episode #11 - Secret Weapon

episode #11 / Air Date: 11.25.66
written by Theodore Apstein; Directed by Sobey Martin

Doug and Tony land in an eastern European city, behind the Iron Curtain - 1956; yep, it's the height of the Cold War. Some general in 1968 gets wind of their location and requests/demands that the two time travelers go on a special mission. The Time Travel crew keep sending these glowing blocks to Doug & Tony, one of which explodes; but the 3rd one gets through - it's a container - it melts and inside are instructions. The time travelers find another Time Tunnel complex - it turns out that an earlier, Eastern-version of the complex was headed by another scientist (Nehemiah Persoff) back then. The communist military colonel (Michael Ansara) in charge is not fooled by Doug & Tony, who play the parts of current scientists.

The '68 Time Tunnel scientists (Swain & Ann) are concerned about placing Doug & Tony into all this extra danger, forcing them to be spies. But, the bigger threat, I would think, is that an earlier Time Tunnel complex exists on the other side of the Iron Curtain. In '68, that same scientist (Persoff) is in the process of defecting to the U.S. and he let's it be known that this other Time Tunnel project still exists. However, in '56, Doug explains to Tony that the set-up of this earlier Time Tunnel is doomed to failure, since they had already tried it that way in their own Time Tunnel years back. So, the defector may not be what he seems...

Ansara, bald here (as he was in a Land of the Giants episode), is mostly a sinister comic book-styled villain; Persoff does better as a sort of fanatic. What  works in this episode is that Doug & Tony's mission in 1956 actually has tangible benefits for the U.S. in 1968, since General Kirk is monitoring most of what is going on in '56 and gains valuable info. There's also an unusual scenario when the '68 Time Tunnel tries to grab the two time travelers and plays tug-of-war with the '56 Time Tunnel. The modern Time Tunnel is unable to pinpoint the two men due to a slight discrepancy in the solar time: 29.9 micro-seconds vs. 30 micro-seconds. BoG's Score: 6 out of 10

Epilogue: Doug & Tony appear amid conspirators planning to assassinate Abraham Lincoln...
Time Tunnel Trivia: Star Trek TOS actor alert - Ansara appeared as the Klingon Kang in Day of the Dove; also in a small role here is Kevin Hagen, previously popping up in Revenge of the Gods; he played Inspector Kobeck on The Land of the Giants.