Search - John Williams :: Time Tunnel O.S.T.

A SUPERSTAR IN THE MAKING!

Reginald D. Garrard | Camilla, GA USA | 12/28/2003

(3 out of 5 stars)

"John Williams was a relative newcomer to film and television scoring when he was signed by Irwin Allen to score "Lost in Space". At that time, he had composed about a dozen scores for some rather obscure titles (such "notable" cinematic endeavors as "Stark Fear" and "Gidget Goes to Rome," for example).



The music for "Lost in Space" proved to be such an integral part of that series first year, it was obvious that the composer's services would be called on again for Allen's third television foray into science fiction. (It must be noted that Allen's first sci-fi series was "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea" and Williams was not a musical contributor to that show.)



"The Time Tunnel" pilot ("Rendezvous with Yesterday") offered the composer an intriguing challenge. He had to develop music that would accompany an episode that introduced a top-secret time travel device as well as had the lead characters find themselves trapped on the ill-fated ocean liner, Titanic.



The show's theme song is possibly one of the most attention-grabbing thirty-nine seconds in television history. Relying heavy on French horns, percussion, flute, trumpets, and harp, the theme song "counts" down with each section being prominently featured.



The approximate thirty-minute "suite" to the pilot installment does have elements similar to the earlier score to "Lost in Space" and reveals components that the composer would more effectively use in his score to Allen's "Land of the Giants" two years later. Fans of the composer will surely recognize these and should marvel in their "discovery".



One highlight is "The Titanic Trot", a period piece that allows the listener to envision the ship's passengers enjoy a ballroom twirl as the ship heads for a "rendezvous" with a rather large ice cube.



While not as dynamic or memorable as his future work, "The Time Tunnel" does offer a glimpse of what Williams was to become: an Academy Award winner and musical icon in the film industry.



The disc also has George Duning's music for "The Death Merchant". His composition here is rather lackluster and Duning would compose better scores for "Star Trek"."

More great John Williams music from the Irwin Allen archives

Thomas Veil | Cleveland, Ohio | 05/02/2010

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Though the liner notes suggest that the bulk of this "Time Tunnel" music is from the premiere episode "Rendezvous with Yesterday", it would be more correct to say that the music is from the unaired pilot. 90% of the time, that means it's identical to "Rendezvous", but towards the end you also get snatches of music that accompany Tony when he's accidentally returned to the desert surface of the Time Tunnel complex in 1958, as well as some of the action music when Tony and Doug run from a dinosaur (in a scene that was never used in the series proper).



It's all good stuff, and much of it was re-used throughout the series. Some of John Williams' best "Time Tunnel" work is here, and the music moves wonderfully from the majestic fanfares that introduce the tunnel, to the anticipatory tenseness of Tony's momentary second thoughts before entering the tunnel, to the bombastic urgency of the scenes where his colleagues futilely attempt to stop him.



I was surprised to find that I liked the "Titanic Trot" more than I thought I would. Williams' range is so wide that he even wrote great period music. And in the climactic moment "The Iceberg Cometh", you can DEFINITELY hear music that is very reminiscent of what Williams would write decades later for the Indiana Jones movies.



The George Duning pieces are not bad, but frankly I would rather have had some other tunes from the show -- foe example, the one which accompanies the opening credits of "End of the World". Sadly, with these CDs going out of print, there's almost no chance of a follow-up CD."