Time Tunnel Thoughts


Who cut their hair and gave them a shave?
After fighting and falling all over the place, How did their clothes stay intact and not ripped?
Never used the bathroom or bathed.
Very seldom saw them eat yet they appeared to stay well fed and groomed.

reply

Maybe the writers did that because they knew that watching people get haircuts, shave, do their laundry, use the bathroom and eat would be seriously boring.

reply

It's amazing to me that people have to be told people do those things now-a-days. We were presumed to have the intelligence to figure things out for ourselves when we were young. You never saw anyone shave, use the bathroom, and very seldom eat on Star Trek either.

reply

Actually, I think it's a good example of the "Devil Effect". If you just don't like the show, then everything is wrong. (That's the opposite of the halo effect, where, if you like the show, you'll think of an excuse for everything.)

reply

You have a good explanation here. Also I see it as this is not really the point of the series. (I mean such boring, everyday activities.) The points to me were lessons in history and getting the viewers to think about the effects on society.

reply

Still, even a couple of such scenes, dropped in the occasional episode, goes a long way to establishing "reality".

reply

Or just a scene or two, or episode or two, with them needing a shave or retrieving a new set of clothes.

However, them popping back into their normal clothing at the end of many episodes shows that they are constantly returned to their beginning state when they jump to the next time. So their clothing, hair, etc. reset.

reply

Easy answer

Every time the timewarp picks them up they ae physically reset... I recall one episode where they were in different clothes but the moment the timewarp thing picked them up their clothes instantly reset to what they usually wear.....

I can't recall the episode off hand but do recall the scene.

reply

The Time Tunnel...whitens whites, brightens brights.

reply

The time tunnel automatically shaved, showered, and cut their hair between time spans.

reply

Yeah, apparently, the Tunnel just 'reset' them to what they were like when they first entered the Tunnel...which of course doesn't make a whole lot of sense in several respects...for instance, Doug first entered the Tunnel wearing a hat, so doesn't the hat re-appear everytime he goes through the vortex? Also, in the eps where they change their clothes, they presumably leave their usual clothes behind somewhere in that era...so when they disappear, do those clothes vanish or are they simply left behind there? Does the Time Tunnel just create endless copies of a green turtleneck and a grey suit? And what happens to the clothes from the period they're wearing when they disappear? Are they just mysteriously destroyed by the Tunnel?

Also, in the episode where a saboteur called Nimoy enters the Tunnel, he goes to the future, gets a new set of threads, and is later transferred by the Tunnel again, yet HE still retains the new clothes he acquired in the future, rather than reverting back to the work clothes he was wearing when he first entered the Tunnel...

reply

Aother liberty they took with Doug's clothes was the fact that after the first couple of episodes he goes from a more rounded collar (a la 1912ish) to wearing a traditional dress shirt (pointed) collar. Take a look and you'll see what I'm talking about.

reply

Can anyone explain the real reason why it ended the way it did in the final ever episode ,as I am surprised nothing is ever mentioned about it.....it is obvious they are using the exact same footage as the first episode on the Titanic so the question is why?

I can only assume that the producers thought there would be a second series and bearing in mind the last 2 mins is the same as the first 2 mins of the next episode , they decided to "leave" the ending until the filming of the second series (I assume this was before it was aired)...the series was then cancelled and so they realised they had to find the 2 mins from somewhere....is that what happened?

Personally I would have just "padded out" the final episode and left the ending as them being in the time vortex or maybe try to use previous material to show they ended up in back in 1968.......great series though !!

reply

The final episode was not supposed to be a series finale, just the last episode of the first season. There never was a second season, of course, but they didn't know that at the time.

The week after episode 30 first aired, the series went into repeats for the summer, beginning with episode 1 (Titanic). Thus, they were trying to create a cliffhanger/teaser for that episode. It was a clumsy attempt and they'd have been better off if they hadn't bothered, but they did, and so that's what we get on the DVD.

Some people have tried to interpret this as the series ending with Tony and Doug trapped in some kind of time loop where they repeat the same 30 time trips over and over. Nope. Had the series been renewed, the last repeat would undoubtedly ended with a cliffhanger for episode 1 of season 2.

reply

i don't recall the show jumping from episode 30 to episode 1…..i think they started at episode 2 or 3 to continue the episodic nature of the series..i think LOST IN SPACE skipped the first 5 episodes (the recut pilot) to keep the continuity….
and started with "Jonny Hapgood" the singing space cowboy---my heart sank after all of the true sic fi adventure from the recut pilot episode (1-5)

remember they only had to rerun 3 months of episodes back when they were 30-35 episodes per season until the next season started

reply

My same reaction to LOST IN SPACE.

After the first five episodes (which were really promising), it settled down into high camp.

'Jonny Hapgood' would not have been an ideal beginning episode.


reply

i thought OH, *beep* at 11 years old as i knew the true adventure was over. Still season one was not bad except for a few (like how did Hapgood manage to live in a craft the size of a refrigerator?

reply

Don't forget, they both had a radioactive bath in the first episode...

reply

Yeah, that has happened several times.

reply

Obviously you guys have never seen the really rare episode #15 1/2 called "The Rest Stop Of Death" by William Welch. In it, Tony and Doug land in the early 1980's near a truck rest stop just outside of Las Vegas. Tony picks up a loose quarter on the ground and inserts it into a slot machine on the premises and hits a minor jackpot of $100.

With newfound cash, the two decide to use the facilities at the rest stop to clean their clothes, take a shower, and get a hot meal. Following their meal, they run afoul of a couple of drug-running truckers, have their usual fist-fights, rescue the waitress who's gotten involved in the fracas, and after a night's rest at her suburban home, they disappear refreshed into the vortex of time.

Meanwhile, back at the Tunnel, Ann, Ray and Kirk manage to get a night's rest as well, turning the controls over to their colleague, Dr. Alfred Styles. We'd see Dr. Stiles later on in the series in "Chase Through Time."

The episode only aired once on ABC and was pulled from syndication and largely forgotten.

I've also got a bridge for sale if you've bought any of this...

reply

And they forgot to include it in the DVD set! Must have been broadcast on a week that it was my sister's turn to watch The Man from U.N.C.L.E.. I believe that was "The Pig in a Poke Affair".

reply

Heh, heh. Like I said, it's long-lost and completely forgotten!

reply

I was a fan of the series back then and just finished watching it again on DVD and most of the episodes still seem well done. A few were pretty hokey but that's the norm for back then. All these years, I kept hearing rumors that Robert Colbert had died quite a while back. I heard it many times but never bothered to check until I saw his 2006 interview for the DVD and wow, that took me aback! It sure made me happy to hear he's still with us. I never even knew there had been an unaired Time Tunnel re-make. That was enjoyable as was the film 'Time Travelers' by Irwin Allen. Watching these sure makes me feel young again.

reply

All I want to know is who got to "rest" with Dr. Ann McGregor?

reply

You can pretty much say this about all the shows. Mash had colonel Potter first be a nut case called colonel Steal and then brought him back with a different name to run things.

it's a tv show and you shouldnt' take things so seriously. lol either enjoy it or dont watch it.

reply

the tunnel.Not only did change their clothe,it cut their hair and gave them a shave.You know,if Irwin Allen just never bothered with the idiot Fugitive/Lost premise and had this be the 1960's Stargate,all these stupid question need never be asked?Just have Doug and Tony go on mission,like Jack O'Neal did in Stargate,because a mission,not because Quantum Leap,they lost and hope the next leap finds their way home.

reply

Tony can be seen eating in the episode about the assassination of Abraham Lincoln in 1861 in Baltimore. He shares a meal in a house near the railroad depot with the two abolitionists who are trying to kill Lincoln in order to free the slaves. One of them is played by Tom Skerritt.

reply

When you consider that they are scientists, and all the karate chops to their necks and konks on the head they take...it's a miracle they can even do long division.

reply

People were tougher and smarter back then.

reply

It was fun.

reply