One Way to the Moon

I just watched this episode on the Blu-ray release, which looks great. I watched the series 54 years ago, when I was 9. Irwin Allen's shows often had a very high cheesy factor when set in the future, but this episode was very well done. The look of the Moon was outstanding! Great sets and visuals! Lots of action and excitement. I was watching it thinking. wow, how could a show this good not get more than one season? So far the first two episodes have been first-rate. Looking forward to seeing the other 28.

The second episode of "The Time Tunnel" has our duo propelled ten years into the future, finding themselves on board a spaceship about to begin the first human-manned voyage to Mars. They are discovered by the crew who immediately suspect them as being foreign agents, sent to sabotage the mission. When the ship runs in to problems, the captain is compelled to make a stop-off at a fuel station on the Moon. Here, things go pear-shaped completely. "One Way to the Moon" follows on from the Titanic jaunt in the Pilot episode and is the TV episode equivalent of trying to cram as much food as possible in to you at an all-you-can-eat buffet. It moves at a fast pace and actually becomes tiring by the end as so much happens, the least of which is the mind-boggling scenario we are presented with where the villain in the present finds himself at the lab watching himself in the future, all of which begs questions such as If he can see himself now, how does he not know back then? etc. etc. The sets once again are this episodes strong point, the Moon looking quite authentic and better than any average contemporary designs.

Irwin Allen TV shows and episodes are famous for high action, cheesy monsters, and really dumb plots. But this script is not only intelligent but has barely a glitch - which is amazing for any time-travel story. And the twist at the end with the villain is quite unique.

After Titanic's wreck now Irwin Allen takes our heroes in a imaginary journey to Mars, for first time it wasn't based in real facts as featured in majority of the all episodes, as happens always they are caught in rocket's countdown to change few seconds to take off, once there the rocket's crew easily realised something wrong over such additional weight, finding them on chamber below, so it spent much more fuel to reach Mars, then they had to change their plans and get to land in the moon, refuel and taking a trip to Mars ahead, before they have to find out who really are the saboteur, l'm not tired to see it again!!!

Resume:

First watch: 1971 / How many: 5 / Source: TV-VHS-Cable TV-DVD / Rating: 7.5

In this episode the guys go into the future. They become a liability as they affect the velocity because of their combined weights. It goes without saying that this aired before the voyage of Neil Armstrong (by about three years). It is cheaply made, using stock footage from old movies. The element that is missing in a futuristic episode is that the real charm of the series is attempting to deal with history that could conceivably be altered. In this one, they are definitely not respected for their efforts and are ultimately treated as ballast. I remember being so disappointed by this episode after enjoying the Titanic one so much. There are times when I can understand how this show only made it through one season (although I'm sure budgets and production had much to do with it).