The Time Tunnel

[Sakrysta]

The other day I noticed that The Time Tunnel is up on Hulu.com, so I thought I'd check it out. I've watched the first two episodes now, and I'm really enjoying it. It's fun to see the assumptions made about technology and the future, as well as the nifty special effects.

I keep asking the occasional logical question out of the habit of doing so with today's shows. Then I remind myself that this series was made before I was born, after which I just kind of marvel at the "neat" factor.

Anybody a fan? There's enough episodes to keep me busy on my lunch break for quite a while, if I don't give in and start watching them at home.

 

[Michael]

Yeah, definitively a great fan! This was just a good adventure show with likable characters. I really love the main theme! It had so much drive. I'm looking forward to a DVD release here in Germany.

 

[ITL]

I used to watch it when it was shown over here in the 70's when I was a kid - and I loved it. Had a soft spot for it ever since.

 

[Kelso]

Yup... love it.

 

[JoeZhang]

and it even has a star trek connection

 

[Christopher]

It has three Star Trek connections, James Darren, Whit Bissell, and Lee Meriwether. Which is, I think, 3/4 of its regular cast. And that's not counting guest stars and production staff.

 

[Kail]

I'm a fan, to a degree. Great concept, good cast. Some stand out episodes like the pilot, and the Peal Harbour one, but the writing quality went down hill pretty fast. I mean, how many people from the past did the tunnel team accidentally bring to the present? Seemed like they could bring anybody in but Doug and Tony. And it alway bugged be that they always arrived at some great moment in history, never in the backyard of the plumbers convention.

 

[RandyS]

Yep. Fine show.

 

[Christopher]

Ahh, yes, the Time Tunnel: a device that allows you to travel back into stock footage from any historical movie in 20th Century Fox's vault.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Has anyone here seen the 2002 remake? It never aired, but it's included on the second season DVD of the original series. What's it like?

IMDB says that there is a *second* remake (due this year) as well.

 

[Dar70]

I'm a fan, to a degree. Great concept, good cast. Some stand out episodes like the pilot, and the Peal Harbour one, but the writing quality went down hill pretty fast. I mean, how many people from the past did the tunnel team accidentally bring to the present? Seemed like they could bring anybody in but Doug and Tony. And it alway bugged be that they always arrived at some great moment in history, never in the backyard of the plumbers convention.

Well there were a few episodes were they went into the "future" but yeah they were always plopped into great moments in history for the most part. I really dont know how it can be rationalized. Maybe the time machine naturally sent its travlers to great moments and locations in history. Still a fun show.

 

[RandyS]

Has anyone here seen the 2002 remake? It never aired, but it's included on the second season DVD of the original series. What's it like?

It's okay as a one-time thing, but I wouldn't have watched the series, if it had been made. They turned Tony-sorry-TONI Nelson into a woman. Ron Moore took alot of shit for turning Starbuck and Boomer into women later, but it turns out, he wasn't the first to do so.

As I recall, the plot involved an army team going back to WWII.

 

[stoneroses]

A really nice kitch show. I think it was better when they kept clear of alien stories because they looked a bit naff bit the historical stories are great. Shame there was only 30 episodes. My favourite episode was 'The Walls Of Jericho' a great bit of sci-fi.
I think this show will come back again some day maybe in movie form. Hope they don't spoil it.

 

[EliyahuQeoni]

I always loved Time Tunnel as a kid. In fact, one of the reasons I became a huge Quantum Leap fan is because it seemed like a great updating of the general concept.

 

[TGTheodore]

Didn't care for the update version. Again, taking a fun show and trying to apply "reality" and "grittiness" to it.

And of course, a possible reason is my made-for-TV script called Escape from the Time Tunnel, which I wrote around 1995. Tony's illegitimate daughter (a 33-year-old high tech billionaire and genius) finds the tunnel, upgrades it, and reactivates it to retrieve Doug and Tony who were abandoned in two different (and unknown) times when the government pulled the plug on the funding.

All the while someone else is trying to keep Doug and Tony from being found and returned.

Never really tried marketing that one. I'd better hurry if I ever do. Robert Colbert is retired. (And yes, I wrote in the deaths of Ray Swain and General Kirk).

--Ted

 

[Roshi]

I have fond memories of the Time Tunnel. But it's true there were stinkers, like that episode where the Doctor from the Little House was an alien... Good Lord!!!

 

[TGTheodore]

I have fond memories of the Time Tunnel. But it's true there were stinkers, like that episode where the Doctor from the Little House was an alien... Good Lord!!!

Well, it WAS an Irwin Allen production. And his shows notoriously got more ouitlandish and cringeworthy the longer they ran.

And he'd frequently interchange costumes between Lost in Space, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Land of the Giants and The Time Tunnel.

--Ted

 

[Australis]

I'd like to see a reboot of the Time Tunnel, with more of the QL thing, where the events they visit/change are related to some point in history further down the line.

As to 'why did they turn up at great events', I think that the big events cause ripples throughout the social/political temporal fabric of our world, an effect that draws the time travelers in.

 

[blockaderunner]

I'm a fan, to a degree. Great concept, good cast. Some stand out episodes like the pilot, and the Peal Harbour one, but the writing quality went down hill pretty fast. I mean, how many people from the past did the tunnel team accidentally bring to the present? Seemed like they could bring anybody in but Doug and Tony. And it alway bugged be that they always arrived at some great moment in history, never in the backyard of the plumbers convention.

I think that's what made Quantum Leap (and also Journeyman) work. Sam and Dan were influencing regular people instead of helping Andrew Jackson at the Battle Of New Orleans. But I read somewhere that the network wanted more historical leaps with QL, which explained the Lee Harvey Oswald and Stephen King episodes. The only historical event episode JM had was the '89 San Francisco quake. I'm sure it would've had more if it weren't cut off the knees.

 

[Biggshow]

Has anyone here seen the 2002 remake? It never aired, but it's included on the second season DVD of the original series. What's it like?

I actually kind of liked it (certainly better than the other "remake", "The Time Travellers" also included in the second season DVD). They avoided the "Gilligan's Island" will-they-ever-get-back thing by putting the scientists in control of the tunnel. In this version, the big will-it-ever-happen thing is another "time storm" that rewrites history.

Netflix it.