|
The Time Tunnel -
Fantastic time travel device featured on the
science fiction adventure THE TIME
TUNNEL/ABC/1966-67.
Located under the Arizona desert in a secret
headquarters called Tic Toc Base, the Time
Tunnel was designed to transport men or objects
through time. The device was the ultimate
invention and potentially the most dangerous
weapon in the arsenal of the United States
government.
"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" -- Opening
Narration
Dr. Douglas "Doug" Phillips (Robert
Colbert) and Dr. Anthony "Tony" Newman (James
Darren) were the chief research scientists on
the project.
In 1980, an efficiency-minded
senator visited the site and threatened to shut
down the money-gobbling program because it had
shown little progress in obtaining its
objective.
To save the project and prove The
Time Tunnel worked, Tony Newman activated the
device before it was fully tested and
disappeared into time.
Discovering Tony gone,
the Time Tunnel personnel frantically evaluated
the situation and eventually located Tony aboard
an ocean liner in the middle of Atlantic ocean,
The ship turned out to be The Titanic.
Dressing
in the garments of the time, Doug Phillips
volunteered to enter the Time Tunnel, retrieve
his friend and warn the Captain of the impending
disaster.
Unfortunately, Doug and Tony's warning
of an approaching iceberg fell upon deaf ears
and the Time Tunnel project pulled Tony and Doug
off The Titanic before it sank.
But the Time
Tunnel's attempt at rescue didn't return the
scientists to Tic Toc Base, but rather to
another point in time.
Fortunately, for Doug and
Tony, the Time Tunnel (although unsuccessful in
returning them to their own time), did routinely
monitor their location and remove them from most
dangers just in the nick of time.
Doug and Tony
Tumble Through Time
Throughout
their travels, Doug and Tony have had the
misfortune of materializing into such timescapes
as:
- the Island of Java just before it erupted
- the siege of the Alamo mission by Mexican
General Santana
- Pearl Harbor hours before
the Japanese attacked.
Tony and Doug adventures
also included trips into the prehistory, to the
Roman Empire, to Medieval Europe and into the
future where aliens planned to overthrow the
earth.
According to present intelligence
reports, the Time Tunnel has yet to retrieve
Doug and Tony. They are still tumbling
helplessly somewhere along the infinite
corridors of time.
The Time Tunnel project is a
large conical shaped tunnel with alternating
bands of black and white ringing its interior.
Anyone entering the tunnel is bathed in a cloud
of blue radioactive particles. These particles
enabled the Time Tunnel computer to lock onto
travelers and located them in time.
Once a
traveler had been pinpointed in time, the front
of the Time Tunnel acted as an oval view-screen
into the past. This gave The Time Tunnel
personnel the
ability to record actual events in history and
use them for further study.
When accurate
historical or geographical information was
required, the Time Tunnel quickly located
experts to help identify needed landscapes or
personalities as in the time they recruited the
help of a American Indian historian when Doug
and Tony landed on the Little Big Horn just
before the Indians massacred Custer and his
troops.
Other Time Tunnel personnel included:
- Dr. Ann MacGregor (Lee Meriwether)
- Dr. Raymond Swain (John Zaremba)
- Technical Assistant, Jerry (Sam Groom)
- Security officer, Sergeant Jiggs (Wesley Lau)
- General Heywood Kirk (Whit Bissel) who oversees the project
Heywood, Tony,
Ann, Doug and Raymond
Earlier prototypes for the Time Tunnel
included a glass-domed vehicle that turned out
to be a death trap for its occupants.
TRIVIA NOTE: Much of the historical background
footage used on the Irwin Allen produced series
were edited from films found in the stock
footage library at Twentieth Century Fox
Studios. This helped cut costs and gave
authenticity to the program. The Time Tunnel
also shared many of their futuristic props (i.e.
alien costumes, ray guns and other sic-fi
gizmos) with other Allen-produced series like
LAND OF THE GIANTS/ABC/1968-70 and LOST IN
SPACE/CBS/1965-68.
External Links
Back to Top
|
