episode #12 - The Death Trap

episode #12 / Air Date: 12.02.66
written by Leonard Stadd; Directed by William Hale

This is where/when the series seems like it's making up new rules as it goes along: Doug & Tony land inside a barn where a group of conspirators are talking about assassinating President Lincoln, in 1861.  Back in the 1968 Control Room, the scientists suddenly view a scene of Lincoln getting shot; Swain comments on how the Time Tunnel is making its own decisions, showing them this event ( ).  This suggests other forces at work than what we so far know. There's also wild speculation about the assassination - the actual event as we know it took place in 1865, so this might suggest that a double of Lincoln held office for the next 4 years, until he also was assassinated.  Anyway, Doug & Tony get separated: Doug is captured by Pinkerton (RG Armstrong), while Tony is with the two main conspirators (Scott Marlowe & Tom Skerritt) who are also brothers. The ring leader (Marlowe) is a zealot whose intentions are noble: he believes that killing Lincoln will end slavery (a follower of John Brown).  His plan hinges on a special time bomb that he made.


Much of the plot revolves around this bomb and the 3rd brother, an 11-year old who is in the dark about the dark plot, and it also sets up several frustrating scenes, as is usual when a story involves a little kid. At one point, the boy and the bomb are transported into the Time Tunnel. The general and the two scientists then spend the next few minutes trying to convince the kid to exit the Tunnel (they can't enter due to a radiation wall).  The kid, of course, won't have it and doesn't believe that the clock he's holding is a bomb.  Aargh - those damn kids!  The rest of the plot has the two time travelers trying to convince Pinkerton that they're not part of the conspiracy.  The TV budget dictated that even though this all involved a big plot against the President (Ford Rainey) of the USA, it all takes place at an all-but-abandoned train depot, in a tiny, nearly-deserted old west town, supposedly on the outskirts of Baltimore. BoG's Score: 5 out of 10

Epilogue: Doug & Tony land just outside The Alamo as the battle rages and have to fight off two Mexican soldiers...