History Series / TheTimeTunnel

* LawOfTimeTravelCoincidences : And so is pretty much anything else Tony and Doug stumble upon. The Time Tunnel is supposedly sending them to random eras unpredictably, but they always seem to arrive while some famous, exciting event is happening, or about to happen.

** "Reign of Terror" features Whit Bissel playing one of Robespierre's men as well as his regular role of General Kirk. Kirk is quite confused as his family is from Scotland rather than France, but discovers that this man is from an obscure branch of it that left for mainland Europe.

* TheCretaceousIsAlwaysDoomed: And so is pretty much anything else Tony and Doug stumble upon. The Time Tunnel is supposedly sending them to random eras unpredictably, but they always seem to arrive while some famous, exciting event is happening, or about to happen.

The premise? Project Tic-Toc is an attempt by the American government to create a TimeMachine. When a senator questions the project, scientist Tony Newman (James Darren) impulsively jumps into the titular tunnel to prove that it works, and his colleague Doug Phillips (Robert Colbert) goes after him. Unfortunately, while the Time Tunnel is great at sending people [[TimeTravel back and forth through time]], the Tic-Toc staff has imperfect control over the device, so they're unable to bring Tony and Doug home. The result: our heroes wind up bouncing around in the timestream like a pair of human ping pong balls, encountering a lot of StockFootage and never quite grasping that YouCantFightFate despite their attempts to help the people they meet. MeanwhileInTheFuture, their contemporaries watch and try to decide when things are going badly enough for Tony and Doug that it wouldn't hurt to just send them off to yet another random date.

* ElaborateUndergroundBase: The base for Project Tic-Toc (the government organization that created and operated the Time Tunnel) was hidden beneath the UsefulNotes/{{Arizona}} desert.

* EvilColonialist: "Idol of Death" has Doug call UsefulNotes/HernanCortez "one of the worst butchers in history", and the episode depicts him as a HateSink who lives up to that title. He ruthlessly kills the Tlaxcalan natives, whom he regards as subhuman "savages"; the first thing we see him do is torture and murder anelderly chieftain and his wife while their son and Tony and Doug watch helplessly.

* PenalColony: Tony and Doug wind up on the titular "Devil's Island" just before Alfred Dreyfus arrives. They help the other prisoners escape from the sadistic warden and his guards, but they also have to prevent Dreyfus from leaving with them in order to preserve the timeline.

* MeanwhileInTheFuture: The guys at the lab are not able to rewind or fast forward through their view of Doug and Tony's current locale; it's all they can do to keep the equipment trained on them at all.

* OncePerEpisode: The guys at the time lab will try to bring our heroes back, and accidentally scoop up someone or something ''else'' from the Era of the Week (and we'll zoom in on their shocked expression as they emerge from the Tunnel). If it's a person, they'll be very confused, and may or may not understand any explanations, but ultimately they'll go back or get sent back. If it's a thing, odds are that it's a bomb or something else dangerous that they'll need to get rid of fast.

* PenalColony ("Devil's Island")

* PunishmentBox ("Devil's Island")

* EvilColonialist: "Idol of Death" has Doug call UsefulNotes/HernanCortez "one of the worst butchers in history", and the episode depicts him as a HateSink who lives up to that title. He ruthlessly kills the Tlaxcalan natives, whom he regards as subhuman "savages"; the first thing we see him do is torture and murder a helpless elderly chieftain and his wife while their son and Tony and Doug watch.

* MyFutureSelfAndMe: Tony meets his child self in the Pearl Harbor episode. Notable because time travel stories (at least, in TV and film) didn't do this kind of thing very often in the years before ''Film/BackToTheFuture'' popularized the idea.

* HotScientist: Dr. Ann [=MacGregor=], as played by Lee Ann Meriwether, who was “Miss America 1955”.

* GoldFever: In "Idol of Death", the MacGuffin is a golden mask that serves as a symbol of authority for the Tlaxcalan people. UsefulNotes/HernanCortez wants the mask because he thinks possessing it will force the Tlaxcalans to accept him as their ruler. A contemporary archaeologist whom General Kirk calls in for his knowledge of the era turns out to be obsessed with the mask; he tries to bargain for it by refusing to help Tony and Doug unless the Tic-Toc staff retrieves the mask for him. He actually gets it for a few moments, but is forced to send it back. Meanwhile, the son of the murdered Tlaxcalan elder realizes that "Somehow the yellow metal must have made [Cortes] sick"; Tony and Doug say his ability to resist the call of {{greed}} makes him worthy to take over as chief.

* HateSink: "Idol of Death" has Doug call UsefulNotes/HernanCortez "one of the worst butchers in history", and the episode depicts him as a straight-up EvilColonialist who lives up to that title. He ruthlessly kills the Tlaxcalan natives, whom he regards as subhuman "savages"; the first thing we see him do is torture and murder a helpless elderly chieftain and his wife while their son and Tony and Doug watch.

* TorchesAndPitchforks: "Billy the Kid" features a variation. Sheriff Pat Garrett's deputies capture Tony because they think he's [[UsefulNotes/BillyTheKid the notorious outlaw]], and a bloodthirsty lynch mob forms outside the sheriff's office. Tony protests that he's not Billy, but the deputies seem inclined to give him up anyway. When Garrett arrives, he both [[ShamingTheMob shames the mob]] and tells them that Tony isn't Billy, but neither plan works; he finally gets rid of the mob by causing an AnimalStampede through town that forces them off the streets.

* TalkingDownTheSuicidal: Tony does this to Althea Hall to a certain extent in the series pilot, "Rendezvous With Yesterday". Althea's initial intent isn't to commit suicide; however, when the Titanic is sinking, she decides to take advantage of the opportunity because, due to a brain tumor, she's going to die soon anyway and she doesn't feel she's worthy to take a place on one of the lifeboats. Tony is luckily able to talk her out of it.
* TimeTravel