Post-58th Anniversary Viewing
The Time Tunnel
"Reign of Terror"
Originally aired November 18, 1966
MeTV said:
In Paris during the French Revolution, the time travelers agree to aid Marie Antoinette in exchange for safe-conduct passes.
Tony and Doug tumble out separately on a dingy Paris street backlot, the latter being spotted by a wagon patrol of three men in red caps who place him under arrest and put him in the rickety wagon cell. Tony sees Doug in the wagon and is told by a chatty shopkeeper (David Opatoshu) that his friend is headed for execution because of Robespierre's arrest quota. (The more things change...) Tony waylays the wagon and pits his TV Fu against two men with rifles, succeeding with some help from Doug, whose hands are tied behind his back. The two of them hotfoot away while being fired at.
Watching unidentified movie footage of guillotine executions, the TT crew determine that the guys are in early fall of 1793, during the French Revolution (eventually narrowed down to October 8). The shopkeeper takes the guys in, noting that their clothing identifies them as foreigners (while the subject of language remains unaddressed). They learn that Shop (as we'll call him for lack of a name) is sworn to help his patroness, Marie Antoinette, who's still being held in a cell at this point while her prosecutors look for evidence against her. Shop sends them upstairs to change clothes while he answers the door and is arrested by a patrol, who proceed to search the house; but the guys slip out in redcap disguises and hit the streets, hoping to help shopkeeper. Kirk is preoccupied by what he sees and comes up with a desperate plan to send back a family heirloom ring to give TT a radiation fix for picking up Tony and Doug. They find Tony and Doug on Tunnelvision and send the ring back, its clankity landing attracting their attention. Tony recognizes the ring and Doug has him put it on. They watch as the patrol hits another house and are excited to find that the leading general is played by Whit Bissell! Thinking he's
their general, they come out of hiding and are arrested. The French general--who's billed as Querque--taking the ring. When he sees an inscription from Axel to MA, he's certain that he has evidence of an adulterous affair to use against the "Austrian wench," Marie Antoinette.
The guys are conveniently placed in the same dungeon cell as Shop, all three facing the guillotine. When Querque visits to question them about the ring, they demand to see the American ambassador (
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gouverneur_Morris). The general asks them if they know Axel Von Fersen, whose name Doug recognizes as that of a man who was with Washington at Yorktown. Shop insists that the ring must have been given in friendship and flies into a rage, but all three are subdued in the ensuing struggle. Shop makes a deal that if the guys help him get to Marie Antoinette, he can get them out of Paris. The guys proceed to escape by taking out a group of guards whom they lure into the cell, taking their uniforms, and marching the shopkeeper out onto the streets.
Back in 1968, an embarrassed Kirk has been insisting that all of his ancestors came from Scotland, though Swain and Ann play along with him while obviously unconvinced. TT find their fix stuck on General Querque because of the ring, so Kirk demands that Querque be snatched through the Tunnel. Querque is brought in via the usual pyrotechnic show and the UT works on this side as well as Kirk engages in his Obligatory Splitscreen Moment. Kirk tells his lookalike where and when he is and gives him a history spoiler that he'll behead Marie Antoinette without the ring. Kirk supports his claims with Tunnelvision, which picks up as the guys and Shop are paying a call on Marie Antoinette (Monique LeMaire) in her cell. She admits that she was having an affair with Von Fersen, and writes them a letter to help them get out of Paris with the help of Royalists. Grasping for a way to help her that history will permit, the guys come up with the idea of saving her son Charles, the Dauphin, whose fate is unknown. Back in 1968, Querque gets worked up at the sight of MA, so Kirk takes the controls to show him her execution a week later--because Ann's too squeamish to watch a silhouette of the guillotine being used. When Kirk has the ring taken from Querque and put in the Tunnel to send it back to the guys, the French general--motivated to stop the rescue of the Dauphin--lunges into the tunnel and is sent back with the ring. Kirk later learns that some of his ancestors migrated to Scotland from France.
Shop secures a forged pass from Robespierre to get them into the temple where the Dauphin (Pat Michenaud) is being held, Shop posing as an art instructor. Shop persuades Antoine Simon (Louis Mercier) to leave the cell and they make a break for it as Querque arrives to try to stop them. Some fighting ensues on the street that includes Doug's double swinging from a rope. Shop proceeds to smuggle the guys and Dauphin out in the back of a horse-drawn cart. At the ship, the guys show their papers to Lieutenant Napoleon Bonaparte (Joey Tata), whom Tony butters up by telling him the great destiny he sees in the young officer's future...allowing Shop to smuggle the boy aboard as the lieutenant is distracted. Querque arrives, but Bonaparte refuses to stop the ship, insisting that a man and boy couldn't have gotten past him. Tony and Doug let themselves be seen slipping off the ship as a diversion, and as Querque has his men open fire, the guys disappear--their clothes not changing first this time--and the ring separately disappears.
The Invaders
"The Ivy Curtain"
Originally aired March 21, 1967
Frndly said:
David tries to shut down the aliens' indoctrination school with the help of a hard-luck pilot who has sold out to the invaders.
Cargo pilot Barney Cahill (Jack Warden) radios the dispatcher at Cameron Airport (Paul Pepper) to let him know that he won't be able to make it in due to a bad storm that's caused him to lose an engine, and will have to make an emergency landing...against the objections of his four suited passengers, who are led by a character billed as Mr. Nova (Clarke Gordon). When Cahill lands roughly in a field, an object topples over one of the passengers and Cahill is bewildered to find that the flesh of his arm is torn, but there's no blood and no sign of pain. (This is an odd first, as
they've consistently tended to disintegrate in situations such as this.)
IMDb said:
Jack Warden's plane was a 1941 Douglas DC3A-S4C4G serial number 4815 registration N128D.
The QM Narrator said:
This is Mr. William Burns [David Sheiner, getting off a bus], educator, business administrator...here on the planet Earth for less than a year. David Vincent [following him out of the bus] first saw Burns at an alien installation in Miami. Last week, he found him again in Omaha, and followed him here to Cameron, New Mexico, a small town whose peaceful streets shroud the presence of...the invaders.
David sees Burns get into a station wagon for the Midlands Academy, which he looks up in the phone book and pays a visit to. Burns and another one of
them pop up out of hiding and subdue David, examining his ID.
Roy Thinnes in The Invaders (1967)
www.imdb.com
IMDb said:
A closeup of David Vincent's California driver's license indicates that his date of birth is October 2, 1934 (making Vincent four years older than actor Roy Thinnes), he is 5'9", weights 170 pounds, and has brown eyes and brown hair. His home address is listed as 4022 Laguna Street, Santa Barbara, California 93101.
Moments later, the computer describes him to newly arrived aliens as 5' 11" tall with sandy hair. Close-ups clearly show Vincent has blue eyes, not brown.
This is very true.
Licenses don't have ages because a person's age is constantly changing.
Vincent's driver's license is missing the date it was issued.
In the academy, a captive Mr. Cahill finds himself the guest of a Dr. Reynard (Murray Matheson), who makes an offer not to kill him and to pay him good dough if he'll transport "immigrants" to their indoctrination centers throughout the country. Outside, David overcomes his captors and sneaks inside, spying on a classroom of
them studying
a lesson about using the human emotion of fear; then a room of
them lying on tables while being fed verbal information by a computer. Heading back outside after being seen by the latter group of students, David hides in the back of a van in which Cahill is driven out. When Dr. Reynard learns who their intruder was from the license, he has information about Vincent fed to the students by the computer.
David proceeds to the airfield and questions the girl at the desk, Stacy (Susan Oliver), about Cahill, letting her believe he's a reporter. She takes him to a cocktail lounge, where he continues to ask her about Cahill and the crash landing. When he steps out for a smoke, one of
them tries to FIND him but is fought off. Thinking she's been stood up, Stacy proceeds home, where we learn that she's Barney's disgruntled wife who likes to go out for drinks before coming home. He flashes around his new dough to impress her, though she's concerned about where it came from. At the hospital, David is questioned by Lt. Alvarado (two-time
Trek guest Barry Russo), who takes interest in his story about the academy being a front for people planning to overthrow the government, though he casts doubt on David's credibility because of the booze on his breath.
Alvarado nevertheless drives David out there, where Reynard has been observing and coaching students discussing topical subjects in a replica of a hip go-go joint. Alvarado produces a warrant, and David proceeds to try to show him the rooms that he saw, only to find benign examples of a classroom, rec room, and lab. As the lieutenant exits, Burns returns David's wallet. At the airfield, Barney and Stacy arrive in a new convertible, the latter probing the former about what he's involved in. David's there to confront Barney about who he's working for, giving him the broad specifics of what his employers are after without specifying what
they are. Awkwardness ensues when Stacey reenters the scene and exchanges greetings with David. With her help, David persuades Barney to bring his next passengers back to the airfield to be caught by waiting police. But Stacy calls Midlands Academy to warn them, having been told of them by David.
At his pickup spot, Cahill sees a saucer lifting off from behind some trees, and asks his suddenly appearing passengers if it brought them there...though they remain scornfully mum. David calls in Gilbert of the state police (Byron Morrow) to meet him, but
they intercept him on the road, FINDing his deputy. David finds the Midlands crew arriving at the field and questions Stacy, who protests that
they said they wouldn't hurt anybody. David busts into the dispatcher's room, where Burns has dealt with the usual occupant and is directing Cahill's landing, and Burns ends up disintegrating after a struggle over his gun. David radios Barney to tell him not to land, trying to improvise a plan B; but while David tries to keep the truth from Barney, Cahill figures out who blew the whistle on them. He grimly changes course for the academy, briefly alluding to previously mentioned wartime service before diving his plane into the main building while Reynard tries to run for cover.
Stacey goes to the cocktail lounge (where ladies drink free during the Epilog) to try to talk to David as he's about to leave for Albuquerque, desperate to convince him that she didn't intend for what happened, she just wanted money. He rebuffs her and boards his bus.
The QM Narrator said:
An indoctrination center destroyed, where new arrivals on the planet Earth can learn the fine points of human behavior. A day later, David Vincent leaves the town of Cameron, New Mexico, grimly aware that sometimes human behavior can seem as alien as creatures from another world.
Okay, that made me look up his Discography. He's been releasing singles since the year I was born. He's 80 years old. I had no idea.
I didn't know offhand that his recording career went that far back, either, but the earlier examples were with various bands. It's notable that his '68 single, "Ramblin' Gamblin' Man," remains his biggest hit at this point in 50th Anniversaryland, though that will be changing in the relative short term.
I always get a kick out of watching Mick Fleetwood when they perform. The guy has madness in his eyes.
Ditto.
www.youtube.com
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