Due to The Time Tunnel being abruptly canceled, the series seems to end with a cliffhanger. There was no "series finale" which would have shown the end of Doug & Tony's adventures and their return home. Since the episode ends with footage from reruns of past episodes (a common practice for
Irwin Allen productions such as
Lost in Space (1965) during summer break), many viewers and critics have interpreted the conclusion to be that Doug & Tony were stuck in an eternal loop of repeating their 30 filmed experiences for all time, a convenient metaphor for syndication. Viewers with upbeat preferences have pointed out that Doug and Tony's signals are reported to be very strong in this episode, and prefer to assume that after their adventure in the Town of Terror, the two men were retrieved safely to Project Tic Toc headquarters.