Books Front Lines and Frontiers Episodic Adventures Through Time and Space: Time Tunnel and Timeslip! by Murray Leinster The timey-wimey tale of a classic ’60s sci-fi series and three different novels… By Alan Brown | Published on January 20, 2026 Comment 0 Share New Share In this bi-weekly series reviewing classic science fiction and fantasy books, Alan Brown looks at the front lines and frontiers of the field; books about soldiers and spacers, scientists and engineers, explorers and adventurers. Stories full of what Shakespeare used to refer to as “alarums and excursions”: battles, chases, clashes, and the stuff of excitement. Last year, I discovered that there were two tie-in novels written for one of the favorite TV science fiction shows from my youth, The Time Tunnel, written by one of my favorite science fiction authors from that era, the venerable Murray Leinster. Because The Time Tunnel is also a favorite of my wife’s, we rewatch it every few years on discs (or more recently by recording it from MeTV). I found the two books listed online, and ordered the first. When it arrived, however, I discovered that while the title is Time Tunnel, and the author was indeed Murray Leinster, it was written when the TV series was still in development, and not related to the show at all. So, there are three Time Tunnel books written by Leinster: the one I had received, and the two later novels tied to the TV show—The Time Tunnel, and Time Tunnel Adventure #2: Timeslip! All three were published by Pyramid Books, and they had confused things further by using the same cover for the first tie-in book that appeared on the earlier novel. I attempted some research to find out if there was a connection between the show and the earlier book, but accounts on different websites disagreed. I was intrigued enough to order a reference book on the show, The Time Tunnel: A History of the Television Program, by Martin Grams, Jr. (which was great, and offered a fun trip down memory lane). It made it clear the original book was created simultaneously and separately from development of the TV show. Grams’ book suggests that Leinster might have then been hired to write tie-in books to prevent any claims he might have brought against the show for using the title of his original book. Since receiving that first book, I was able to track down the second tie-in novel but not the first. So, for this column, I will be contrasting the earlier, separate novel by Leinster with his second book written for the TV show. I guess this goes to show that, even behind the scenes, time travel can be tricky business! About the Author Murray Leinster was the pen name of William Fitzgerald Jenkins (1896-1975), a leading American science fiction writer from right after World War I into the 1960s, who wrote groundbreaking stories covering a wide range of subgenres and themes, including first contact, time travel, alternate history, and futuristic medicine. I previously reviewed the collection First Contacts: The Essential Murray Leinster (you can find that review here), the collection Med Ship (find the review here), and three books on humanity’s initial steps into space: Space Platform and Space Tug (find the review here), and City on the Moon (find the review here). And you can find some of Leinster’s works to read for free on Project Gutenberg. About the TV Producer Irwin Allen (1916-1991) was an American producer and director of films and television shows. He got his start on radio, and as an agent in Hollywood. His film career began in the 1950s, and his output included both fictional stories and documentaries. In the early 1960s, he produced three films of interest to science fiction fans: an adaptation of Arthur Conan Doyle’s dinosaur adventure The Lost World, the original story Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, and an adaptation of Jules Verne’s Five Weeks in a Balloon. In the 1960s, he was perhaps the most prolific purveyor of science fiction on television, creating shows like Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (a series that picked up the story from the feature film), Lost in Space, The Time Tunnel, and Land of the Giants. In the 1970s, he produced two successful disaster films, the works he is probably best known for: The Poseidon Adventure and The Towering Inferno. Allen’s output didn’t always have a reputation for being of the highest quality, but he was adept at producing shows with a limited budget, often by weaving stock footage into newer material, and by making the most of primitive practical effects. The Time Tunnel: The TV Show The Time Tunnel was an episodic show built on a simple premise, which is best summed up by the narration that began each episode: “Two American scientists are lost in the swirling maze of past and future ages, during the first experiments on America’s greatest and most secret project: The Time Tunnel. Tony Newman and Doug Phillips now tumble helplessly toward a new fantastic adventure, somewhere along the infinite corridors of time…” Each week, Tony and Doug would find themselves in a different time and place in either the past or future. Their home base was an improbably gigantic secret underground military installation where the titular time travel device was located. That device, a tunnel of black and white ovals surrounded by banks of blinking computers, was operated by a small and dedicated team led by General Kirk, chief scientist Doctor Swain, and electrobiologist Doctor Ann MacGregor. Despite efforts to bring them home, the best the team can do is pluck them from one dangerous situation only to drop them into another. And inexplicably (or rather, for the very practical reason of allowing viewers to watch episodes in no particular order), Tony and Doug always reverted to the same clothing they started with at the beginning of each episode. The central cast was led by teen heartthrob actor and singer James Darren as Tony, and included Robert Colbert as Doug, Lee Meriwether as Ann, John Zaremba as Doctor Swain, and Whit Bissell as General Kirk. Tony was headstrong, Doug stoic and practical, General Kirk and Doctor Swain were dedicated and creative, and Ann was (notably for a female character in that era) an intelligent and competent scientist. While it was never explicitly addressed, it appeared Doug and Ann were attracted to each other, if not a romantic couple. Earlier episodes generally feature famous events from the past, although later episodes include more lurid science fictional scenarios like alien invaders. The historical adventures relied heavily on stock footage from old movies, especially for large battle scenes. The show also made use of the various sets and costumes available to them from other productions underway on the 20th Century Fox backlot. Doug and Tony were fortunately adept at martial arts, although the fight scenes generally felt over-the-top. The show also followed a format much beloved by pulp adventure writers like Edgar Rice Burroughs, in which the characters are constantly being captured, only to escape (until the next time they’re captured). The theme song for the show, a jazzy number built around a clock-like rhythm, deserves special mention. It was one of the first compositions by a young musician new to Hollywood, Johnny Williams. He later went on to drop the “ny” from the end of his first name, becoming one of the most respected composers in the history of film, scoring movies like Jaws, Star Wars, and Raiders of the Lost Ark. Unfortunately, Time Tunnel only lasted for one long season of thirty episodes. The ratings were good, but the show was expensive to produce, and the ABC network decided to fill its time slot with another show. Ten episodes were later spliced together to make five made-for-TV movies. There were attempts to reboot the show, but the two efforts that resulted in pilot episodes never went into production. Big Finish, the British audio company, later produced two boxed sets of radio dramas that continued the story of the show. Time Tunnel: Leinster’s Original Novel The book begins with a paragraph that neatly sets up all that follows: “The affair of the time-tunnel began, so far as Harrison was concerned, with a series of events so improbable as to seem lunacy, but which appear to have been inevitable. In a cosmos designed to have human beings live in it, though, there would have to be some sort of safeguards against the consequences of their idiocy. The time-tunnel may have been such a safeguard. To some people, that seems a reasonable guess.” Harrison is in Paris to do historical research when he runs into an old college classmate, Pepe Ybarra. Harrison’s PhD research is based on a concept propounded by one of their teachers, Professor Carroll, but he’s discovered something odd in the history books. In 1804, a man named de Bassompierre had shown up, befriended the politician Talleyrand, and began introducing scientists of the day to theories that were decades in advance of the time. Harrison and Ybarra discuss history, and both experience the odd feeling that their memories of the events have somehow changed recently. Then Ybarra mentions that he’d come across a shop that bore the name Carroll, and wondered if it might be related to their professor. The shop is quite strange, filled with items that look new, but are purported to come from 1804. The two joke that the shop, and the mysterious de Bassompierre’s knowledge, might be explained by time travel, not realizing they have stumbled on the truth. When they visit the mysterious shop, they find it staffed by a childhood friend of Harrison’s—the beautiful Valerie, who, in another in a series of improbable coincidences, turns out to be the ward of the wife of their old teacher, Professor Carroll. They discover that their teacher has discovered a way to create a tunnel through time by inducing an electrical current in a cast metal relic. He has bought a house on the site of an old foundry, and using an old cannon barrel in the basement, created a connection with the year it was cast: 1804. The contents of the mysterious shop are items purchased by Professor Carroll’s brother-in-law, M. Dubois, in the Paris of 1804. Harrison finds himself falling in love again with Valerie, an affection complicated by the fact that Carroll’s wife is a most unpleasant woman. When Carroll hears about the mysterious de Bassompierre, he fears that someone else has also developed a time-tunnel—someone who could possibly harm the world by meddling with time itself (as evidenced by the sharing of advanced knowledge). With the planet seemingly teetering on the brink of a world-destroying atomic war, the effect of changes to the established timeline of history could be catastrophic. Thus, they have period-appropriate costumes made up, and head into the past. Leinster has done his homework, and does an excellent job of evoking the world of Napoleonic France. The men have all sorts of adventures in the past, both helping M. Dubois in gathering products for sale in their shop, and in tracking down the mysterious de Bassompierre. Along the way, there are entertaining encounters with bandits and famous historical figures. At the same time, the political situation in the present is becoming dire. Communist China has developed nuclear weapons, and is threatening to invade Formosa (the former Western name for what we now call Taiwan). Harrison considers fleeing into the past with Valerie to escape what looks like an inevitable war, and the friends begin to debate whether, like de Bassompierre, they should use their future knowledge to deliberately change the future. There follow some twists and turns, some of which are a bit too obvious to the reader, but the story eventually comes to a satisfying and rather witty ending, which echoes the suggestion in the first paragraph that perhaps the cosmos is predisposed to be kind to humanity. The book is not Leinster’s best work, and tends to meander at times, but it is entertaining, and moves right along, so it was a pleasant read. Time Tunnel Adventure #2: Timeslip! It becomes immediately apparent when reading this book that Leinster had his own ideas about how the TV show’s Time Tunnel should work. Modern fans, who become enraged by the slightest deviation from established canon, would likely be appalled by liberties like this. In his telling, the time tunnel is an unauthorized effort, built in secret without oversight from the government. Contact with the travelers is maintained through radio-equipped harnesses, and views of the worlds they visit are provided by drones disguised as buzzards (which is an improvement over the unexplained way the TV show linked with travelers and were suddenly able to magically observe their environment through a variety of viewpoints). And this story apparently takes place after the TV show is over. Tony and Doug have returned from their uncontrolled trip through time, General Kirk is now retired, Doug and Ann are now explicitly a couple, and control of the time tunnel is being turned over to the military. Before that turnover, however, a new member of the time tunnel team, Sam Creighton, wants to see scenes from the Mexican-American War, where one of his ancestors died as a hero. A skeptical general arrives to oversee one more test of the time tunnel, the clandestine transport of a nuclear weapon to McMurdo Station in Antarctica. The military is not as interested in time travel as it is in transporting items through space. If this works, it would allow the US to dominate the world by seeding weapons in the cities of their adversaries (the story, like many from this era, is dripping with Cold War paranoia, and this sounds like a horrible idea to me). But the general meddles with the tunnel, disrupts the test, the weapon ends up in a pond in Mexico City during the Mexican-American War. The team then finds that in the present, the still undiscovered bomb is about to be uncovered by a construction project, which might detonate the warhead, and its time harness has been compromised. Tony goes back into the past with Sam to put a new time harness on the weapon so that it can be retrieved. They encounter Sam’s ancestor, who is killed before he can perform the heroic acts recorded in history, and throughout the rest of the story, Sam is obsessed with performing those acts himself. Tony is also caught up in the battles. Timeslip! is an entertaining tale, although the feel of the story is very pulpy, and I will not spoil the ending, here—if you are a fan of the TV show, and won’t be offended by the changes to the established canon of the TV adventures, the book is worth seeking out. Final Thoughts While I was frustrated by not being able to track down the first TV show tie-in book, the two books I could find were entertaining, and it is always fun to discover further adventures in a series you thought was over. Plus, even the lesser works of Murray Leinster are still enjoyable to read. I was also delighted with the reference book I discovered during my research, The Time Tunnel: A History of the Television Program, by Martin Grams, Jr., which is worth reading by any fan of the TV show. The floor is now yours: I would enjoy any thoughts you all might share on the Time Tunnel books or the show itself, or if you are so moved, your thoughts on similar time travel stories.[end-mark] The post Episodic Adventures Through Time and Space: Time Tunnel and Timeslip! by Murray Leinster appeared first on Reactor.