Post-58th Anniversary Viewing
The Time Tunnel
"One Way to the Moon"
Originally aired September 16, 1966
Edited IMDb said:
Doug and Tony escape death aboard the Titanic only to be hurled ten years into their future aboard a rocket bound for Mars. Problems arise that the astronauts blame on their unwilling stowaways, but the real cause is a saboteur aboard the flight--and the same man, ten years earlier, is in the Tic-Toc complex with a confederate!
IMDb said:
Much of the spacewalking and moon walking scenes are re-used footage from Destination Moon (1950).
The Irwin Allen Narrator--aka the Robot from Lost in Space said:
Two American scientists are lost in the swirling maze of past and future ages, during the first experiments on America's greatest and most secret project, the Time Tunnel. Tony Newman and Doug Phillips now tumble helplessly toward a new fantastic adventure, somewhere along the infinite corridors of time.
The travelers drop out of the 'scope into the service module of a rocket that's about to blast off. Doug recognizes initials on the equipment as standing for Mars Excursion Module, indicating a Mars program that already exists in TTT's version of 1968. After the initial blastoff Gs, there's some wonky science about zero G and rotating the rocket to artificially generate 1G, all while we continue to see exterior shots of the rocket blasting up through the atmosphere. The guys overhear as the crew radios Mission Control about jettisoning the service module because it's overloaded and they won't be able to reach escape velocity; so they pound at the hatch to the roomy four-man capsule.
The crew don't hear them, but one of the crewmen, Beard (James T. Callahan), surreptitiously activates boosters and then claims it was an accident. This gets them into orbit, but without enough fuel for the Mars mission, so they reroute to the Moon to refuel. They open the hatch on their own initiative to discover their stowaways, who expect that people would've heard of them by 1978. Colonel Kane (Larry Ward) is highly skeptical, but Doc Harlow (Warren Stevens) gives them some benefit of the doubt, as he's heard rumors of a secret project that would fit their description. Kane won't agree with chucking the stowaways out the airlock, however, as Beard advocates.
The monitoring Tic-Toc crew are so familiar with the Mars program that they're able to identify the period as ten years in the future. The government brings in officials who are eager to observe the future of the program--Dr. Brandon (Ross Elliott), Vice Admiral Killian (Barry Kelley), and the admiral's aide...Ensign Beard (whom we're expected to recognize although they hid the 1978 version under a little too much old-age makeup for ten years). They watch as the future version gains ground in his argument to jettison the stowaways, against the strong objections of Harlow; such that both the crew and the assembled experts at Tic-Toc get to work on figuring out if a soft-landing on the Moon would be possible with the extra weight. On the MEM rocket, Crewman Nazarro (Ben Cooper) finds that their antenna has been sabotaged, which is why they haven't been able to consult Mission Control.
Suspecting the stowaways, Kane sends Nazarro down with a gun (for defending themselves against Little Green Men?), just in time for another plot complication--a meteor puts a fist-sized hole in the side of the service module, causing it to rapidly lose air, so the three men don multicolored space suits. The travelers are forced to assist Nazarro on a spacewalk to patch the hull; while Beard reports that a Moon landing is possible. His figures don't agree with Tic-Toc's, however, which is soon evident when the rocket (which has completely changed its configuration to something much more retro-SF-looking) starts coming down for its landing too fast.
The crew don their suits, leaving none for Doug and Tony. They come down hard, but the damage is repairable. They have a 22-minute timeframe for unexplained reasons, forcing them to repair and refuel simultaneously. Back at Tic-Toc, monitoring efforts are interrupted when Dr. Brandon plants a small explosive on the console. Simultaneously ten years later, at the Moon depot, Older Beard (who only has a gray mustache) turns on his menacing mode, declaring that it's the end of MEM Program and ripping out Doc's air hose. Somehow Doug hears Doc's scream from the rocket, though they're a half-mile of vacuum and a pressurized hull away. When Beard radios that all's well, the travelers deduce that he must be the saboteur, but have to overpower a disbelieving Kane. Doug takes his suit and pistol to hoof it for the depot, where Beard is gathering his own heat and explosives. Doug finds Doc's body, but Beard gets the drop on him. Beard explains how he expects that if he can hole up at the depot for six months, his own people will be coming to take him back.
At Tic-Toc, Sgt. Jiggs (Wesley Lau) has received a call from Central Intelligence that one of the three visitors may be an enemy agent. Brandon overpowers Jiggs and takes his Tommy gun--conveniently knocking out Young Beard while pushing him aside--but finds himself having to fend off security reinforcements, evading them by hiding in the tunnel corridor. On Future Moon, after Nazarro returns from making repairs, gun-toting Tony takes his suit to go looking for Doug. At the depot, Doug overpowers Beard and radios to the rocket about developments on that end. He then heads back to the ship, somehow not coming across Tony on the way. Doug, now believed by Kane, goes back to the depot to find Tony, who gets in his own space-suited scuffle with Beard while the latter is setting explosives. Doug gets back in time to take out Beard, and as he and Tony are heading back to the ship to make the scheduled takeoff, the depot goes up with Beard inside.
At Tic-Toc, Beard catches up with Brandon, and they find themselves at odds about how to handle their situation. As Kirk approaches with a security detail, Beard shoots Brandon, eliminating a liability while preserving his own cover. On Future Moon, Doug and Tony find the rocket blasting off on schedule without them, leaving them stranded with only a couple hours of air. The Tic-Toc crew pull them out, their spacesuits disappearing so they can take their next stock-footage ride through the 'scope.
The Invaders
"The Experiment"
Originally aired January 17, 1967
IMDb said:
David Vincent meets with an eminent astrophysicist who has proof that aliens are invading the planet.
The press hounds Professor Curtis Lindstrom (Laurence Naismith) about his claims concerning alien invaders as he boards a plane with his son, Lloyd...
When the professor sees out the window that one of the ground controllers has The Pinky, he promptly disembarks. He and Lloyd watch from the airport as the plane blows up after takeoff. The forty people still on the plane could've used more of a Tony and Doug approach.
The QM Narrator said:
Plot or paranoia? There was no doubt in David Vincent's mind. A celebrated astrophysicist, Dr. Curtis Lindstrom, had discovered the truth: that alien beings were here on earth. In less than a week, at a meeting of his colleagues, Dr. Lindstrom would announce it to the world. Then perhaps David Vincent could put down his burden. It all seemed so simple.
Davis busses out to Pennsylvania, where he's immediately met by a minister (Dabbs Greer) who claims to be a friend of Lindstrom's and offers him a ride. David soon realizes that the minister and driver (Roy Sickner) are
them, and fights his way out of the moving car. He proceeds to the hospital where the professor is resting at the urging of his doctor, Paul Mailer (Harold Gould), and the two of them quickly begin to bond over their shared paranoia; though David is driven out of the room while urging the professor to go into complete hiding until the conference.
David proceeds to the local disbelieving police lieutenant (Willard Sage) to try to arrange protection, only to learn that the professor has checked out. The professor tries to go into hiding at an inn, but soon finds menacing figures stalking the place. While the professor's leaving a message for Vincent, one of the men in black (Lawrence Montaigne) comes in and identifies himself as a federal agent who's been assigned to take him to Washington...but the man tips his hand by asking about the professor's evidence and they have to take him by force.
Lindstrom's body is found in his car at the bottom of a ravine. David approaches Lloyd at the funeral, expressing his regret that he wasn't able to share his plot armor with the professor. Lloyd thinks that Vincent is more mad than his father, but is quickly made to realize that he shared his father's location with the "government agents". David questions Lloyd about proof that his father spoke of, which David has reason to believe the aliens are still looking for, but Lloyd knows nothing. After David leaves, we learn that the minister is exerting extraterrestrial influence over him, which involves violent headaches and pills that Dr. Mailer doesn't recognize and wants to know more about.
David searches the professor's room at the inn and learns from the proprietress (Jackie Kendall) that he mailed a package to a New York address. At Vincent's behest, she calls Lloyd about it after David leaves.
David heads to New York to find that the package has been delivered to Lloyd's apartment there. The super (Stuart Lancaster) let his in and he finds that it contains sworn statements from witnesses and photos of the saucer and regen tubes. David calls Lloyd to tell him that he's taking the package to a friend with the CIA in Washington. Immediately after the call, Dr. Mailer confronts Lloyd after having one of the pills analyzed, and learns that Lloyd's been brainwashed into proclaiming that his father is the enemy and that what happened to him was necessary. Mailer quickly finds himself being stalked by the MIBs, the Montaigne agent killing him in his car with a palm device. David arrives at his friend's apartment building to find himself diverted to the wrong apartment, where he's surrounded by the minister, the driver, Lloyd, and the houseboy (Soon Taik Oh).
David is held in a health resort, where they put him in a contraption to alter his brain patterns so that he'll proceed to the conference and testify that there's no invasion. But David proves resistant to the first treatment, trying to escape afterward. Back in his room, David finds that reminding Lloyd of his father triggers the headaches, and keeps the pills from him, which causes him to fall unconscious. When
they come for Vincent again, he hides Lloyd, who, after he comes to, proceeds down to the control room and smashes a chair into a council, causing a shower of sparks that sets the chamber ablaze. This gives David and Lloyd leverage to fight off their captors and escape.
Outside, Lloyd collapses. Still conflicted by his brainwashing, his last words are to implore David to stop
them.
The QM Narrator said:
For David Vincent, another beachhead destroyed. For the Invaders, evidence that the human race can never be enslaved.
I think the professor is the first one to describe
them with the titular term in-story...I didn't catch it being used in the premiere.
I did remember you doing Get Smart, but I couldn't remember how far you got.
It was pretty convoluted...I started it as 50th anniversary viewing with the series in progress, then eventually caught the earlier episodes as belated and drawn-out 55th anniversary viewing.
It would be funny if this futuristic version of 1968 was the result of all of Tony and Doug's ill-considered meddling.
Interesting theory...
They had some impressive scenery in that first episode. I don't remember them making much use of it in the rest of the series.
The whole series relied on reusing props, costumes, and footage from movies. The bottomless complex shot actually was footage from FP, I believe.
And the rest of the series covers the Senate hearings.
The transporter was known to spark and smoke like that on occasion, but you didn't want to be using it when it did.
Kinda underused here, but...
"It's only gonna be a three-hour tour...little buddy."
We talked about this in staff meetings, Tony!
If only that were the case. Doug went back in time armed with evidence of the disaster to try to prevent it. As I recall from what I previously watched (episodes 2 through 5), this is a standard part of the show's formula, that the guys always eagerly try to alter history, without so much as a nod toward the need not to.
"Come up with me to the bow and I'll tell you."
Is that a
Titanic (1997) reference?
Doug is kind of an asshole.
More just being the grim, straight-man hero of the era. Colbert kinda reminds me of Jeffrey Hunter in that regard.
These guys are worse than Season Two of Picard.
Oooh, low blow.
This should be interesting. I've only seen a handful of these (including this one).
I've only caught bits and pieces in background viewing.
Rather than just going on his merry way and forgetting the whole thing.
Alright, show us your pinkies.
Between the voice overs and stuff like this, I remember this episode having a very Zone-ish feel.
The opening and closing narrations owed more to QM predecessor
The Fugitive, which was in its last season at this point.
Hmm... pinky... pinko... this isn't a metaphor for Communism, is it?
FWIW, I don't think they ever actually used the term "pinky" in the episode.
Those Waltons always creeped me out.
Corby seems to have been a go-to creepy old lady before her signature role.
I'm feeling like I should Cap that one...was it from a TZ?
Sounds like a step above the usual attempts at groovy music.
I was thinking that it might have been an actual derivative instrumental or instrumental cover not made for the show.
Would conquest and assimilation be so bad? Maybe we should find out what they want with us first....
Apparently Alan's not important enough to attract attention.
It was diagnosed as a heart attack, FWIW.
I'm not familiar enough with the show to know if they ever gave any reason for letting this guy run around free, but this seems kinda silly.
Who, the Invaders or the authorities?
I never watched Knight Rider. By the time the 80s rolled around I was watching hardly any TV.
I watched it for a half-season or so. I also drifted away from regular TV watching as the '80s got into gear.
I recall a humor magazine spoof of KR with a wide-panel look at Kitt's gadgeted-up dash, and Michael commenting, "I sure miss having a glove compartment."
And Paul McCartney turned 33! 
Already did that...as 50th and 55th Anniversary Viewing...was on it for years.
