Episode
The Time Tunnel: Merlin the Magician
Overview
Tony and Doug are frozen in time, then a rather fey Merlin appears in the Project base. He takes the guys out of time and freezes them, commands them to do his bidding, then sends them on to 544 A.D., Cornwall England. They meet a young pre-King Arthur while fighting Vikings and on Merlin's behest team up with Arthur. The Vikings apparently kill Doug and capture Tony and Arthur. Tony escapes with Arthur and Doug is rescued by Merlin and Guienvere. When the Project staff are ready to recover Doug and Tony, Merlin intervenes because he needs them where they are. Tony and Arthur get recaptured and so does Doug when he goes to help. Guinevere gets captured too. One of the Vikings kills Arthur and a ""detained"" Merlin shows up and reverses time to save him. The guys escape again and Doug gets reinforcements which Merlin disguises as Vikings while Arthur and Tony rescue Guinevere. Everything works out and Arthur and Guinevere are to be married.
Details
- Series
- The Time Tunnel
- Season
- Season 1
- Episode
- Episode 27
- Air date
- 1967-03-17
- Runtime
- 60 min
Episode context
Merlin the Magician is Episode 27 in Season 1 of The Time Tunnel. It aired on 1967-03-17. The runtime is 60 min.
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Episode 26: Attack of the Barbarians
Doug and Tony are captured by the Mongols in 1287, led by Genghis Khan's grandson Baku. Tony is tortured until Doug stages a rescue, where they meet with Marco Polo, who is aiding Kublai Khan. Tony falls in love with Sahib, daughter of Kublai Khan that Polo is aiding and who is kidnapped by Baku. The guys rescue her by using black powder that Polo has discovered in China. When Baku launches an assault on the fort where Polo is staying, the Project staff try and send artillery back to the guys. They thwart an attack on the fort while Tony considers staying with Sahib. In the end she returns to her duty and the two part. Doug provides the necessary ingredient to turn the black powder into gunpowder, while the Project try and send detonator caps to assist them. With the explosives the attack is thwarted and the guys are whisked out. (Copyright 2003 Steve Crow)
Episode 28: The Kidnappers
The guys' signal is intercepted and a silver-skinned alien shows up and kidnaps Anne. He leaves behind a data card which the rest of the Project staff use to send Tony and Doug to. The guys end up in a futuristic complex and meet a zombiefied ancients from different time periods and locales. A mysterious voice provides historical detail. According to the Project staff they're on a distant planet in the Canopis system in 8433 A.D. The guys meet the Curator then escape. They get hold of Ann before being captured and the Project staff try a recovery but grab a OTT (""Official Time Traveller) instead. He grabs the Time Tunnel's time/space converter and leaves. The guys and Ann stage an escape but mess that up as well. The Canopians go dormant during night, and the guys avoid being drugged to take advantage of the situation. They get nowhere for a while, and the OTT is not vulnerable to lack of sunlight. The three Earthlings manage to overcome it long enough to send Ann back with the convert
More episodes from this season
Episode 25: The Death Merchant
Arriving in Gettysburg in the 1860's, Doug and Tony are separated by an explosion which seemingly gives Tony. A jolt from the Tunnel revives him but with amnesia. Doug falls in with the Union forces, while Tony becomes involved with the South and Sgt. Maddox when he is mistaken as a courier sent to buy gunpowder from an arms merchant, Michaels, who stole the stuff from the Union. Doug gets there first to find the merchant is Machiavelli! Apparently Machiavelli's pattern matches Tony's, and he was swept up and brought to Gettysburg by the Time Tunnel. The Tunnel send Machiavelli's dog back when it's about to kill Doug, draining them of power.
The amnesiac Tony takes Doug prisoner and turns him over to his sergeant, while Machiavelli delights in the carnage. Doug escapes and tries to save Tony who is determined to complete his mission. Machiavelli kills Maddox and then Doug and Tony fight when Doug tries to destroy the gunpowder. The two men come to terms but when Machiavelli tries to de
Episode 29: Raiders from Outer Space
Tony and Doug arrive in Khartoum, November 2, 1883, in the middle of a battle between British and Arab forces. However, two aliens take them prisoner. The aliens plan to conquer Earth with missiles, and will be ready to launch in two hours - they send a bomb to the Project to prevent them from interfering. Tony is taken to be killed but the alien with him is forced to teleport out when the British approach. Then both guys are transferred out of the cave by the Tunnel staff, where they make contact with Captain Henderson and convince him about the aliens. The three of them attack the cave and manage to stop the aliens, with some help when the Project send the bomb back to the aliens.
Episode 24: Chase Through Time
The guys arrive in Arizona, 1547, as a technician named Nimon kills a scientist. After a shootout, he flees into the Tunnel. Nimon is a spy who has planted a nuclear device in the complex. The guys need to find Nimon to get him to reveal the location of the bomb. They lure him in with a fire but he slips, and the Project transfer Doug and Tony after him to 1,000,000 A.D. Nimon is already there and has established himself with the ruling clique. The guys get the info on the detonation time, bypass a force field, and with the aid of a local female "defective" manage to get to Nimon. The Project transfers everyone, including two of the future-types, back to 1,000,000 B.C. After some running around from dinosaurs, they rescue Nimon from a quicksand pit in return for the location of the bomb. The head alien eventually comes around and forces Nimon to give the location of the bomb which they defuse. Everyone ends up in a giant bee hive and the Project gets everyone but Nimon out.
Episode 30: Town of Terror
The guys arrive in a brick basement on the North Atlantic coast in 1978. It has advanced electrical equipment, and they are attacked by an overalled man. He collapses dead, then gets up and disappears in a cloud of smoke. They go upstairs and are paralyzed by an alien-android disguised as an old woman. The aliens are preparing to steal Earth's oxygen. The Project staff execute a lateral transfer and free the guys. They escape to a seemingly empty town surrounded by a force field and filled with paralyzed townspeople. A young couple, Paul and Joan, find the guys and tell them about the oxygen-stealing plot. Meanwhile the alien androids infiltrate the Project base, seal it off, and start sucking out the oxygen through the Tunnel itself. The guys must destroy the operation at their end. They fight off the androids and use explosives to blow up the alien HQ.
Episode 23: Pirates of Deadman's Island
Doug and Tony arrive on the Spanish Main on April 1805, where they are captured by Captain Beal and his crew. They befriend Armando, a young boy who claims to be the nephew of the King of Spain. Tony eventually manages to escape where he is found by the attacking British who are unwilling to try and help Doug and Armando. Beal tries to kill Doug but is whisked back to Project Tick-Tock. He takes Anne hostage but eventually goes back into the Tunnel and his own time. The Project staff use the Tunnel to whisk Doug and Armando out of trouble after Beal is killed by his henchman. However, the two are caught in a bombardment and seriously wounded. A doctor friend of Kirk's due for retirement, Berkhart, volunteers to go back despite the fact he has no chance of being returned. He saves Doug and Armando before the travellers are whisked away.
Episode 22: Billy the Kid
Doug and Tony arrive in Lincoln in late April in the 1860s, and run afoul of Billy the Kid. Doug shoots Billy and apparently kills him, then he and Tony escapes. It turns out Billy took the bullet in the belt buckle, and he goes after the two. They manage to capture him thanks to a voice-transmitted distraction provided by Kirk, but Tony goes back into town and is mistaken for Billy. Pat Garrett arrives and eventually convinces the sheriff that Tony isn't Billy, but the mob isn't hearing it. Billy catches up to Doug and challenges him to a gunfight. Pat and Tony get involved, with Tony knocking out one of Billy's men planning to backshoot Doug and Pat intervening when Doug blows it. The two men are whisked off again.
Episode 21: Idol of Death
Doug and Tony arrive in a jungle in 1519 Yucatan as Cortez and his Spanish conquistadores attack the locals. The pair rescue natives being tortured for knowledge of a sacred golden mask and intervene. They are captured and believed to be spies. Cortez burns his ships and plans the guys' execution, but one of the locals free them and Doug buys them time to escape by threatening Cortez with explosives. Cortez orders pursuit. Meanwhile, the Project team call up an expert familiar with the terrain, Castillano. The guys use crude explosives to delay the Spaniards while aiding a local chieftain-to-be, while the Project staff discovers Castillano has a reputation for stealing artifacts, but have no choice but to employ him. When the guys get captured Castillano offers the Project staff their location in return for the recovery of the mask. When the Staff recover the mask they inadvertently lock everyone in time, and Castillano grabs a gun to force them to let him keep the mask. A demented Cas
Episode 20: The Walls of Jericho
Tony and Doug arrive outside the tent of Joshua on the sixth day of his seven-day assault on Jericho. With their future knowledge of the Bible they are able to convince Joshua that they are emissaries of the Lord, and he basically forces them to go into Jericho as spies. Doug is captured and tortured after they try to stop an exection, and Tony befriends a harlot, Rahab. With the help of Rahab and her father, a blind architect, they manage to free Doug. Tony and Rahab are set up for execution, but when a skeptical Anne tries to use the Tunnel to free them in opposition to how the Bible describes the incident, the Tunnel shuts down as if by some outside (dare we say Divine?) force. Tony and Rahab are spared when Joshua launches his attack and both the guys and the Project team witness the miracle just before they are whisked away once more.
Episode 19: The Ghost of Nero
Tony and Doug arrive near the Italian-Austrian Alps on October 23, 1915, as the Germans are preparing to bombard the area. An explosion knocks them out and uncovers the stone coffin of Emperor Nero. Nero's sword floats out of it, but kills a German soldier. They awaken and discover they are beneath the villa of Count Galba. He claims the two travelers are American friends, covering for them against the invading Germans. The ghost of Nero has other ideas, and wants to kill Galba, whose ancestor was responsible for Nero's death. First a German soldier then Tony are possessed by the ghost. The Time Tunnel project staff manage to free Tony with a high-powered electrical discharge on the recommendation of a Dr. Steinholtz, whom they call in. However, they then pull the ghost into the current day, but manage to send him back. Tony and Doug get Galba to safety and help lead the Italian resistance to the Germans. The German leader, Neistadt, flees but Nero's ghost delays him long enough for an
Episode 18: Visitors from Beyond the Stars
The guys land in a Western town in the late 19th century, where they are intercepted by two silver-clad aliens. The two aliens need to steal protein to supplement their own supplies, and soon use their advanced technology to mind-control Doug and hold the confused townspeople at bay while stealing local cattle. Tony manages to get hold of one of the alien control devices. Meanwhile, at Project TickTock the same alien race but from 1966 arrive and demand to know what happened to their scouting party a hundred years earlier, believing the Project to have something to do with it. Tony manages to free Doug from mind control and defeat the aliens in the past, while the ones in the present witness the departure of the scouting party in the past and are satisfied Earth had nothing to do with their disappearance.