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"Billy the Kid"

Billythekid

TTT episode
1.22/22nd of 30 aired
First aired
Written by
Irwin Allen, William Welch
Directed by
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The Time Tunnel - Billy the Kid

Robert Walker as Billy the Kid

Summary[]

Tony Newman and Doug Phillips arrive in 1881 in the town of Lincoln, New Mexico. They immediately run for cover as a gang of men ride through the streets on horses while firing their guns, which Newman and Phillips end up ducking into the local sheriff’s office for cover. The lone peace officer there tells them not to worry, it was just a local gang making noise. However, seconds later they barge in so a mysterious figure in a cell can be released, who turns out to be famous outlaw Billy the Kid, who then kills the sheriff in cold blood.

Newman had tried to wrestle the gun away from Billy, who tells Newman that he’ll be let go if he can make a break for the outside horses. Phillips grabs a gun and shoots Billy the Kid at point blank range, then he and Newman flee while Billy’s posse is distracted.

Watching these events on the Tunnel view-screen, the personnel at Project Tic-Toc are stunned that history has been changed with Billy the Kid being killed. Due to time travel and viewing history unfolding in front of them, site operations take so much power they always lose contact with Newman and Phillips for several hours, no matter what time period they are in, so they use the time to try to look up concrete information on when and how Billy the Kid died, but most of his life is enshrouded in unconfirmed legend.

Meanwhile, Newman and Phillips hold up in a shack that does not appear to be inhabited while they contemplate fleeing the town. Back at the jail, it turns out that Billy’s belt buckle saved him from the bullet. Billy decides to hunt down Newman and Phillips. When he locates them, Newman is outside, so Billy confronts and threatens to kill Phillips.

Doug Phillips - Gunfighter

Doug (Robert Colbert) becomes a reluctant gunfighter.

Back at Project Tic-Toc, Heywood Kirk makes a voice communication with the past, which distracts Billy long enough for Newman and Phillips to overpower him. Newman then says he is going to ride back into town to let the sheriff’s office know that they have Billy. Unfortunately with hardly anyone ever seeing Billy’s face, the local townspeople recognize Billy’s hat (which Newman is wearing) and gun (which Newman is also carrying), so Tony is mistakenly arrested as the outlaw.

Although the sheriff, Pat Garrett, does confirm that Newman is not Billy, an angry mob forms outside the jail and demands that Newman is hung. Garrett sends a deputy out so he can drive a stampede through town, which then he and Newman escape to the holdout where Billy was held. Unfortunately Billy’s posse had tracked him down and freed him as Phillips hid in a water well, but Billy later gets captured.

The Time Tunnel - Billy the Kid (2)

Billy the Kid is gunning for the time travelers.

Background information/trivia[]

  • It was revealed for the first time during the series that it was a regular pattern with Project Tic-Toc to lose contact with Newman and Phillips for a few hours after every time they were shifted to a new time period.
  • For only the second time during the series, a voice communication was made for a few seconds from Project Tic-Toc to try to save Phillips when Billy the Kid threatened to kill him. Unfortunately this resulted in Project Tic-Toc having no visual contact with Newman and Phillips for most of the episode since they had no power to re-engage their visual link.
  • This was only the second time during the series that tampering with history is discussed, as it looked like for a while to the Project Tic-Toc personnel that Billy the Kid had been killed.
Billy the Kid script

Script.

Cast[]


Links[]

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