Time Tunnel 2002 (Unaired Pilot) - Todd Holland - (2002) DVD

Unaired 2002 attempt to relaunch Irwin Allen's original series "The Time Tunnel". In this version, a secret Dept. of Energy project to create "hot fusion" instead creates a "storm" in time. It takes the scientists four hours to lock down one end of the storm, while the other is still randomly sweeping across the time stream. When they leave their bunker, the scientists discover that the "two-forty" (the 240 minutes the storm was out of control), caused random changes to the fabric of history, and only they know the true history of the world. Now the scientists must send teams back through the time tunnel to correct major errors the storm created. DOE employee Doug Phillips is recruited into the group because of his particular knowledge of a World War 2 battle, where the Time Tunnel team must go in order to stop an outbreak of the Black Plague.

This was a fascinating and superior updating of the 1966 Irwin Allen series of the same name. Unlike that, and all of Allen's sci-fi series, show this is an intriguing and well thought-out premise. While attempting to create a clean, renewable and abundant energy source, the Dept. of Energy inadvertently rips open a time vortex into past ages. A time-storm then ripples throughout these distant eras which in turn causes anomalies that disrupt our present. The TT complex is shielded from these alterations and realize how history has changed. They have plotted 240 anomalies which need to dealt with. A team of experts are assembled in order to journey back in time to correct the errors caused by the anomalies.

This would have been a wonderful series had it been picked up. In its premise it answers the problem inherent in all time travel scenarios: the past cannot be meddled with, no matter how benevolent the intentions are, because it may produce harmful ramifications all the way into the present. But here the time-team must restore the past to what we know it should be. Their missions are to make things right. While this premise is hardly original having been used by other TV series such as Voyagers and Quantum Leap, it works well here. The cast is likable and you care about them. The F/X were terrific. What a shame we won't be watching them return to the past to set things right with those other pesky 239 anomalies that are left.

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