Aliens appear in the 1883 battle of Khartoum, Tony and Doug must stop the aliens from causing a doomsday situation. Meanwhile in command centre, the aliens have planted a bomb!
Motion picture director Nathan Juran pulls out all stops as right from the word go (the teaser) he gives us wild location filmed images of aliens with Arabs and clever doomsday talk from alien Kevin Hagen! As the teaser concludes we sit motionless wondering what the hell will happen next?
I never saw this episode as a kid but I wish I did, it was not until the age of 25 (in 1991) did I get to see this long lost episode! Act one begins with a clever use of stock music placed over the episode credits and talk from a concerned Whit Bissell - "We have to get them out!".
For a while after this, all the best lines go to a confused/amusing John Crawford as he hears alien invasion talk from James Darren. The middle section of the episode does get a bit too stuck in a rather obvious use of stock footage, but hey, most of act three/act four is a Republic serial-type thrill ride, and a lot of credit goes to Whit Bissell as General Kirk.
The sub-plot (main plot to me) concerning a bomb in the command centre is very well done and, perhaps it is just me, but hey, on first viewing I never knew they would solve the bomb problem the way they did. Clever twist.
In the final frames, good old John Crawford returns to centre stage to give us a comic bit of visual acting that you will long remember. Granted, this episode is silly, but the pull out all stops action style (also seen in Chase Through Time) is a knockout. This is not the end of Time Tunnel...one more episode is left, Town Of Terror.
Raiders From Outer Space would have made a better final episode as Town Of Terror tends to be a bit slow and Whit Bissell gets too little to do, but "Town" has a five star teaser, has a nice cross over to The Invaders (1967) and makes a wonderful use of the 20th Century Fox backlot.
Trivia: Months after Tunnel ended, Whit Bissell went military again in The Invaders (1967) year 2.