List Item: Watch half of the 1001 TV Series You Must Watch Before You Die
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Title: The Time Tunnel
Episodes Aired: 30
Year(s): 1966-1967
Country: USA
There are shows that have a brilliant pilot only to lose their way in subsequent episodes. Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip and The U.S. adaptation of The Killing both fit the bill for this, as does this incredibly interesting piece of TV history from the late 1960s.
The premise is one that we now know from shows that The Time Tunnel influenced – two scientists are lost in time and are trying to get back to the present day – along the way they visit the past and the future and have adventures. However, The Time Tunnel is so aware of the need to produce episodes that could easily be aired out of order for syndication that, after a while, beginning at square one every episode gets a bit samey. Also doesn’t help that this show has two leads without much charisma and too low a budget to pull off episodes set anywhere outside the US – the episode set in the Trojan War is a big example of both these shortcomings.
It is, however, hard to deny the influence that this show had. Similarly, The Time Tunnel had all the issues of going first with many of these ideas and then premiering in the same season as the original run of Star Trek. By now, there are tropes around time travel science fiction that we can now fall back on, but the writers of The Time Tunnel didn’t have too many of these to fall back on – which is how we end up with a show that, despite some flashes of brilliance, is ultimately unsatisfying.
Before I Kick 