Review of "Through The Time Barrier," Season three episode one of The Adventures of Superman Television Show

 Review of

Through The Time Barrier: Season three episode one of The Adventures of Superman Television Show

Four out of five stars

Noel Neill challenges Raquel Welch as hot in cave attire

 It seems to be a fundamental principle of fiction that when you are struggling to come up with plots, you somehow incorporate the concept of time travel. That is what is used here, a bumbling professor arrives at the Daily Planet office of Perry White with a time machine. In this case, it is in a small box rather than the massive props used in other contexts.

 At the time he arrives a notorious gangster is in Perry’s office about to sign a confession and turn himself in. The gangster trusts Clark Kent to be fair with him in his dealings with the law. When the group of Clark, Perry, Jimmy Olsen, Lois Lane and the gangster get in the elevator, the professor is there and activates his machine, sending them all back to 50,000 BC. In a puff of smoke and a bang, the entire group is sent back in time.

 There is misfortune on two counts, the first is that the professor does not know how to send them forward in time. The second is that the gangster has a gun and takes power over the group, forcing them into a cave and dressing in animal skins. Clark is exempted because the locals could not find an outfit his size. Of course, a way is found to reverse the process and every member of the group is returned to the proper time.

 The story is about as simplistic as the fifties episodes of Superman ever got. Jimmy shows a little more backbone than his usual “Golly” uttering self and Lois stands up a bit as well. The professor is a babbler and a bumbler, the type that can only appear in fiction. As a former professor, I have never met one this inept, they all have their research memorized.

 What makes this episode different from some of the others is the animal skin outfit that Noel Neill wears. I was astonished that it managed to get past the censors of the 1950’s. In a scene where all succumb to cave gas, the viewer is treated to an (upskirt?) image when Lois is laying head directed away from the camera. Much has been said about the outfit Raquel Welch wore in  “One Million Years B. C.,” but that movie was made almost ten years later. Neill is just as hot, although she doesn’t perform the same moves.