The Time Tunnel

"Time Tunnel" redirects here. For the Living Colour album, see Time Tunnel (video).

The Time Tunnel
Created by	Irwin Allen
Starring	James Darren Robert Colbert Whit Bissell John Zaremba Lee Meriwether
Country of origin	United States
No. of episodes	30
Production
Running time	approx. 50 minutes
Production companies	Irwin Allen Productions Kent Productions 20th Century Fox Television
Original release
Network	ABC
Release	September 9, 1966 – April 7, 1967

The Time Tunnel is a 1966–1967 U.S. color science fiction TV series, written around a theme of time travel adventure. The show was creator-producer Irwin Allen's third science fiction television series, released by 20th Century Fox and broadcast on ABC. The show ran for one season of 30 episodes. Reruns are viewable on cable and by internet streaming. A pilot for a new series was produced in 2002, although it was not picked up.

The series

Summary

Project Tic-Toc is a top secret U.S. government effort to build an experimental time machine known as "The Time Tunnel". The base for Project Tic-Toc was huge and located underground in Arizona, with no visible entry. The only way in was a large secret panel in the desert floor; when it opened, a car could descend into the complex. Once the panel closed, only the desert was visible. Tic-Toc base was a futuristic series of complexes 800 floors deep and employing over 36,000 people ("12 thousand people in each of those complexes"). It was under the command of Lt. General Heywood Kirk (Whit Bissell). The center of the base was The Time Tunnel control room where the Tunnel was located. In charge of operating the Tunnel were Dr. Ann McGregor (Lee Meriwether) and Dr. Raymond Swain (John Zaremba). The date at which it was operating was stated as 1968, which was two years into the future for the initial TV audience.

Doctors Newman, McGregor, and Phillips, 1966.

When the costs of the project approach those of the entire U.S. space program, United States Senator Leroy Clark (Gary Merrill) launches an investigation of the project. The Senator thinks that the Tunnel has cost too much money for too little reward. At his request, the Senator is allowed to visit the project base and given a tour. Once he reaches the central control room the Senator explains his complaints to the project heads. The Senator then says that he wishes to close down the project as a waste of time and money that has not worked. None of the discussion mentions specifically why the project has not worked or any experiments sending inanimate objects through the Tunnel.

When no one else was around to observe, a key Time Tunnel scientist, young physicist Dr. Anthony Newman (James Darren), turns the machine on and sends himself back in time in an attempt to prove that the Time Tunnel project funds were not wasted. In so doing, Newman becomes "lost in time". The Time Tunnel top personnel quickly return, to see through the Tunnel that Newman is aboard the soon-to-sink Titanic. They can also see that he cannot escape before the sinking, and they cannot retrieve him.

In an attempt to rescue his younger friend, another key Tic-Toc scientist, Dr. Douglas Phillips (Robert Colbert), enters the Time Tunnel as well, carrying a newspaper describing the sinking to occur. There was no discussion about sending just the newspaper to the ship before risking another human becoming lost in time. Unconvinced, the captain of the Titanic throws the newspaper overboard.

However, the system was still being developed, and the Tunnel operations staff are never able to bring them home. As the series progresses, Tony and Doug are "switched" from one period in history to another, allowing episodes to be set in the past and future. Each episode (up to episode 24) begins with the following narration (which Dick Tufeld voiced):

"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."

By luck (or lack thereof) the travelers, Doug and Tony, frequently found themselves thrown onto the precipice of major historical events: on board the Titanic before it hits the iceberg, in Pearl Harbor before the Japanese attack, on Krakatoa before it erupts, and so forth. They would try to warn people about the event or try to prevent it from happening, while the Time Tunnel crew, who once gaining a "fix" can view through the Tunnel the action taking place in the different time, would try to rescue the travelers before the historical calamity befell them too. Sometimes, when rescue was impossible at the time, the Time Tunnel scientists would often try to help Doug and Tony in other ways or, in some cases, communicate with them whenever possible. The final episode provides no resolution, as the series was initially scheduled to continue into a second season.

The Novikov self-consistency principle was anticipated by the tacit understanding of the Time Tunnel scientists that recorded history could not be altered although in episode four ("The Day The Sky Fell In") the time travelers make it their concern to see to it that young Tony Newman escapes being killed in the Pearl Harbor bombing in order to prevent the adult Tony from ceasing to exist. Especially the Bible is held to be sacrosanct as recorded history (except, of course, poetic license on numerous details, for the proverbial, dramatic effects) in episode 20 ("The Walls of Jericho"): General Kirk reassures Drs. Swain and MacGregor that Doug and Tony will survive the mortal dangers of being in Jericho.

The Time Tunnel's time travel model operates with the assumption that the past, the present, and the future are all alike continuing to exist in a manner to permit the random placement of a time traveler into any point of time. When Senator Clark sees an image of the Titanic on the image screen in the course of episode one, he is told by Dr. Swain that he is seeing "the living past," and Althea Hall is told by Tony Newman that the past and the future are the same. The Time Tunnel itself is like a long corridor that stretches through the time continuum with portals that allow access to any moment in history past, present, or future.

Despite the tacit understanding that recorded history cannot be altered, sometimes Doug and Tony's actions are essential in causing history to unfold as it did, and the lives of individual people could be influenced by the actions of the Time Tunnel time travelers and scientists. In episode twenty-six ("Attack of the Barbarians") Marco Polo tells Doug Phillips that Tony and the Princess Serit can fall in love with each other despite their being from different times because they can then and there see and touch each other. Dr. MacGregor points out to Gen. Kirk and Dr. Swain that history itself might allow for Tony and Serit to marry.

The Time Tunnel is a precursor to the Back to the Future series, and later TV series such as Voyagers!, Sliders, and Quantum Leap in which most episodes feature the cast traveling to a unique place and/or time. The look of the time portal was also copied for Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me.

Production

The production basis of the show was the large number of period dramas made by the 20th Century Fox film company. Even black-and-white shots of the Titanic sinking were tinted to fit them into this color production. Only a few actors were costumed for a given episode, interspersed with cuts of great masses of people similarly dressed from the original features. Only one set was constructed for the show; that of the Time Tunnel main control room. For the pilot episode a larger control room optically created matte shot (with the Time Tunnel seeming to continue for a large distance out of frame) was created. After the pilot episode the whole cast never filmed together. Colbert and Darren shot their scenes in another studio or the 20th Century FOX backlot, or sometimes on location, while the Tunnel command personnel filmed all their scenes on the Time Tunnel set.

Continuity errors and discrepancies with recorded historical fact recurred throughout the series. In the "Titanic"-based premiere episode, "Rendezvous With Yesterday", Tony states that he was born in 1938. but a few episodes later in "The Day The Sky Fell In", he states he was seven when Pearl Harbor was bombed in 1941. In the former episode, Captain Smith of the Titanic is called Malcolm, not Edward. The names of the secondary officers are also fictitious and do not reflect the actual officers of the Titanic, though Walter Lord's best-selling book A Night to Remember had been released nine years earlier. One might also assume that Althea Hall, whom Tony meets when he arrives on the Titanic, may have implied that Theodore Roosevelt was still U.S. President when William Howard Taft was President in April, 1912; however, asking Tony whether he was mimicking Roosevelt does not necessarily imply that Althea was saying Roosevelt was President in April, 1912.

Certain episodes featured aliens who wore costumes and carried props originally created for other Irwin Allen television and movie productions. Prop sets were similarly re-used. Only in episodes 18, 24, 28, 29, and 30 did aliens appear; only the second and third of these were set in the far future. The prop computer, meanwhile, looked realistic because it was an actual array of memory modules from the Air Force's recently decommissioned SAGE computer.

The theme for The Time Tunnel was composed by John Williams (credited as "Johnny Williams").. GNP Crescendo later released an album featuring Williams's work and the score composed by George Duning for the episode "The Death Merchant."

The series won an Emmy Award in 1967, for Individual Achievements in Cinematography. The award went to L.B. "Bill" Abbott, for his photographic special effects.

Recurring themes

• A short "teaser" from next week's episode was shown at the end of each episode as Doug and Tony arrived at their next destination (in the same manner Allen ended each episode of Lost in Space, also used in Sliders).
• The impressive introduction to the scale of the project (over 36,000 people and huge underground buildings) is never seen after the first episode except for two clips (used over and over) of the giant power generator flashing, and Tunnel Security running across a walkway. Some of these shots were homages to the Krell complex from the classic 1956 MGM film Forbidden Planet but new matte paintings and models were created specifically for The Time Tunnel pilot episode.
• Virtually every episode involves the capture or detention of Doug, Tony, or both, their escape, their recapture, and their escape again, before their move to the next episode.
• Nearly all location shooting was filmed in and around southern California. This causes scenes set in different parts of the country (or the world) to have the same general hilly landscape with arid type trees and brush plants typical to the local region where filming occurred.
• Doug and Tony almost always appeared somewhere in the past. They did travel to the future on four occasions: two in 1978, one in 8433, and part of one, in 1,000,000 AD, the latter two into an unrecognizable future.
• Aliens and people from the future all dressed identically, often in aluminum foil, as seen in other Irwin Allen TV series at the time.
• Many episodes used stock footage from previous 20th Century-Fox and Irwin Allen productions. These shots ran the gamut from episodes on General Custer, to the sinking of the Titanic, and many other historical events.

Episodes

While the episodes were first shown in 1966, the show's setting begins in 1968, two years into the then-future.

Title	Original airdate	Arrival date	Arrival location	№
Rendezvous With Yesterday	September 9, 1966	April 14, 1912	RMS Titanic	1
The first episode. United States Senator Leroy Clark (Gary Merrill), who was once a paratrooper under General Kirk, arrives from Washington, D.C. to observe the status of Project Tic-Toc in Arizona. Clark threatens to cut off funding unless the time travel technology can be successfully demonstrated before he leaves the following day. Late that night and against orders, Dr. Anthony Newman powers up the time tunnel, enters, and is successfully sent back in time. He arrives on board the RMS Titanic on the day before the ship collides with an iceberg and sinks. Realizing what is going to happen, he tries to convince the captain of the impending disaster but the captain orders that he be locked in a cabin. Dr. Doug Phillips convinces the commanding general that he needs to be sent back to rescue Dr. Newman. After breaking Dr. Newman out of the cabin, they send an SOS message requesting immediate, emergency assistance, but they are both captured and locked back in the same cabin. After the iceberg is struck, Doug and Tony convince the captain to begin an evacuation, and it is implied that it was their influence on the captain that led him to give the "Women and children first" evacuation order. Project Tic-Toc shifts Tony and Doug to another time to keep them from dying in the icy waters. Senator Clark promises that no action regarding funding of the Time Tunnel will be taken until Newman and Phillips are either safely returned or beyond all possible help. Doug and Tony are shown reunited in a compartment of a manned rocket that is about to launch. The DVD release made available the "pilot film" for the series, which is an extended version of the first episode, running about 55 minutes rather than the regular 50 minutes. It contains material that was cut from "Rendezvous with Yesterday" and then added to two subsequent episodes: Tony arriving alone outside of the Time Tunnel complex ten years earlier, when he was unknown to the security forces and Doug Phillips (see "End of the World"), and Tony being reunited with Doug in a prehistoric rainforest (see "Chase through Time"). In the pilot film it is Senator Clark, who suggests that Time Tunnel personnel should just go outside the base to save Tony; however, in "End of the World" since Senator Clark is not in the episode, his lines are given to the technician Jerry.
One Way To The Moon	September 16, 1966	1978	Spacecraft	2
Tony and Doug find themselves on board a spacecraft's service module just before blast off. The spacecraft, part of the M.E.M. (Mars Excursion Module) ten years in Tony and Doug's future, is to be the first U.S. manned spaceflight to Mars. It is the M.E.M. IV flight, and it is manned by Col. Kane (played by Larry Ward) the captain, Nazarro (Ben Cooper) the radioman, Beard (James T. Callahan) and Maj. Harlow (Warren Stevens) the doctor. Tony and Doug's added weight (335 pounds) makes it impossible for the spacecraft to reach escape velocity to leave the earth's gravitational pull without the firing of the boosters. Captain Kane decides to jettison the service module, effectively scrubbing the mission—and killing Tony and Doug, but Beard, who wants the mission to continue, furtively fires the boosters to achieve escape velocity. Unable to get directions from mission control due to being incommunicado with a sabotaged radio, Kane makes the command decision to make a stop on the moon to replenish the fuel that Beard expended and continue the mission. When Tony and Doug are discovered they are treated as spies. Beard wants to throw them off the ship. Tony and Doug prove themselves honest by assisting in repairing the hull of the ship after they are struck by a meteor. Back at the Time Tunnel control room three visitors are brought in, who are with the M.E.M. program: Vice-Admiral Killian (Barry Kelley), a M.E.M. scientist, Dr. Brandon (Ross Elliott), and Killian's aide, Ensign Beard, who is the same crewman Beard on the M.E.M. IV. They are brought in because they are interested in seeing the future of their program, and they are enlisted to help retrieve Tony and Doug. Both Brandon and Beard are spies. Brandon succeeds in exploding the Time Tunnel control panel with plastic explosive before he is exposed later by security ramrod Sgt. Jiggs. In doing this Beard does not see his further nefarious actions: killing Doctor Harlow in the moon's fuel depot and his own death when his own time bomb explodes the depot. When Brandon is exposed he tries to escape by grabbing a machine gun, and he tells Beard that his job is to protect him as his accomplice. Beard betrays Brandon after he has him give him a gun by shooting and killing him. Brandon had become expendable, which Beard becomes ten years later if he is successful in destroying the M.E.M. Mars flight and killing Tony, Doug, and the rest of the crew. Doug tells Beard this before knocking him unconscious. Presumably the two remaining M.E.M. crewmen Kane and Nazarro continue the flight to Mars without any spacesuits, leaving Tony and Doug behind on the moon at Doug's suggestion. Tony and Doug are safely shifted in time before their oxygen runs out.
End Of The World	September 23, 1966	May 21, 1910	A mining community	3
The return of Halley's Comet in 1910 causes worldwide panic that endangers over 200 miners trapped in the cave-in of the "Emperor Mine" when Doug and Tony arrive there. Doug and Tony try to organize a rescue party, but all of the townspeople have left the town after a local professor named Ainsley (played by Gregory Morton) predicted the comet would destroy Earth that very day. Doug reviews Ainsley's calculations but is unable to find a flaw with them. Doug then theorizes an invisible gravity field could be the reason why the comet would eventually go off course and miss the Earth. Using a radiometer and the university telescope, Doug and Ainsley discover such a field. The professor then tells the townspeople–who are waiting for their doom on a hillside–the comet will not hit, and they go back to town to rescue the trapped miners. Meanwhile, back at the Time Tunnel complex the need to establish an accurate "fix" on Tony and Doug by focusing on the comet accidentally pulls the comet virtually into the Time Tunnel, as feared by Kirk and the technician Jerry (Sam Groom). Dr. Swain manually pulls apart the cables from inside the right instrument panel that controls the power, saving the complex from certain destruction from the comet. Jerry, who was almost pulled into the tunnel by the comet, suffers cardiac arrest due to shock, but the resourceful Dr. MacGregor utilizes the severed power cords as a makeshift resuscitator to revive Jerry. It is then that Dr. Swain suggests that the Time Tunnel be shut down to avoid further catastrophe and danger to the world, but Gen. Kirk and Ann veto his suggestion. After being relocated in time from the 1910 mine Tony and Doug are separated. Tony arrives outside the Time Tunnel complex ten years before the present. He goes half out of his mind when Sergeant Jiggs and a younger Doug Phillips fail to recognize him (see "Rendezvous with Yesterday"). At the control panel Dr. Swain directs the superimposition of Tony's signal on Doug's, and they are both reunited on arrival at the Japanese consulate near Pearl Harbor on December 6, 1941.
The Day The Sky Fell In	September 30, 1966	December 6, 1941	Honolulu, Hawaii	4
Tony and Doug arrive inside the Japanese consulate in Honolulu the day before the attack on Pearl Harbor. The young Anthony Newman was living in Honolulu at the time and had spent that night at his friend Billy Neal's house–which would be destroyed in the raid–but Dr. Newman has no memory of what happened. His father, a Lieutenant Commander in the United States Navy, was never seen again after the attack. When Tony tries to warn his father of the impending attack he only succeeds in making his father wary of the danger. The attack goes on schedule the following morning, but Tony and Doug are able to persuade Billy's mother, Louise Neal (played by Susan Flannery), to take Billy and young Tony and flee to the mountains. Lt. Commander Newman is seriously injured at the communications center in a bomb blast while trying to warn the USS Enterprise to stay away from Pearl Harbor. Tony arrives and helps his father transmit the warning to the ship. The elder Newman then dies in his son's arms.
The Last Patrol	October 7, 1966	January 6, 1815	near New Orleans, Louisiana	5
Tony and Doug arrive in Louisiana the day before the final battle of the War of 1812. They are taken prisoner by the British troops, court martialed as spies and sentenced to be shot at dawn. A British general, General Southall (Carroll O'Connor), is brought to the time tunnel so that the team can establish the location of their scientists. Recognizing his ancestor, Colonel Southall (also Carroll O'Connor), and confessing that he does not have long to live anyway, General Southall insists on going back to order Colonel Southall to release the two scientists and to find out why he led his troops into the strong point of the opposing army. General Southall fails to convince his ancestor, and both Southalls are killed in the battle. Note: This episode said that the battle occurred on January 7; it actually occurred on January 8.
Crack Of Doom	October 14, 1966	August 27, 1883	Krakatoa in Maritime Southeast Asia	6
Tony and Doug arrive in the vicinity of Indonesia, on the island of Krakatoa the day of its eruption in August 1883 just in time to stop the sacrifice of a young Indonesian by his companions, who are there to serve as guides to Dr. Holland and his daughter. Dr. Holland is conducting a scientific investigation of the island following the loud vulcanic explosion a few months before. Karnutu, the chief guide, believes Doug and Tony are devils, who are causing the eruption, and he tries to sacrifice them to the fires to stop the eruption. Doug and Tony find that they have only a few hours to convince the scientists to leave the island before it is blown up with the biggest explosion in history. One problem they face is lack of information, Doug feels that they should go to Java for safety when they must go instead to Sumatra. Tony is retrieved just before Karnutu throws him into a lava pit, but when he gets to the Time Tunnel complex he finds all personnel frozen in a time warp. Tony finds the correct escape information written down by Dr. Swain. He takes it with him when he sends himself back to 1883. Karnutu is thwarted and falls into the lava pit. Doug and Tony finally persuade the scientists and their remaining guides to leave for Sumatra, but Doug and Tony must be left behind due to a lack of room in the canoe. Fortunately Tony left coordinates necessary to switch Doug and himself on a pad of paper in Dr. Swain's frozen hand when he was there during the time warp. They are shifted just before the big eruption.
Revenge Of The Gods	October 21, 1966	April 23, 1184 BC	Near Troy in Anatolia	7
Tony and Doug arrive near the city of Troy after the tenth year of the siege by the Achaeans (Mycenaean Greeks). Ulysses the Greek commander takes Doug and Tony to be gods from Olympus to the disgust of Sardis, one of Ulysses's commanders. Sardis is defeated by Tony in a sword fight and defects to the Trojans, whose Prince Paris uses him for a raid on Ulysses's camp. Doug is captured and tortured in Troy. Tony distinguishes himself in a battle against the Trojans with the help of Jiggs, the Time Tunnel chief of security, who is sent back in time by accident with modern weapons and ammunition. Tony gets the privilege of joining the Greeks in the Trojan Horse for the capture and sack of Troy. Both Sardis and Paris are killed, and Queen Helen and Doug are rescued. (See Trojan War.)
Massacre	October 28, 1966	June 24-25, 1876	Big Horn County, Montana Territory	8
Tony and Doug land in 1876 Montana the day before the Battle of the Little Bighorn. They are captured by Chief Crazy Horse and his companions, Doug manages to escape with the help of the survivor of a troop of soldiers, Trumpeter Tim McKinnis. Tony does not escape and is taken to the Sioux encampment. There he demonstrates his honesty and bravery to Chief Sitting Bull, moving him to adopt him. Doug and Tim make their way to the 7th Cavalry for help. Doug finds it pointless to try to convince Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer either to try to rescue Tony or reconsider his intention to fight the Sioux at the Little Big Horn. At the Time Tunnel complex Gen. Kirk has brought in Dr. Charles Whitebird, an expert on the Indian Wars period, who happens to be a full blooded Sioux himself. Dr. Whitebird is able to give Ray and Ann spacial coordinates. They succeed in bringing back Yellow Elk, who had been sent by Crazy Horse from the Sioux encampment to thwart Tony and Sitting Bull's plan to send a peace offer to Custer. Yellow Elk is stopped from ambushing Tony on his way to Custer with the offer. Later Yellow Elk keeps his companions from killing Tony and Doug just before they discover the outcome of "Custer's Last Stand."
Devil's Island	November 11, 1966	March 14, 1895	Devil's Island in South America	9
Tony and Doug arrive on the French penal colony of Devil's Island just as new prisoners arrive. They are mistaken for two of the prisoners who have escaped and are imprisoned in their stead. The other prisoners are not interested in escape until Captain Alfred Dreyfus arrives on the island, but this is part of a scheme of the French government to eliminate Dreyfus by killing him if he tries to escape. (See the Dreyfus Affair.)
Reign Of Terror	November 18, 1966	October 8, 1793	Paris, France	10
Tony and Doug arrive in Paris, France in the middle of the French Revolution during the Reign of Terror. A shopkeeper offers to help them get out of the city if they will help him get to Marie Antoinette in an attempt to free her. Instead, they end up helping the Dauphin, Louis XVII, to escape with the shopkeeper as his guide and protector. Tony and Doug are confronted by an ancestor of General Kirk, who is a dead ringer for him. Kirk has his heirloom ring sent back to possibly facilitate Doug and Tony's being recovered, but the ring had been a love token between Marie Antoinette and a foreign amour. The ancestor General Querque seeks to use the ring as evidence to incriminate Marie Antoinette, clearing the way for her execution. At the end of the episode Doug and Tony distract a young artillery lieutenant by the name of Napoléon Bonaparte so that the shopkeeper and the dauphin can go aboard a ship that will take them to freedom. The ring experiment ultimately fails: Doug and Tony get transferred to another era just before rifle shots reach their position, while the ring gets transferred, by inference, back to Kirk. Note: This episode said that Marie Antoinette was executed shortly after noon on October 15; the execution actually took place on October 16.
Secret Weapon	November 25, 1966	June 16, 1956	Southeastern Europe	11
A general in The Pentagon takes advantage of them arriving at the right time and location to send them on a spy mission. They are sent a message to meet a contact who will get them in to a secret Soviet project, A-13. A-13 turns out to be a project very similar to Project Tic-Toc, but it is not quite functioning. Also, the chief scientist of that project is currently (in 1968) defecting to the United States. Tony and Doug pose as scientists and return valuable information on the project and the defector.
The Death Trap	December 2, 1966	February 21, 1861	Baltimore, Maryland	12
Tony and Doug arrive in a barn while a meeting is occurring of people conspiring to kill Abraham Lincoln before he has even begun his Presidency. These followers of John Brown are hoping to make it look like southern secessionists had done it, thereby sparking a war with the South and resulting in an end to slavery.
The Alamo	December 9, 1966	March 6, 1836	The Alamo Mission	13
Tony and Doug arrive just outside of the Alamo on the final day of the siege. Knowing that the defenders are doomed they attempt to convince the commander, Col. William B. Travis, to have the men abandon the fort or at least evacuate the wounded.
The Night Of The Long Knives	December 16, 1966	mid May, 1886	Thar Desert in India	14
Tony and Doug arrive in the Thar, where Dr. Phillips is immediately captured by Afghanistan rebels. Tony is shot and presumed dead, but is found by Rudyard Kipling and taken to the local British fort. Rebellion against the British occupiers is rising, and the local commander has been ordered to not attack the rebels. But one of the scientists has escaped and must convince the British to attack the rebels, freeing Dr. Phillips and stopping the Night Of The Long Knives, the signal to begin the general uprising. Dayton Lummis appeared as the character Gladstone.
Invasion	December 23, 1966	June 4, 1944	Cherbourg, France	15
Two nights before the D-Day invasion of Europe, Tony and Doug arrive on the Cherbourg Peninsula. They witness an attack of the French Resistance, referred to as the Underground, on a Nazi installation. Tony later becomes acquainted with these fighters, Mirabeau (Robert Carricart), Duchamps (Michael St. Clair), and Verlaine (Joey Tata). Tony and Doug are captured by the Nazis and taken to the Gestapo headquarters in the village of Ste. Marie Église. They are questioned by the commandant Major Hoffman (Lyle Bettger) attached to the Gestapo. They are observed on the other side of a two-way mirror by Dr. Hans Kleinenmann (John Wengraf), who calls in Major Hoffman, telling him to bring Doug to him and allow Tony to escape. Doug is to serve as a guinea pig for Kleinemann's last brainwashing experiment to get him to kill Tony in cold blood. Tony makes his way from the Gestapo headquarters tailed by a Gestapo agent, who is killed by Verlaine. Tony is captured by Duchamps, the leader of the Underground group. Although Tony is an American he is still under suspicion of working for the Gestapo, but it is Mirabeau who sells information on the Underground's activities to the Nazis.
The Revenge Of Robin Hood	December 30, 1966	June 14, 1215	King John's Castle, England	16
The Earl of Huntington, formerly Robin Hood, is petitioning King John to sign the Magna Carta, or the barons (who have raised armies) will overthrow the king. Dr. Phillips has arrived just outside of the throne room and overhears the end of the conversation. When King John orders his men to arrest the Earl of Huntington, Huntington puts up a valiant fight (with swordplay) but is apprehended when he runs into Dr. Phillips on his way out. They are questioned by the king as to where the barons are meeting, but when they don't give up the information, they are taken to the dungeon to be tortured for the information. Dr. Newman had arrived earlier in the dungeon, and when the time is right, he overcomes the guards and frees the two prisoners. Tony and Doug manage to escape, but Huntington does not. On their way to warn the barons, Tony and Doug are caught by the Merry Men. After escaping the king's men, rescuing the Earl of Huntington and kidnapping the king, the episode ends with King John reluctantly signing the Magna Carta.
Kill Two By Two	January 6, 1967	February 17, 1945	Minami Iwo	17
Tony and Doug arrive about 700 miles Southeast of Tokyo, Japan in the South Pacific on the island of Minami Iwo, one of two islands off the coast of Iwo Jima, two days before the Battle of Iwo Jima during World War II. They manage to overpower the observer left on the island to radio the position of the U.S. Navy ships but are captured themselves when a Lieutenant Nakamura (played by Mako) surprises them. Instead of imprisoning them or killing them, he offers them an opportunity to capture or kill the Japanese soldiers. Nakamura gives Doug and Tony a one-hour head start but no weapons. Dr. Newman has a badly sprained ankle, so Dr. Phillips sneaks back and manages to take five grenades from the supply room. The two sides play a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse, but Lieutenant Nakamura seems strangely suicidal.
Visitors From Beyond The Stars	January 13, 1967	1885	In space above Mullins, Arizona Territory	18
Tony and Doug arrive on an alien spacecraft in space above the Americas. Two aliens soon appear, pull a gun, and force Tony and Doug into an area that translates between their different languages. The aliens tell Tony and Doug that they are going to take all of the protein (food) from Earth and that there will be no life left when they leave, just as they have done with other planets. The aliens also tell them that there are three kinds of people: those who cooperate, those who can be made to cooperate and those whom they must kill. "Resistance is impossible," they say. The aliens (from Alpha 1) land their ship at a farm near Mullins, Arizona Territory (approximately 112°W 34°N) in the year 1885. Their first objective is to take over the farm house, which they do. Their second objective is to take over the town, which they almost succeed in doing. Dr. Phillips has been made cooperative by the aliens. Dr. Newman has to get help from the sheriff and the bar owner in order for his plan to take the aliens' control unit away from them to succeed. Meanwhile, two other aliens, (John Hoyt playing the one speaking character) who no longer need to raid planets for food, appear in the Time Tunnel control room and demand that the Tunnel operators prove that they didn't destroy the alien ship, or face destruction of the Earth. After they are shown an image of the ship leaving Earth safely, the aliens leave. This episode makes use of Bernard Herrmann's music from the film The Day the Earth Stood Still and 'high tech sci-fi' sound effects from the film Forbidden Planet.
The Ghost Of Nero	January 20, 1967	October 23, 1915	Italian Alps in Villa Galba, Northern Italy	19
Tony and Doug arrive at the Italian Alps just outside of fictional Villa Galba during the Italian Campaign in World War I, and enter the cellar to avoid an artillery bombardment. A German advance team has just arrived at the villa. A German corporal is mysteriously stabbed to death while investigating a crypt marked Nero, which was exposed by a bomb. Fearing that the Germans will think they did it, Tony and Doug hide and accidentally find a secret passage to the upper floors of the estate, where the owner, an Italian count named Galba–who is descended from Roman emperor Galba–offers to protect them from the Germans. When the Germans arrive at the room, Galba tells the Germans that Tony and Doug are neutral American guests of his. The German major orders them to stay in the room as prisoners while the Germans use the villa to observe the movements of Italian forces. A German officer is possessed by the ghost of Nero and tries to kill the descendant of Galba, whom Nero blames as his assassin. The ghost also tries to kill the nobleman by possessing Tony. Project HQ utilizes the services of a paranormal researcher (played by John Hoyt), who suggests zapping Tony with 1,000,000 volts of electricity for one milisecond through the Tunnel to force the ghost out. This nearly kills Tony, so HQ attempts to bring him back to the present. Nero is transported instead, and almost destroys HQ before the scientists can send him back. When the Italian army retakes the Villa, the ghost of Nero enters a young Italian Corporal by the name of Benito Mussolini, who vows to drive the Huns from his country and restore the glory of the Caesars. Tony and Doug are "switched" after this. Note: Italy declared war on Austria-Hungary in May 1915, but it was not until August 1916 that Italy declared war on Germany. Count Galba also appeals to Nero for help against the "Huns", a common nickname for the Germans in WWI. But the real Huns invaded Italy four centuries after Nero's demise. This episode makes frequent use of Bernard Herrmann's music from the film The Day the Earth Stood Still
The Walls Of Jericho	January 27, 1967	1550 BC	Near Jericho in Israel	20
Tony and Doug arrive outside of the tent of Joshua during the night, two days before the end of the Israelite siege of Jericho. Joshua comes to believe they are who they say they are–time travelers–and sends them to spy inside the city. Doug and Tony save a young virgin from being sacrificed to the Levantine deity Chemosh by the high priest of Jericho. Doug is captured and sent to the dungeon to be tortured as an Israelite spy. Tony escapes into a house with an unlocked door. When the resident arrives, he calls her (Rahab) because, from the Biblical account, she is the one who sheltered the two Israelite spies. (Rahab is the sister of the almost-sacrificed virgin.) After Tony rescues Doug from the dungeon, they take refuge on the roof of Rahab's house, but are betrayed by her servant woman Azah, who desires the reward of 1,000 talents of silver. Doug escapes to tell Joshua the information that he seeks. Tony and Rahab are about to be stoned to death, but when the Israelites complete their march, blow their trumpets and shout, the walls of the city fall down as what appears to be a tornado traces the destruction. Ann, a skeptic, decides that since a tornado is a natural phenomenon, that the fall of the walls was not a supernatural event, while Ray is convinced it was supernatural (perhaps because tornadoes are not known to strike in the Holy Lands). Tony and Doug are transported to a new era after telling Rahab she'll be safe. Special Note: In some time zones, during the original broadcast of this episode, the program was interrupted by an ABC News Bulletin regarding the death of three astronauts (Virgil "Gus" Grissom, Edward White, and Roger Chaffee) in a fire in the Apollo 1 command module, while preparing for launch of the first manned Apollo space mission, on the launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center. In other time zones, the interruption came while "Rango" was airing.
Idol Of Death	February 3, 1967	October 12, 1519	near Veracruz, Mexico	21
Hernán Cortés (played by Anthony Caruso) has captured the royal family of the Tlaxcalan people of Mexico just as his army of 3,000 Tlaxcalans begins its deadly rampage through Cholula during the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire. He is questioning them about the location of a golden mask, the symbol of ruling authority to these Indians. Doug and Tony arrive before the torture begins and are captured trying to save the royals. Once Cortés gets the information he wants, he kills the king and queen but keeps the timid royal heir alive for the moment. While Cortés is away watching the burning of his ships to prevent the rebellion of his troops, a member of the tribe frees the royal heir as well as Tony and Doug. The four of them try to retrieve the mask before the Spaniards gain it. Project HQ, meanwhile, has enlisted the aid of a Mexican named Castillano to help pinpoint Tony and Doug's location in Veracruz in order to bring the two scientists back. It turns out, however, that Castillano is more concerned with acquiring the mask for himself. He insists that the project team bring back the mask before their colleagues. When HQ transports the mask, Doug, Tony and the young chief are in the cave containing the mask, being forced by a Spanish captain to collect the gold gifted to the pagan god. The transport of the mask threatens to collapse the cave, so the team tries to send it back, but Castillano grabs the mask and threatens to shoot anyone in his way. A short gun battle breaks out in HQ and the mask is successfully sent back. The time disturbances, however, cause the cave to collapse onto the greedy captain. The young chief, now confident in his ability to lead his people, saves the mask while Doug and Tony are transported to a new era.
Billy The Kid	February 10, 1967	April 23, 1881	Lincoln, New Mexico Territory	22
Tony and Doug arrive in Lincoln, New Mexico Territory, but a gang on horses chases them into the sheriff's office. The gang kills the deputy who is guarding Billy the Kid (played by Robert Walker, Jr.). The young outlaw plans to shoot Tony and Doug, but Doug manages to shoot Billy. The scientists then escape out of town. Billy, whose belt buckle deflected the bullet, pursues them and catches them in an abandoned shack outside of town. Before Doug and Tony can be shot, Lt. General Heywood Kirk sends an audio transmission to the room stating that Billy is surrounded by law enforcement. Tony and Doug manage to overpower Billy and tie him up. Tony goes back to town to get help from the sheriff, but is mistaken for the Kid and arrested. When sheriff Pat Garrett arrives back in town he verifies that Dr. Newman is not Billy the Kid, but the townspeople are convinced that he is and besiege the sheriff's office. Garrett sends out a deputy to start a cattle stampede to disrupt the lynch mob, allowing Garrett and Tony to escape the jail and return to the shack to arrest Billy. Billy, however, has been rescued by his gang. Doug evaded them and headed for town. When he arrives back in town, he finds Billy waiting for him. Billy demands a showdown in the streets, but Garrett and Doug arrive and save him. Garrett arrests Billy and his cohort, and Tony and Doug are "switched" to a new point in time.
Pirates Of Deadman's Island	February 17, 1967	April 9, 1805	Near the Barbary Coast of Africa	23
Tony and Doug arrive somewhere in the Mediterranean on a pirate ship during the First Barbary War and are captured and taken to an island. Captain Beal (Victor Jory), a Barbary pirate, orders that the strangers be shot. However, the nephew of the king of Spain, Armando, was also captured and pleads for the lives of the Americans, saying Tony and Doug can watch over him until a ransom can be paid. Doug, Tony and the boy attempt several escapes, but are recaptured each time. Beal then decides to kill Doug and Tony for good, but the shelling from several U.S. Navy ships–commanded by Captain Stephen Decatur, who has arrived to defeat the pirates in the First Barbary War–puts an end to the pirates' plans. The pirates head for their ship to engage in battle. Tony is hit by a shot on the beach is and presumed dead. The pirates take Armando and Doug onto their ship during the battle. Tony recovers and swims out to the U.S. flagship. The Time Tunnel personnel accidentally transfer Captain Beal back to HQ, and he causes a ruckus and kidnaps Ann. She persuades him to go back to his ship, where he is intentionally killed by one of his own crew. HQ then transfers Armando and Doug back to the island before the pirate ship is destroyed. They then transfer first Armando and then Doug to Captain Decatur's ship to save them from the shelling. Both Doug and Armando are seriously wounded, however, and it is feared they may both die. The newly retired Time Tunnel staff doctor, Dr. Benjamin Berkhart, insists on going back to save their lives and help the wounded American sailors. Dr. Berkhart arrives and treats Doug's shock with an injection and administers an anesthetic to Armando. Happy knowing he will live out the remainder of his life in this time period, Dr. Berkhart goes to look after the wounded sailors as Tony and Doug are switched to their next adventure. Note: This is the last episode to have the opening narration.
Chase Through Time	24 February 1967	1547 and two other time periods	Grand Canyon, a futuristic beehive community, a Pleistocene rainforest	24
Tony and Doug arrive near the Grand Canyon, Arizona, in 1547. Back at HQ, a 'Dr. Stiles' is monitoring the Time Tunnel ( No explanation is given as to why Gen. Kirk, Ann, and Dr. Swain are not at the controls 'as usual' when the 'move' occurs). Meanwhile, Raul Niman (Robert Duvall), a spy for an unspecified country or organization, has planted a nuclear bomb somewhere in the complex. He kills Stiles to secrete the bomb's timer in the Time Tunnel control room. A security check exposes his presence, and, with no other avenue of escape, he jumps into the Time Tunnel. The Tunnel had been tuned to the location of Doug and Tony, so Niman also arrives near the Grand Canyon. Gen. Kirk, Ann, and Dr. Swain reappear at the controls and discover the bomb plot through unexplained discovery of 'instructions' to Niman to place the bomb, once his spy mission was complete. Gen. Kirk offers all in HQ a chance to evacuate, or volunteer to stay and try to save the complex (and Tony and Doug). All bravely decide to stay. Tony and Doug are told they must apprehend Niman and get him to tell them the location of the bomb. But the lock on the time period drifts and moves Niman to another time, so Tony and Doug are sent after him. They arrive in the year 1,000,000 A.D., ten years after Niman has arrived. Niman is helping the inhabitants of this future age to build a time machine so that the 'masters' can spread their "ultimate human society"–actually a repressive, orderly society based on bee society–throughout different ages. Tony and Doug are pressed into service to help him build the time machine, but attempt to escape. The Time Tunnel personnel are able to move them–along with Niman–just before they come to serious trouble. However, two people from that time are accidentally moved as well: Niman's guard Vokar (Lew Gallo) and a sympathetic female worker named Z24A19 (Vitina Marcus). All five of them arrive in 1,000,000 B.C. and the chase continues until they all fall into a cell in a giant beehive. Niman is reminded that if the Time Tunnel is blown up, they will all be stuck here. Niman tells them where the timer is located and it is disabled 'just in time'. As the sound of approaching bees is heard, they all need to escape the hive, but the Time Tunnel can only transfer two people at a time; Doug and Tony are moved first, then the two from the future. The Tunnel hasn't enough power left to do anymore moves at this time, so Niman is left in place to face an unpleasant end. The destination and fate of the two future characters is left to one's imagination. This episode also makes use of music from The Day the Earth Stood Still and 'high tech sci-fi' sound effects from Forbidden Planet, along with 'dinosaur' scenes lifted from Allen's The Lost World.
The Death Merchant	March 3, 1967	July 2, 1863	Adams County, Pennsylvania	25
Tony and Doug arrive in the middle of the Battle of Gettysburg during the American Civil War, where Dr. Tony Newman is quickly shell-shocked by an artillery blast. Dr. Doug Phillips retreats from the battlefield with a small group of Union soldiers, whose commander tells him to put on a Union uniform to avoid getting shot. The Time Tunnel personnel send a shock through time to revive Tony and he is found by a small group of Confederate soldiers. Suffering from amnesia, he becomes convinced he is the lieutenant whom the Confederate soldiers were expecting and dons a Confederate uniform. The Union soldiers had intercepted the courier so they know that a man named Michaels, who has stolen some gunpowder from the Union army, is going to sell it to the Confederate army. Both sides are attempting to find Michaels first and get the gunpowder. Mr. Michaels is actually the early-16th century philosopher Machiavelli (played by Malachi Throne), who has been moved to this period by the Tunnel due to similarities with Doug's "pattern". When the Confederates show up, Machiavelli is willing to give them the gunpowder because the war is much more interesting when the sides are evenly matched. Tony takes Doug prisoner. Tony, Doug and Machiavelli eventually make their way to the cave where the gunpowder is stored. Doug and Tony fight, which results in Tony regaining his identity after being knocked out by Doug. The Time Tunnel transfers Machiavelli back to his own time (January 3, 1519) and Tony and Doug to a new adventure. Note: In this episode, Machiavelli says that he is working on his book, The Art of War. This should not be confused with the book by Sun Tzu, which bears the same title when translated into English.
Attack Of The Barbarians	March 10, 1967	1287	East Asia	26
Doug and Tony–wearing their usual attire despite having left the previous era in soldiers' uniforms–arrive somewhere in Mongolia or Eastern China and are captured by Mongols and taken to the tent of Batu Khan (Arthur Batanides). Batu–a grandson of Genghis Khan–feels he is the rightful heir of Genghis, but he has to overcome Kublai Khan. Doug is thought to be dead, so Tony is tortured on the rack for information on the weaknesses of the nearby enemy fortress. Batu and most of his guards leave once Tony passes out. Doug wakes up and carries Tony away from the camp, where they are found by Marco Polo (John Saxon). Tony and Doug seek safety in the fortress, where Tony falls in love with Princess Sarit (Vitina Marcus), the only daughter of Kublai Khan. Batu comes up with a plan to kidnap Sarit and marry her, thereby uniting the various Mongol tribes behind him in his quest. Batu's men succeed in kidnapping Sarit, but she is freed by Doug and Tony. Batu's forces then launch a massive assault on the fortress. Doug and Tony are able to make artillery shells by mixing gunpowder and potassium nitrate in empty water jugs. General Kirk is able to send back igniters to make the bombs successful. The tide is turned in the battle, and Tony and Doug are relocated.
Merlin The Magician	March 17, 1967	544	Cornwall, England	27
Merlin the magician appears in Time Tunnel HQ and freezes the personnel. He then brings Tony and Doug out of their "time limbo" (between destinations) back to the Time Tunnel control room in suspended animation so that he can instruct them to do what he asks, though they may die in the effort. He then sends them to Cornwall in the year 544. There, they fight off a band of Vikings and encounter a young man named Arthur Pendragon whose father has been killed by the Viking raiders. Merlin appears and orders Tony and Doug to protect Arthur at all costs. A band of Vikings then attack and Doug is felled by a sword while Tony and Arthur are captured. Merlin prevents the Time Tunnel crew from moving Tony and Doug out of this time, going so far as to injure Dr. Raymond Swain with an electric shock. Merlin never explains, to them or the personnel at HQ, why he specifically needs Doug and Tony ( rather than anybody else ) to perform their assigned task. When Doug awakes, he is in the castle of King Leodegrance of Cameliard and is being cared for by the king's daughter, Guinevere (Lisa Jak). Merlin heals Doug and has Guinevere fetch the doctor new clothes. Tony escapes from his bonds and frees Arthur, but they are later recaptured. Doug goes to look for weaknesses in the Viking-held castle, and he and Guinevere, who followed Doug, are captured as well. Guinevere is imprisoned in a room by the Viking chieftain Wogan (Vincent Beck). Arthur, Doug and Tony are imprisoned in a cell. Merlin frees them from their bonds, but tells them that they must free themselves from the locked room, since there is a limit to how much magic he can perform at a time. Doug and Tony blow the door of the cell off by improvising a pressure cooker from water, a pot and two thumbscrews. Doug gathers Leodegrance's troops and brings them back to fight, but Merlin says that the Vikings will not be frightened by these "gentlemen knights," so he changes their clothing to that of Vikings, which is the last way Merlin can help them in this venture. The knights storm the castle and drive the Vikings out while Tony kills Wogan in a sword fight. Arthur declares he will make Doug and Tony his first knights, but they are transferred by the Tunnel. Note: The episode places Vikings in England approximately 250 years before the Viking Age and their first recorded appearance in the British Isles. Historians date the beginning of the Viking Age as 8 June 793, the day of the first Viking raid on the abbey on Lindisfarne.
The Kidnappers	March 24, 1967	8433	Planet orbiting Canopus	28
An alien time traveler from the future called OTT (acronym for "Official Time Traveler") (played by Del Monroe) appears in the Time Tunnel control room and abducts Dr. Ann McGregor. Ray discovers a metal punched card presumably dropped by OTT that has a set of space-time coordinates. Kirk directs Ray to transfer Doug and Tony to those coordinates, which place them on a planet in the system of the star Canopus in the year 8433 A.D. This was according to the plan of the curator of a project to compile all the data of the history of earth by extracting the memories of all its historical figures, rendering them walking "vegetables." Doug and Tony as the first human time travelers are wanted by the curator (played by Michael Ansara) for his project, Ann being kidnapped as bait to have them transferred there. As Kirk intended in sending Doug and Tony there, they are brought together with Ann. Since the Time Tunnel's fix on them is strong Ray attempts to retrieve them, but OTT suddenly appears again to take the time-spatial conversion unit to prevent this. Doug, Tony, and Ann witness OTT's return to the alien complex with the unit. They now face the danger of being rendered vegetables like the three historical figures seen there—Cicero, Erasmus, and Hitler, but they discover the aliens' significant vulnerability: like plants they derive sustenance from the light of their "sun" Canopus, becoming dormant at night. They fool the curator into thinking that they had eaten the cubed pills he had directed them to eat as food—they contain drugs to sedate them for mind extraction the next day. When the curator and the guards go dormant at night Doug, Tony, and Ann remain awake to retrieve the time-space converter and escape. They outwit and kill OTT, who by a power pack remains awake to patrol the alien complex; Ann sends herself back to the Time Tunnel control room with the converter by way of the alien time machine, and Doug and Tony are transferred away in the nick of time. This episode also makes use of Bernard Herrmann's music from the film The Day the Earth Stood Still. Note: This episode gives the distance to Canopus as 98 light years when it is actually 310 ± 20 light years.
Raiders From Outer Space	March 31, 1967	November 2, 1883	Near Khartoum, Sudan	29
Tony and Doug arrive in the middle of the Battle of Khartoum between British and Arab forces in the Sudan. This chapter is loosely based on the campaign of General Gordon. In their efforts to hide from the battling armies, they encounter two aliens who take them prisoner. The alien leader (from Aristos) then contacts the Time Tunnel control center and tells them not to interfere. Rather than kill them, the aliens are ordered by their leader to bring Tony and Doug back to their base. After explaining their plan to conquer Earth by destroying the city of London, the aliens order Dr. Newman to be taken out in the desert and killed with a dehydration ray while Dr. Phillips will be put in a machine to extract all of his knowledge. But the alien ordered to kill Dr. Newman leaves when they are encountered by two British soldiers. Dr. Newman is thought to be an Arab spy, so he leads them to the alien base where one of the soldiers is killed. The Time Tunnel is also able to move Dr. Phillips out of the alien machine to where Dr. Newman is. In response, the aliens send a bomb to the Time Tunnel control room that will explode in sixty minutes unless all personnel are evacuated to the upper levels of the complex. Unable to attack the aliens effectively with the resources at hand, Tony, Doug, and the British soldier fetch grenades and gunpowder from Khartoum. They attack the alien base, but have insufficient resources left to destroy it. However, just before the bomb explodes in the Time Tunnel control room, the Time Tunnel transfers the bomb to the alien base, destroying it a few minutes later. Note: The Battle of Khartoum was fought in 1884−1885.
Town Of Terror	April 7, 1967	September 10, 1978	Fictional town of Cliffport, Maine	30
Tony and Doug arrive in a hotel cellar containing sophisticated equipment. When they get to the lobby of the hotel, the proprietor (played by Mabel Albertson) tells them that there is no cellar. When they attempt to show her, she immobilizes them. The Time Tunnel frees them from their immobilization by moving them. Doug and Tony flee and are pursued. A force field around the town prevents their escape, but two young people–Joan (Heather Young) and Pete–soon encounter them. Tony and Doug find out that the townspeople have been immobilized and aliens are using the forms of the townspeople to appear as humans. The aliens are planning to transport all of the oxygen from Earth's atmosphere to their atmosphere-poor home planet of Andros. The aliens also start sucking oxygen out of the Time Tunnel headquarters, nearly asphyxiating the staff. Joan and Pete help Tony and Doug procure dynamite, which are made into time bombs. Doug and Tony successfully destroy the alien control room, destroying their ability to remove Earth's oxygen, freeing the townspeople and saving Time Tunnel personnel. In the final shift of the series, Doug and Tony end up back on the Titanic, and a synopsis of that episode ("Rendezvous With Yesterday") is shown in clips.

Movies excerpted (partial listing)

• The Buccaneer
• The Day the Earth Stood Still
• Destination Moon
• A Farewell to Arms
• Helen of Troy
• How Green Was My Valley
• Khartoum
• Now It Can Be Shown!: Pearl Harbor (Fox Movietone News)
• Prince Valiant
• The Story of Ruth
• Taras Bulba
• The 300 Spartans
• Titanic (1953)
• To Catch a Thief

Media

Novels

Prolific science fiction author Murray Leinster published a 1964 Pyramid Books novel titled Time Tunnel with cover art somewhat similar to the television series' Tunnel. The actual plots were quite different. The 1964 novel was set in France, the tunnel (an odd natural phenomenon) was discovered by a professor, and it only established a fixed connection between the present (1964 in the novel) and Napoleonic era 1804—based on large masses of iron, which formed the temporal connection (or tunnel) when they did not move in space over the ages. Once the tunnel was formed, it was found people could go both ways. So could things. For instance, brand-new "antiques" for the 20th century and marvels of modern industry for the Napoleonic era. But you had to be careful - because what would happen to "now" if you did something in 1804 that changed history..?

In any case, in 1967 Leinster wrote a loosely based novelization of the television series, entitled The Time Tunnel and also published by Pyramid. The Time Tunnel was the most important - and most secret - weapon ever developed. Scientists Tony Newman and Doug Phillips knew that the destiny of the world depended on it. Now the Tunnel was threatened with destruction - and the only way Doug and Tony could save it was to take a blind leap into the whirling mists of time.

This was followed later in the year by Timeslip: Time Tunnel Adventure #2, the last novel based on the TV series. The front and back covers feature photos from the series.

In Time Bomb, the experimental nuclear missile was sent through the Time Tunnel - but something went wrong, and it wound up at the bottom of a pond within Mexico City, in the 1840s. In the present (1968), excavation equipment was moving toward the site - any day a bulldozer blade might set it off, destroying a mighty city and plunging the world into war. Time travelers Tony Newman and Doug Phillips had only one chance to head off disaster - to go through the Time Tunnel and make the accident "unhappen." The trouble was, there was a war on in the past - and the bomb was in enemy territory.

Comics

There were two issues put out by Gold Key Comics (Western Publishing Co.) in 1966-7. These were reprinted by Hermes Press in 2012.

In Issue #1:

• The Time Tunnel: The Assassins - April 14, 1865, Abe gets a second chance.
• The Lion or the Volcano? - August 24, 79 A.D., Pompeii. It's the lions or Vesuvius for Doug & Tony — which will it be?
• Mars Count-Down - 1980. Will the US make it to Mars? Will Doug & Tony make it back to Earth?

In Issue #2:

• The Time Tunnel: The Conquerors - D-Day 1944. The Nazis get a second chance—this time with weapons from the future.
• The Captives - June 25, 1876, mid-America. Custer gets a second chance.

DVD releases

20th Century Fox Home Entertainment released the entire series on DVD in Region 1 in 2006 in two volumes. Volume Two includes the unaired 2002 pilot and the made-for-TV film The Time Travelers as special features.

In Region 2, Revelation Films has released the entire series on DVD in the UK in one complete series box set.

Record album

The Time Tunnel 1967 ABC-TV Japanese book with record album. 33⅓ RPM record licensed and manufactured for exclusive release in Japan by Asahi Sonorama company and was released during the show's original airing in 1967. The record is pressed in blue-vinyl and contains the time-travel drama "Adventure in the Lost World." The highlight of this package is the colorful 12-page booklet which showcases original storybook artwork of the record's episode with the intrepid time travelers being terrorized by rampaging dinosaurs and angry cavemen.

Soundtrack album

An album of music from the series, featuring the episodes "Rendezvous With Yesterday" (tracks 2-4) and "The Death Merchant" (tracks 5 and 6) was released by GNP Crescendo as part of the collection The Fantasy Worlds of Irwin Allen.

1. The Time Tunnel: Main Title - John Williams (:39)
2. To The Tunnel/Tony Enters Machine/Tony's First Trip/Titanic Trot/The Titanic - John Williams (10:06)
3. Tony's Tall Tales/Althea's Attack/Doug's Arrival/Hose Nose/Telegraph/Approaching The Berg - John Williams (7:11)
4. The Iceberg Comet/Time Transfer/The Jungle - John Williams (10:24)
5. In The Battle/Lost Trail/Anne Worried/Michael's Dog/No Sign/Omens/Corporal Shot/The Trunk - George Duning (7:16)
6. Doug Duels/Tony Returns/Doug Chased/Tony Again/Pal Fight/More Pal Fight/What's Happened/Stand Back - George Duning (7:35)
7. The Time Tunnel: End Title - John Williams (:50)

Games

The Time Tunnel 1966 boxed board game from Ideal Toys (No. 2326-7). The playing board design shows characters and events from the prehistoric era into the future. The box insert has a spinner board and other parts include playing cards, token, and marker disks. The second game is The Time Tunnel: Spin-To-Win, a 1967 boxed board game from Pressman Toys, which features a box insert playing board that has a tunnel-like design representing different past years in history and plastic tops are spun on the playing board to determine "Time Travels."

Pinball games - Bally Manufacturing created a pinball called Time Tunnel in 1971 based loosely on the TV series, but production was stopped due to copyright infringement. The game was re-released with revised artwork as Space Time.

Other

• The Time Tunnel coloring book
• The Time Tunnel Viewmaster set - Saalfield #9561, 1966A story book to color, 80 pages, Sawyer #B491, 1966. Three Viewmaster slides from "Rendezvous With Yesterday" and 16-page story booklet that tells the pilot episode.

After the original run

In 1982, five feature length TV movies were put together from 10 complete episodes with portions of the first episode as introductory material. Aliens From Another Planet, was produced using episodes 24 ("Chase Through Time") and 18 ("Visitors From Beyond The Stars"). Revenge Of The Gods was a compilation of episodes 7 ("Revenge of the Gods") and 20 ("The Walls Of Jericho). Old Legends Never Die edited together episodes 27 ("Merlin The Magician") and 16 ("The Revenge Of Robin Hood"). Kill Or Be Killed comprised episodes 4 ("The Day The Sky Fell In") and 17 ("Kill Two By Two"). Raiders From The Moon was compiled from episodes 28 ("The Kidnappers") and 2 ("One Way To The Moon"). In the U.S., they can now be seen on the Encore Action cable network at various times.

Remakes

Two attempts were made to resurrect the show. One produced a pilot episode, but neither resulted in a new series.

2002 remake

In 2002, Fox showed interest in remaking this series. A pilot was produced by Twentieth Century Fox Television, Fox Television Studios and Regency Television in association with Irwin Allen Properties. Executive Producers were Kevin Burns and Jon Jashni. Sheila Allen was credited as one of the producers. It was not picked by Fox, in order to make room in its schedule for Joss Whedon's Firefly.

The new series had a much much darker, serious tone. Doug Phillips (David Conrad) is the main character, and Tony Newman is now Toni Newman, a female minor character. The unaired pilot episode is available on DVD from Fox Home Entertainment on The Time Tunnel: Volume Two, Disc Four.

In this remake, the (21st century) Time Tunnel is a Department of Energy research project into "hot fusion", which produces nearly limitless energy. When they initiated the reactor (an event not shown in the episode), it caused an unintended "time storm". For four hours—240 minutes—the time storm was uncontrollably whipping around in the past and changing history. The DOE was able to anchor one end of the storm by using the Tunnel like a lightning rod.

On their way into the tunnel complex, Flynn tells Doug Phillips, a former friend, that Phillips has been recruited because he has a detailed knowledge of the Battle of Hürtgen Forest. The head of the Time Tunnel likens their team to FEMA, in that they don't send a team back for a rain storm but they do for hurricanes. However, they can only go through time to where the other end of the storm is at the current moment, so they have a limited amount of time in which to fix what is wrong and to be retrieved by the Time Tunnel.

The team (Doug, Toni, Flynn, J.D. and Wix) must go back to WWII in 1944, to the Battle of Hürtgen Forest in Germany. They are to retrieve a person who was moved there by the time storm from 1546. During the mission, Doug Phillips meets his grandfather, a soldier who will be killed in this battle. Doug knows this, but cannot tell him and save his life because it would change history. Toni Newman tells him that she used to have three brothers and two sisters before the time storm accident, but is now an only child. They find out that the displaced person is a (very confused) medieval monk who is carrying bubonic plague. When the team is almost captured, two of them have switched to German uniforms and pretend to be Colonel Klink and (Sergeant) Schultz, complete with fake documents. Everyone who came in contact with the monk is given an antibiotic injection and the time ripples stop. But Flynn has been fatally stabbed, so he reveals that Phillips was a bitter man before the "240", but he now has a family. Flynn told Phillips this information to give him incentive to keep the timeline the way that it is.

Reality changes due to the time storm

There are some notable differences between the series world and the real world:

• Traffic lights use red for "go" and green for "stop" while yellow retains its meaning.
• There are 49 states in the USA. The title sequence shows New Jersey disappearing and the territory being divided between New York and Pennsylvania.
• The title sequence shows the USSR winning the race to the moon as the American flag dissolves into the Soviet flag.
• The New York Yankees are now the Boston Yankees.

2006 remake

The SciFi Channel announced in 2005 that it was going to create a new pilot for its 2006/07 season. Allen's wife, Sheila, and two producers of the 2002 FOX remake (Kevin Burns and Jon Jashni) began work on the new pilot. John Turman (Hulk) wrote the script. The series never materialized.

External links

• The Time Tunnel at IMDb
• Template:Tv.com show