"The Time Tunnel" The Day the Sky Fell In (1966)

User Rating:

8.4/10   

Director:

William Hale

Writers:

Irwin Allen (creator)
Ellis St. Joseph (writer)

TV Series:

"The Time Tunnel" (1966)

Original Air Date:

30 September 1966 (Season 1, Episode 4)

Genre:

Action | Sci-Fi

Plot:

December 6, 1941: Dr. Tony Newman confronts his OWN past at Pearl Harbor. His question, what happened to my Father?

Plot Keywords:

Titanic | Historical | Cult Favorite | Cult TV | 1910s

Cast

James Darren	...	Dr. Tony Newman
Robert Colbert	...	Dr. Doug Phillips
Linden Chiles	...	Lt. Commander Tony Newman Sr.
Susan Flannery	...	Louise Neal
Whit Bissell	...	Army Lt. Gen. Heywood Kirk (as Whit Bissel)
John Zaremba	...	Dr. Raymond Swain
Lee Meriwether	...	Dr. Ann MacGregor
Sam Groom	...	Jerry
Lew Gallo	...	Navy Lt. Charlie Anderson
Robert Riordan	...	Admiral Brandt
Sheldon Collins	...	Little Tony Newman Jr. (as Sheldon Golomb)
Caroline Kido	...	Yuko

Runtime:

60 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound Recording)

Filming Locations:

20th Century Fox Studios - 10201 Pico Blvd., Century City, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

20th Century Fox Television

Trivia:

Like his character's father, James Darren lost his real father in the Pearl Harbor attack.

Goofs:

Continuity: During the attack, Tony is knocked out by a flying piece of debris and is shown lying flat on his back. A few minutes later, just as he regains consciousness, he's lying face-down and on the other side of the street.

Quotes:

Dr. Tony Newman: [Looking back] No wonder they never found his body.

Pearl Harbour

Tony and Doug appear at Pearl Harbour on the day of the big Jap attack, Tony gets to see his father, and attempts to warn him of the attack that will come.

When most people single out a favourite episode of The Time Tunnel, this episode nearly always comes into the conversation as being one of the best, or the best. Fans will say that this hour provided some all-important characterisation for lead actor James Darren as Tony Newman.

Fans will say that the series should of been like this in all 30 episodes. Then again, some fans like me don't actually think that James Darren was the all-mighty attraction of this series and, frankly, are not too concerned with Darren's lack of characterisation in the series. If you read my other 14 Tunnel episode reviews on this site, you will see that I see other things in Time Tunnel.

But don't get me wrong, I am not putting down The Day The Sky Fell In, I like it, but I can think of 15 episodes (half the series) that I like more.

Episode six in production order (but not screening order), the teaser and act one provide some quality moments when the travellers are in the wrong place at the wrong time ("If they make one wrong move, kill them!"), and then after a while Tony has a touching conversation with his father. All is good so far.

But to me, from act two, the episode is very over-rated, and also contains a scene in the Tunnel command centre, involving a bomb, that is just dumb. I guess you can partly blame Tic-Toc Turkey Jerry for wrecking that scene! James Darren was great in the Tunnel pilot and fine in act four of Reign Of Terror, but frankly, I was not as moved by his acting in the over-rated final act of this hour. It was okay, but not something that really moved me a lot.

Perhaps you need to be more interested in WW2 to really like this episode? Later Tunnel episodes - Invasion and Kill Two By Two - are also about WW2 and not on my favourite list as well. But I still like them. 28 of the 30 Tunnel episodes have something of interest.

If you find this review hard to understand, email me, about your views on Time Tunnel or any other Irwin Allen production.