The Time Tunnel vs. Dr.Who

[fatcat]

Warning a lockdown ramble...

I had not seen The Time Tunnel for a very long time so welcomed its daily rerun on Horror.ch.70

...Now rose-tinted spectacles remembered it as the usual 'money no object' bit of American glam..but seeing it every day now

I realize it's cheap..very cheap LOL, they re-use sets several times and have access to the 21st Century Fox film archive for all the big shots.

The reason I mention all this is..perhaps I had given early Dr.Who a bad time as I found it a bit embarrassing with the meager budget and the BBC Heath Robinson approach to programme making.

I really just wanted to say to Dr.Who fans that it has gone up a few notches in my estimations and leveled with other fayres.
..Both the Time Tunnel and Dr.Who have visually fantastic primary props...the Time Tunnel itself and of course The Tardis.... and what unites them both is that all in involved seemed to have worked damn hard to entertain us with what they had..and so they both have a heart that still beats.

' William Self ' seems to have been the guy behind all the fantastic productions coming out of TCF at that time.

[SgtPepper]

I started watching the Time Tunnel on DVD a few years ago and got about half way through before giving up. It just seemed odd everyone in the French Revolution, Ancient Greece etc all spoke English.

Nothing to say about Dr Who.

[Mark]

Probably my least favourite of the big four, wasn't greatly keen when it was first shown.

Sixty to seventy per cent of it was stock footage!

They all looked very good, but for some reason, scripts were not given much attention, and seemed to be the weak link, a lot of repetition, Monster let loose on Seaview, Dr Smith getting into trouble, and one half of The Spindrift crew rescuing the other half.

They were always entertaining and more than watchable though, "Lost In Space" would be my favourite, it's just a shame it became the Dr Smith and Will Robinson show, the last mad series was the best, and all shows had great theme tunes.

[brigham]

I started watching the Time Tunnel on DVD a few years ago and got about half way through before giving up. It just seemed odd everyone in the French Revolution, Ancient Greece etc all spoke English.

Nothing to say about Dr Who.

That must surely limit your appreciation of motion-picture entertainment in general, and science fiction specifically.

[Richard Charles Skryngestone]

I started watching the Time Tunnel on DVD a few years ago and got about half way through before giving up. It just seemed odd everyone in the French Revolution, Ancient Greece etc all spoke English.

Nothing to say about Dr Who.

That must surely limit your appreciation of motion-picture entertainment in general, and science fiction specifically.

And there just happened to be a camera there to record it too. What are the odds?

[SgtPepper]

I started watching the Time Tunnel on DVD a few years ago and got about half way through before giving up. It just seemed odd everyone in the French Revolution, Ancient Greece etc all spoke English.

Nothing to say about Dr Who.

That must surely limit your appreciation of motion-picture entertainment in general, and science fiction specifically.

In Timeslip the Germans spoke ……….. drum roll …………… German. It 's true that non German speakers had no idea what they said, but you can't have everything.

[brigham]

I saw some Biblical epic once where everyone spoke Aramaic.
It was OK for a one-off, but I think I prefer my entertainment in English.

[Brock]

You mean they weren't really speaking French in 'Allo 'Allo?

[murphy1961]

It's funny how it works. In Hogan's Heroes for example, when the Germans are speaking to each other I think you're meant to assume they're speaking German, even though it's in English for the viewers benefit. But when the POWs are speaking to the Germans, it's meant to be English. I don't think anyone's really questioned it, perhaps only facetiously. The "average viewer" most likely couldn't care less. It's probably preferable to having subtitles on the screen.

[Mark]

It was quite clever in "Allo Allo", Michelle always spoke in English, but with accents depending on who she was talking to!

In "Doctor Who", it was established that it was a Time Lord gift shared through The TARDIS.

[Spiny Norman]

Pretty sure there are a few Doctor Who stories where the Tardis has gone but the English hasn't; or the opposite, it's still there is foreign writing anyway.

I saw some Biblical epic once where everyone spoke Aramaic.
It was OK for a one-off, but I think I prefer my entertainment in English.

Yes! After all, if English was good enough for Jesus... oh wait...

[Spiny Norman]

Probably my least favourite of the big four, wasn't greatly keen when it was first shown.

Sixty to seventy per cent of it was stock footage!

OK, so which ones are "the big four"? The big four of SF, or of time travel?

I must say, the ones that I saw really were excellent at using stock footage. The normal viewer would never have guessed.

[fatcat]

Probably my least favourite of the big four, wasn't greatly keen when it was first shown.

Sixty to seventy per cent of it was stock footage!

OK, so which ones are "the big four"? The big four of SF, or of time travel?

I must say, the ones that I saw really were excellent at using stock footage. The normal viewer would never have guessed.

It's in the big four of Irwin Allen productions Land of the Giants Lost in Space Voyage to the bottom of the Sea.

Tonight lovely Dr.Ann gets kidnapped by time bandits I think...all good fun.

[brigham]

I often find it hard to believe that Lost in Space is an Irwin Allen adventure.
Possibly because of the lack of adventure...

[SgtPepper]

In the Tomorrow People story where they went back in time to the Roman Colosseum they had a "universal translator" that enabled them to understand any language in the universe. I doubt they were the first to use it, but it was a reasonable idea.

[Richard Charles Skryngestone]

Star Trek had their universal translator in the 60's.

But everyone speaking English is more for the viewer, in the same way everyone always has the exact change when buying something.

Of course, there are then the episodes where lack of ability to communicate properly is part of the plot...

[Mark]

I often find it hard to believe that Lost in Space is an Irwin Allen adventure.
Possibly because of the lack of adventure...

'Oh the pain...the pain!'

[Mark]

Saw the kidnap episode yesterday, re-used props from "LIS", (despite bigger budgets, they were doing the same as over here) and the alien character who was wandering in and out, was the same Actor who was a regular in "VTTBOTS", with his face painted silver.

An interesting episode though, more aliens crept into it, later in it's run.