The Time Tunnel

[duncan]

Created by the prolific Irwin Allen, who brought us such “classic” series as ‘Lost in Space’ and ‘Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea’, ‘The Time Tunnel’ is a fun - if rather cheesy - romp through the ages, as our two heroes, Doctor Tony Newman (played by James Darren) and Doctor Doug Phillips (Robert Colbert) attempt to find their way back to the present, only to end up at some point in history just prior to a major battle, invasion, disaster or combination of all three. The two time-travellers are aided by the personnel at Project Tic-Toc, Lieutenant General Heywood Kirk (television stalwart Whit Bissell), Doctor Raymond Swain (John Zaremba) and the lovely-but-usually-reduced-to-hysterics Doctor Ann McGregor (Lee Meriwether), who bravely attempt to rescue their colleagues from the perils of the time / space vortex. Unfortunately their efforts usually either failed miserably, or placed Doug and Tony in even worse jeopardy than they were before!

At the time, ‘The Time Tunnel’ was the most expensive television show on the air, and special-effects supervisor Bill Abbott won an Emmy award for his design of the Time Tunnel itself. The early shows are very entertaining, with some exiting scripts and interesting storylines - one just has to ignore the historical inaccuracies and settle back for the ride. However, the show soon suffered the same fate as all of Allen’s other shows: stories became weaker, the acting more wooden, the stock footage more prolific and the storylines reduced to mere runarounds. Not even the inclusion of alien menaces in the last few episodes could help, and the show drew to an end after only one season. The last episode ended as it began, with our heroes trapped on the ill-fated R.M.S. Titanic once more – does this mean that Doug and Tony are forever trapped in a time loop? We may never know…

[Cornelia_Africana]

I remember this from childhood! I used to love it when it was on. I imagine it would seem really cheesy now though. I wonder if it will ever be repeated, on Sci-fi channel, or some other. I'd quite like to see it again, and see whether it lives up to childhood memories.

[duncan]

It was being repeated on FX289 on Sky about 12-18 months agao. I used to do shift work and was able to watch Lost in Space immediately followed by The Time Tunnel each weekday when I was doing a late shift.

[Slagathor]

I loved this show as a child, my fav of all Allen's creations. I remember most of the episodes, but don't remember them being on the Titanic a second time.