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Karen here – giving you a few notes to read through while you listen to our recap/review of the Pilot of NBC’s “Timeless”. I’ll be linking to a few things so you can read up on the history behind the Time-Travel of the Week.
D’oh the Humanity
Our heroes are devastated when they can’t stop Kate’s inevitable death
As we knew from the previews and our intro podcast, the premiere episode was centered around the Hindenburg Disaster. In our reality, The vessel crashed on it’s second voyage, the first trip inside the US.
Flynn, the villain (for now) of Timeless, allows that trip to go without incident. Instead, he has plans to take down the airship on it’s next run. Passengers booked? John D. Rockefeller, General Omar Bradley, and Igor Sikorsky. The implications of killing just those three men would’ve reverberated through history in a massive way.
Rockefeller pushed the idea of capitalism based on social Darwinism, and financially supported the League of Nations & it’s successor, the United Nations.
General Omar Bradley served in World War II and was instrumental in many of the major battles of that war, including D-Day and the Battle of the Bulge.
Igor Sikorsky was a pioneer in aviation, advancing flight by inventing the first viable helicopter, and improved some fixed-wing aircraft designs as well.
In this podcast, we discuss what the repercussions of their deaths might have on the timeline, and how different the world would be without them. The US would definitely be a different place.
Kiss me Goodbye, Kate
The lovely Kate Drummond
In the course of “fixing” the timeline, they incur a casualty – Kate Drummond. She’s a war correspondent, and she also died the first time around. Her death allows the concept of fate to be discussed, but as we can see from the initial victims who have now become survivors, fate is no longer an inevitability.
Wyatt is particularly hurt by Kate’s death, because she reminds him of his late wife. We guess that this will be one of the underlying arcs in the first season – whether major or minor. My next talking point will be the rules, but he may try to break them at some point to save his wife.
Parts is parts (the rules)
Our heroes get briefed on the “rules”
The main rule our heroes are told in the Pilot is that you can’t travel to a time where you already exist. Others have tried this, and they’ve returned somewhat less intact than they were when they left. The scientists in charge of the project are hoping this dissuades the group from attempting this maneuver, but Wyatt is a bit of a loose cannon in this regard.
He’s an unlikely candidate for breaking rules otherwise, so they may not suspect him of any wrong-doing. Wyatt is regimented and straight-laced otherwise. His weak spot is the angst he feels over the loss of his wife, and they may not be in the know about that.
Bad cop, Bad cop.
Miscreants all. Jailbreak INCOMING!
Rufus Carlin (Yup – Bill & Ted ftw) has already seen issues with his jump in time. 1937 is not a good time for a black man, and he learns that first hand. Immediately relegated to the back of the bus, not allowed in the bar, and called “boy” by the cops – It had to be more than vexing for someone used to virtually no racism.
This storyline was the most controversial amongst viewers. Some people thought Rufus’ rant about the policeman being on the “wrong side of history” was too light and humorous for the issues. Doug & I thought there were enough serious parts in the episode to balance out his monologue, one coming directly after it – but make your own judgement.
We’re quite sure the issue of racism is something that will recur in future episodes, along with sexism – since Lucy will be leading missions as the group historian.
On This Day
October 3rd
- 1906 SOS adopted as warning signal by 1st conference on wireless telegraphy
- 1913 Federal income tax signed into law (at 1%)
- 1941 Chubby Checker [Ernest Evans], American singer-songwriter (The Twist, Limbo Rock), born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- 1945 Elvis Presley’s 1st public appearance at the age of 10
- 1974 Watergate criminal trial begins
- 1990 Reunification of East & West Germany. West German flag raised above Brandenburg Gate on the stroke of midnight
- 1995 OJ Simpson found not guilty of the murder of Nicole Simpson and Ron Goldman in Los Angeles, California
- 2008 OJ Simpson found guilty of charges of kidnapping and armed robbery
Future Tense
The next episode will be based around the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, which we’re very much looking forward to. Here’s the summary and the promo pics to hold you over.
THE ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN (TV-14)
THE TEAM CAN SAVE THE LIFE OF ONE OF HISTORY’S GREATEST MEN. Lucy (Abigail Spencer), Wyatt (Matt Lanter), and Rufus (Malcolm Barrett) chase terrorist Garcia Flynn (Goran Višnjic) to the night of Lincoln’s assassination, where they’re horrified to learn that Flynn’s linked up with history’s most notorious assassin, John Wilkes Booth (guest star Kelly Blatz). Putting aside a tragedy of her own, Lucy speculates that Flynn intends to send the fragile nation into chaos by making a bad thing worse, and a debate rages among the team: should they alter history if it means changing it for the better? Also starring Paterson Joseph, Sakina Jaffrey and Claudia Doumit. Guest starring Neal Bledsoe, Michael Krebs, Terry Lewis and Lucia Frangione.
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[sc:rh]
Great job with the first ep podcast.
I had thought of something, failed to report it, then you jogged my memory.
The journal the professor kept, then allegedly lost and subsequently was reintroduced to by the antagonist – which Advanced Screen-Writing 402 (ASW402) lists as a Red Herring, will be key, as you mentioned. With extensive Star; Gates’, Treks’ and Wars’ savvy lodged between my eardrums – I believe she not only maintained a detailed journal account of the next few (show) seasons ahead of us – she maintained it for the herself that is not herself. Specifically – IF she were to cross paths were herself in evolving timelines AND she were to somehow cease to be as herself, THEN her alternate self would have a ‘hitchhikers guide’ to where THEY had been AND/OR were going. More simplified, she dies and then the alternate she takes over the mission. A great job for actors if you can get it – play your character differently than the first 2 seasons. (Look at Anna Torv as Olivia(s) Dunham on FRINGE) I think this Pilot episode may not be her first excursion around this Mobius Loop in the space-time continuum… maybe her knowledge of era clothing styles and fabrics are first-hand… the professor knows the intimate details of history because she has already lived thru the era one or more times. And maybe the journal was generated by her alternate self so this self could get up-to-speed on what has transpired time-travelwise before this self got sucked into the perpetual loop. Whoopee!
And who doesn’t love Matt Frewer (Max Headroom). YOU KNOW only good things are ahead when they take a sci-fi icon like Frewer, give us a 5 minute tease, then whisk him away and outta sight for the rest of the Pilot ep. Mayhem will follow!
(Bingle Bing/Google – – Mobius Loop)
(A Red Herring is a figurative expression referring to a logical fallacy in which a clue or piece of information is, or is intended to be misleading, or distracting from the actual question)
As Troy from Community says, “you’re bending my brain!” What a brilliant plot twist that’d be, and I’m hoping they have something like that under their hats for later on. Even if it’s a S2 concept, I’d be all over it.
I will add – think about how nobody knew about the changes that happened following the Hindenburg “rewrite”. Now apply that to the professor. Imagine that she was not a member of the previous time exursion, the one immediately before the Hindenburg. She would be part of the unknowing masses following that previous “rewrite”. She could have been part of dozens of exursions before this one and is now back to Square 1, hence the need for a journal.
And what about the ‘spare tire’ of a time machine they keep in reserve. I bet that was the original, but is now a beater spare because of all the mileage in has endured.
Afterthought about breaking the window to toss the bomb. Or just stepping on one of the many exterior porches to toss it. Yeah. Toss it. Plops in the mud. M-80 firecracker effect. THEN WHAT? A 4,000 mile flight to Deutschland. I think they will need frequent ‘hand waves’ to stay in the vicinity of their ‘time machine’ from now on.
Abed from Community quotes:
1) “Just so you know Jeff, you’re not creating six different timelines.”
2) “I can’t accept that based on one time machine story.”