I found a torrent of the film, downloaded it on Friday, and just finished watching it (a nice, crystal clear, widescreen print). I was impressed - and probably would have been even more so if I hadn't read in this topic that Thinnes found himself on a mirror image Earth rather than discovering that as the film teased it before making it clear (even via backwards writing/reading). I was even impressed with the special effects, which seemed more sophisticated than I seem to remember them being back in the '60s. But then, being a theatrical film as opposed to a TV show, I suppose they had a bigger budget. Even the clothes and technology weren't as ridiculous as some '60s' visions of the future were (though computer punch cards and paper tape
). And it was also very interesting to see the usual suspects that seemed to populate all the Pinewood Studios movies of the time (Herbert Lom, always so hysterically funny in the Pink Panther movies, had some decidedly creepy moments with his, uh, camera). But I could very easily see why some kids would have been bored silly with the film because it was heavily character as opposed to action oriented - a strong plus for most adults, not so much so for most kids - especially kids overly hyped on sugar.
Somehow, though, I doubt the film inspired much of DS' own idea for Parallel Time because, except for everything (including people's internal organs) being backwards, the people living on the mirror image Earth all lead the exact same sort of lives as their counterparts did on our Earth. And as DS oft mentioned in its opening voiceovers, the people of 1970PT and 1841PT looked the same but lead different lives. And obviously nothing in either of DS' PT stories was backwards.