"The Time Tunnel" Raiders from Outer Space (TV Episode 1967) Poster

(TV Series)

(1967)

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7/10
Alien Invaders
claudio_carvalho15 February 2010
Doug and Tony are transported to Sudan on 02 November 1883 on the day of the battle between the British invaders and the Arabs in Khartoum and they stumble in an alien invasion from Aristos that will begin launching missiles in London and other major cities. When the time tunnel personnel interfere with the plans of the alien leader, he sends a sophisticated and indestructible bomb to the complex.

"Raiders from Outer Space" is another episode based on fiction, this time of an alien invasion on Earth. There are two parallel plots and a great use of stock footages. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "O Túnel do Tempo" ("The Time Tunnel")
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7/10
Check That Device for Radioactivity
fcabanski25 November 2016
Warning: Spoilers
Maybe Ray isn't so incompetent after all. When aliens send a bomb to destroy the Time Tunnel, Ray instructs a generic scientist or technician, TT's version of a red shirt, to use a sensor to check the bomb for radioactivity. It's the best scene in the series. The guy runs his sensor over the bomb for a few seconds before KABOOOM! He's gone in an explosion. Ray wasn't taking chances with his own life. After a microsecond of concern for the unnamed dead guy, everyone goes back about their business.

Ann runs over to ask "what happened?" The guy exploded, Ann.

This episode also has the most startling moment in the series. Doug and Tony are dropped in the middle of a battle between Arabs and Brits. OK, so this episode is about the Siege of Kartoum. That's - suddenly a weird looking alien is holding a ray gun on Doug and Tony. HAHA! Didn't see that coming, did you? This episode makes good use of stock footage for big battles. The main plot with the British officer helping Doug and Tony foil the aliens is nicely done. The sub plot of the alien leader threatening the Tunnel complex is also nicely done.

This isn't well known. The alien leader was not killed in the explosion. The radiation mutated him into a giant human while sending him into another dimension. Luckily for him, he ended up on a planet of giant humans. He took on the identity of one of the natives - Inspector Kobick. That same explosion created a rift between dimensions. The rift floated in orbit around Earth. A number of space flights and even commercial passenger flights were caught in the rift, transported to that other dimension and the planet of giants. Inspector Kobick, in reality that alien leader, dedicated himself to capturing the displaced humans, so he could learn the way to restore himself to his original form and return to his own dimension.

Some of Kobick's exploits were portrayed in the series Land of the Giants.

When the alien bomb is about to explode, suddenly all the trouble with shifting things in time and power needs disappear. Inconsistencies with the function of the Time Tunnel happened a lot in the series. In one episode they can barely send a dog back in time without the whole complex exploding. They need extra power from the Hoover Dam, delivered by a giant ray gun looking console, to transfer Machiavelli back to his own time. But in this episode, they can send a huge, radioactive bomb back in time without so much as a spark. They did have to tap into reserve power to accomplish the bomb transfer.
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5/10
This episode aired on the day I was born.
clayface930 January 2019
Our time traveling heroes end up in the middle of the Siege of Khartoum, probably because Irwin Allen had access to stock footage from the movie "Khartoum". Coincidentally, there is also an alien invasion force there that plans to conquer the Earth by bombing London. The alien leader has a big green brain, his subordinates look like the alien from This Island Earth and their "slaves" look like mummies. Somehow, the alien leader is aware of the Time Tunnel and sends a bomb there that he threatens to explode. Naturally, this worries the crew at the Time Tunnel home base, which includes Lee Meriwether and some guy who looks like Donald Pleasence but sounds like Johnny Carson. The time travelers get a British Captain to help them, after they convince him that aliens are real. This is kind of a goofy episode.
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Sci-Fi & Bomb Disaster
StuOz8 July 2006
Aliens appear in the 1883 battle of Khartoum, Tony and Doug must stop the aliens from causing a doomsday situation. Meanwhile in command centre, the aliens have planted a bomb!

Motion picture director Nathan Juran pulls out all stops as right from the word go (the teaser) he gives us wild location filmed images of aliens with Arabs and clever doomsday talk from alien Kevin Hagen! As the teaser concludes we sit motionless wondering what the hell will happen next?

I never saw this episode as a kid but I wish I did, it was not until the age of 25 (in 1991) did I get to see this long lost episode! Act one begins with a clever use of stock music placed over the episode credits and talk from a concerned Whit Bissell - "We have to get them out!".

For a while after this, all the best lines go to a confused/amusing John Crawford as he hears alien invasion talk from James Darren. The middle section of the episode does get a bit too stuck in a rather obvious use of stock footage, but hey, most of act three/act four is a Republic serial-type thrill ride, and a lot of credit goes to Whit Bissell as General Kirk.

The sub-plot (main plot to me) concerning a bomb in the command centre is very well done and, perhaps it is just me, but hey, on first viewing I never knew they would solve the bomb problem the way they did. Clever twist.

In the final frames, good old John Crawford returns to centre stage to give us a comic bit of visual acting that you will long remember. Granted, this episode is silly, but the pull out all stops action style (also seen in Chase Through Time) is a knockout. This is not the end of Time Tunnel...one more episode is left, Town Of Terror.

Raiders From Outer Space would have made a better final episode as Town Of Terror tends to be a bit slow and Whit Bissell gets too little to do, but "Town" has a five star teaser, has a nice cross over to The Invaders (1967) and makes a wonderful use of the 20th Century Fox backlot.

Trivia: Months after Tunnel ended, Whit Bissell went military again in The Invaders (1967) year 2.
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7/10
The Battle of Karthoum works just a backdrop for set-up an Alien Invasion ongoing on Earth in 19th Century!!
elo-equipamentos11 February 2023
As far I remember it was the first time that the screenwriters split a main plot and a sub-plot in the same episode, ours friends landed in the middle of the famous battle of Khartoum at Sudan in 1883 between British soldiers and Arabians, however it was just the sub plot which mentioned above, the main plot is about an alien invaders that were there hidden in a cave inside the mountain on the outskirts, an upscale installation assemble in such place aiming for takes over the still delayed mankind at its time, their first goal is actually hits London firstly.

Actually the Battle of Khartoum is just a backdrop to expose a possible alien invasion ongoing, Tony and Doug split a quickly time only, outside of the alien complex Tony struggles to convince the British Officer Henderson (John Crawford) that he wasn't an Arabian spy at all, meanwhile Doug is trapped inside the mountain, when the Time Tunnel complex tries to intervene to the aid of ours heroes the Alien leader "Kobik", I mean (Kevin Hagen) he wasn't have a name in the episode, just coming from Aristos planet, in retaliatory measure he sent a sort of bomb to there, Time tunnel's crew there just a short time before the alien device blow up the entire complex.

The aliens have those infamous stereotyped look, big head, wide eyes and all kind of drivel already properly labelled by Hollywood and others science-fiction's magazines for good, the episode has similarities with "Visitors Beyond the Stars", intriguingly the aliens aware over the futuristic Earth's time tunnel complex in far-off 19th century where the story takes place, looking outwardly it sounds paradoxical at least!!!

Thanks for reading.

Resume:

First watch: 1971 / Source: TV-DVD / How many: 5 / Rating: 7.
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4/10
More of the same as the time travelers once again deal with snotty aliens
jamesrupert20145 May 2022
Temporally transported to the Sudan during the battle for Khartoum (1883), Tony (James Darren) and Doug (Robert Colbert) discover an alien plot to conquer Earth. This episode is nearly identical to the equally weak (and similar titled 'Visitors from Beyond the Stars'), in which haughty aliens plot to destroy the Earth while the time travelers desperately try to convince skeptical people of the true threat. The first-seen giant-eared, bum-headed aliens are amusing and frugally-imaginative but the master alien, who has a human face surmounted by a bulbous alien cranium (?), looks ridiculous. There is a secondary plot about the aliens infiltrating and threatening to destroy the Time Tunnel itself if the events in the past are interfered with. Nothing makes much sense and the episode is padded with footage from some period-piece adventure involving battling Arabs. Directed by Oscar winner Nathan Juran, who helmed some of the more preposterous sci-fi films of the 1950s.
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9/10
Awesome episode!!
okcheredia19 January 2020
I grew up watching these shows, love anything to do with Irwin Allen,unfortunately a lot of these older shows get reviewed by younger people that compare them against things produced these days which has no comparison.

One of my favorite parts its at the beginning when you have the older setting and the aliens show up, wow, very creepy and their costumes are so cool,this episode was almost a mirror of the preceding one (the kidnappers) where someone from the future gets involved with the tunnel complex.

Lately i have been binge watching The Tunnel, its a shame it only ran for a few episodes,i own just about anything Irwin made,"the master of disaster" lol
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8/10
THE INVADERS WANT TO EXPLODE THE TUNNEL
asalerno1015 June 2022
Another episode mixing aliens in the middle of a historical fact. We are in 1883 in the midst of the battle of Karthum, suddenly some beings from another planet appear who take Tony and Douglas prisoner, their leader aims to destroy the Earth to access the position of regent of his world. When they realize that the time tunnel can intervene to thwart their plans, they send an atomic bomb to the complex with a timer that will make it explode in two hours. A good episode, with a lot of action despite the rather bizarre mix of times and characters.
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