“The Kidnappers” is episode twenty-eight of season one of The Time Tunnel.
At the end of the previous episode, “Merlin the Magician”, Tik-Toc detected interference. Then a figure in silver appeared, there for Ann. Those who interfered were disabled and the being took Ann.
Tik-Toc want to get Ann back. General Kirk thinks the invader looked like a time traveller from the future. Ray has found something that looks like one of their data cards only made of metal. He tries it in the computer and it spits out what look like coordinates, but there’s something odd about them. Kirk says to switch Doug and Tony to them, and this is done, despite the possible risks.
Doug and Tony arrive somewhere that Doug thinks must be the distant future. A man in Roman attire appears, but does not respond to them. Tony says the only thing they know is he’s Roman. A voice says not any Roman, but Cicero, recounting Cicero’s deeds. Another figure appears, this one Erasmus, and the voice recounts his deeds. Doug checks Erasmus’s pulse and says he’s dead, but not dead. The voice congratulates him.
General Kirk asks where on Earth Doug and Tony are. Not on Earth, according to Ray. Another planet. Kirk wonders if he’s done the right thing. Ray says they can retrieve Ann, Doug and Ray – if Doug and Ray can find her.
Doug and Tony are addressed by name and told to follow a light. This brings them to an office where a man (Michael Ansara), the source of the voice, greets them. The office has no roof; Doug and Tony are told they have a perfect climate here. Here being a place they will never return from. The time is 1910. 8433 AD in Earth years.
Tik-Toc also have the date, and they have a location. A planet around the star Canopus. Which is not the 98 light-years from Earth that is stated, but at the time this episode was filmed, the distance was thought to be somewhere from 96 to 1,200 light-years.
Tony’s life is currently being recounted when the man, the Curator, gets summoned away. Doug and Tony try to escape and disable several guards and get back to where they arrived. The Tunnel may be able to move them but Doug doubts it. Then the Curator tells them to drop their weapons. Unless they want harm to come to her. ‘Her’ being Ann, who is brought out. She looks dazed and says they did something to her.
Tik-Toc is watching and have a fix. They are going to attempt a transfer and Kirk contacts Doug, Tony and Anne to tell them. Before this can be done, the intruder from earlier appears again. He seems to be bulletproof and kills a guard before taking a component from the Tunnel.
Doug and Tony are demanding to see Ann, who is brought in on a gurney. The Curator says that she hasn’t been treated like the others, only had a primary interrogation. He tells them suspension is nothing to be afraid of. They should come with him to the teleport chamber, where he shows them their own time machine. Ann’s kidnapper appears with the component he took. The Curator says this is the Official Time Traveller attached to his project. They call him ‘Ott.’ The others recognise the component and says the Time Tunnel is useless without it. That’s why the Curator had it stolen; he didn’t want the Tunnel to rescue them before he was finished. He needs them alive for his project.
The Time Tunnel does have a replacement part but fitting it will take a long time. Too long. The aliens have their own time machine, but they also aren’t going to let Doug, Tony and Ann leave whatever the mysterious project is.