"The Outer Limits" Time to Time (2001)

User Rating:

9.2/10   

Director:

James Head

Writers:

Sam Egan (excerpts)
Sam Egan (written by)

TV Series:

"The Outer Limits" (1995)

Original Air Date:

11 August 2001 (Season 7, Episode 15)

Genre:

Mystery | Horror | Sci-Fi | Fantasy | Thriller

Plot:

Plot Keywords:

Futurism | Science Runs Amok | Supernatural | Robot | Space Travel

Cast

Kristin Lehman	...	Lorelle Palmer
Paul Popowich	...	Tom Palmer
Alex Diakun	...	Nicholas Prentice (also archive footage)
Ingrid Kavelaars	...	Angie Palmer
Ryan Robbins	...	Richard
Chris William Martin	...	Gavin
David Pauls	...	Travis
Grace Park	...	Satchko
Jessica Amlee	...	Young Lorelle
Emy Aneke	...	James
Aaron Craven	...	ROTC Student
Audra Ricketts	...	Tiana
Lee Tockar	...	Pothead
Cory Chetyrbok	...	Hippie
Kevin Conway	...	Control Voice (voice)

Movie Connections:

Features "The Outer Limits: Gettysburg (#6.17)" (2000)

Lorelle now has the chance to change a tragic event in her past, But there is a price!

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

This has to be one of my favorite episodes! I could watch it over and over again and it still gives me a rush. This episode was intended to bait the networks to pick up on a time travel series spin-off from THE OUTER LIMITS after its cancellation. (Too bad none of the networks bit the bait.) Nicholas Prentice had already appeared as a mysterious time traveler in two other episodes, GETTYSBURG and JUDGEMENT and in both episodes, little was known about him except that he came from the future on a mission to correct the past.

In TIME TO TIME, we learn that the mysterious Prentice comes from the year 2059 where (or shall we say "when") he heads the Chromatics Institute, "time travel for hire".

Prentice's chromatics team members are all from different times, each "recruited" (rescued) just seconds before what would had been his or her untimely death.

But each jump to the past must be screened by the Council to insure that the changes to the past do not disrupt the time line and here is where it gets very risky!

Travis was sent to 1989 to recruit Lorelle Palmer, History Major, but there are problems. When they meet on the college campus, she takes an instant dislike towards him. Later that night, just seconds before her car crashes, she gets transported 70 years into the future. But when she wakes up, she doesn't believe the story that she was rescued within seconds of an untimely death from a highway mishap. The newspaper article doesn't convince her and now she takes a dislike towards Prentice (along with the rest of the team members she's met). She also makes it clear that she is no team player and she demands that they send her back to 1989.

To convince her that all this is real, and to convince her to join the team, Travis invites her to pick a time and place that they could jump back to. She picks "Berkley College, April 14, 1969". He sees an open window so they jump back to that time, which just happens to be the day Lorelle's father got killed by a bomb that exploded prematurely in the ROTC building.

Now she can save her father. But there is a price to pay if she does. And there is also a price to pay if she doesn't! So she is now forced to make a choice! What will she do?

This episode was so well done. Right from the start, there is something somewhat mysterious about Travis as he shows up on campus and again, later on that night.

The atmosphere on the college in April 1969 is very authentic, like the hippie counter culture and the unrest over the war in Viet Nam, that seems to permeate the air, along with styles of the time.

In spite of all the work and research done to create such a perfect likeness of 1969, there are still a few bloopers.

For starters, back at the Chromatics Institute in 2059, one of the team members, Satchko, was taken from the 22nd century which is odd since anything done in 2059 or prior would drastically affect her time line.

In 1989, the 25 year old Lorelle has blue eyes. But her 5 year old self from 1969, has brown eyes.

It was April 14, 1969 and it was "Smothers Brothers night." Problem was that April 14, 1969 fell on a Monday, so there could be no "Smothers Brothers Night" on TV since THE SMOTHERS BROTHERS was on Sunday night (until CBS canceled that show in March 1969). One of the reasons for the cancellation was that the Smothers Brothers refused to let the network censure their show before airing it. So there was a major falling out between CBS and the Smothers Brothers.

On Monday night (in 1968/9), the show that everybody watched was LAUGH-IN (NBC) which competed against THE LUCY SHOW and GUNSMOKE (both on CBS).

Other than those minor bloopers, this episode ranks right up there as a must see for those who love sci-fi.