ALL SCI-FI

Bud Brewster · Posted: Mon May 18, 2015 8:21 pm Post subject: Time Travelers (1975 TV movie)

Producer Irwin Allen served up this batch of left-overs: a rehashed concept from his series, "The Time Tunnel", lots of stock footage from "In Old Chicago" (1938), and co-star Richard Basehart from Allen's "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea".

The screenplay by Jackson Gillis (from an unpublished short story by Rod Serling) concerns two scientists (Sam Groom and Tom Hallick) who travel back in time to find a cure for a strange disease.

In the best tradition of the "The Time Tunnel", they find themselves in Chicago on the eve of the infamous 1871 fire. Alex Singer directed this made-for-TV movie. Also starring Trish Steward, Booth Coleman, and Francine York.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

scotpens · Posted: Mon May 18, 2015 10:22 pm Post subject:

This movie has what must be the cheapest time machine ever: a long stairway and lots of dry-ice fog.

When the heroes materialize in 1871 Chicago, they find themselves on the New York street set left over from the 1969 film of Hello, Dolly! I half expected the cast to break into a chorus of "Before the Parade Passes By."

(That huge outdoor set stood for 25 years. You could see it every time you passed by the 20th Century Fox studio entrance on Pico Boulevard.)

Pow · Posted: Tue May 19, 2015 9:45 am Post subject:

While scottpens is absolutely correct in that the set for the time travel is underwhelming, especially as compared to the Time Tunnel's massive set, this is a pretty decent TV-Pilot/Movie.

Irwin Allen was noted as a showman who created action packed adventure TV series with impressive sets, visual FX, & overall production values.

However, his shows generally lacked the intelligence, logical plots, & character development of his contemporaries Rod Serling, Leslie Stevens & Joseph Stefano, & Gene Roddenberry & Gene Coon.

So it was a very pleasant surprise to watch a decently scripted sf show from Allen for a change. This was a compelling & poignant TV movie.

Had this been picked up as a weekly show you would still have the same gorilla present in any time travel premise: how do you make it interesting if the leads are not supposed to alter the past in any way that could affect the present adversely?

Still & all, this is a well done time travel movie.

They'd sure need to amp up the set piece for it if it had become a series. Time travel machines should be awesome . . . not a simple walk down a hallway to a ordinary door.

Bud Brewster · Posted: Tue May 19, 2015 10:29 am Post subject:

Brother, you nailed it when you pointed out that one problem with time travel stories is dealing with the consequences of altering the cause, which in turned changes the effects.

The "Back to the Future" trilogy did a wonderful job of addressing that problem without insisting it be treated with absolute realism. That's really the only way to do a story like that.

The effects of a time traveler on the time line begin the instant he appears. If he appears in the middle of a desert, stayed an hour, and left, there would probably be no significant change to the time line.

But if he appeared in the middle of Times Square, sat in the chair of his time machine for five minutes and ignored the puzzled people around him, and then left, the ripple effect would be endless.

The alteration in the activities of all those people alone would change the "future history" of the world.

So, a show about time travelers who showed up at any moment in time and didn't alter history in far reaching ways is just not logical.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

scotpens

Krel · Guest

Bud Brewster · Posted: Tue May 19, 2015 11:55 pm Post subject:

Pow · Posted: Thu May 21, 2015 2:10 pm Post subject:

The Time Tunnel TV-pilot from 2006 by FOX came up with a very clever idea dealing with the time paradox dilemma that is caused by people going back in time & altering the past, Bud.

In this tv-movie an experiment was done by the Energy Department with fusion. It accidentally created a "time storm"which changed history in various eras & time periods.

So, the mission of this group of time travelers was to go to those periods & correct the situation.

Therefore they were proactive, & unlike the original TTT leads they could direct where they were going back in time, as well as safely return to the present.

Now this would have been a fun,intriguing show to have watched had this pilot been picked up.

Bud Brewster · Posted: Thu May 21, 2015 3:24 pm Post subject:

Hey, I like that idea! It does indeed turn the problem into a solution. Very clever. The time line is already screwed up and the time travelers have to fix it.

I assume the people in charge of the project somehow remembered the original time line, rather than having their own memories changed when the time line was altered.

Frequency handled that concept in a wonderful way: the main character remembered both the original time line and the new one, and he had to sort out which was which in his head.

That was a time travel story that actually didn't travel anywhere -- and it was great! Very Happy

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

Pow · Posted: Fri May 22, 2015 6:57 am Post subject:

Yep, the Time Tunnel project people were insulated from the actual time storm by being within their TT complex as the storm raged.

So they were well aware of what our true history was, & where it was altered by the storm.

Bud Brewster · Posted: Fri May 22, 2015 9:41 am Post subject:

And the networks didn't pick up that series, eh? Damn . . .

Is the pilot available to watch somehow? I'd love to see it.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

Krel · Guest

You can see it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mETHT5npqOI

Remember "Timecop"? The job of the Time Enforcement Comission in "Timecop" was to prevent and fix problems people cause with the time stream. The TEC could somehow detect when people interfered with the time stream, and would send Officers back to fix the problem before it traveled up the time stream.

Then there was "Millennium", where people in the future were taking people before they were killed in disasters. Any major interference with the time stream would cause 'time quakes', where the consequences got increasingly worse as changes moved up the time stream.

David.

Bud Brewster · Posted: Fri May 22, 2015 9:43 pm Post subject:

Well, there's good news and there's bad news.

The good news is that The Time Tunnel unsold pilot looks really interesting! Smile

The bad news is that the Youtube video is 4:3 and the picture is horrible. Sad

But the GREAT news is that Daily Motion has it too, in 16:9 and with a high quality picture. I downloaded it tonight, put it on a flash drive, and watched it on my TV.

Awesome!

Here's the link. Watch it on your computer, or download it and watch it on your TV like I did.

Just click the download button and select the highest quality (840) --

-- and then left-click on it to get a pop-up menu that includes "save link as" that will send the movie to your download section after you give it a proper name -- or you can do that after it downloads if you forget.

Enjoy!
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

johnnybear · Mission Specialist Joined: 15 Jun 2016 Posts: 441

The Time Travelers and The Time Tunnel remake are both available on the second time Tunnel DVD set released in 2006!
JB

Bud Brewster · Posted: Wed Dec 07, 2022 9:42 pm Post subject:

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Here's a "fair" copy of the unsold pilot. It's far better than the Irwin Allen series. It should have been turned into a series, but Hollywood knows about as much about what makes good science fiction as I do about brain surgery.

_______________ The Time Tunnel Pilot (2002)

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)