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.