Time Tunnel episode

[Michael Cundiff]

Just last night, again, I was viewing my favorite Time Tunnel episode..."Rendevous With Yesterday", in regards to Titanic which aired 9-9-66. Myself, paying *more* attention to details this time around noticed the newspaper time traveller Doug brought with him to alarm Titanic's Cptn. of the impending event, was a N.Y. Hearald which featured a photo of Lusitania. Also, what really astonished me was, as Doug was seeking his friend Tony, he passed by the Harland & Wolff builders plaque! The plaque appearing precisely as the original did. I wonder who the historian was for that Titanic episode?

Therabouts 9-9-66 my, to-date, 42 yr. love affair
with TITANIC began! For as a 9-yr. old young man
The Time Tunnel & Lost in Space were my favorites, defacto still are!

Michael Cundiff
NV, USA

[Moderator's Note: This message, originally a separate thread in the "Titanic Movies" topic, has been moved to this pre-existing thread about the Time Tunnel episode. MAB]

 

[Eric Paddon]

11 years is a long time to go between posts in a thread, but since then there's been a comprehensive book about the production history of "The Time Tunnel" TV series by Martin Grams, a leading TV historian. He notes that during the production of the pilot, ABC censors cautioned Irwin Allen about whether he'd "cleared the idea of impersonating Captain Smith and any others actually a part of the real story of the Titanic, particularly if they appear in a poor light." Grams theorizes this is the reason why the credits say, "Captain Malcolm Smith" instead of the correct name, and not because Allen and his researchers were stupid. It certainly would explain why all the other named Titanic crew is fictional (the officer "Mr. Grainger" who only now do I realize was played by Don Knight, the over-the-top villain of the short-lived 1971 sci-fi series "The Immortal").

Grams noted that during the research phase for the script, there were changes made in the name of accuracy elsewhere like correcting "Radio Room" to "Marconi Room" and he also mentions the builders plaque as something Allen came up with as part of the overall research process (without going into broader detail).

While there is a longer unaired version of the pilot that runs five minutes longer and was included in the DVD release, the actual initial cut was much longer and included an entire extra subplot aboard the Titanic featuring a character named Tabor, played by Dennis Hopper. The book isn't specific on the nature of Tabor's character, but evidently he was someone who was probably threatening Susan Hampshire. One scene of Hopper's has him being exposed by Tony and Doug as he tries to escape the ship dressed as a woman.

Also, had the pilot not sold, the intent was to then burn it off as a theatrical release, and this included an ending that would show Tony and Doug successfully returning! The footage shot of this has never surfaced and is presumed lost.

 

[Steven Christian]

Interesting info. You can watch it here if interested. It is entertaining if you like SCI-FI.
dailymotion:x55l6q9

 

[Robert T. Paige]

In a section on "Trivia" there is a "goofs" which states that the Captain states that there were "2300 on board". and this was in error since there some "3400 on board." Actually the goof is a goof since the 2300 is close to the actual number. Wonder how the goof on the goof went un-noticed ;-)

I remember seeing this many years ago but can't recall a lot of the details.
And my nook kept freezing up on the video and I didn't get to see the entire video

 

[Robert T. Paige]

I managed to see most of the video on my nook after a bit of re-setting.
In the words of the late Bob Hope "Thanks for the memories !"
But I just couldn't help but notice "The Goof On The Goof" ! ;-)

This is just my idea of "Time Travel".....LOL
There may come a time when "Time Travel" becomes possible. ( Ouch ! Pardon the pun.....LOL)
You will only be able to observe but never be able to change history as that in which the "time travelers" were attempting. What would happen to Walter Lord's book and that 1997 movie ? They would suddenly just disappear ? LOL

 

[Steven Christian]

Yes Robert...the classic time travel paradox...the grandfather scenario. From what I understand of modern day physics going to the past is impossible. Going to the future is not only possible it happens everyday. Relatively speaking. (pun intended)

 

[Robert T. Paige]

Yes Robert...the classic time travel paradox...the grandfather scenario. From what I understand of modern day physics going to the past is impossible. Going to the future is not only possible it happens everyday. Relatively speaking. (pun intended)

Yes Steven.......Then there is the old " What if I went back in time and shot and killed my old Grandmother ?".
Also ........In the light of other movies there didn't seem to be any problems of portraying Captain Smith so I wonder why they did so in this one ? Of course .....…As someone remarked in another post " You can do anything in movies."

 

[Eric Paddon]

Also ........In the light of other movies there didn't seem to be any problems of portraying Captain Smith so I wonder why they did so in this one ? Of course .....…As someone remarked in another post " You can do anything in movies."

Probably just because the ABC censors were being overly cautious and paranoid. It wasn't that there would necessarily be a legitimate legal claim at stake, but the slightest risk of any legal action that could tie things up was something I'm sure they wanted to be absolutely sure was taken care of (if a legal action were ongoing it might for instance prevent an episode from being part of any syndication deal later on etc. This is why several episodes of "The Twilight Zone" weren't seen for decades after their original run because there were plagiarism suits going on at the time the show was sold to syndication). It may well have been an overly paranoid network directive to have the credit name "Malcolm Smith" rather than anything Allen would have wanted to do.

OTOH, the other time-travel series to visit the Titanic, "Voyagers" in 1983 *really* crossed the line. They gave us a Molly Brown on the bridge at the time of the iceberg collision and Bruce Ismay getting off the ship dressed as a woman!

 

[Steven Christian]

Probably just because the ABC censors were being overly cautious and paranoid. It wasn't that there would necessarily be a legitimate legal claim at stake, but the slightest risk of any legal action that could tie things up was something I'm sure they wanted to be absolutely sure was taken care of (if a legal action were ongoing it might for instance prevent an episode from being part of any syndication deal later on etc. This is why several episodes of "The Twilight Zone" weren't seen for decades after their original run because there were plagiarism suits going on at the time the show was sold to syndication). It may well have been an overly paranoid network directive to have the credit name "Malcolm Smith" rather than anything Allen would have wanted to do.

OTOH, the other time-travel series to visit the Titanic, "Voyagers" in 1983 *really* crossed the line. They gave us a Molly Brown on the bridge at the time of the iceberg collision and Bruce Ismay getting off the ship dressed as a woman!

Or the whole bridge crew getting dressed as women, red indians..ect as in the Monty Python sketch of Titanic.