Au coeur du temps

Doug and Tony are a couple of scientists who hop from one crisis in time to another. I'm not even sure when they get a chance to eat or sleep. They do seem to find themselves tied up or incarcerated a lot, so I guess it is during these times that they get a little shut eye. Doug and Tony pretty much land in any given time and within five minutes are engaged in fisticuffs. They throw some mean punches for a couple of scientists and also seem to be quite knowledgeable about world history. Whit Bissell, John Zaremba, and Lee Meriwether typically act very grim, and Meriwether does it, for the most part, sitting down. Jerry is my favorite character because he strikes me as the weakest link in project tic toc. He always seems a bit on edge and could crack up mentally under the strain of trying to get Doug and Tony back to the present time. The theme music by John(ny) Williams, is great, as are the animated graphic images of the hourglass and helpless figure. The series as a whole pretty much sticks to a comic book level of drama and action without much contemplation on time travel themes. Perhaps had the series lasted longer it may have explored some challenging possibilities related to Doug and Tony's bumping about through time, but that seems doubtful since Irwin Allen was at the helm.

Believe it or not, both "The Time Tunnel" and "Star Trek" debuted in the same week, back in 1966...and for a 13-year old comic-book loving SF fan, the TT premiere, placing our heroes on the doomed Titanic, beat Trek's 'salt-sucking-monster-disguised-as-a-wife" first episode, hands down! Irwin Allen obviously thought he had a winner with the time-traveling concept. Leads Robert Colbert and James Darren were very familiar faces to TV audiences, with Darren still idolized by a legion of fans from his "Gidget" movies (He told me, several years later, that he hoped the series would finally establish him as an 'adult', capable of the same range he'd displayed in "The Guns of Navarone"). Gary Merrill and Michael Rennie as the first guest stars certainly added luster to the Titanic episode, as did a wonderfully intricate main set (with the famous Op Art time portal), a supporting cast including pre-Catwoman Lee Meriwether and veteran character actor Whit Bissell, and, best of all, the extensive 20th Century Fox film archive to 'lift' stock footage from (giving the show a MUCH more expensive look than the series' tiny budget could have supported).

Unfortunately, while "Star Trek" improved in subsequent episodes, the opposite was true for TT. The series faced the fundamental incongruity of time travel as a film or TV subject; EVERYBODY from the past, by necessity, had to speak understandable English! Seeing Greeks and Trojans, bedecked in ancient armor, conversing in 20th Century American English, was pretty jarring! Even worse, the plots soon became painfully predictable. Our heroes, try as they might, could NOT change history, so you knew, each week, that they would either have to allow a tragedy to happen (like Pearl Harbor, in one of the series' best episodes), or that their actions would serve to keep an event aligned the way we currently remember it. When you add a minuscule 'per-episode' budget, insanely short shooting schedules, and the overworked Allen often unavailable to supervise the series or to 'stand up' to ABC and demand improvements, TT never really had a chance.

Still, you had to respect Irwin Allen for attempting to make something more profound than "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea" (which had deteriorated into campy 'rubber-masked monster of the week' hokum), and "Land of the Giants" (which quickly wore out it's novelty value). While TT failed, many 'baby boomers' still remember it fondly...and that isn't a bad legacy for a one-season show!

We had to watch "Time Tunnel" every Friday evening back in the heyday of 1960s-style TV sci-fi. And this show fit right in. A nice blend of storytelling, fantasy, and early techno-gadgetry.

Much of the appeal of time travel stories relates to, surprisingly, familiarity. We've learned (or at least used to learn) in school about the Trojan War, the French Revolution, the Titanic, Billy the Kid, etc. This show re-lived those tales with a modern-day twist. What would two modern-era men do in these historical events? Would they, could they, effect changes? Should they? The shows depicting historical events were best. When it tried some standard-fare sci-fi things, like trips into the future or outer space, the stories kind of plodded along and floundered.

But...some suspension of disbelief is a must if you watch this show. First, why did the time travellers have to end up in every episode in the middle of some dangerous, terrifying, world-shaking event? Why did they never appear in my quiet backyard back in the 1950s in suburban New Jersey, or out on a farm in Kokomo, Indiana? They would have saved themselves a lot of wear and tear. Oh, but, then we wouldn't have much of a show, right? Ah. Somehow, the stars always managed to get cleaned up and a set of fresh clothes just in time to make their next time leap, no matter how badly tattered and torn they were from their current misadventure. Pretty neat, that. I wish I had one of those when I wake up at 6 a.m. But, hey, if you can make a time machine, its probably no big deal to throw in an instant clothes changer and time traveller touch-up device. Lets not be square, play along with the gag and we'll enjoy the show more.

You'll recognize many of the cast. James Darren of course was the teenage heartthrob of the early '60s as Gidget's boyfriend. Sci-fi stalwarts Whit Bissel and John Zaremba reprise familiar characters. And Lee Meriwether adds some nice eye candy as the comely and brainy project scientist.

For its time, the Tunnel featured some nifty gadgets, although some of them were borrowed for/from and used in contemporary shows like Batman and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. Those ancient mainframe-style computer banks look awfully familiar from different shows. But, hey, this was the '60s, and those were pretty modern back then. The Tunnel itself was quite striking, appearing to fade off into infinity when activated thanks to the magic of matte art and decent camera work. I've heard that the show's producers originally tried for a "time vortex" effect, showing clips of stock film footage from different eras speeding by the viewer as the time travelers made another leap in time. But when they tried it the effect looked more like a blurry version of brown pea soup. So they opted for the pop-art Tunnel, with very nice results.

Overall, a good sci fi effort from the mid '60s, for those who remember such a time fondly.

Ya gotta love Irwin Allen. His shows will never make the critics' list, but for sheer fun, they can't be beat. Last night I watched the pilot episode and the one where the guys go to the moon. To quote, MST3K, boy those time travelers sure can fight:) Things I also love, in random order: opening credits, with those mod graphics. The dog-trotting security guards, whose leader really should hit the gym more often. The fact that the tunnel cannot be damaged by those same guards firing machine guns. The tunnel itself, which proves that time travel is accomplished by lots of explosions. Also, the knowledge that when are visiting the past, our clothes never get dirty and our hair is always perfectly coiffed. The way the tunnel sends Doug and Tony to the perfect historical moment, every time... even when the scientists can't figure it out. The bank of mainframe computers, which really should have gotten a SAG card, they were in some many shows. Discovering that time travelers are either ruggedly handsome or resemble young rock stars. The security alarms, which include fire sirens AND an air-raid klaxon. The yellow hourglass logo. The humor of naming the biggest project since the Manhattan Project Tic Toc. And of course... Whit Bissell. It just ain't science fiction without Whit Bissell. And who knew that history looked so much like the Fox film library? I hear there's a new series coming on Sci-Fi. I'm sure it will have smarter stories and better special effects, but the original will always hold a place in my heart. Best seven billion the government ever spent... after all, how do we really know this all didn't happen--Arizona is just a hop, skip, and jump from Area 51. :)

All kidding aside, the kaleidoscopic time-travel patterns that the guys go through are still wonderful--mysterious, yet familiar. I've seen a lot of time-travel special effects, but this is still the best. And the set designers and matte painters for the Tic Toc complex should have won Emmys. Great casting of Micheal Rennie and the lovely Susan Hampshire, too.

Whenever the nit-pickers and cynics get started on THE TIME TUNNEL, you can bet your life that the same things will come up....

The first thing is usually to point out how smelly Doug and Tony must be because they never change their clothes. This will usually be followed by a comment about the length of their hair and fingernails. Anyone who has actually watched the show will be able to give the answer that the two travellers are returned to the condition they were in when they were extracted from the RMS Titanic at the conclusion of their first adventure "Rendezvous With Yesterday" - it's a part of the transference process. Likewise any injuries that they may have suffered (such as Tony's damaged ankle in "Kill Two by Two") are undone. OK, I'm not denying that the real reason for this is so that they could use the same stock footage of Doug and Tony in the vortex week after week... but it is addressed.

Point two on the nit-picker's agenda is usually: "why do Doug and Tony always materialise in one of history's hotspots rather than someone's backyard or a field on an historically insignificant day?" The quick answer to which is that it would be pretty boring watching Doug and Tony sitting in a field scratching themselves for a whole hour - well I'd find it boring at any rate.

Point three is invariably: "How come every historical figure they meet - no matter where and when they hail from - speaks perfect English?" Likewise, this can easily be dismissed by pointing out that watching Doug, Tony and Historical Figure of The Week making hand signals and drawing pictures in the sand for an hour just to say "Hi", might make for pretty dull viewing. Anyway, surely it is conceivable that one or more of those many computer banks we see at Project: Tic-Toc might be doing the translating for Doug and Tony (a bit like the Universal Translator in the original Star Trek).

The thing that the nit-pickers always seem to forget is that THE TIME TUNNEL was a weekly television show meant to entertain the masses for 50-odd minutes a week. It was made in 1966 and so, yes, it has dated and doesn't look as sophisticated as the SF shows of today - but don't forget that those modern shows are building on what came before. Thirty-odd years on I can promise you that Babylon 5, Farscape and whatever Star Trek show is currently airing, will look just as dated and unsophisticated.