imdb.com

Weird that there's no pictures of Peggy Lipton to speak of.

The question is, will he ever be mentioned again?

I was curious about that myself.

I wonder if David will ever pick up some alien conspiracist groupies....

That would have been a great way to evolve the show if it had lasted longer.

A license is a license.

Alas, that's true. I knew one resident who failed to complete his residency but went on to practice in an underserved area. The good news is that he was a really good doctor-- the bad news is that he had a really bad drug problem. And he was far from the only one.

Zeta Reticuli.

Heh.

If they have an aversion to oxygen, then killing surface-dwelling plant life would probably be their thing. Oxygen is probably also what makes them disintegrate. I guess they're highly combustible.

Now we know the secret conspiracy behind Amazon deforestation.

Just buy into the conceit that it'd attract too much attention.

I try.

Sick.

She negotiated her own release somehow.

No, the opposite, that they were part of their own and the TT crew's past. They can't change history because they were already a part of it.

Oh, okay. I don't like that idea because I believe in free will. At least I think I do.

 

[The Old Mixer]

---

Post-58th Anniversary Viewing

---

The Time Tunnel
"Kill Two by Two"
Originally aired January 6, 1967

Tony and Doug are hunted by two officers on a Japanese-held island in 1945.

Tony injures his ankle as the duo land on what they quickly learn is WWII Japan's tropic island nest. As they seek shelter from American shelling, they find a radio hut and are shot at by an elder Japanese sergeant (Kam Tong) whom Doug overcomes. The soldier voluntarily mends Tony's ankle and explains that the rest of the garrison is moving out, leaving him as a spotter...but Doug is soon surprised by a younger Japanese man in a blue flight suit (Mako), who takes his taken gun.

Their captor, whom the sergeant takes orders from, enjoys taunting the Americans in US-educated English, addressing both of them as "Joe". Doug identifies him as a lieutenant, though I didn't see any rank insignia. TT assesses that it's early 1945, and Kirk identifies two of the American battleships (one of which, the Illinois, was never completed in our world). The lieutenant challenges one of the guys to a kendo duel using bamboo poles from the jungle. Tony accepts despite his injury (like he should need a handicap). The lieutenant then decides to up the stakes by going full Most Dangerous Game, offering to give the guys an hour to escape into the jungle before he and the sergeant come after them. The travelers' stake for playing along is the possibility of warning the American forces of a massive air assault that awaits them when they invade Iwo Jima that morning. When Doug tries to sound out their captor about his motivations, the lieutenant mentions the Americans having cost him too much.

Tony tries unsuccessfully to dissuade Doug from playing the lieutenant's game, while TT frets that they won't be able to keep a fix on the guys while they're moving around the island. Ann narrows it down to one of two smaller islands neighboring Iwo Jima; and further research about the shelling identifies it as Minami Iwo, and the date as February 17. The guys circle back to the Japanese compound, Doug breaking into a supply hut to forage for weapons and supplies. He finds rifles, but has to hide when the lieutenant enters the hut for liquor. Doug overhears that the lieutenant has issues with authority, and has done something for which he expects his fellow Japanese to execute him, causing the lieutenant to question the sergeant's dutiful obedience. While hiding, Doug has a brief Dr. No moment when he has to swat a tarantula off of him. After the lieutenant leaves, Doug pockets some Japanese grenades, but trips and makes a racket in exiting.

The lieutenant dares the hiding Americans to lob one of the grenades, but Doug decides not to play his game. Ann vocalizes that the lieutenant seems to want the guys to kill him. Kirk has a Dr. Nakamura (Philip Ahn) brought in by the Japanese consulate because he was on Minami-Iwo, though he's reluctant to get involved because his time on the island was personally bitter. He denies that there was an officer on the island with the sergeant, but when shown the lieutenant via TunnelVision, is distraught to learn that his son wasn't dead at the time as he believed.

Meanwhile, the guys have been setting a booby trap using one of their grenades. (The grenades are mostly treated the same as American grenades, though IMDb indicates that they were armed differently, and they only got this right once in the episode.) The guys hurl another grenade to lure the Japanese to the trap, but Lt. Nakamura spots and disarms it. The guys then lob another grenade to cover their escape, leaving them with two. Back in '68, Dr. Nakamura is revived by a TT medic (Vince Howard), and explains that his son was a failed kamikaze pilot who crash-landed on the island and was left there on Dr. Nakamura's own orders with the expectation that he would commit hara-kiri. In '45, believing that the Japanese forces are planning to return to the island, the guys decide they have to risk going back to the radio to arrange a rescue from the fleet. They split up and split the remaining grenades, Tony heading for the shack while Lt. Nakamura finds Doug and takes shots at him, forcing him to take cover in a cave. Doug lobs his grenade, which gets close enough to give the lieutenant a leg wound. Doug leads the lieutenant to believe he has the last grenade, questions if he's a deserter, and proposes that they can both go home, which sends the lieutenant into a rage of wild shots, declaring that he no longer has a home.

Back in '68, Dr. Nakamura decides that he made a mistake and demands that TT bring his son back in return for him using his knowledge of the island to help them get a fix on one of their men. Tony makes it back to the radio shack and TV Fus the rifle-armed sergeant after he shoots the radio. Doug follows Nakamura as he returns to the shack and fires shots at Tony, who retaliates by tossing his grenade at the lieutenant's feet. Nakamura kicks it, and when it doesn't explode, bursts into a hysterical fit of laughter and takes cover in the shack. The guys, now armed with the sergeant's rifle, call for the lieutenant to surrender; while the sergeant prompts the lieutenant to die honorably rather than live in shame. Seeing what's happening, Dr. Nakamura asks TT to leave his son to do what he now plans. As American troops on the island are strafed by Japanese planes, Lt. Nakamura hobbles out in white kimono with his rifle, taunting "Joe" to shoot him. Doug can't bring himself to do it, but an arriving American Marine sergeant (Brent Davis) settles the matter for both of them. The guys call out that they're Americans, and Doug goes to the side of the dying lieutenant.

Doug: Why didn't you give up when you had the chance?​

Nakamura: I'm Japanese...Joe. I forgot that...but only for a while.​

Doug briefly explains the matter to the sergeant just before the guys disappear.

Doug: He was a man that was fighting his own private war, sergeant. And I think he's found his victory.​

The Japanese sergeant is billed as Itsugi, though I didn't catch the name being used. Unlike for previous episodes, the IMDb page has a wealth of screencaps.

---

The Invaders
"The Condemned"
Originally aired May 9, 1967
Season finale

David escapes from police custody to find the man he's accused of killing.

Morgan Tate (Ralph Bellamy) rummages through the safe of a darkened office, accompanied by underling Ed Peterson (Harlan Warde), and finds a file of interest. The two are spotted trying to sneak out of the plant and, after Tate opportunistically hides the file, confronted by several of them led by Lewis Dunn (Murray Hamilton). The humans manage to fight their way out, but their pickup is pursued by a sedan and run off a country road. A young girl (billed as Victoria [Debi Storm]) watches from her playhouse as Tate gets out of the vehicle and seeks cover, followed by Dunn's henchthem using their ray guns to disintegrate the truck with the unconscious Ed inside.

A little girl's story of a truck that melted and disappeared eventually reached the newspapers and the eyes of David Vincent. Aware that such things can happen in the nightmare world of the invaders, David Vincent had come here to Sands Point, Oregon [which looks absolutely nothing like Southern California]. And now, the nightmare enlarges as the girl describes a man seen running from the ill-fated truck; a man she had recognized as Morgan Tate, head of a nearby communications laboratory.

After talking to Victoria with her mother present, David heads for the plant, Peninsula Telecommunications Laboratories, where Dunn is overseeing a staff of them transmitting messages in various languages about new arrivals. Dunn sees Vincent in lieu of Tate, whom he's leasing most of the plant from, telling David that Tate is out of town. On his way out, David sees a couple of men working on an electric fence sending shocks through each other, following which he's jumped by the gate guard. The ensuing brawl reaches a fenced cliffside overlooking a beach, where several teenagers witness David hurling the guard (or an amazingly fake simulation) over the fence; but the guard disintegrates out of view, so the body isn't found. David is taken into custody by Detective Carter (Larry Ward), whom he insists take a look around inside the plant. John Finney (John Ragin) gives the detective a story about government contracts, and backs up Dunn when he claims that it was Morgan Tate whom Vincent threw off the cliff. David tries to tell his lawyer, Ed Tonkin (Wright King), about them, and speculates that they think Tate was disintegrated in the truck. The detective contrarily brings in a report that Tate's body was found in the waters near the lab.

The body at the morgue is facially deformed, so estranged daughter Carol Tate (Marlyn Mason), who hasn't seen her father in several years, is brought in to identify it. David tries to tell her that it's not her father, that he's still alive, and is taken away by Detective Reagan (Garry Walberg), whom he subsequently pushes down a flight of stairs to escape in a stolen car. While Dunn goes to talk to the Victoria to check out David's story, David pays a visit to Carol, trying to find out where her father might be hiding. She informs him that staying in hiding would be difficult for him because he's a diabetic. Carol is called to the plant on a story that she's needed to sign some papers, but Dunn wants info about a file that her father stole, informing her that he is alive and that she'll need to stay at the plant until her father contacts her. She cooperates, thinking that she's helping to stick one to her old man.

David persuades a pharmacy delivery boy (Kevin Burchett) to let him look at the store's files and finds Tate's motel room. He tries to get Tate to talk to him, but finds himself surrounded by the police. He tries to tell them that Tate is in the room, but Tate slips out the back window. After seeing a headline about how David is accused of his murder and reading that Carol identified his body, he calls her--being redirected to the plant--and she won't listen to what he tries to tell her, insisting that he return the file and handing the phone to Dunn; who, after she's left the room, offers Carol's well-being in return for the file.

(This screencap was not altered by an IMDb contributor.)

David finds himself in a police interrogation room with the detectives, District Attorney J. O. Brock (Paul Bryar), and...Mr. Tate, who gives the police a story about how he did fall off the cliff, and Mr. Vincent was just trying to help him; while underscoring that they have an unidentified body. Tate offers to put up David's bail for his remaining charges of assault on an officer and escaping arrest. Taking David to a bar to talk privately, Tate wants David to go to the plant as his middleman, tells him about the file, and starts to explain what Dunn and his people are, only for David to inform him that he already knows. Tate tells David that the file contains a list of eleven key alien leaders in positions of power, and how his plant is being used as a hub for transmitting messages to them from their mother planet. David agrees to help Tate to expose them if he can have the file.

At the plant by night, David negotiates the exchange of Tate, who's waiting in a cab outside, for his daughter. While she's being brought out, Tate explains to David how his daughter hates him because she holds him responsible for her alcoholic mother's suicide. Carol is taken away in the cab and Tate into the plant, but David returns to the plant and sneaks in. Tate stalls Dunn about the file until David's in position. When Tate produces the file, David leaps onto Dunn and Finney and a brawl ensues. Dunn takes a ray blast meant for David and disintegrates. David climbs out via an emergency ladder, and Tate is disintegration-blasted trying to follow. Finney sends out a transmission informing the home world that they're abandoning operations at communications HQ as they've lost Command Roster One.

Carol Tate had lost her father to a nameless enemy. But the enemy had also suffered a grave blow. They had lost Command Roster One. In the days that followed, eleven key aliens either resigned, disappeared, or died in a tragic accident, their bodies never to be recovered. The invaders' timetable for conquest had received a major setback.

David is let off the hook by the cops and visits Carol's hotel room as she's packing to return to...Boston. He tries to tell her that her father loved her very much, and offers to accompany her to the airport to tell her some things that she should know about him.

---

True. I wonder what we would have gotten if the show had continued. Aliens building Stonehenge, Paul Bunyan, the Flinstones....

Yo, Stony!

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One of the greatest one-season wonders ever:

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Half-season, actually...and from our upcoming 50th anniversary season. You may have brought it up before, but it's no wonder that I had no first-hand familiarity with it--it was up against Tony Orlando and Dawn (which was on at Grandma's) and Little House of the Prairie (which was on at home). I'm more familiar with it's timeslot replacements: The Bionic Woman and the first couople of episodes of Wonder Woman.

It should say "Over here!"-- minus the quotation marks. I assumed it was right because I used an online translator. I don't actually know Morse Code.

Ah, I was consulting a chart that didn't include punctuation marks. That is the code for an exclamation point, which looks like the letters K and W without a space between them.

I try.

The real question being, why haven't the police done the invaders' work for them by now?

She negotiated her own release somehow.

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Oh, okay. I don't like that idea because I believe in free will. At least I think I do.

They still have free will. They just can't change their own history because their actions were already a part of it.

 

[RJDiogenes]

Tony injures his ankle as the duo land on what they quickly learn is WWII Japan's tropic island nest.

I'm surprised they don't get landing injuries more often. And the risk increases with age. Imagine if they're still leaping in their 60s or 70s.

a younger Japanese man in a blue flight suit (Mako)

Multiple roles on M*A*S*H and a zillion other places.

Kirk identifies two of the American battleships (one of which, the Illinois, was never completed in our world

That's interesting.

The lieutenant then decides to up the stakes by going full Most Dangerous Game

This sounds kind of familiar, actually.

TT frets that they won't be able to keep a fix on the guys while they're moving around the island

They're always moving around. Irwin won't let them sit still for a minute.

Dr. Nakamura (Philip Ahn)

Master Kaaaan.

brought in by the Japanese consulate

He worked at the Japanese consulate or lived nearby? That's mighty convenient.

(The grenades are mostly treated the same as American grenades, though IMDb indicates that they were armed differently, and they only got this right once in the episode.)

That's weird. I can understand them getting a detail like that wrong, but if they got it right once then they should have gotten it right all the time.

Back in '68, Dr. Nakamura is revived by a TT medic

What, he fainted when he saw his kid?

his son was a failed kamikaze pilot who crash-landed on the island and was left there on Dr. Nakamura's own orders with the expectation that he would commit hara-kiri

Wow.

the guys decide they have to risk going back to the radio to arrange a rescue from the fleet

Why not just hide until TT plucks them out?

They split up

Do they know that TT prefers them together?

Lt. Nakamura finds Doug and takes shots at him, forcing him to take cover in a cave.

Where he meets an even bigger spider.

using his knowledge of the island to help them get a fix on one of their men

What special knowledge would he have that TT couldn't get from their own government intel?

the sergeant prompts the lieutenant to die honorably rather than live in shame

Geez, everybody wants this poor guy to die. No wonder he's angry.

Doug: He was a man that was fighting his own private war, sergeant. And I think he's found his victory.

Well, this was an unusually dramatic and sad episode.

I wonder what they did with the random Japanese consulate guy who now knows all about the Time Tunnel program. "If we leave you on a tropical island, will you commit hara-kiri for us?"

The Japanese sergeant is billed as Itsugi, though I didn't catch the name being used. Unlike for previous episodes, the IMDb page has a wealth of screencaps.

That spider looks so real.

henchthem

Good one.

using their ray guns to disintegrate the truck

Have they used disintegrator rays before?

On his way out, David sees a couple of men working on an electric fence sending shocks through each other

Does this have any story significance or are they just a couple of Stooges?

John Finney (John Ragin)

I think he's that guy on Quincy.

David tries to tell his lawyer

He's got a lawyer, or did the court appoint one at record speed? Come to think of it, the way he operates, he should have a lawyer sidekick who's a regular on the show.

he subsequently pushes down a flight of stairs to escape in a stolen car

See? This is what I mean.

She cooperates, thinking that she's helping to stick one to her old man.

"Need to rob a bank? I can help with that too."

He tries to get Tate to talk to him, but finds himself surrounded by the police.

Because they followed him or because they figured out the diabetes angle too?

(This screencap was not altered by an IMDb contributor.)

The story about the dog shooting his master sounds like the sort of thing that David would investigate.

Taking David to a bar to talk privately, Tate wants David to go to the plant as his middleman, tells him about the file, and starts to explain what Dunn and his people are, only for David to inform him that he already knows.

"You're... you're a fellow kook?"

Tate tells David that the file contains a list of eleven key alien leaders in positions of power, and how his plant is being used as a hub for transmitting messages to them from their mother planet. David agrees to help Tate to expose them if he can have the file.

Yeah, that's some pretty good intel. I wonder what "positions of power" means.

Tate is disintegration-blasted trying to follow.

Presumably along with the file, which David never got a look at.

Finney sends out a transmission informing the home world

Well, I guess this confirms that they do have a home world.

David is let off the hook by the cops

Again.

visits Carol's hotel room as she's packing to return to...Boston.

For the Springtime....

He tries to tell her that her father loved her very much, and offers to accompany her to the airport to tell her some things that she should know about him.

"Like me, he believed that Space Aliens are trying to take over the world."

Yo, Stony!

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Well, how about that?

Half-season, actually...

Yeah, it was the Police Squad! of 1975.

You may have brought it up before, but it's no wonder that I had no first-hand familiarity with it--it was up against Tony Orlando and Dawn (which was on at Grandma's) and Little House of the Prairie (which was on at home).

It's on DVD. And well worth it.

Ah, I was consulting a chart that didn't include punctuation marks. That is the code for an exclamation point, which looks like the letters K and W without a space between them.

I just copied and pasted from the translator.

The real question being, why haven't the police done the invaders' work for them by now?

Mr Phelps wants him alive and free to travel apparently.

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It would have made quite a season finale.

They still have free will. They just can't change their own history because their actions were already a part of it.

But these were all events that took place before they were born, so their entire existence is predetermined-- at least up to the point of cancellation.

 

[The Old Mixer]

I'm surprised they don't get landing injuries more often. And the risk increases with age. Imagine if they're still leaping in their 60s or 70s.

Maybe they get the O'Connor option after a certain age.

That's interesting.

Or just a goof.

This sounds kind of familiar, actually.

Everybody does it.

He worked at the Japanese consulate or lived nearby? That's mighty convenient.

Unclear. Maybe they had him flown in.

What, he fainted when he saw his kid?

Yeah.

Do they know that TT prefers them together?

Good question. TT hasn't had much opportunity to communicate with them, but Doug and Tony seem pretty knowledgeable about their various types of attempts to send things back and whatnot.

Where he meets an even bigger spider.

Skippered.

What special knowledge would he have that TT couldn't get from their own government intel?

First-hand lay of the land.

Well, this was an unusually dramatic and sad episode.

My initial instinct upon seeing the episode summary was to dismiss it as a "Japanese soldier left on an island" story with a time travel twist, but it proved to be much more.

I wonder what they did with the random Japanese consulate guy who now knows all about the Time Tunnel program. "If we leave you on a tropical island, will you commit hara-kiri for us?"

They don't seem too concerned about bringing outsiders in left, right, and center.

Have they used disintegrator rays before?

Yeah. Conveniently, things they disintegrate always go up in a red glow the same as they do.

Does this have any story significance or are they just a couple of Stooges?

There was no explanation of what they were doing, but it was David's clue that the place was infiltrated and instigated the plot-central fight with the guard.

I think he's that guy on Quincy.

Apparently so.

He's got a lawyer, or did the court appoint one at record speed? Come to think of it, the way he operates, he should have a lawyer sidekick who's a regular on the show.

Lawyer of the Week. He seemed to be unfamiliar with David and his schtick.

"Need to rob a bank? I can help with that too."

She seemed pretty blind to the fact that they were actually holding her hostage. They presented the scenario forcibly enough to raise some red flags.

Because they followed him or because they figured out the diabetes angle too?

Must've been the former, because they didn't believe Tate was still alive. Might've been tipped off by the pharmacy after the fact.

"You're... you're a fellow kook?"

Pretty much how it was played!

Yeah, that's some pretty good intel. I wonder what "positions of power" means.

"I shall not seek, and I will not accept..."

Presumably along with the file, which David never got a look at.

Actually, David grabbed it before climbing the ladder and got away with it.

Well, I guess this confirms that they do have a home world.

We know that from the opening credits, where it's described as dying.

"Like me, he believed that Space Aliens are trying to take over the world."

Actually, it seems that he was planning to drop that bomb on her; he phrased it in terms of preparing her for what she was going to be learning about him. I assume that would have involved David having shared the file with the authorities.

I should note that we're now done with The Invaders for the current hiatus season; I'm planning to cover Season 2 next year, provided I can stay in fresh recordings. I'm on course to get through most of the rest of The Time Tunnel, but with a handful of outstanding episodes when the new 50th anniversary viewing season begins. I'd like to get those finished in the nearer term if possible, but we'll see.

Well, how about that?

I didn't know offhand if he'd appeared on the show, but I remembered that they sometimes featured celebrity guests, including musical acts, as Bedrocked versions of themselves; and he was a teen idol with a singing career at the time; so I did a quick search and sure enough, there it was!

But these were all events that took place before they were born, so their entire existence is predetermined-- at least up to the point of cancellation.

But they have a role in the determining. They don't know about the details of their involvement in history beforehand.

 

[RJDiogenes]

Maybe they get the O'Connor option after a certain age.

If Al is merciful.

Or just a goof.

It seems very specific, though, since it was under construction. I'm remembering a story I wrote set in the 1930s that included an airship-- only four existed, so I researched what the next one would have been. But I have no idea what motivation the TT writers would have for doing that.

Everybody does it.

Well, there's that.

Unclear. Maybe they had him flown in.

From Japan? Things move fast on this show!

Good question. TT hasn't had much opportunity to communicate with them, but Doug and Tony seem pretty knowledgeable about their various types of attempts to send things back and whatnot.

And they're still not talking. This is so weird to me. I wonder how many total episodes used audio communication.

Skippered.

First-hand lay of the land.

I guess. It was a little contrived.

My initial instinct upon seeing the episode summary was to dismiss it as a "Japanese soldier left on an island" story with a time travel twist, but it proved to be much more.

Yes, it was surprising.

They don't seem too concerned about bringing outsiders in left, right, and center.

They're as bad as Steve Austin.

She seemed pretty blind to the fact that they were actually holding her hostage. They presented the scenario forcibly enough to raise some red flags.

Kind of a recurring theme on this show. A similar thing happened in that diseased-alien episode.

"I shall not seek, and I will not accept..."

Good thing he didn't self destruct the White House.

Actually, David grabbed it before climbing the ladder and got away with it.

That's interesting. Although we'll probably never hear another word about it.

We know that from the opening credits, where it's described as dying.

True, but that doesn't mean they have access to it. This whole operation could be a desperate one-way mission. They could be trying the same thing on a dozen planets. Yes, I'm reaching.

I didn't know offhand if he'd appeared on the show, but I remembered that they sometimes featured celebrity guests, including musical acts, as Bedrocked versions of themselves; and he was a teen idol with a singing career at the time; so I did a quick search and sure enough, there it was!

Pretty serendipitous.

But they have a role in the determining. They don't know about the details of their involvement in history beforehand.

Exactly! I think. I don't know.

 

[The Old Mixer]

50 Years Ago This Week


August 31

• The largest robbery of bus passengers in history netted $35,000 worth of cash, coins and jewelry in what was described as "a 1975 version of a stagecoach holdup". Two armed bandits were among the 38 passengers on a Greyhound bus that was en route from Chicago to Toronto when the robbery took place near Detroit, taking an estimated $20,000 in cash and $15,000 in other valuables from people who chose not to fly.

September 1

• Space: 1999, a syndicated science fiction program produced in the United Kingdom by ITC Entertainment and the Italian company RAI, made its first appearance worldwide. Authorized for release worldwide in the month of September, the show was broadcast on some television stations on the first day of the month, including WGAN, channel 13 in Portland, Maine, which premiered it at 8:00 p.m. Eastern time. According to ITC, the show was distributed to 101 nations and was syndicated to 148 U.S. television markets alone. In most of the United Kingdom, Space: 1999 debuted on September 4 at 7:00 p.m. on some of the regions in the ITV network.

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​

• The Concorde became the first airplane to cross the Atlantic Ocean four times in a single day. The supersonic aircraft flew the 2,375 miles from London to Gander, Newfoundland in 2 hours, 19 minutes, refueled and received maintenance, and flew back. The double crossing was completed 13 hours and 59 minutes after it began.
• Ursus arctos horribilis, the North American brown bear, more commonly known at the grizzly bear, was placed on the U.S. Endangered Species List as a "threatened species".

September 4

• The Sinai Interim Agreement was signed in Geneva by Major General Taha Magdoub for Egypt, and Major General Herzl Shafir for Israel, along with the ambassadors to Switzerland from the two nations, after having been initialed earlier in the week by Israel's Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Egypt's President Anwar Sadat. Under the agreement, a 25 kilometer wide buffer zone was created in the Sinai Peninsula, to be patrolled by United Nations Emergency Force troops, and separating the armies of the two nations.
• Died: Walter Tetley, 60, American actor whose "perennially adolescent voice" allowed him to portray children on radio shows (The Great Gildersleeve) and in cartoons, most notably as "Sherman" on The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show

September 5

• In Sacramento, California, Lynette Fromme, a follower of jailed cult leader Charles Manson, attempted to assassinate U.S. President Gerald Ford, but was thwarted by United States Secret Service agent Larry M. Buendorf. Fromme was three feet away from the President as he walked through a crowd near the California State Capitol building at 10:00 am local time, pointed a .45 caliber automatic pistol at his chest and pulled the trigger, but had failed to operate the slide mechanism to put a cartridge into the firing chamber. Buendorf would report later that Fromme, realizing her mistake, said, "Oh, shit, it didn't go off; it didn't go off." Fromme would serve 34 years in prison, and would be released, at age 60, on August 14, 2009.

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​

September 6

• Wings performed a private live concert for 1,200 employees of EMI at Elstree Film Studios, as a warm-up for the opening British leg of their world tour.

Selections from Billboard's Hot 100 for the week:

1. "Rhinestone Cowboy," Glen Campbell
2. "Fallin' in Love," Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds
3. "Get Down Tonight," KC & The Sunshine Band
4. "At Seventeen," Janis Ian
5. "How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You)," James Taylor
6. "Jive Talkin'," Bee Gees
7. "Fame," David Bowie
8. "Fight the Power, Pt. 1," The Isley Brothers
9. "Could It Be Magic," Barry Manilow
10. "One of These Nights," Eagles
11. "Wasted Days and Wasted Nights," Freddy Fender
12. "Feel Like Makin' Love," Bad Company
13. "That's the Way of the World," Earth, Wind & Fire
14. "Ballroom Blitz," Sweet
15. "I'm Sorry," John Denver
16. "Third Rate Romance," Amazing Rhythm Aces
17. "Holdin' On to Yesterday," Ambrosia
18. "Someone Saved My Life Tonight," Elton John
19. "Run Joey Run," David Geddes
20. "Tush," ZZ Top
21. "Solitaire," Carpenters

23. "(I Believe) There's Nothing Stronger Than Our Love," Paul Anka w/ Odia Coates
24. "Daisy Jane," America
25. "Dance with Me," Orleans
26. "Feelings," Morris Albert

28. "Ain't No Way to Treat a Lady," Helen Reddy
29. "How Long (Betcha' Got a Chick on the Side)," The Pointer Sisters
30. "Why Can't We Be Friends?," War
31. "It Only Takes a Minute," Tavares
32. "Love Will Keep Us Together," Captain & Tenille
33. "Rocky," Austin Roberts
34. "Games People Play," The Spinners
35. "Gone at Last," Paul Simon / Phoebe Snow & The Jessy Dixon Singers
36. "Help Me Rhonda," Johnny Rivers
37. "Please Mr. Please," Olivia Newton-John
38. "Brazil," The Ritchie Family

41. "Lady Blue," Leon Russell

43. "Do It Any Way You Wanna," Peoples Choice
44. "Main Title (Theme from 'Jaws')," John Williams

49. "Mr. Jaws," Dickie Goodman
50. "Miracles," Jefferson Starship
51. "I'm Not in Love," 10cc

53. "What a Diff'rence a Day Makes," Esther Phillips

55. "I Only Have Eyes for You," Art Garfunkel

57. "Sweet Maxine," The Doobie Brothers

62. "Katmandu," Bob Seger

66. "Who Loves You," The Four Seasons

71. "Rockin' All Over the World," John Fogerty
72. "This Will Be (An Everlasting Love)," Natalie Cole

76. "Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain," Willie Nelson
77. "Sky High," Jigsaw

81. "Out of Time," The Rolling Stones

90. "I Want'a Do Something Freaky to You," Leon Haywood
91. "Eighteen with a Bullet," Pete Wingfield

99. "SOS," ABBA

Leaving the chart:

• "Listen to What the Man Said," Wings (14 weeks)
• "Midnight Blue," Melissa Manchester (17 weeks)
• "The Rockford Files," Mike Post (16 weeks)
• "Send in the Clowns," Judy Collins (11 weeks)

Re-entering the chart:

• "SOS," ABBA

Recent and new on the chart:

"Out of Time," The Rolling Stones

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(Aug. 23; #81 US; #45 UK)

"I Want'a Do Something Freaky to You," Leon Haywood

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(#15 US; #7 R&B; #53 UK)

"Mr. Jaws," Dickie Goodman

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(#4 US)


And new on the boob tube:

• Shazam!, "On Winning" (Season 2 premiere)

---

Timeline entries are quoted from the Wiki page for the month and Mark Lewisohn's The Beatles Day by Day, with minor editing as needed.

---

If Al is merciful.

Oh, boy...

It seems very specific, though, since it was under construction. I'm remembering a story I wrote set in the 1930s that included an airship-- only four existed, so I researched what the next one would have been. But I have no idea what motivation the TT writers would have for doing that.

I'm not giving them credit for having any kind of intent here, beyond maybe it being somebody's home state. There had been a pre-turn-of-the-century vintage Battleship Illinois, FWIW, but it hadn't been in service for 25 years at that point.

From Japan? Things move fast on this show!

Don't forget the more sundry potential of their time machine....

And they're still not talking. This is so weird to me. I wonder how many total episodes used audio communication.

I was anticipating they'd pull it out in the Iwo Jima episode, but it didn't happen.

I was gonna say that sitcoms don't do Most Dangerous Game episodes, but I think GI did one, didn't they?

I guess. It was a little contrived.

On this show? Perish forbid!

They're as bad as Steve Austin.

Whose security-breaching hijinks we'll soon be reacquainting ourselves with....

Kind of a recurring theme on this show. A similar thing happened in that diseased-alien episode.

In that case, he was making an effort to snowjob her...a young, supposedly innocent guy in trouble. It was understandable that she'd fall for it. Here, creepy older guys were effectively holding her forcefully and not trying very hard to hide it, but she didn't bat an eyelash.

Good thing he didn't self destruct the White House.

That's still about a year in the future for The Invaders, FWIW. The quoted speech will be given five days after the last new episode airs.

Exactly! I think. I don't know.

I'll point out that the Russian Time Tunnel episode wouldn't have been possible if the past the guys travel into wasn't their own.

Connecting the career dots, tonight Me is playing a 1966 episode of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea with Guest Android...


Also, I forgot to mention in a timely manner that they're playing the Robin Hood episode of TTT again tonight.

 

[RJDiogenes]

The largest robbery of bus passengers in history netted $35,000 worth of cash, coins and jewelry in what was described as "a 1975 version of a stagecoach holdup". Two armed bandits were among the 38 passengers on a Greyhound bus that was en route from Chicago to Toronto when the robbery took place near Detroit, taking an estimated $20,000 in cash and $15,000 in other valuables from people who chose not to fly.

That's quite a haul for a bus, especially in 1975, just under a thousand bucks apiece. I wonder if they got away with it.

Space: 1999, a syndicated science fiction program produced in the United Kingdom by ITC Entertainment and the Italian company RAI, made its first appearance worldwide.

Good cast, especially Martin Landau, but wow, how did this ever get made?

Ursus arctos horribilis, the North American brown bear, more commonly known at the grizzly bear, was placed on the U.S. Endangered Species List as a "threatened species".

Yogi and Boo Boo were taken into protective custody at an undisclosed location.

In Sacramento, California, Lynette Fromme, a follower of jailed cult leader Charles Manson, attempted to assassinate U.S. President Gerald Ford, but was thwarted by United States Secret Service agent Larry M. Buendorf. Fromme was three feet away from the President as he walked through a crowd near the California State Capitol building at 10:00 am local time, pointed a .45 caliber automatic pistol at his chest and pulled the trigger, but had failed to operate the slide mechanism to put a cartridge into the firing chamber.

Seems more like Squeaky was thwarted by Squeaky's own stupidity.

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"He had a vague, bewildered look...."

"Out of Time," The Rolling Stones

I don't know if I ever heard this before or not.

"I Want'a Do Something Freaky to You," Leon Haywood

I'm sure I never heard this one, but I think I recognize that girl from about a half dozen other songs.

"Mr. Jaws," Dickie Goodman

So silly, but ya can't help but laugh.

Oh, boy...

I'm not giving them credit for having any kind of intent here, beyond maybe it being somebody's home state.

That's a good thought, though.

Don't forget the more sundry potential of their time machine....

That's true. Of course, considering the unreliability of their targeting system, they'd probably just end up compounding their problems.

I was gonna say that sitcoms don't do Most Dangerous Game episodes, but I think GI did one, didn't they?

They did indeed.

On this show? Perish forbid!

Whose security-breaching hijinks we'll soon be reacquainting ourselves with....

Super groovy!

In that case, he was making an effort to snowjob her...a young, supposedly innocent guy in trouble. It was understandable that she'd fall for it. Here, creepy older guys were effectively holding her forcefully and not trying very hard to hide it, but she didn't bat an eyelash.

Yeah, it's not exactly the same, it just seems to be a commonality in the way the writers think.

I'll point out that the Russian Time Tunnel episode wouldn't have been possible if the past the guys travel into wasn't their own.

Hmm, true....

Connecting the career dots, tonight Me is playing a 1966 episode of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea with Guest Android...

I actually set that one to record, but I didn't realize that he was in it.

Also, I forgot to mention in a timely manner that they're playing the Robin Hood episode of TTT again tonight.

I don't think I noticed that one.

 

[Kraig]

"Out of Time," The Rolling Stones

I don't know if I ever heard this before or not.



Also in a recent motion picture soundtrack.
Rolling Stones - Out of Time (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood)

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[The Old Mixer]

That's quite a haul for a bus, especially in 1975, just under a thousand bucks apiece. I wonder if they got away with it.

Interesting...I hadn't thought to do the math.

Good cast, especially Martin Landau, but wow, how did this ever get made?

I take it you're not a fan? I guess the scientific absurdity of the show's premise might be a dealbreaker.

This one blindsided me because it's not on the network TV schedule for the season. I had the show roster for the impending 50th anniversary season at a comfortable size, so I'm not sure about fitting this in. I didn't watch it in the day, but it's on Peacock, and it intrigues me in immersive retro context...seems like easily the closest thing to Trek to come along since Trek (direct spinoff TAS notwithstanding). I might want to try to fit it into next year's hiatus season. From what I was reading, because it was syndicated, airdates varied wildly, so there wouldn't be definitive ones to go by alongside the other shows anyway.

Yogi and Boo Boo were taken into protective custody at an undisclosed location.

I was thinking of John Adams and Ben.

Seems more like Squeaky was thwarted by Squeaky's own stupidity.

Personal recollection is starting to become a bit more vivid now. I distinctly recall hearing about this secondhand from my Grandma, and I have a distinct memory of hearing "Mr. Jaws" at a school friend's house. (I'm starting kindergarten about now in 50th Anniversaryland.)

"He had a vague, bewildered look...."

I think most of us would lose bowel control in that situation.

I don't know if I ever heard this before or not.

This is another release from the Stones' old record company ABKCO's Metamorphosis compilation; an alternate version of a song that was released on the UK version of Aftermath in '66 and the Flowers compilation in '67. The '75 version, however, isn't really a Stones recording at all. From what I read, it combines the instrumental track of a version that was a UK hit for a guy named Chris Farlowe with a demo vocal that Jagger recorded.

I'm sure I never heard this one, but I think I recognize that girl from about a half dozen other songs.

I already had this, but it's completely unrecognizable and isn't doing much for me.

So silly, but ya can't help but laugh.

This one I don't have, but I'll probably change that for the novelty value and first-hand experience.

Super groovy!

I'm surprised you didn't make any cracks about the return of Shazam!

I actually set that one to record, but I didn't realize that he was in it.

Whoops, spoiler!

I don't think I noticed that one.

Well, if you're intrigued by any recently or about-to-be covered episodes, they should be coming up shortly on Me. Next week they'll be running the Japanese island episode.

Also in a recent motion picture soundtrack.
Rolling Stones - Out of Time (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood)

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I spotted Not Michelle and Cass in that clip. If they used the '75 version of the song in the film, that was a total anachronism for the reasons described above.

 

[RJDiogenes]

Also in a recent motion picture soundtrack.
Rolling Stones - Out of Time (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood)

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Cool. I never saw that one.

I take it you're not a fan? I guess the scientific absurdity of the show's premise might be a dealbreaker.

So many things wrong. I did watch it for a while, but I'm not really a fan-- not that I hate it. It's just kind of bewildering. It's as ludicrous as a Marvin the Martian cartoon, but it's played so straight and solemn.

This one blindsided me because it's not on the network TV schedule for the season. I had the show roster for the impending 50th anniversary season at a comfortable size, so I'm not sure about fitting this in. I didn't watch it in the day, but it's on Peacock, and it intrigues me in immersive retro context...seems like easily the closest thing to Trek to come along since Trek (direct spinoff TAS notwithstanding). I might want to try to fit it into next year's hiatus season.

I think it would be kind of interesting and amusing to go through it.

From what I was reading, because it was syndicated, airdates varied wildly, so there wouldn't be definitive ones to go by alongside the other shows anyway.

I think it was on early Saturday evenings around here, maybe 6pm. But I can't remember which channel it was on. Channel 56 would be the best fit, but I don't know if they could afford a first-run show in those days. Possibly Channel 5.

I was thinking of John Adams and Ben.

True, the White House would be a pretty safe refuge for a brown bear.

I have a distinct memory of hearing "Mr. Jaws" at a school friend's house. (I'm starting kindergarten about now in 50th Anniversaryland.)

There were several of those type of novelty songs around then. I don't know if there's a particular name for them. But the fad came and went pretty quickly.

I think most of us would lose bowel control in that situation.

They probably wouldn't report on that.

The '75 version, however, isn't really a Stones recording at all. From what I read, it combines the instrumental track of a version that was a UK hit for a guy named Chris Farlowe with a demo vocal that Jagger recorded.

The Stones' version of Tusk.

I'm surprised you didn't make any cracks about the return of Shazam!

I didn't realize he'd be back too. Double super-groovy.

Whoops, spoiler!

Nah, I don't care about spoilers.

Well, if you're intrigued by any recently or about-to-be covered episodes, they should be coming up shortly on Me. Next week they'll be running the Japanese island episode.

I don't think my Mother is too interested in TT. Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea is the only Irwin Allen show that she likes. Although I did record a Land of the Giants that has Broderick Crawford in it.

 

[The Old Mixer]

---

Post-58th Anniversary Viewing

---

The Time Tunnel
"Visitors from Beyond the Stars"
Originally aired January 13, 1967

In 1885 Arizona, aliens force Tony and Doug to help them deplete the Earth's protein foodstuffs.

The guys tumble out in the control complex of a highly advanced spacecraft, estimating that they must be about 300 years in the future. As they prepare to look around, they're frozen and two silver-skinned and -suited aliens, Centauri and Taureg (Jan Merlin and Fred Beir) appear (the suits being modified versions of the Robinsons'). For once the issue of language is addressed, as the aliens speak netsil, netsil, nam, sgnidrocer sdrawkcab ni, so they have the travelers step into a "translation circuit" to facilitate communication. Even translated, the aliens talk in a robot-like cadence. The guys explain that they teleported aboard because they're time travelers, while the aliens explain that they're from Alpha 1, and are planning a preliminary raid of the protein sources that their world needs on Planet 1-6, aka...you know...where the current year, it turns out, is 1885. Back at TT, where they can see exterior shots of the spinning spacecraft (which looks kinda like the JLA Satellite), everyone finds this to be an eye-opener. (IMDb indicates that musical cues from The Day the Earth Stood Still are used when the spacecraft is shown.)

The aliens take the guys with them as they transport down to the dusty farm of Jess Crawford (Tris Coffin), for whom they display their ability to start fires remotely after Tony talks them out of harming him on the grounds that such an action might incite the humans of the era to destroy their own foodstuffs in defiance. They declare Crawford to be their prisoner and commandeer his farm as their test base. After Tony slugs the resisting farmer to save him from being blasted, the aliens send Tony to the nearby town of Mullins, Arizona, to deliver their ultimatum that the town be turned over to them with all protein intact. The sheriff (Ross Elliott) is preoccupied with an impending Apache raid, and thinks Tony's out of his mind. When an explosion rocks the town, setting fire to several buildings, the sheriff assumes that Tony is reponsible and has him locked up. In 1968, TT fails to dig up any UFO reports from Mullins in 1885, only that the town was completely deserted under mysterious circumstances in 1885, and is now an historic ghost town.

At the farm, the aliens communicate with the waiting invasion force. Doug enlists Crawford's aid in creating a distraction so that he can attempt to get the aliens' weapon from them outside; but this backfires when Crawford tries to attack the weapon-carrying alien who stays outside, and the farmer killed. In town, Tony gives a story about being a reporter to get deputy Sam Colt (Gary Haynes) to come carelessly close to the cell, so Tony can choke-hold him and escape. He forces the sheriff at shotgun-point to escort him out of town on horseback, but they run into a skirmish between the Apaches and a cavalry company defending the town. (Source of footage unidentified, but it looks like it was shot in Monument Valley or a similar-looking scenic location.)

After a struggle over the shotgun, Tony tries to get the sheriff to come back to the Crawford ranch with him, but the sheriff just rides away. Tony returns to the ranch, reporting failure to convince the locals, and finds that Doug's been reprogrammed again, this time into a cooperative underling of the aliens. The foursome teleport to the local saloon, where the aliens demonstrate their power by making a cowboy go up in a puff of smoke, then deliver their demands to the sheriff. The aliens put Tony in charge of having the town's protein materials collected in the street.

Tony goes to the sheriff's office to find him packing to leave, and tries to persuade him to stay and help get the weapon from the aliens. But Deputy Colt has been reprogrammed and fires at them, and Tony overcomes him with a bit of help from the sheriff. Centauri takes Doug to a herd of cattle and puts them in suspension. Tony plots to create a distraction for Taureg so the sheriff can shoot the alien's multipurpose "projector". Saloon proprietor Williams (Byron Foulger) is supposed to be standing lookout, but when Centauri and Doug return, he squeals about Tony's plan to curry favor with his new overlords. A brief brawl between Doug and Tony ensues, which gets Tony close enough to Taureg to grab the projector. Tony smashes the device on the ground rather than risk the aliens retaking it. Doug comes out of his spell and the aliens niaga sdrawkcab gniklat trats.

TT's about to try to transfer the guys when two other aliens appear in the control room, accompanied by dramatic lighting. The alien leader (John Hoyt) demands cooperation in investigating the disappearance of their spacecraft in 1885, dropping a reference to humans having already made it to the Moon in 1968. In an attempt to appease them and evade their wrath, Kirk has the crew bring up a TunnelVision image to prove the alien spacecraft left Earth safely, despite the leader creating threatening wind and lightning that just makes it harder for them. The alien explains that they no longer need food from primative planets and he and his crony teleport out. Back in 1885, the sheriff declares his intention to have the town abandoned and keep mum about the invasion before Tony and Doug are pulled out.

Photos from the episode:

Visitors from Beyond the Stars (1967)

Jan Merlin in The Time Tunnel (1966)

www.imdb.com

---

The Time Tunnel
"The Ghost of Nero"
Originally aired January 20, 1967

In 1915, the travelers try to keep the ghost of Nero from taking revenge on a descendant of Nero's rival.

The guys tumble out into what they quickly realize from local military movements is the Alps during World War I. They duck into a cellar to take refuge from shelling, only for the building to be hit, pinning them under debris. A tomb inscribed with the name Nero is disturbed, the lid opening to reveal remains and a blade floating out to menace the unconscious Tony and Doug. (Yes, Robin Hood and His Merries were indeed only the beginning.)

The guys awaken after being touched by the blade and find the tomb, but promptly have to hide from German soldiers at the window. One of the soldiers investigates the basement and drops dead upon approaching the tomb. TT determine that the guys are in 1915, but find another "life force" dominating their readings. Spotted and attempting to hide from reinforcements, the guys fall against a trick wall and find themselves in a hidden chamber conveniently stocked with a candle and matches, as well as more human remains. A piece of armor that dates back to Imperial Rome draws their attention by moving a bit. The guys find an alternate way out, into the study of Count Enrico Galba (Eduardo Ciannelli). They quickly explain how the Germans are looking for them in the belief that they killed the soldier when the German unit, led by Major Neistadt (Gunnar Hellstrom), comes knocking at the count's door. The count pulls nobility on the major and attempts to pass the guys off as his guests, claiming that there have been looters in the house.

The Germans set up a post in another room and the count, recognizing them as being from the signal corps, determines that they're setting up an observation post, which will place the villa in danger of attack by the advancing Italian army. The guys find the means to trigger the secret door again, which the count knows nothing about. While Tony scouts if the catacomb can now be used as an exit route, Doug tells the count about Nero's tomb, which the noble dismisses as nonsense. Back in '68, the TT crew learn that the Villa Galba was destroyed in a bombardment on October 23, which they are then able to determine through the strange interference as being the exact date the guys are in. At the villa, the door to the study begins to rattle and knock...which the Germans aren't responsible for. Sgt. Mueller (Richard Jaeckel) investigates only for a wind to pass over him, following which his demeanor changes. He enters the study to confront the count about being the descendant of Emperor Galba, who forced him to flee from Rome, leading to his death; and after slugging Doug, begins to throttle the count in the name of Nero!

After Doug rejoins the fray, he finds himself becoming the throttlee. Tony jumps out of the passage and finds his TV Fu ineffective against the possessed sergeant. It takes the two of them delivering a pair of synchronized double-punches to overcome their foe. The major enters to a scene that doesn't look good for the guys, but just as the sergeant resumes swearing revenge, the breeze passes through again, which the major holds responsible for the rattling and knocking that has the count and his guests babbling about the titular apparition. The sergeant revives outside with no memory of what he'd been doing. In '68, Swain finds that the unexplainable force was peaking when the sergeant was fighting Tony and Doug. Ann digs up reported quote of Nero swearing revenge against descendants of Galba. She and Swain convince a skeptical Kirk to summon a university researcher in supernatural phenomena named Steinholtz (John Hoyt in glasses and a droopy mustache), who's introduced to TunnelVision as the count and the guys descend back into the catacomb, braving the dangers of both the ghost and lingering German soldiers. Dr. Steinholtz determines that they may be dealing with a poltergeist.

As Tony scouts ahead, the other two find themselves trapped in the catacomb and confronted by the ghost, who hurls objects at them that Doug swats away with a candelabra. After they find another way out, Tony returns and the winds sweeps over him--giving Darren the chance to play temporary bad guy this week as Tony rises possessed by the spirit. As Not-So-Tony methodically pursues the other two through the catacombs, at one point hurling a small object at them, Galba starts to experience chest pains, which continue after they reach the safety of the count's study. At Steinholtz's suggestion, Kirk authorizes Swain to attempt the risky maneuver of sending a power surge through the Tunnel into Tony, to force the spirit out of his body. This works...

...but readings indicate that Tony may be dying. When they try to pull him back, a windstorm whipping up in the complex indicates that they've pulled in the poltergeist instead. They make a nonsensical effort to try to send the spirit back, but in order to drive it into the Tunnel, Kirk follows Steinholtz's advice again and brings in MPs with flame guns (not conventional flamethrowers, but submachinegun-sized weapons with coils hanging from them and no attached tanks).

Ann tries to set the controls to the day Nero died in 68 A.D., but the Tunnel is forcefully set to 1915 instead. When the returned spirit resumes its assault on the count, Galba boldly addresses Nero, taunting him to turn his fury on the Hun invaders instead--the Germans. The ghost doesn't buy it, and when it starts to physically attack the count, Doug steps in and, after tossing several punches into the air, actually makes contact and knocks the invisible apparition into a couch--because his TV Fu is just that good! Doug and the count return to the catacomb to find a reviving Tony, and the trio proceeds to the cellar. They brawl with the German guards stationed there, the last one being taken down by a shot through the window from an Italian soldier. Two Italians crawl in, a corporal (Nino Candido) agreeing to have the count taken to a hospital. The guys lead him to the observation post, which he raids. Major Neistadt tries to escape into the study, only to be attacked by the spirit. The Italian corporal follows him there and shoots him dead, following which the spirit enters his body. As Tony and Doug catch up, they find the corporal talking of driving the Huns out so Caesar can return. Tony asks the corporal a question...

As the corporal walks off, Tony and Doug disappear.

This episode had "shoulda aired in October" written all over it.

IMDb photos:

The Ghost of Nero (1967)

Robert Colbert in The Time Tunnel (1966)

www.imdb.com

---

It's as ludicrous as a Marvin the Martian cartoon, but it's played so straight and solemn.

This was from the same producer who brought us all those marionette shows, which, from what I've seen of them, were also played with a straight face.

I think it would be kind of interesting and amusing to go through it.

Any preference as to whether I should try to squeeze it into the main season or save it for the next hiatus?

I think it was on early Saturday evenings around here, maybe 6pm. But I can't remember which channel it was on. Channel 56 would be the best fit, but I don't know if they could afford a first-run show in those days. Possibly Channel 5.

I had limited exposure to it, mainly via commercials. I recall seeing part of an episode at a relative's house.

True, the White House would be a pretty safe refuge for a brown bear.

And that would be why he went by a colorful nickname.

There were several of those type of novelty songs around then. I don't know if there's a particular name for them. But the fad came and went pretty quickly.

Actually, Dickie Goodman originated this style of novelty record back in the '50s, his first hit, with Bill Buchanan, being 1956's "The Flying Saucer," which used early rock 'n ' roll songs.

The Stones' version of Tusk.

The album or the song, and how so? Both were intentional releases of Fleetwood Mac, not a scrapped-together recording created without their consent after the fact.

I didn't realize he'd be back too. Double super-groovy.

And new on the boob tube:

• Shazam!, "On Winning" (Season 2 premiere)

 

[RJDiogenes]

"Visitors from Beyond the Stars"

Hmm. The episode I saw with aliens in the future must be a sequel to this one. I'm sure it must be the same kind of aliens.

(the suits being modified versions of the Robinsons')

In the one I saw, I noticed multiple props being reused.

For once the issue of language is addressed, as the aliens speak netsil, netsil, nam, sgnidrocer sdrawkcab ni

?nitaL giP esu tsuj ton yhw ,zeeG

the aliens explain that they're from Alpha 1

Good thing the Robinsons didn't make it.

and are planning a preliminary raid of the protein sources that their world needs

Shoplifters From Outer Space.

the current year, it turns out, is 1885

Fake out!

Back at TT, where they can see exterior shots of the spinning spacecraft (which looks kinda like the JLA Satellite)

This is also a reused prop from LIS. I think it might be the refueling station they encountered in one of the first episodes.

the aliens send Tony to the nearby town of Mullins, Arizona, to deliver their ultimatum that the town be turned over to them with all protein intact.

Yeah, that'll work.

In 1968, TT fails to dig up any UFO reports from Mullins in 1885, only that the town was completely deserted under mysterious circumstances in 1885, and is now an historic ghost town.

Ominous.

Tony gives a story about being a reporter to get deputy Sam Colt (Gary Haynes) to come carelessly close to the cell, so Tony can choke-hold him and escape.

When they get home, these guys will have to write a paper about escaping.

the sheriff just rides away

Into the sunset....

Doug's been reprogrammed again

He's going to need years of therapy when he gets home.

the aliens demonstrate their power by making a cowboy go up in a puff of smoke

Ah, the original Marlborough Man.

The aliens put Tony in charge of having the town's protein materials collected in the street.

Why don't aliens ever just negotiate trade agreements? We could give them those protein shakes that nobody wants and they could give us warp drive and immortality.

Tony goes to the sheriff's office to find him packing to leave

Apparently he's no Matt Dillon.

Deputy Colt has been reprogrammed and fires at them, and Tony overcomes him with a bit of help from the sheriff.

There's a song in there somewhere....

Centauri takes Doug to a herd of cattle and puts them in suspension.

"Now we want fries with those."

A brief brawl between Doug and Tony ensues

I'm picturing this drawn by Jack Kirby.

Tony smashes the device on the ground rather than risk the aliens retaking it.

Because I'm sure it's the only one they've got.

TT's about to try to transfer the guys when two other aliens appear in the control room, accompanied by dramatic lighting.

Something similar happens in the other alien episode.

The alien leader (John Hoyt)

Doctor Bartender in the original Strange New Worlds.

In an attempt to appease them and evade their wrath, Kirk has the crew bring up a TunnelVision image to prove the alien spacecraft left Earth safely

So what happened to it?

despite the leader creating threatening wind and lightning that just makes it harder for them

The first of two windstorms at TT HQ.

The alien explains that they no longer need food from primative planets

Space aliens solved their own problem without invading another planet? That's got to be a first in the universe.

Back in 1885, the sheriff declares his intention to have the town abandoned and keep mum about the invasion

Kind of anticlimactic after that ominous foreshadowing.

The guys tumble out into what they quickly realize from local military movements is the Alps during World War I.

"The hills are alive with the sound of artillary."

A tomb inscribed with the name Nero is disturbed, the lid opening to reveal remains and a blade floating out to menace the unconscious Tony and Doug.

Interesting twist, but a little weird. I don't think there's any mystery about the location of Nero's tomb.

(Yes, Robin Hood and His Merries were indeed only the beginning.)

I was about to say.

One of the soldiers investigates the basement and drops dead upon approaching the tomb.

One down, ten million to go.

TT determine that the guys are in 1915, but find another "life force" dominating their readings.

They have very advanced sensors, apparently.

the guys fall against a trick wall and find themselves in a hidden chamber conveniently stocked with a candle and matches

It must have had visitors since the Roman occupation. I'm not even sure if matches were common in 1815.

The guys find the means to trigger the secret door again

"Tony, look, you just tilt the head back on this little bust and press the button."

Doug tells the count about Nero's tomb, which the noble dismisses as nonsense.

These guys are constantly being put in the position of telling crazy nonsense to people and getting dismissed.

The TT crew learn that the Villa Galba was destroyed in a bombardment on October 23, which they are then able to determine through the strange interference as being the exact date the guys are in.

Imagine my surprise.

Sgt. Mueller (Richard Jaeckel)

Prolific tough guy character actor.

He enters the study to confront the count about being the descendant of Emperor Galba, who forced him to flee from Rome, leading to his death

"You can't blame me for what my ancestors did! That's a violation of the Geneva Convention!"

After Doug rejoins the fray, he finds himself becoming the throttlee.

Maybe this will teach him to stay out of frays.

It takes the two of them delivering a pair of synchronized double-punches to overcome their foe.

Pretty good.

Ann digs up reported quote of Nero swearing revenge against descendants of Galba.

"To facilitate this, I shall have my tomb relocated to the Swiss Alps."

Steinholtz (John Hoyt in glasses and a droopy mustache)

Doctor Barte... wait a minute, two episodes in a row?!?

Dr. Steinholtz determines that they may be dealing with a poltergeist.

"It's herrrre."

the ghost, who hurls objects at them

Well, that is classic poltergeist behavior.

Tony returns and the winds sweeps over him--giving Darren the chance to play temporary bad guy this week as Tony rises possessed by the spirit.

Another candidate for therapy.

Kirk authorizes Swain to attempt the risky maneuver of sending a power surge through the Tunnel into Tony, to force the spirit out of his body. This works...View attachment 48451
...but readings indicate that Tony may be dying.

They forced out too many spirits.

When they try to pull him back, a windstorm whipping up in the complex indicates that they've pulled in the poltergeist instead.

I love the pictures. Everybody's hair is all messy.

They make a nonsensical effort to try to send the spirit back

At least they know they can move ghosts through time. That means they can rescue Doug and Tony even if they're killed.

Ann tries to set the controls to the day Nero died in 68 A.D., but the Tunnel is forcefully set to 1915 instead.

Apparently there's a ghost in the machine, and he knows how to operate it.

Galba boldly addresses Nero, taunting him to turn his fury on the Hun invaders instead--the Germans. The ghost doesn't buy it

Nice try, though.

Doug steps in and, after tossing several punches into the air, actually makes contact and knocks the invisible apparition into a couch--because his TV Fu is just that good!

That is definitely cool.

As Tony and Doug catch up, they find the corporal talking of driving the Huns out so Caesar can return. Tony asks the corporal a question...
View attachment 48452

Cute.

As the corporal walks off, Tony and Doug disappear.

I was kind of expecting the villa to be coming down around their ears as they faded out.

This episode had "shoulda aired in October" written all over it.

Yeah, they kinda missed their mark. Which, actually, is kind of appropriate for the show.

This was from the same producer who brought us all those marionette shows, which, from what I've seen of them, were also played with a straight face.

Yes, also the same producer as the live-action UFO, if you're familiar with that. In fact, Space: 1999 started out as a sequel to UFO, but that connection was dropped somewhere along the line. Those earlier shows a lot easier on the suspension-of-disbelief muscles, though.

Any preference as to whether I should try to squeeze it into the main season or save it for the next hiatus?

I don't know, it seems like it might spread out the work more to do it during hiatus.

And that would be why he went by a colorful nickname.

Actually, Dickie Goodman originated this style of novelty record back in the '50s, his first hit, with Bill Buchanan, being 1956's "The Flying Saucer," which used early rock 'n ' roll songs.

Maybe that's what I'm thinking of, but it seems like there were two or three in the mid 70s.

The album or the song, and how so? Both were intentional releases of Fleetwood Mac, not a scrapped-together recording created without their consent after the fact.

Just referencing the idea of a track being cobbled together from parts recorded separately.

 

[The Old Mixer]

70 Years Ago This Month

Last month, I neglected to post a clip of Bill Haley & His Comets performing on Ed Sullivan (Aug. 7):

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September 2

• Under the guidance of Dr. Humphry Osmond, TV presenter Christopher Mayhew ingests 400 mg of mescaline hydrochloride and allows himself to be filmed as part of a Panorama special for BBC TV that is never broadcast.

September 3

• Little Richard records "Tutti Frutti" in New Orleans with significantly cleaned up lyrics (originally "Tutti Frutti, good booty" among other things); it is released in October.

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On the weeks of September 3 through October 1 and October 15, "The Yellow Rose of Texas" by Mitch Miller with His Orchestra & Chorus tops the Billboard Best Sellers in Stores chart.

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September 6

• Istanbul pogrom: Istanbul's Greek minority is the target of a government-sponsored pogrom. Organized mob attacks continue until the following day.
• Hurricane Gladys makes landfall 140 mi (230 km) south of Brownsville as a Category 1 hurricane with winds of 85 mph (137 km/h). Vacationers evacuate Padre Island in preparation for the storm. Rainfall peaks at 17.02 in (43.2 cm) in Flour Bluff. In Oso Bay, storm surge is reported to have reached 4.5 ft (1.4 m) in height. Two ships off the Texas coast are feared to have been damaged during the storm: the shrimp boat Mary Ellen, thought to have been beached on Padre Island, and the Don II, missing off Port Aransas, Texas. The United States Coast Guard patrols the coast to rescue stranded people and respond to emergency calls, as well as search for the missing ships.

September 9

• Project Vanguard begins operations. On this date the United States Department of Defense writes a letter to the Department of the Navy authorizing the Naval Research Laboratory to proceed with the Vanguard proposal. The objective of the program is to place a satellite in orbit during the International Geophysical Year (IGY), and responsibility for carrying out the program is placed with the Office of Naval Research.
• The Department of Defense's Stewart Committee reviews the alternatives for an IGY satellite program: wait for the development of an Atlas launcher, use a modified Redstone, or develop a rocket derived from the Viking missile. The committee votes seven to two in favor of abandoning Project Orbiter (Redstone) and developing Vanguard (the Viking derivative). Secretary Donald A. Quarles rules with the committee majority in the Department of Defense Policy Committee, which approves the decision.

September 10

• Hurricane Ione forms in the North Atlantic. Arriving on the heels of Hurricanes Connie and Diane, it would compound problems already caused by the two earlier hurricanes.
• Long-running US TV series Gunsmoke is broadcast for the first time, on the CBS-TV network.

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September 12

• Martial law is declared in Turkey as a result of the demonstrations of 6–7 September.

September 16

• Gloster Meteor aircraft of the Argentine Air Force attack the Argentine Navy destroyers Cervantes and La Rioja in the River Plate during the Revolución Libertadora against Juan Perón, inflicting numerous casualties.

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Entering the country chart the week of September 17:

"I Forgot to Remember to Forget," Elvis Presley
(#1 Country)

"Mystery Train," Elvis Presley

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(B-side of "I Forgot to Remember to Forget"; #10 Country; #77 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time [2004])

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On September 17, the Warner Bros. short Speedy Gonzales, starring the voices of Mel Blanc and Stan Freberg, is released (1956 Academy Award for Best Short Subject, Cartoons).

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September 18

• Argentine Naval Aviation aircraft attack an Argentine Army column during the Revolución Libertadora against Juan Perón, halting the column before it can capture a naval air base.

September 19

• Hurricane Hilda kills about 200 people in Mexico.

September 21

• The President of Argentina, Juan Perón, is ousted in a military coup.
• Undisputed Heavyweight Champion Rocky Marciano beats Undisputed Light Heavyweight champion Archie Moore by a knockout in round nine.

September 22

• Commercial television starts in the United Kingdom with the Independent Television Authority's first ITV franchise beginning broadcasting in London--Associated-Rediffusion on weekdays, ATV during weekends--ending the previous BBC monopoly. The rest of the UK receives its regional ITV franchises during the next seven years. The first advertisement shown is for Gibbs SR toothpaste.

September 23

• In Sumner, Mississippi, an all-white jury acquits both defendants in a trial for the murder of black teenager Emmett Till, after a 67-minute deliberation; one juror says, "If we hadn't stopped to drink pop, it wouldn't have taken that long." J. W. Milam later admits to shooting Till, and says he and his half-brother Roy Bryant did not think that they had done anything wrong.
• A 6.8 earthquake shakes the Chinese county of Huili, leaving 728 dead and 1,547 injured.

September 24

• Dwight D. Eisenhower, President of the United States, suffers a coronary thrombosis while on vacation in Denver, Colorado. Vice President Richard Nixon serves as Acting President while Eisenhower recovers.

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September 26

• "America's Sweethearts," showbiz couple Eddie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds, marry. They would divorce within four years, and meanwhile Carrie and Todd were born.
• German war criminal Erich Raeder is released from Spandau Prison because of poor health.

September 27

• Operation Sandcastle: UK cargo ship Empire Claire is scuttled with a load of 16,000 German chemical bombs at 56°30′N 12°00′W.

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Also on September 27, Detective Comics #225 (cover dated Nov.) hits the stands--featuring the debut of J'onn J'onzz, the Manhunter from Mars.

Detective Comics Vol 1 225

"Batman: "If I Were Batman"": Three men take the place of Batman while the real Caped Crusader is away, as part of an "If I Were Batman" contest run by the Gotham Gazette, and gangsters attempting to break John Larrow out of jail intend to capitalize on the occasi Detective Comics #225 is an...

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September 28

• World Series baseball is broadcast in color for the first time in the U.S. WITN-TV in Washington, North Carolina, signs on the air with game 1 of the 1955 World Series as their first telecast.

September 30

• American actor James Dean dies in an automobile collision near Cholame, California, age 24. On October 27, the film Rebel Without a Cause, in which he stars, is released.

​

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Timeline entries are quoted from the Wiki page for the month, as well as the year in film, music, television, and comics, with minor editing as needed. Sections separated from timeline entries are mine.

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Hmm. The episode I saw with aliens in the future must be a sequel to this one. I'm sure it must be the same kind of aliens.

They may use a very similar design (reportedly silver-skinned aliens were an Irwin Allen trope), but I doubt they'll make any connection in-story.

?nitaL giP esu tsuj ton yhw ,zeeG

Suknio, suknio.

Ominous.

Gotta make it seem like the guys are in danger...like they aren't just gonna reset at the end of every episode.

When they get home, these guys will have to write a paper about escaping.

The typical formula gets a little tiresome in its repetitiveness. Generally lots of Doug and Tony being split up, with at least one of them being captured.

Apparently he's no Matt Dillon.

Timely reference.

There's a song in there somewhere....

Clapped?

I'm picturing this drawn by Jack Kirby.

Doug and Tony dueling when one of them has been twisted to the dark side is becoming a regular plot device in more recent episodes.

Because I'm sure it's the only one they've got.

That's the way it was played.

So what happened to it?

Unknown.

The first of two windstorms at TT HQ.

And both involving John Hoyt.

Space aliens solved their own problem without invading another planet? That's got to be a first in the universe.

Indeed.

"The hills are alive with the sound of artillary."

Pretty much.

I was about to say.

You ain't seen nothing yet....

It must have had visitors since the Roman occupation. I'm not even sure if matches were common in 1815.

1915. It was implied that looters had indeed been there.

"Tony, look, you just tilt the head back on this little bust and press the button."

Batman/Captain America

Captain America and Bucky are ordered stateside for a secret mission, where they encounter Batman and Robin. The Gotham Project has been discovere Batman/Captain America is a one-shot with a cover date of February, 1997. Captain America and Bucky are ordered stateside for a secret mission, where...

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These guys are constantly being put in the position of telling crazy nonsense to people and getting dismissed.

More formula. It'd be dead easy to come up with a random plot generator for this series.

Pretty good.

It was a striking bit of fight choreography.

"To facilitate this, I shall have my tomb relocated to the Swiss Alps."

Apparently it was supposed to be Northern Italy.

Doctor Barte... wait a minute, two episodes in a row?!?

Yep.

At least they know they can move ghosts through time. That means they can rescue Doug and Tony even if they're killed.

Heh.

That is definitely cool.

"Italienisch schweinhund! You are no match for die übermensch!"

I was kind of expecting the villa to be coming down around their ears as they faded out.

I guess the Italians aren't going to keep bombarding it when their own guys are in there...which makes you wonder why it was destroyed.

Yes, also the same producer as the live-action UFO, if you're familiar with that.

Not first-hand that I can recall, but I've heard of it.

In fact, Space: 1999 started out as a sequel to UFO, but that connection was dropped somewhere along the line.

I read a bit about that.

I don't know, it seems like it might spread out the work more to do it during hiatus.

Probably. Or I may just get to it when I get to it, somewhere in between. I'm considering the idea of working in whatever episodes of Time Tunnel I have left over after Shazam!'s seven new episodes have played out, and perhaps after that starting 1999. MTM is also looking to have gappy episode availability in the second half of the upcoming season, because of the effect of back-and-forth Catchy schedule changes on my recordings. I have them all in hand at the moment, but my full batch of episodes will be expiring in early December.

This week's episode had an odd issue with the show's own continuity. One of the plotlines involves Mad Jack finding gold in a stream and wanting to stake a claim on it. When Adams was talking about having to leave because of all the people that would be swarming the mountain, I thought Jack was being pretty dense about his friend's fugitive situation (which he narrates about in the opening of every episode). But the fugitive angle never came up, it was played like Adams just didn't want to see the mountain's natural beauty get destroyed...which is nice and all, but it seems like the fugitive situation should at least have been addressed.

Maybe that's what I'm thinking of, but it seems like there were two or three in the mid 70s.

There have been some lower-charting ones (30s and 40s) recently about Watergate and the energy crisis.

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50 years ago this week, possibly my second-ever superhero comic hit the stands:

Justice League of America Vol 1 125

"The Men Who Sold Destruction!": Crooks all over the country have seemingly gained superpowers, aiding them in stealing and murder, but they can only use them a limited number of times. Flash learns that an antique statue of Napoleon has been stolen, but his investigation is cut short when he is...

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Featuring a new Hostess ad:

Batman and the Captive Commissioner (Hostess Ads #4)

On a site dedicated to making a wiki history of all things comics, comics ads should not be forgotten. Especially the ads for Hostess Fruit Pies, Twin

comicvine.gamespot.com