Quickie Review: Timeless

[Kevin M.]

Voyagers meets 7 Days meets Quantum Leap meets Peabody's Improbable History

Has anyone else noticed Max Headroom getting a lot of guest starring roles the last few years?

--
Kevin M. (RPCV)

[Bob Jersey]

Kevin M:

Voyagers meets 7 Days meets Quantum Leap meets Peabody's Improbable History

Worse than we made it out to be here...

Has anyone else noticed Max Headroom getting a lot of guest starring roles the last few years?

Good for him... better that than being lied about as dead...

B

[Kevin M.]

On Sunday, October 9, 2016, Bob Jersey <bob.in...@juno.com> wrote:

Kevin M:

Voyagers meets 7 Days meets Quantum Leap meets Peabody's Improbable History

Worse than we made it out to be here...

The only potential upside to the series is that I enjoy books about alternative histories (and the modern day repercussions), and there is potential for that in this series based on the pilot. But I will wait until the series has completed at least a season before seeing if that is emphasized or if it is the (to me) less interesting and more formulaic put-right-what-once-went-wrong premise. 

 

Has anyone else noticed Max Headroom getting a lot of guest starring roles the last few years?

Good for him... better that than being lied about as dead...

B

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Kevin M. (RPCV)

[PGage]

I so much wanted to love this show, like Kevin I am an alt history fan. But the first episode did not strike me as being very smart or interested in exploring the genre. Instead I get a bad feeling this is just going to be something like "The Blacklist" or "Blindspot" transposed into the alt history form. I hope I am wrong.

[PGage]

I watched the second episode, and while it still suffers from the problems I mentioned, I thought it was better than the pilot. 

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[Kevin M.]

On Thu, Oct 13, 2016 at 9:03 AM, PGage <pga...@gmail.com> wrote:

I watched the second episode, and while it still suffers from the problems I mentioned, I thought it was better than the pilot. 

I agree the 2nd episode was better than the 1st. My question is if the characters keep tweaking the timeline, the character of the historian is going to quickly become useless as they diverge farther away from the original unaltered history.

Also, there is a general sense of the original concept of Doctor Who in the series, back when the character's background wasn't fully defined and he was a time-traveling historian.

Shall we start a betting pool as to when they refer to the time travel device as the TARDIS?

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[Jon Delfin]

On Tue, Oct 18, 2016 at 4:27 PM, Kevin M. <drunkba...@gmail.com> wrote:

On Thu, Oct 13, 2016 at 9:03 AM, PGage <pga...@gmail.com> wrote:

I watched the second episode, and while it still suffers from the problems I mentioned, I thought it was better than the pilot. 

I agree the 2nd episode was better than the 1st. My question is if the characters keep tweaking the timeline, the character of the historian is going to quickly become useless as they diverge farther away from the original unaltered history. 

I have that same concern about "Frequency," which I liked much more than I thought I would, especially since I've previously never seen Peyton List do anything of interest. 

[Kevin M.]

After catching up with the episodes, here's my overall assessment:

Instead of the series being about alternate histories or about how time travel impacts the present (or the future), time travel itself barely matters. The episodes remind me of episodes within the Stargate franchise where the team encounters time travel or alternate realities... you know by episode's end that the characters will be back to home-base. The key difference being I cared about the characters of the Stargate franchise, and thus the stories were compelling.

As for their own self-imposed rules of not being able to travel to any point where "you" already exist, they traveled to the Nixon era in the most recent episode. Now the good guys might not be in the 40s, but Matt Frewer (though not featured in that episode) is on the bad guy's time machine... surely he lived through the 1970s. Shouldn't the whole universe be folding in on itself by now?

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Kevin M. (RPCV)

[stannc]

I recently watched the "Time Tunnel" reboot pilot on YouTube, and "Timeless" seems like an almost direct ripoff.

The main complaint that I have is that with sub 40 minute run times, there's really not enough time for all of the plot points to be serviced. There's the missing sister arc, the Rittenhouse present day story, and then that week's time travel story and escape from peril.

There's also been very little mention of how they travel to different locations in addition to time and how no one in the past notices a large eyeball hiding in the bushes.

-Stan

[PGage]

It took me an episode or two to realize that this show ("Timeless") is not an adaptation of the Michael Crichton novel ("Timeline"). Timeline is lesser Crichton, and also a lesser example of good alt-history fiction, but still it is an attempt at a form of serious science fiction (there is a debate about the relationship of alt history to sci-fi but will skip that here). "Timeless" is not an attempt at seriously sci-fi, and any attempt to watch it that way will be frustrating when not infuriating. One small illustration is yet another problem with the 1754 episode: the characters worry that only one of them speaks French, but have no worry that their English is so different from what the English-speakers in either the Old World or the New speak that they wou;d immediately be pegged as alien. This is the kind of detail that in any halfway serious attempt to work in the genre not only would be addressed, but would be celebrated, because identifying and solving these kinds of technical problems is more than half the fun.

Timeless clearly is Quantum Leap, and nothing more. In that sense, we should be grateful they did not call it a remake of QL, but then add a woman and a black guy, like they have done to other recent so-called remakes. The scientific, historical and cultural problems involved in any hypothetical time travel are of no interest, and appear and disappear purely as melodramatic devices. The show can not really be intellectually satisfying, only entertaining to the extent we find the characters interesting or appealing. I have little interest in the two male leads, but I am kind of in on one of Don Draper's old girl friends, and I was always a sucker for QL, so I keep watching, and am enjoying it more as I have lowered my expectations.

I was a big Time Tunnel fan as a kid, and about a decade ago or so rewatched the entire series, which does not hold up so well. But thee are 4 or 5 shows in TV history that have a similar structure, and Timeless is squarely n that group. I just think QL was the best of those.

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[stannc]

It was only the pilot and the WWII episodes that have used the "Biff is waxing the BMW" trope so far. Even the WWII episode shrugged off the change to history with a "we got a new James Bond movie". Shouldn't they have to worry that the wrong soldiers were killed in Germany, The Alamo, or Pittsburgh? The butterfly effect is a device in the overarching story (a little girl wasn't supposed to survive the Hindenburg explosion) but it's conveniently forgotten when there's no time for it.

They made a "flux capacitor" reference this week, so a TARDIS reference can't be far behind.

-Stan ,

[PGage]

So, what I dislike about this show is illustrated by a promo for the most recent episode (I just saw it on another NBC show I am watching on my DVR) that screams something like "What if the Moon Landing never happened"? Find out, on this week's "Timeless". Except, while that episode was set on the day of the Apollo 11 Lunar Landing, beyond a few seconds of "why would they want to stop the moon landing?", the episode did not explore even a little bit what would happen if we had not landed on the moon. They are so focused on their conspiracy story that they hardly spend any attention on any historic consequence of time travel. If they can't find a serious way of doing this, I think they at least need a computer program in their time machine that they can consult and ask questions like: "What would happen if the US never landed on the Moon?", and get answers like: "79% probability that the USSR wins the Cold War and the West Coast of the United States is occupied by Russians by 1985.

What I like about the show: Nice focus on the contribution of women like Katherine Johnson - still an undertold story. It was a bit sappy and sentimental, but enough truth that I found the encounter through the eyes of the African-American time-traveling nerd to be genuinely touching.

[Brad Beam]

From: tvor...@googlegroups.com [mailto:tvor...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of PGage

>What I like about the show: Nice focus on the contribution of women like Katherine Johnson - still an undertold story. It was a bit sappy and sentimental, but enough truth that I found the encounter through the eyes of the African-American time-traveling nerd to be genuinely touching.

 

Fwiw, Katherine Johnson is a state native – born in White Sulphur Springs, graduated from WV State College (now University), and desegregated the WVU Graduate School in 1938.

 

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[stannc]

So was the NASA episode of "Timeless" just a cheap commercial for an upcoming movie?

-Stan

[Kevin M.]

Maybe NBCUni sees the series as their version of ABC-Disney's Once Upon A Time, existing merely to cross-promote?

I almost hope so, as I think the world needs a better Bonnie & Clyde movie than the ones already in existence. 

On Wed, Dec 7, 2016 at 8:36 PM stannc <sta...@gmail.com> wrote:

So was the NASA episode of "Timeless" just a cheap commercial for an upcoming movie?



-Stan

[Mark Jeffries]

The show's produced by Sony, not Universal Television.

Mark Jeffries
Saints Spotlight Editor
spotl...@gmail.com

On Wed, Dec 7, 2016 at 10:55 PM, Kevin M. <drunkba...@gmail.com> wrote:

Maybe NBCUni sees the series as their version of ABC-Disney's Once Upon A Time, existing merely to cross-promote?

I almost hope so, as I think the world needs a better Bonnie & Clyde movie than the ones already in existence. 

On Wed, Dec 7, 2016 at 8:36 PM stannc <sta...@gmail.com> wrote:

So was the NASA episode of "Timeless" just a cheap commercial for an upcoming movie?



-Stan



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[PGage]

I have been trying to decode this question. I know there is a film in the works about Katherine Johnson, but as far as I know it is a theatrical release, not something for NBC. Or is there some connection between the production company for Timeless and the upcoming film? Or a separate NBC project about Johnson?

My assumption is that Johnson's story got a big boost from Obama a few years ago, and any media projects coming out now are simply the result of getting started or greenlit around the same time.

Now, I would be excited if the Timeless episode on Johnson was part of a back door pilot for a series about Johnson and Apollo. 

On Wed, Dec 7, 2016 at 8:36 PM stannc <sta...@gmail.com> wrote:

So was the NASA episode of "Timeless" just a cheap commercial for an upcoming movie?



-Stan

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[David Bruggeman]

Hidden Figures (based on a just-released book of the same name) debuts at Christmas (opening wide January 6).  It focuses on Johnson and two of her colleagues.  The movie builds up to John Glenn and the launch of Friendship 7.  20th Century Fox is distributing.

David

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From: PGage <pga...@gmail.com>
To: tvor...@googlegroups.com
Sent: Saturday, December 10, 2016 12:35 PM
Subject: Re: [TV orNotTV] Quickie Review: Timeless

[PGage]

Yes, that is the film I had in mind. How does that relate to Timeless though? Does 20thC produce Timeless?

[PGage]

Oh, now I see Mark's post; the tv show is Sony. So how is the episode about Johnson a commercial for the film?

[Jon Delfin]

On Sat, Dec 10, 2016 at 11:16 PM, PGage <pga...@gmail.com> wrote:

Oh, now I see Mark's post; the tv show is Sony. So how is the episode about Johnson a commercial for the film?

It's not. The comment wasn't based on anything but unfounded speculation. Shall we move on now?

 

On Sat, Dec 10, 2016 at 8:13 PM PGage <pga...@gmail.com> wrote:

Yes, that is the film I had in mind. How does that relate to Timeless though? Does 20thC produce Timeless?

On Sat, Dec 10, 2016 at 7:26 PM 'David Bruggeman' via TVorNotTV <tvor...@googlegroups.com> wrote:

Hidden Figures (based on a just-released book of the same name) debuts at Christmas (opening wide January 6).  It focuses on Johnson and two of her colleagues.  The movie builds up to John Glenn and the launch of Friendship 7.  20th Century Fox is distributing.

David

---

From: PGage <pga...@gmail.com>
To: tvor...@googlegroups.com
Sent: Saturday, December 10, 2016 12:35 PM
Subject: Re: [TV orNotTV] Quickie Review: Timeless

I have been trying to decode this question. I know there is a film in the works about Katherine Johnson, but as far as I know it is a theatrical release, not something for NBC. Or is there some connection between the production company for Timeless and the upcoming film? Or a separate NBC project about Johnson?

My assumption is that Johnson's story got a big boost from Obama a few years ago, and any media projects coming out now are simply the result of getting started or greenlit around the same time.

Now, I would be excited if the Timeless episode on Johnson was part of a back door pilot for a series about Johnson and Apollo. 

On Wed, Dec 7, 2016 at 8:36 PM stannc <sta...@gmail.com> wrote:

So was the NASA episode of "Timeless" just a cheap commercial for an upcoming movie?



-Stan



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[stannc]

Unfounded speculation and a damn interesting coincidence.

Did Timeless get a spring order yet?

-Stan

[Mark Jeffries]

Three episodes.  Not exactly a vote of confidence.

Mark Jeffries
Saints Spotlight Editor
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