“Night of the Long Knives” is episode fourteen of season one of The Time Tunnel.
At the end of the previous episode, “The Alamo”, Tony and Doug had arrived in a scrubby, hot land. Doug suggested digging pits in the ground to ward off the day’s heat but it was too hard. Before they could find anything to dig with, riders with guns had arrived. Tony was shot at and Doug was knocked down. Doug was taken and Tony was turned over to reveal a wound on his scalp.
At Tik-Toc, Anne thinks Tony is dead but General Kirk says he can’t be; they couldn’t have a fix on him if he was. The date is the middle of May, 1886. Then the fix is lost and a man is talking about losing India to a revolt on the northern borders. The man is Prime Minister Gladstone and he says it isn’t a handful of tribesmen that can be crushed. All the troops in India couldn’t stop them if they unite. They haven’t got time to get more troops into the field so they need to play for time to strengthen their forces and stopping the tribes from uniting. The biggest problem is a ruthless tribal leader called Hara Singh. Contain him and the uprising will be prevented. It’s all down to a single fort at the gates of the Khyber Pass.
A man on a horse sees a bird circling and gets out some binoculars. He finds Tony, injured not dead. It’s just a scalp wound. The man came from the nearby fort, Fort Albert. It’s more of an outpost. They’re on the borders of India, and the Afghanistan mountains are in the distance. Tony wants to know the year. The man says he needs to go to the fort and asks Tony his name. In return he gives his own. Kipling. He’s a journalist. Rudyard Kipling.
Doug is being held in a tent when a blind old man brings in water. Doug thinks he’s in India but the blind man, Kashi, says he was captured in India; he’s now in Afghanistan. A prisoner of Hara Singh, the most powerful chieftain on the border. Is that good? Not for Doug. Singh himself enters and starts beating on Kashi. Doug tries to intervene but is knocked down. Hara Singh does stop him from being shot; he has other plans for the Englishman.
Tik-Toc is still struggling for a spatial fix and are wondering why it shifted to London. Which is described as being over a thousand miles from Doug and Tony. ‘Over’ is right; well, well over a thousand miles. Ray has a possible explanation for the problems; both Doug and Tony are dead.
Tony is with Kipling who thinks it sounds as if Hara Singh attacked them. They’ll need help to save Doug, and the fort has a troop of cavalry. The colonel commanding it isn’t the brightest, but Kipling thinks he’s a good soldier.
Tik-Toc still can’t find the problem. Or, rather, they aren’t finding the problem at their end. Everything seems to be working fine. Anne is sure there must be an answer other than them being dead.
Hara Singh is trying to get Doug to tell him about the fort and to stop lying. Doug has told the truth and, although being American, not English, might be believable if Singh had an open mind, travelling through time is not. Singh plans to kill Doug slowly and painfully then tie his body to a horse and send it to the fort. This will draw the soldiers out into an ambush. The fort isn’t strong and the night Singh has dreamed of, the Night of the Long Knives, is at hand. All the tribes will sweep south into India. Singh is interrupted as a supply train to the fort has been spotted. He plans to ambush it. Now, Doug can be a hostage.
Tony and Kipling have arrived at Fort Albert. Col. Fettretch isn’t going to send forces out. He doesn’t want to see anyone murdered, but he has only a small force intended to hold the fort, not rush of wildly after careless travellers. Kipling warns the colonel that the border could be aflame with insurrection. He refuses to risk the entire garrison for a single man, nor do a rash act that may incite the very insurrection. Major Kabir enters after Tony and Kipling leave. The colonel hadn’t been telling the entire truth, not to civilians. They have a sortie planned anyway.
Tik-Toc are still trying to work out what is wrong. Tony and Kipling want to try and free Doug. Fortunately, Hara Singh keeps not killing him. This is an episode that would likely not go down as well if shot today.