"The Time Tunnel" Billy the Kid (TV Episode 1967) Poster

(TV Series)

(1967)

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7/10
Unreasonable Town
claudio_carvalho29 January 2010
Doug and Tony are transported to Pride of Lincoln County, New Mexico, in April 1881, in the middle of a shootout. They run to the sheriff's office and find that Billy the Kid is in jail and the gunners that are shooting belong to his gang. The outlaws break in the jail to release Billy the Kid that shoots the sheriff in cold blood, but out of the blue, Doug shoots Billy to save Tony and he dominates the situation. They escape but the buckle on belt has saved Billy's life and he promises to hunt down and kill Doug alone. However, Tony and Doug subdue Billy in an abandoned ranch; then Tony heads back to Lincoln to bring Pat Garrett, but he is mistaken as Billy the Kid by the Pat's deputy. The population decides to hang Tony, and when Pat Garrett arrives, he asks his deputy to provoke a stampede to save Tony. Meanwhile Billy's gang comes to the ranch and releases Billy the Kid.

"Billy the Kid" is a good episode of "The Time Tunnel". Robert Colbert has one of his best performances in this series, and Doug seems to be a real cowboy. Tony has an unreasonable behavior when he arrives in Pride of Lincoln County alone trying to find Pat Garrett. The edition of the excerpts from stock footages is very well done in this episode. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "O Túnel do Tempo" ("The Time Tunnel")
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9/10
Nice Job, Dude!
ratssaidskinner12 January 2016
Warning: Spoilers
My vote of nine (9) is rounded up from an 8.5 and is for this episode of TTT relative to the other episodes of the series...just wanted to get that out of the way! (Sorry, but as a teacher, I'm used to explaining my grading to the students!)

Why a 9? Because I was very impressed with the casting and the writing of William Welch who wrote about six or seven other episodes of the series. His writing was clever and, when given to the cast, made this one of my top five episodes of the 30 in the series.

This time, good ole' Doug and Tony crash landed in Lincoln, New Mexico Territory in 1881, but before you can say, "Stick Em'-up," a gang on horses chases them into the sheriff's office where you would think they'd be safe. But this is TTT and the first five minutes of every episode that I recall, never proves safe for our duo for most of the 51 minutes of airtime! Why isn't the sheriff's office safe? Billy the Kid is being held in the jail cell in the sheriff's office. Just WHY he is there with only one person watching him, is never explained. Oh well!

What impressed me the most was the casting of Robert Walker, Jr. as William H. Bonney, aka, "Billy the Kid." Walker was PERFECT for this role from his similar appearance, build, facial shape, and even his height (approx 5' 8" or 1.73 m). In addition, writer, William Welsh, was great having "Billy" use the word, "Dude" throughout the episode. At first, I thought "dude" was a huge mistake for 1881. But it turns out that "dude" was one of the new, "in" words in the late 1800's! I had no clue, but Welsh sure did!

I wasn't crazy about the last 10-15 minutes of the episode including when Tony wore "The Kid's" unique hat and carrying his gun with all those notches....a rather novice mistake for the character.

So, to me, the episode started out well but slowly lost its sizzle. But the idea of incorporating Doug and Tony meeting The Kid, was one of the show's better historical meetings...NOT the best, but slightly better than most others. The icing on the proverbial cake was with Welsh and Walker -- they made this episode an 8.5/10 to this dude!
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Style Over Substance William Welch Western
StuOz7 July 2006
Tony and Doug appear in the age of Billy The Kid, however, at the start of act one it seems Doug (Robert Colbert) has murdered Billy The Kid and history has been changed by the time travellers...or has it?

Westerns are not my favourite genre but even I admit to being blown away by the William Welch (writer) quirks, the acting of Robert Walker Jr (Billy), the sets and the closing frames that rank as the most amusing moments of ANY Irwin Allen series.

Granted, not a lot happens in the hour, but this is style over substance stuff, a quirk of William Welch.

Welch gives Doug some great lines to Billy.

The episode is a knockout.
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