THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE WEIRD

And sadly it's also what happened to my very favourite IA show, Time Tunnel. You'd think with a premise like time travel, the places and times where Doug & Tony could have ended up would be limitless. While I guess they were, I can't figure why the last few episodes of the show had to become the alien of the week. In the very last episode Tony spots an alien and says to Doug 'that's an android', as if it's something you see every day.

As an aside, didn't the year 1978 get a workout on VTTBOTS and Time Tunnel? Doug & Tony were on the first manned mission to Mars in 1978 and then again in the very last episode. What fascinates me with the last episode is that when Doug discovers that they are in 1978 he remarks to Tony that they're not that far ahead in time so would be able to handle the weapons of that era. He seemed to have forgotten that while he was the MEM4 spaceship to Mars, they were using standard handguns.

I think the fans are too hard on the show. An old show will inevitably get dated, and if it is to appeal to future audiences in any way, it must have a quality that transcends its dated scripts.

I think that IA was such a lunatic that he inadvertently did just that. I've been watching Lost in Space, and, while most '60s comedies are no longer very funny, LIS is still humorous, and a couple of instances caught me by surprise and made me laugh out loud. s

I think of Voyage as TV's answer to pulp fiction. Imagine, the brave crew of a super submarine up against dinosaurs, mad scientists, sea monsters, ghosts, corrupt dictators, pirates, alien invaders, criminal master-minds, alchemists(!), wax midget clowns(??), enemy subs, evil hypnotic politicians, assassins, killer toys, etc. They read like the cover blurbs from Doc Savage magazines. Like those old publications, the energy and imagination of the show was so great that it far outstripped the rather meager talent of the show's creators, yet, they soldiered on.

I remember reading the synopsis to "the Fossil Men" and wondering how in hell they were going to explain that concept. They didn't! They just went through with it. That's when I first became impressed with the sheer mindless audacity of their approach. There's also something surreal about watching Basehart's and Heddison's serious, mature (and impressive) performances delivered against the backdrop of scripts seemingly written by uneducated adolescents. In "the Fires of Death"(season 4), watch Basehart closely right after he's just explained to a crewman what they're up against. Almost like watching a David Lynch film.

On the other hand, the FX were impressive in a Japanese movie kinda way, and it's still a joy to watch Basehart as the increasingly impatient Nelson, and Heddison's regulation bonhomme Crane. Admiral Nelson was my hero, even more so than James T. Kirk. I think its finest hours was most of season 2 and the first half of season 3, but there were a few good ones later, like "the Wax Men", "the Fires of Death", "the Man of a Thousand Faces", and both episodes featuring Mr. Pem. I loved the mindless brutality of "the Creature" in a B-movie way.

Ultimately, a shows responsibility is to entertain, and we can't deny that Voyage did just that or we wouldn't be fans. And no matter what else it may have been, it was certainly unique, thus avoiding what is to me a TV show's deadliest sin.