The Death Merchant

The Time Tunnel gets a fix on the wrong person - Machiavelli (Malachi Throne) - and sends him through the time vortex and into a civil war - Gettysberg! Machiavelli seems to be having a ball despite being a total fish out of water. Meanwhile in the command centre, Ray and General Kirk bitch about what to do with the situation they created.

This is my 4th or 5th favourite episode of Time Tunnel and when it comes to storyline, well, The Death Merchant has the most imaginative story of the series (I know another Irwin Allen fan who agrees).

Seriously, I have seen all B&W Twilight Zones, all 1960s Star Trek, Star Trek: The Voyage Home (1986), all Back To The Future films, and can say that this hour nailed the greatest time travel story in history!

In my other reviews of Irwin Allen TV, I often proudly go on record as saying that style over substance was the key to these shows, but not with The Death Merchant, it is story, story, story and style is also here as a bonus! Style comes in truck loads from Malachi Throne and a flamboyant music score that plays on his outrageous quirks.

This is a never talked about quality of The Time Tunnel, the casting of the figures from history. Billy The Kid, Merlin The Magician, a crazy pirate, Machiavelli, etc, all come to life in Time Tunnel thanks to some wonderful guest stars. And Malachi Throne is one of them. Most remember Throne from Lost In Space's Thief Of Outer Space (1966), but to me, he is Machiavelli in The Time Tunnel!

But I said this was Tunnel's 4th or 5th best episode, it is not the best, despite all that I have said, it has two minor problems. Firstly, the writers don't bother giving us much information on exactly who Machiavelli is, perhaps they thought he was so well known that no background knowledge was required. Well, sorry guys, not everybody did History is High School. Because of the standard of Throne's performance, he IS the episode, we want to know all about him...a bit like The Joker in Batman (1989).

Instead, we get too much of our time travellers running around in circles because one of them has memory problems. Boring!

However, by the time we get to the final 60 seconds, well, we no longer care about the lesser sections of the hour, without wishing to give too much away, the ending involves location filming, Machiavelli, dramatic lines, disaster, two explosions, and in the final five seconds - flamboyant music.

I hope you enjoy The Death Merchant, a true mind-blower!

The Time Tunnel was part of my childhood in 1971 when for the first time l watched this remarkable series and along my lifetime always had a opportunity to see one more time some episodes, now definitively each three months l'd watch a new one and in "The Death Merchand" once again in American civil war on final act at Gettysburg where Tony and Doug end up, they stay as always in both sides of the war, but this time have an extra guest Machiavelli, however it to be totally absurd, he lives in Italy in sixteen century but who cares, it's The Time Tunnel indeed where everything is possible, this sounds good!!! As guest stars are Malachi Throne and Kevin"Kobik"Hagen...amazing episode as always!!

Doug and Tony are transported to Gettysburg in the American Civil War. Tony is killed in an explosion, but the time tunnel personnel revive him with the shock of a power surge. Meanwhile Doug is saved by a Union major and wears the Yankee uniform. When the confederate Sergeant Maddox meets amnesic Tony, he believes he is a courier and he wears the confederate uniform. When Doug and Tony meet Machiavelli, who had accidentally been brought by the time tunnel, the man tries to manipulate the time travelers.

"The Death Merchant" is a terrible and inaccurate episode. The philosopher and writer Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli has researched the behavior of princes and wrote The Prince in 1513 and is considered the founder of the political science. This awful episode describes him as an evil man, in a total absence of research of history by the lazy writers. My vote is four.

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