Post-58th Anniversary Viewing
The Time Tunnel
"Chase Through Time"
Originally aired February 24, 1967
MeTV said:
Planting a bomb in the Time Tunnel, a saboteur leads Tony and Doug on a chase through three epochs.
This week's installment appears to be widely regarded as the best episode of the series. Alas, IMDb is back to practically no photos for this one.
The opening narration is indeed gone. We cut in during what appears to be the night shift, with Dr. Alfred Stiles (uncredited Hal Torey, seen only from behind) solo-monitoring as the guys tumble helplessly into the vicinity of the Grand Canyon. A man dressed in maintenance overalls (Robert Duvall) sneaks up and shoots him with a Pre-Five-O Special, and the lack of active control seems to have an immediate adverse effect on the guys, causing them to writhe in pain and Tony to declare that TT is killing them. The intruder sets a device in one of the computer banks, then hides as an alarm is sounded and the regular crew rushes in accompanied by MPs, finding Stiles dead. Ann determines that the guys are writhing on the ground because of an oscillation effect, which she stabilizes. The intruder pops out firing his gun, gets into a little chase/gunfight with the MPs through a maze of partitions, then briefly takes Swain hostage while he sets the controls to escape into the Tunnel.
IMDb said:
The initial scene of Doug and Tony arriving in the [misidentified] era is lifted from the unaired version of the original pilot.
The intruder is identified as Raul Nimon, who'd been working as a TT technician for a year; and evidence is found in his quarters that he was a spy with orders to plant a nuclear device. Kirk wants to evacuate the complex immediately, but the crew figures that they have at least until midnight, when Nimon had arranged to take a furlough. Ann and Swain insist on staying to find the bomb, and encourage Kirk to ask for other volunteers. He addresses the assembled control room personnel, briefing them on the situation, and when he gives them an opportunity to leave, nobody moves. Kirk establishes voice contact with Tony and Doug, who've landed in 1547, filling them in on the situation and ordering them to find Nimon, who'd have escaped into the same time and place, and persuade him to divulge where he hid the bomb.
The guys lure Nimon out of hiding by building a fire, but as they're confronting him, he "slips out of phase"--transferring to another period despite Ann's efforts. All she can do is send Tony and Doug after him.
They find themselves appearing in a futuristic-looking corridor, where they're treated as intruders by more silver-skinned types--but as the guys soon learn, they're
not aliens. They're arrested, questioned, and assigned as workers by Vokar (Lew Gallo), who identifies himself as a soldier and, when they identify themselves as time travelers from the 20th century, declares that they're in the most glorious era of man's existence. They get a glimpse of the beehive-like city they're in, and are supplied with what passes for food by Worker Z24A19, a gold-skinned female with a robotic demeanor (Vitina Marcus again). Questioning her, they learn that the humans here are genetically engineered, have no concept of family or love, and are assigned as masters, soldiers, or workers, just like bees. They also learn that another who looks like them has been among these beings for several years.
Doug: Maybe we've gone through a time warp.
Ya think?
They're taken to see the silver-skinned Magister (Joe Ryan), in a lab where Nimon, wearing a silver skull cap, has been serving his masters...which involves the Russian time capsule prop being reused (which in this case, could be considered good continuity).
The guys are disciplined with ray guns for getting out of line in trying to confront Nimon, and are taken back to their quarters, where Zee informs them that Nimon has found favor with the masters because he's building a device for them, via which they'll be able to spread the glory of their civilization through all eras. They then receive a visit from Nimon, who informs them that they're in ca. 1,000,000 A.D., and lets on that he's building the time device as an escape mechanism, so certain that his bomb destroyed the Tunnel that he tells them that it was set to go off at 3:05 a.m. This correlates with what Kirk's surmised sans a fix on the guys (because Ann has been limiting her search to within a thousand years of their previous temporal location), based on how Nimon would've needed time to get safely away from the blast (though you'd think that'd be less of a concern with the complex being underground).
Taken back to Nimon's workshop, the guys learn that Nimon's going to use Zee--considered disposable because of defective genes--as a guinea pig for his device. She's placed in the capsule, which begins to glow red on the inside.
The guys attempt to jump Nimon and rescue her, and are subdued and taken back to their quarters...where TT establishes voice contact, Swain and Ann doing the talking this time. The guys convey what they've learned, and the plan becomes for them to get to Nimon so all three can be transferred out. Using unfamiliar materials available in their cell, the guys construct a doohickey that helps them to disrupt the force field keeping them in their quarters. They're intercepted by Zee, who gratefully helps them get to Nimon's workshop. After a tussle, they manage to get ahold of Nimon and use him as a shield. He breaks away from them just before TT activates the transfer, and along with the time-traveling trio, Zee and Vokar disappear, too. All five are sent back to what TT determines is 1,000,000 B.C., which Swain misidentifies as the Pliocene period, but is actually the Pleistocene. Either way, it's 64 million years after the extinction of the dinosaurs, but guess what Tony and Doug see when they find each other in a hot jungle environment (courtesy of Irwin Allen's
The Lost World [1960], which Vitina Marcus was in)?
Nimon, Vokar, and Zee are also running through the jungle, trying to evade the dinosaurs--or in Vokar's case, fending one off with his ray gun. Nimon learns of the timelessness of the Obligatory Pool of Quicksand, from which Tony and Doug rescue him. He's about to tell them where the bomb is when Vokar takes them all captive with his gun, forcing them to return to the spot where he arrived and expects the masters to look for him. Doug tries to reason with him about how far in the future the masters are (having estimated on his own that they're ca. 1,000,000 B.C.), but Tony weighs in that Vokar's humanity was bred out of him. The party reunites with Zee and they find themselves on the scene of a dinosaur fight, during which Nimon attempts to escape and Vokar injures his leg attempting to go after him, giving Doug the opportunity to grab his weapon. Vokar instructs Doug on how to kill him, but Doug uses this as a teachable moment in the virtues of mercy and human emotion that have been lost in Vokar's time. As the two of them catch up with Tony, who's been pursuing and struggling with Nimon, all five humans from two eras fall through a spot of ground into a structure that Vokar recognizes as a giant beehive...and they hear a swarm of the expectedly giant bees of this era returning.
Meanwhile, a million years later give or take a factor of 65, Kirk has proceeded with the evacuation of the complex, despite some stalling from the other personnel, who didn't want to leave without the big three, whom it ultimately comes down to, as Swain and Ann want to hold off as long as they can. They establish contact with the party in the past, and a grateful Vokar helps persuade Nimon to divulge where he hid the bomb.
TT manage to pull the guys out first; then Vokar and Zee holding hands; but are unable to transfer Nimon, who takes ineffectual cover within the hive from the unseen approaching swarm.
The Time Tunnel
"The Death Merchant"
Originally aired March 3, 1967
MeTV said:
Tony and Doug set out to checkmate the crafty Machiavelli, who is making a game of the Civil War battle at Gettysburg.
TT monitors as Tony and Doug tumble out onto a Civil War battlefield, where they witness an unusually attired figure (Malachi Throne again) walking a large dog nonchalantly through the carnage. The guys end up retreating with a group of union soldiers led by a major (John Crawford again), who, after Tony is felled by a nearby cannonball explosion, declares him to be dead. TT loses readings on Tony, though Ann refuses to accept it. Doug wants to go back for his friend's body, which the major agrees to, though he insists that nobody's a noncombatant, making Doug take a uniform and rifle. When he asks, Doug's informed that he's at Gettysburg (early July 1863).
Ann risks sending a power surge to Tony, which revives him as he's being found by Confederate Sgt. Maddox (Kevin Hagen) and young, very green Corporal Perkins (Kevin O'Neal). Maddox is under the impression that the now-amnesiac Tony is Lt. Anders, a courier who's supposed to lead him to a man named Michaels. Tony is also given a uniform--We can all see where this is going. Doug learns that the major is also looking for Michaels, knowing that the actual courier, who's supposed to have $2,000 to negotiate with Michaels, is dead. Tony has just befriended the corporal when lad is shot by the Union major while attempting to advance across a stream.
The major and Doug sneak to the cabin of Michaels by night, where the mastiff is chained outside. They burst in to find the caped Italian gentleman, who was offering to sell gunpowder to the Confederates, acting disarmingly genteel. But Michaels is just biding time until he can snuff out the light, grab a saber, and stab the major to even the odds. Michaels allows Doug to treat the major in the next room. The dying major implores Doug to stop the madman, and Doug tells him of the outcome of the battle and the war before he passes. Doug then sees an open trunk with the name Machiavelli blazoned on it, which has another saber inside. He goes out to confront "Michaels," who admits to being the infamous 16-century philosopher before they engage in a duel. Machiavelli gets the better of Doug, and when pressed, describes how he was somehow brought to this time and place by what sounds like the Tunnel. A century later, TT finds that Machiavelli (though he shouldn't have any tracking radiation on him) just happens to have an identical "signal" to Doug's, which caused him to accidentally be brought through the Tunnel at some point.
The sergeant and Tony find and storm the cabin, Tony--now invested in the idea that he's Lt. Anders--holds Doug at gunpoint and negotiates with "Michaels" for the location of the gunpowder, via which the mustache-twirler plans to even the odds to make the conflict more interesting. Doug tries to tell Tony who he really is, and gains some credence with the sergeant when he knows the exact amount that the real courier was carrying. But Tony's only business with Doug is vengeance for allegedly killing the corporal. As Machiavelli attempts to impose himself on the simmering conflict, Doug makes a break for it, and Machiavelli sends the mastiff after him. The dog is starting to maul Doug when TT, who are experiencing power issues again, manage to transfer the beast, which overloads their controls. (We don't see what happens to the dog.) Doug pounces Tony when he catches up, though Tony quickly turns the tables on him. Doug remains unsuccessful in convincing Tony that they're companions, but Tony, while still vengeful, only takes him prisoner.
While heading for the location of the gunpowder by day, Machiavelli, the guys, and the sergeant come upon Union cavalry charging a Confederate supply train, Machiavelli enjoying the carnage. Tony volunteers to risk the crossfire in order to grab a wagon for transporting the gunpowder. When the sergeant is felled by a cannon fire, Doug goes in after Tony. Tony remembers his TV Fu as he tangles with a couple of Union solders in the forest. When one of them has a bayonet on Tony, Doug jumps in on his pal's side and they overcome the solders. Tony listens to what Doug has to say, but is ultimately suspicious that Doug's just after the gunpowder and takes him prisoner. Elsewhere, Machiavelli opines that the badly wounded sergeant has outlived his usefulness, but gives the defiant man an opportunity to defend himself. The sergeant fires several bullets at close range, to no effect.
Machiavelli: I am indeed Machiavelli, a man in a time long past his own, and therefore already dead.
Our inexplicably immortal time traveler (Do the guys get this advantage in the future?) executes the sergeant just before Tony catches up with Doug in tow, having no patience for Machiavelli's games. Machiavelli takes them to a cave near a suspension bridge and he and Doug start loading barrels onto their wagon; while Machiavelli tries to verbally manipulate each into making a move against the other. Doug takes the bait, confronting Tony while threatening to destroy the cave full of powder with a torch. a climactic brawl ensues that gradually moves onto the Chekhov's Gorge Bridge, from which Doug ends up dramatically dangling, but climbs back up to gain the advantage over Tony, who starts to sober up. When Doug threatens to tie Machiavelli up and leave him in the cave, Machiavelli runs back toward the wagon and detonates a line of powder leading to the cave...just as TT, having hooked into emergency power from Hoover Dam, succeeds in a "power reversal," poofing Machiavelli back to his own time...which has pyrotechnic feedback effects in the complex. Nevertheless, they manage to transfer Tony and Doug before the cave ignites.
IMDb has a relatively modest collection of photos:
Robert Colbert in The Time Tunnel (1966)
www.imdb.com
Between the general period and the colorful, anachronistic villain, this episode had a strong
Wild, Wild West vibe.
It baffles me what makes it to DVD and what doesn't. Something totally obscure like Here Comes The Grump gets released, but not a peep about Get Christie Love.
No doubt due to the whims and relative fortunes of different rights-holders.
I'll see if there's an episode guide with any info.
I wouldn't go too crazy with that angle, as I'm not 100% sure that what I saw was an episode of WWT. The AI couldn't find an episode featuring that sheriff.
dc.fandom.com
He subsequently holds the room full of hardened outlaws at bay and rides off with Tony, firing his gun into the air. What the hell were the people making this show on and do they still make it?
