May 28 & 29, 2006

The Time Tunnel Vol. 1 – 1966 – Part II

Crack of Doom

     The woman playing the daughter here (Eve Holland) is listed as Ellen McRae. IMDB reveals her to be Ellen Burstyn, who was in The Exorcist. Again, I’m sure that the scenes of the volcano erupting are from something else. Sure wish I knew from where. And the professor (Torin Thatcher) is an incredibly accomplished character actor. 65 titles according to IMDB. My personal favorite has to be the Magician from Seventh Voyage of Sinbad, who conjures up the Giant Statue and the skeletons!

Revenge of the Gods

     There’s a scene where we are shown “the grandeur of Troy”, and then a shot of Rome is shown. Including the Parthenon as a ruin. Wouldn’t Troy be pristine at this time? Yeah, okay, so it’s nitpicking. And Helen of Troy is Dee Hartford, who played the reoccurring character of the android Vera in LiS episodes 207 & 224.

Massacre

     The guy playing Sitting Bull (George Mitchell) would play Jackson in the Andromeda Strain a year before his death. And the guy playing General Custer (Bruce Mars) will forever be known to genre fans as the Irish guy Finnigan who beats the crap out of Captain Kirk in the original series episode Shore Leave (the Alice in Wonderland episode).

Devil’s Island

     See what I mean about just landing in one bad situation after another. And they don’t even have the bonus of “righting wrongs” like Dr. Sam Beckett does in Quantum Leap. It’s just “suffer, bitch”.

The guy playing Captain Dreyfuss is credited as Ted Roter, but IMDB lists him as Peter Balakoff. IN two years, he will be in a film that SWV fans should all own. They will recognize him as Lennie in Sinthia, the Devil's Doll. The year before, he was in a Ray Dennis Steckler hurter The Lemon Drop Kids Go Hollywood.

Reign of Terror

     Nobody here interesting. Well, ya can’t hit it out of the park every time.

Secret Weapon

     An earlier Tunnel built by the Russians. That’s clever. And everyone should recognize Michael Ansara, who plays Colonel Hruda. For one thing, he plays Kang in several Star Trek series and episodes. And he was in several William Girdler movies (one I will be watching next week) including The Manitou and Day of the Animals. And the guy playing the scientist (Nehemiah Persoff) is in the cult classic The Psychic Killer.

The Death Trap

     I have a question for the characters in this episode. If you are against slavery, why would you think that killing Lincoln is the way to end it? And the guy playing Lincoln? He will go on to play a doctor in Halloween II. And look how young Tom Skerritt is! Hard to believe that in 13 years he’d play the Captain of the Nostromo Dallas in Alien.

The Alamo

     I’d just like to say as a citizen of Texas that I really wish they would do a little research into the layout of the Alamo before making this episode. They’d have to today, as too many people have toured it, and know what it looks like.

Also, it’s become painfully evident that they can bring ANYBODY back EXCEPT Tony and Doug. I wish I’d counted how many they bring back. It’s not quite one an episode, but it’s close.

And yes, ladies and gentleman, the man playing Jim Bowie is indeed Jim Davis. Among his 94 movie credits are Police Sargent Martin in Dracula vs Frankenstein. And his final film was the unimaginably crappy The Day Time Ended. And the guy playing Col. Travis (Rhodes Reason) would play Commander Carl Nelson in King Kong Escapes (which is the one that features the Robo-Kong and the bad guy named Dr. Who).

Night of the Long Knives

     The guy who plays Rudyard Kipling (who I bet most people today won’t know who he is) would take the role of Cornelius from Roddy McDowall in Beneath the Planet of the Apes. And the guy playing Hara Singh (Malachi Throne) played a Centari Prime Minister in the Babylon 5 Episode A Coming of Shadow.

Invasion

     This final episode of this set is another clever plot that is marred by being too compressed in time. I mean, come on. This guy brainwashes Doug in like 10 minutes. That’s pretty amazing. No one very famous in it.

Final comments. Yes, it’s as good as you remember. This series holds up very well. I’ve pre-booked the second volume (which should contain the future episode I remember so well). It’s actually cheaper to pre-book this from Amazon than to buy it from DeepDiscountDVD. Go figure.

Extras are pretty slim. There is not a single commentary, and that’s a crying shame. I don’t understand why either of the two stars couldn’t have at least been interviewed. There are no interviews either, and most of the main players are still alive. Lee Meriwether commentaries. Come on Fox!

On the positive side, every episode is subtitled!  YEAH! And there are several galleries (but I seldom even count them, as they are less interesting than an interview) This was an exception, however, as one of the galleries is of merchandise and games from the 60’s. Also, the artist’s concepts show the influence of Forbidden Planet. Overall, this is a good set.

Four beers out of five.