Les voyageurs du temps

As a youngster, I was a fan of Irwin Allen's works. "Lost in Space" and "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea" were afterschool fixtures on New York stations WNEW and WOR. To me as an adult, these shows don't hold up well. "Voyage" in particular degenerated into episode after episode of rubber-suited monsters, alien invaders, evil doubles and mind control in the later seasons, due mostly to chief writer William Welch, who also destroyed any semblance of logic in Allen's "The Time Tunnel" series.

Allen tried to revamp and revive that 1966 time travel series with this 1976 TV movie and pilot, going so far as bringing back Sam Groom as a cast member (he was a regular as the control room technician, Jerry). "Voyage" alumnus Richard Basehart likewise became a Special Guest Star. Trish Stewart later became better known to science fiction viewers as the female lead of "Salvage 1."

As it was, 1976 was a good year for television in general, and ABC reserved Friday nights for science fiction. In the doldrums before Star Wars burst onto the scene and changed the world, science fiction fans weren't very picky, but "Time Travelers" was surprisingly good. The acting wasn't Oscar caliber, but it was certainly serviceable. The plot actually made sense, unlike much of Allen's sci-fi. Also, unlike the Time Tunnel series and more recent shows, it didn't depend on a lot of action. No fistfights or car chases (or rather horse-drawn carriage chases) here. These men were thinkers, not fighters. Nevertheless, the story moves along at a snappy but not frenetic pace.

This was Allen at his best, a fine example of '70s vintage TV science fiction. There's little to no forced humor and precious little technobabble. Morton Stevens's theme is rather dated now, being very "mod" with synthesizers, but still somewhat catchy to those of us who don't care for today's bass-rich, melody-poor music.

Allen had a penchant for economizing, so there really wasn't much in the way of special effects here to distract from the story. Mostly fire footage recycled from the Fox film vaults. There were also the "modern" computers that reused panels of flashing lights, straight from the Irwin Allen warehouse. At least the set design in the period segment, with its ornate Victorian look, seems convincing enough to this layman's eyes.

As far as TV science fiction goes, you can do a lot worse. This is probably due in no small part to Rod Serling's original story. Alas, given Allen's track record, it's a foregone conclusion that this would have slipped very fast and far had the show been sold to a network. As it was, this was far superior to its ancestor, "The Time Tunnel," and also easily outshines Gene Roddenberry's failed TV pilots of the era, "Planet Earth," "Genesis II" and "Questor Tapes."

This movie was shown on the SciFi Channel occasionally, at least until recent years when the channel moved away from showing older movies. It's worth catching for anyone who's sick and tired of recent Star Trek and their "reset button" subgenre of time travel stories.

Update: This, along with the 2002 Time Tunnel pilot, is available on the last disc of the Time Tunnel series DVD box set. Finally, a chance for more people to see just how good this was.

This film was actually based on a story written by my father, author Charles W. Byrd, not Rod Serling. My father wrote the story in the late 1950s and it without his knowledge it ended up on ABC in 1976. Immediately upon seeing the film my father knew it was actually based on his original story. After some time (and litigation), a financial settlement was reached between ABC, Irwin Allen, and others and my father was given the rights to claim it as his work. Unfortunately, the film was never re-cut to include him as the creator of the story. In retrospect these events probably doomed the pilot from becoming a series. Its a shame my father was not given his due in creating this interesting and entertaining story.

I was really captivated by this wonderful pilot.

I am an enormous fan of the time travel genre, and intelligent sci-fi genre (not the cyber cowboy-cum-Star Wars-action-shoot-em-up kind of sci-fi)...and an avid fan of history and historical chronicles on film.

I should probably give credit where it is due, and that would be to ROD SERLING whose story was the solid germ which inspired this pilot/movie. We can't ever go wrong with SERLING, his was a great and yet in his time, woefully under-appreciated talent. Had the rest of the stories of this potential series been principally from his mind, I would venture to say it would have been a big hit.

I am so disappointed that it never went off the ground and I am perplexed at this fact after seeing this today. Another reviewer said that it would become dull eventually. I disagree vehemently. Was Quantum Leap dull? It was not and never jumped the shark! I am writing this just because the industry really needs to revisit this genre in a big way. We are bombarded all the time with time travel movies these days...and there must be a writer out there with deep knowledge of this genre and its foibles-to-avoid enough to make for intelligent television! We need MORE INTELLIGENT SCI-FI around. Not what the present SYFY garbage channel churns out in the past few years. SCI-FI is being DUMBED DOWN instead of lifting us up like the greatest OUTER LIMITS, TWILIGHT ZONE, OUT OF THE UNKNOWN, JOURNEY TO THE UNKNOWN, SCIENCE FICTION THEATER, TALES OF TOMORROW, ONE STEP BEYOND and a few others.

We need more INTELLIGENT TV, period! I recommend this movie for all ages.

This is actually a superior TV pilot coming from Irwin Allen, which is a big surprise. Allen is known to many sf fans as producing some of the most horrendous sf series ever to be broadcast.While his shows did have imaginative sets,fx, & good actors, they also had silly plots, little logic & no character development.Like some, I have fond memories of his series while growing up,but to sit through them as an adult is awful. Rod Serling was involved in the writing of this TV movie & that would explain the quality that comes through. And to Allen's credit, he did not tamper much with it creating a solid, intelligent story. For once. Time travel stories can be fun when dealing with the past because like the travelers, we know what is going to happen. We have knowledge that nobody else does from that era. The problem that crops up is that the accepted rule regarding time travel is that one should not tamper with past events.No matter how good the intentions are, they could spell disaster in the past & on through to the present timeline. I f that's the case do we want to watch the heroes go back in time each week only to have their hands tied? If they cannot take action for fear of altering events, then what can they do that would be of interest to the viewers? Standing by to only observe history unfolding without becoming a part of it would make for a dull series. But this movie manages to keep our interest with an intriguing plot. As a weekly show though, I doubt they could have kept it up.

Two time travellers go back in time and must deal with a city on fire.

An all-round great film with a wonderful performance from Richard Basehart as the doctor.

Irwin Allen combining his two favourite genres, science fiction and disaster, and the results are most pleasing in the later sections of the film.

Allen's regular 1970s TV composer, Richard LaSalle, does not score this film but his replacement composer does a fine job.

The two lead actors playing the time travellers could have been better...but all things considered...The Time Travellers is outstanding.