episode #24 - Chase Through Time

episode #24 / Air Date: 02.24.67
written by Carey Wilber; Directed by Sobey Martin

An unusual beginning at the Time Tunnel complex in 1968: the regular staff of the general and the two main technicians must be on lunch break; there's only one man at the controls and he's killed by an enemy agent and infiltrator named Niman (Robert Duvall) who, to escape capture, runs into the Time Tunnel. The big problem here is that he left a hidden nuclear device to explode soon in the complex. The general (Whit Bissell) is able to communicate with Doug & Tony and explains the problem - they need the location of the hidden bomb. Niman and Doug & Tony are briefly near the Grand Canyon in 1547 but are swiftly whisked away into the far future - circa one million A.D. They find themselves in a beehive-like society in which humans have evolved into silver-skinned and golden-skinned humanoids. Unfortunately, through the vagaries of time travel, Niman had arrived a decade earlier and has had years to make himself useful to this future community.

This one is considered a favorite or the best by many fans of the series, as its wild premise has the story jumping all over into different time eras. In the 2nd half, they go to the other end of the spectrum, to one million B.C., so Irwin Allen gets to show more footage of giant lizards (realizing that there were no dinosaurs even that far back). There's a lot of tension about the hidden bomb and the story stretches this out as much as possible: every time it seems like they're about to get the valuable info, the location of the bomb, it doesn't work out. It's interesting to see Duvall in an early role here, before he became a big star. The conclusion for Niman's arc is ambiguous, seemingly setting things up for a future episode with Niman perhaps returning. BoG's Score: 7 out of 10