Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		5.0
Overall		3.5

The Time Tunnel: The Complete Series Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman January 12, 2024

Doctor Who: The Underwater Menace , a recent release offering a "recreated" animated version of an early Patrick Troughton serial where two of the four originally broadcast episodes have now missing video content, had a brief throwaway early in the first episode where the Doctor's "companions" weren't quite sure where or when they were going to end up upon stepping out of the Tardis. While the time travel element has of course always been part and parcel of that long running series, the "unknowability" of destination (either temporal or "geographical") has faded somewhat into the background over the course of, well, time, and devoted Whovians will know that in newer episodes the Doctor often knows more or less where he or she is. Somewhat hilariously, as I mentioned in the Doctor Who: The Underwater Menace Blu-ray review, when that serial was broadcast in January of 1967, there was another series on this side of the pond that was exploiting somewhat the same "where and when" concept. The Time Tunnel joined already airing Irwin Allen science fiction tinged outings like Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea and Lost in Space, but unlike either of those series, managed to last only one season, which has made it something of a cult item in the intervening years.

Long before there was an ostensibly dangerous app bearing a homophonic name, the United States government has built a huge underground lair in Arizona devoted to time travel and dubbed with the name Project Tic Toc. Two scientists named Doug Phillips (Robert Colbert) and Tony Newman (James Darren) are aware that the government may soon be cutting off funding for the project, courtesy of a visit from skeptical senator Leroy Clark (Gary Merrill guest starring in the first episode), which ultimately leads Tony to run into the tunnel to prove to everyone that it works. Except, guess what? It actually doesn't, at least in terms of returning Tony whence he came, which in turn leads Doug to run into the tunnel to attempt to rescue his friend and collaborator. And that's basically the setup for the series, where Doug and Tony find themselves whirling and twirling through the tunnel to a new location (again, temporal and geographic) in every subsequent episode.

Three out of four of Irwin Allen's sixties television efforts dealt with castaways of one sort or another, the aforementioned Lost in Space, this series and Land of the Giants, which came along in 1968 and limped through a season and a half. It's actually kind of interesting to note that Allen's one series not dealing with displaced people, albeit still with an isolated setting, (and with a kind of unintentionally hilarious connection to the above linked Doctor Who enterprise), Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, actually lasted the longest of any Allen series from this era.

While the stories in The Time Tunnel's lone season perhaps understandably tend to focus mostly on past events, even that conceit has a kind of built in McGuffin aspect to it, since Doug and Tony regularly find themselves on the veritable precipice of a disaster like the Titanic in the series' opening episode, where you know going in despite their best efforts to change things, they'll fail. This tends to be a repeated plot trope throughout the season, though in defense of this inherently problematic approach, the writers manage to get our heroic pair involved in everything from Pearl Harbor to D-Day (I guess those two aren't that divergent) to Krakatoa to the seige of Jericho. It's often patently ridiculous, but there's still some reasonably good writing, at least in fits and starts, and some fun if often hammy guest turn roles. One kind of interesting episode is about a non-John Wilkes Booth attempt to assassinate President Lincoln, which may remind some of the great "Back There" episode from The Twilight Zone: Season 2, which coincidentally starred a famous castaway from another series, namely Russell Johnson (the Professor in Gilligan's Island).

There's another kind of funny "meta" six degrees of separation element in addition to that Twilight Zone episode. While the bulk of each episode is understandably focused on the adventures of Doug and Tony, there are frequent cutaways to the actual time tunnel lab where a coterie of official types keeps tabs on things and fitfully attempt to rescue the temporal castaways. Among these is the lovely Lee Meriwether, playing scientist Dr. Ann McGregor. True trivia buffs may be aware the her husband at the time, Frank Aletter, was involved in his own time traveling escapades on a rival network (CBS) in the short lived sitcom It's About Time (note that the link points to a DVD release, which ClassicFlix has told me is one of their all time bestsellers).

The Time Tunnel: The Complete Series Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Note: This is branded as a Region B release, but is available in Region A from Amazon (without the "wrong region" warning) and does in fact play fine on Region A players.

The Time Tunnel: The Complete Series is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Revelation Films with AVC encoded 1080p transfers in 1.33:1 of the sole season's thirty episodes. This looks amazingly good in high definition, though the increased resolution may unavoidably point out both some kind of hilarious compositing in the time tunnel itself (see screenshots 18 and 19 in particular) as well as when the ever industrious Irwin Allen co-opted stock footage or snippets from pre-existing films to supposedly help with production values. The palette is wonderfully robust almost all of the time, though there are some occasional curious downturns in saturation, as in some parts of the Pearl Harbor episode. Detail levels are consistently pleasing throughout, and fine detail on some of the frankly outlandish "historical" costumes is typically very precisely rendered. There is some age related wear and tear on display, typically in the form of rather small and short lived nicks and other blemishes.

The Time Tunnel: The Complete Series Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Time Tunnel: The Complete Series features LPCM 2.0 Mono audio recreating the series' original broadcast version, and a rejiggered DTS- HD Master Audio 5.1 track which is this Blu-ray's version of the previously released DVD sets' Dolby Digital 5.1 repurposings. The surround track can open up some of the effects work, and even John Williams' wonderfully percussive theme (fans will know Williams also wrote two themes for Lost in Space and two for Land of the Giants ), but I'd still argue that the mono track is preferable, not necessarily due to the fact that the surround track can kind of sound cavernous and hollow at times. The mono track preserves the ubiquitous sound effects of the time tunnel lab and other environmental effects accompanying our heroes' adventures, and also relays dialogue without any issues whatsoever. Optional English subtitles are available.

The Time Tunnel: The Complete Series Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Original Unaired Pilot (HD; 55:22) has some additional footage and a completely different cliffhanger.


• 2002 Unaired Pilot (HD; 48:53) is an unsold pilot for what was a prospective Fox series.


• Time Travelers TV Movie (HD; 1:12:52) was a 1976 effort by Irwin Allen to reboot The Time Tunnel.


• Irwin Allen's Behind the Scenes Home Movies (UK Edit) - No Audio (HD; 1:21:46) has some really fun footage that should be of interest to diehard fans, despite the lack of audio.


• Cast Interviews (HD; 29:07) features Whit Bissell, Robert Colbert, James Darren and Lee Meriwether.


• Promotional TV & Radio Spots (HD; 6:12)


• Visual Effects (No Audio) and Camera Test (No Audio) (HD; 1:52)


• Stills Galleries (HD; 15:44)

The Time Tunnel: The Complete Series Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

If you're a male generationally from either the Boomers or possibly even the Gen X, chances are you already have seen and quite possibly love The Time Tunnel, not to mention Irwin Allen's other efforts from this same general era (kind of interestingly, and especially with regard to its relatively long run, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea doesn't seem to be as well remembered). Rose colored nostalgic glasses may frankly not be enough to gloss over some of the silliness of this enterprise seen now through the perspective of adult hindsight, but it still offers some fun. This set offers surprisingly great looking video and has the wisdom to offer the original mono audio along with a surround repurposing. The extras on the seventh bonus disc duplicate those previously available on the DVD release of this series, but are all commendably in high definition, and are all very enjoyable. Recommended.