|
Dr Clint Ernshaw (Sam Groom) desperately tries to find a cure for a
mysterious virus that has already killed a few people ... and to make it
extra tearjerky, a young girl is next in line. Thing is, there was a
doctor once, Dr Henderson (Richard Basehart), but he has died over a
hundred years ago in the big Chicago fire of 1871, and all of his
documents that could at least hint to the cure have perished with him - so
fat chance to just follow his lead, unless of course ... Enter Jeff
Adams (Tom Hallick), who lures Earnshaw to Washington, DC, to help him and
his team to find a cure ... by traveling back to 1871 and talk to Dr
Henderson himself. Earnshaw is as skeptical as can be ... until he
actually lands in 1871. There, he and Adams have no problems tracking
Henderson down, but he claims he has no idea what the cure might be and
why patients in his hospital can actually be cured, but not in any other
hospital. Another problem: The great Chicago fire that will also burn down
Henderson's hospital, will start in no longer than 29 hours. So Earnshaw
goes through the case histories of all of Henderson's, takes blood samples
and whatnot, and has time to fall in love with Henderson's niece (Trish
Stewart), while Adams is more the guy who does the dirty work, like
tracking down people to get blood samples from (for which he almost gets
arrested on a murder charge) or steal documents from Henderson's archives. In
the end, Earnshaw contracts the virus himself but is miraculously cured by
... Henerson's self-produced wine which seems to include a very rare
fungus - but by that time, the fire has already broken out and is just
blocks away from the hospital ... Ultimately, Earnshaw thinks of staying
behind to spend the rest of his life with Henderson's niece, but then she
and her uncle are allowed to die heroes' deaths and Earnshaw and Adams
return to their own time with the cure - and Earnshaw is hired to join
Adams' time traveling organisation. As far as time travel goes,
this TV-pilot (for a series that never was) has to offer very little on an
intellectual level, as it simply uses the concept to tell a vaguely
interesting medical thriller. Direction-wise this blends in perfectly
with every other 1970's TV show, so in a word rather impersonal, to not
say uninteresting. On top of that, quite a bit of the disaster footage is
tinted footage from the 1937 black-and-white movie In Old Chicago,
and it doesn't blend too perfectly with the rest of the film. And
unfortunately, none of the key cast come across as particularly
interesting, either. Now I know I make this sound like pretty much a
carcrash, which in all honesty it isn't, it's just your typical mediocre
piece of TV entertainment that to nobody's real surprise did not result in
a series (though other pilots of the same or lower quality did). A bit
boring, really. By the way, the computers at time travel
central are the same as in Irwin Allen's time travel-series Time
Tunnel from 1966/67.
|
amazon.com
amazon.co.uk
amazon.de
eThaiCD.com
find Time Travelers at adultvideouniverse.com
