The Time Tunnel (TV Series) Secret Weapon (1966) User Reviews

The American and Soviet Time Tunnel gemini projects!!

[elo-equipamentos · 7/10 · 6 September 2020]

Quite often to display the America civilization is much higher than URSS, Irwin Allen contradicts himself, as expose in this resourceful episode, seemingly he never touch in the real name of the country properly, just seeing a clue as the Cyrillic alphabet and some name as Alexis to leting us to think about, just wondering where ours friends really are in URSS, here is the contradiction of Mr. Allen, if in 1956 the Soviet had a Time Tunnel means that they are superior or something, later knows that such enterprise stuck and fails, Tony and Doug are without any fair explanation there, due the transportation is randomly and didn't has enough time to warning them thru Time Tunnel complex a message with many details, the scientist Biraki has a dual behavior with Tony and Doug, a sudden appearance on American ground suggest that something had gonna wrong in their project, well we should keep in mind that is Irwin Allen's show, just a fantasy created to entertainment purposes only, l'm outright convinced that, no one episode deserves a low grade than 7 out 10, for such greatness of Irwin Allen and related as Gene Roddenberry or others great producers, indeed an interesting episode!!

Resume:

First watch: 1971 / How many: 5 / Source: TV-Cable TV-DVD / Rating: 7

Good But Not Outstanding

[StuOz · 21 July 2011]

The teaser and act one are fun with all that Tunnel communication with the two time travellers, then we see the other Time Tunnel of yesterday and we are thrilled with a sense of mystery. This hour is loaded with three outstanding male guest stars, Ansara being the best guest star of the three, and the story is just fine with me.

On the negative side: I never liked the actor playing "Jerry" in the Tunnel command centre and there is a lot of him in this hour. But others do like him I am told?

2nd negative: Episode composer Paul Sawtell was just fine when he scored the Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (1961) motion picture and the pilot episode of the Voyage/Sea series (1964) but this guy also does some boring "funeral type music" (to quote another reviewer I once knew) and, sadly, the funeral music is present in Secret Weapon.

This hour is good but not outstanding.

Flawed and Dated Episode

[claudio_carvalho · 5/10 · 9 November 2009]

Doug and Tony are transported to Russia on 16 June 1956, and sooner they receive an F-5 probe from the Time Tunnel personnel with the message "Meet Alexis". They meet the double agent Alexis that gives papers and free access to them to the facilities of the Russian Project A-13. They discover that Professor Anton Biraki has built a Time Tunnel very similar to theirs, and they have been assigned to pilot a doomed capsule in the first time travel. Meanwhile in the present days, Professor Biraki is in the United States offering his knowledge to the government.

"Secret Weapon" is a flawed and dated episode. How could the Time Tunnel personnel send a message to Doug and Tony asking them to meet the agent Alexis on that precise day? Further, if the Americans have copied the Russian technology, how could Doug and Tony do not know the Russian research? My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "O Túnel do Tempo" ("The Time Tunnel")

Typical goofy Irwin Allen

[russedav · 5/10 · 8 May 2012]

That of which Lost in Space is the epitome, Irwin Allen is mainly about creating silly-weird-looking aliens with misshapen heads and action, action, action, even if it never helps the plot and electronic machines that always explode when you touch them and when you don't. Lots of his shows and episodes are fun, but their mental maturity level is rarely above the six-year old and there were stories of trying to keep him off the set as much as possible to get things filmed without his goofy ideas, though they obviously came through even without his presence. Of course sci-fi, that should usually properly be called just "fi", since most of it's pure fantasy with no connection to real science, is heavy on the suspension of disbelief, but it's a major stretch to imagine that the inconceivably vast and huge Time Tunnel complex in the Arizona desert that would dwarf most American cities into tiny insignificance could actually be replicated in what amounts to little more than a Russian basement apartment!? Please! I know the Russians did some incredible things with the little they had, but this beggars belief and it only works because it's cool to see something that looks familiar to what we've already seen. Really a silly idea though I must say it works, hence the 5 rating instead of the 1 or 2 I was tempted to give it as with most of the episodes and most of Allen's shows, being plot less, characterless and generally just plain clueless, like most Americans of the time that proves getting to the moon wasn't about competent American ability but the brilliance of the select few that ran NASA at the time that is sadly no more.