# Netflix Travelers (Time Travel Show)



## Cli-Fi (Dec 21, 2016)

Here's another time travel show! Eric McCormack is awesome, but IDK what this is supposed to be about. The premise looks cool though: 





> Many centuries into the future, the Earth's population has dwindled to almost nothing -- but the survivors have discovered the key to time travel. Desperate to save humanity, a group enters the 21st century on a mission to avert disaster.


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## Dave (Dec 21, 2016)

It sounds like the premise of some really trashy 1950's B movie plot: they must kidnap young healthy and fertile females to take back and re-populate the dying Earth of the future. Did that guy with glasses just get picked up by accident?


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## Cli-Fi (Dec 21, 2016)

Dave said:


> It sounds like the premise of some really trashy 1950's B movie plot: they must kidnap young healthy and fertile females to take back and re-populate the dying Earth of the future. Did that guy with glasses just get picked up by accident?



Well they are remaking Lost in Space too, so maybe it's a thing for them.


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## Dave (Dec 21, 2016)

From the trailer, it looks like there isn't much actual time travelling involved (despite the title.) It looks more like it is set in the present day, trying to avoid some future event (more like Continuum.)

It also says all episodes on 23rd Dec. Netflix like doing that, rather than releasing one per week, which is more traditional on TV.


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## Cli-Fi (Dec 21, 2016)

Dave said:


> From the trailer, it looks like there isn't much actual time travelling involved (despite the title.) It looks more like it is set in the present day, trying to avoid some future event (more like Continuum.)
> 
> It also says all episodes on 23rd Dec. Netflix like doing that, rather than releasing one per week, which is more traditional on TV.



Actually from the trailer it doesn't even look much like time travel how we know it. if I remember it correctly it reminds me more of Quantum Leap. Except this time it's YA!


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## ctg (Dec 23, 2016)

Mrs Grey and I watched first four episodes after we came back from doctors and Christmas shopping. Travellers is quite bit different than most things you've seen in the TT genre. I'm talking about small screen as the show dives boldly into the speculation fiction sea by visualising the theory of soul transfer. Although to some this might sound a high flying hypothesis the theory is backed by recorded history in regards of soul transfer - an old soul in the new body. 

The theory itself doesn't violate any known laws of science, because the travellers cannot bring technology with them. There are no time-travelling devices anything other than what stuff that's in the future, and stuff they can put together with the knowledge they've acquired during their lifetime. The trip is one-way and once you get there, you're on your own.

Except in the Travellers case singular being or event doesn't come into the equation. There are many of them and they all have multiple missions. 

This series isn't for young adults only. It is boldly pushing forward Netflix programming that is aimed to wider audience than a singular group. The only thing that makes Traveller's shaky is the advanced model. You need to be fairly intelligent to understand most of things as the Travellers doesn't hold anyone hand by explaining things. Instead this series will ask you to speculate with the characters just you did with the Stranger Things. 

As a writer, this series is the best Christmas gift I could have asked to see in the small screen. And it came out as a total surprise.


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## Cli-Fi (Dec 24, 2016)

ctg said:


> Mrs Grey and I watched first four episodes after we came back from doctors and Christmas shopping. Travellers is quite bit different than most things you've seen in the TT genre. I'm talking about small screen as the show dives boldly into the speculation fiction sea by visualising the theory of soul transfer. Although to some this might sound a high flying hypothesis the theory is backed by recorded history in regards of soul transfer - an old soul in the new body.
> 
> The theory itself doesn't violate any known laws of science, because the travellers cannot bring technology with them. There are no time-travelling devices anything other than what stuff that's in the future, and stuff they can put together with the knowledge they've acquired during their lifetime. The trip is one-way and once you get there, you're on your own.
> 
> ...



Wow this will probably make some chroners watch it because if what you say is true, the trailer doesn't do it justice. It sounds like an idea I had for one of my WIPs. I am going to check it out tonight.


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## Cli-Fi (Dec 24, 2016)

ctg said:


> Mrs Grey and I watched first four episodes after we came back from doctors and Christmas shopping. Travellers is quite bit different than most things you've seen in the TT genre. I'm talking about small screen as the show dives boldly into the speculation fiction sea by visualising the theory of soul transfer. Although to some this might sound a high flying hypothesis the theory is backed by recorded history in regards of soul transfer - an old soul in the new body.
> 
> The theory itself doesn't violate any known laws of science, because the travellers cannot bring technology with them. There are no time-travelling devices anything other than what stuff that's in the future, and stuff they can put together with the knowledge they've acquired during their lifetime. The trip is one-way and once you get there, you're on your own.
> 
> ...


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## ctg (Dec 24, 2016)

About my ideal and some other people ideal might not match, but having watched ten episodes I can confidentially say this is much, much better than Timeless. The reason for this is that Travellers do everything that Timeless doesn't. Even the science aspect is much, much stronger and more believable than what they have dropped in the NBC series.

But that is the problem and blessing at the same time, because Timeless can draw in audience with dulled down science and drama that goes around the known historic settings, whereas Travellers is totally opposite. Instead of relying on the known, it relies on the unknown and the producers expects the audience to figure it out.

To me that is perfect, but like I said, my ideal isn't everyone ideal. So if you're into for a treat that will expand your horizons, check Travelers (with one L, not two) out ASAP. You will love it, but don't expect it to hold your hand. 

Although everything has an explanation. It might not just be, what you expect it be.


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## Dave (Dec 25, 2016)

@ctg Sometimes I just want some escapism. _Timeless_ and _Hawaii 5-O_ give me that and I watch them even though the stories make little sense and there is no logic. I still think there is a place for them even if you say they are bubblegum. _Travellers _is sounding to me a lot like _Sense 8_, in that bodies are inhabited by other souls or by shared souls. I found that idea was interesting and while it may "expand your horizon," some evenings I just 'need' something lighter than that. Beautiful though _Westworld_ is, I'm finding that hard-going to watch and I think this series might be the same. Too many hard-going series and I'd have to give up on some, no matter how worthy they are.


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## ctg (Dec 25, 2016)

Dave said:


> Sometimes I just want some escapism



I know. I'm very different from normal people, so I thought to give a warning before someone makes an error and starts cursing because they cannot understand what I can.


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## Alexa (Dec 25, 2016)

I watched the first episodes and I didn't like their idea of soul transfer. It's quite creepy. The travelers know exactly who will die and where and wait to take the body to save their future ? *brrr* They are no even selective in the choices. And how come the travelers recognise themselves in a new body ?


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## ctg (Dec 25, 2016)

Alexa said:


> I didn't like their idea of soul transfer. It's quite creepy. The travelers know exactly who will die and where and wait to take the body to save their future ?



True. Creepy, but strangely appealing when you learn more about the hosts previous life and the fact that the Travellers care about their cover. And they're trying to change the future without affecting the present. But are spoilers and I don't want to get notified for spoiling someone else's fun.


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## Alexa (Dec 25, 2016)

We usually know this kind of *transfer* as possession. In Travelers case, no need for exorcism. Hosts are already dead. I don't want to spoil the fun for those interested to see it, so I will refrain to give other details.

Honesty, I don't think this seria will survive for a 2nd season.


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## ctg (Dec 26, 2016)

Alexa said:


> Honesty, I don't think this seria will survive for a 2nd season.



If you look at the reviews, they are saying: "Netflix saved the best for the last." The little secret is that this is a Canadian production. Netflix just handles the distribution everywhere else, and I know for the fact that this sort of dark stuff appeals for a great number of people. So I'm not confident enough to say second season won't happen, when stranger things have happened. Although I shouldn't be resurrection the ghost of past in Christmas day, because there has been so much good SF in the small screen recently. This is one of them.

I'm trying my best to not go nuts because I'm personally biased, and I'm trying to write about this as neutrally as I can. On personal level I got my PTSD triggered by one of the final episodes.


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## Cli-Fi (Dec 27, 2016)

ctg said:


> If you look at the reviews, they are saying: "Netflix saved the best for the last." The little secret is that this is a Canadian production. Netflix just handles the distribution everywhere else, and I know for the fact that this sort of dark stuff appeals for a great number of people. So I'm not confident enough to say second season won't happen, when stranger things have happened. Although I shouldn't be resurrection the ghost of past in Christmas day, because there has been so much good SF in the small screen recently. This is one of them.
> 
> I'm trying my best to not go nuts because I'm personally biased, and I'm trying to write about this as neutrally as I can. On personal level I got my PTSD triggered by one of the final episodes.



Welp, I ended up watching the OA instead of this. I was like. Where is the time travel, but it ended up being pretty similar to what you are talking about here and the OA is actually more confusing now! So you might like the OA for a different take on the subject of soul travel. Is Netflix trying to make that the next staple in science fiction literature? They now have three different shows about soul travel. The networks haven't caught on yet though.


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## ctg (Dec 27, 2016)

Cli-Fi said:


> Welp, I ended up watching the OA instead of this. I was like. Where is the time travel, but it ended up being pretty similar to what you are talking about here and the OA is actually more confusing now!



LOL. I watched first three episode and started on fourth, when I dropped OA. It's weird but write enough of dark stuff that the OA put me off and I found this one much more appealing.


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## Cli-Fi (Dec 27, 2016)

ctg said:


> LOL. I watched first three episode and started on fourth, when I dropped OA. It's weird but write enough of dark stuff that the OA put me off and I found this one much more appealing.



I could definitely understand that. Travelers seems to have more mass appeal, while the OA seems to have more of that indie vibe.


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## ctg (Dec 27, 2016)

Cli-Fi said:


> Travelers seems to have more mass appeal, while the OA seems to have more of that indie vibe.



It's not the indie wipe. It's the fact of that the Main Characters commit early on a level of anarchy that you'll see in they school shooters. While they are extremely intelligent, they can also be extra thoughtless. When you apply more of chaos into you, suddenly you'll be watching a Columbine incident developing.

Tralers acts against the chaos. They push against the Anarchy and apply a reason for everything. In a way they are much more logical with their reasoning than suffering through the nightmares in the OA. 

At least in my opinion.


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## Cli-Fi (Jan 3, 2017)

ctg said:


> It's not the indie wipe. It's the fact of that the Main Characters commit early on a level of anarchy that you'll see in they school shooters. While they are extremely intelligent, they can also be extra thoughtless. When you apply more of chaos into you, suddenly you'll be watching a Columbine incident developing.
> 
> Tralers acts against the chaos. They push against the Anarchy and apply a reason for everything. In a way they are much more logical with their reasoning than suffering through the nightmares in the OA.
> 
> At least in my opinion.



Just saw the first four episodes last night. It did rather well in my opinion. Reminds me a lot of Continuum. The pilot was great, and then it turns into a procedural. Which isn't bad, I love new twists on procedurals and those are the only types of procedurals I watch these days. I don't watch any new True Blue procedurals unless they have Chicago in the name  There are just way too many of them out there.

Anyway from what I can see based on Episode four, there seems to be a power struggle happening in the future and I hope at some points they go to the future and explain it all. So likely, 



Spoiler



The Director isn't really around since the team hasn't heard directly from him since they started and that's why the war is starting between factions. The Director could also be a synonym for God, but I don't think this show goes that deep, does it?



There are some problems of disbelief here that even Timeless doesn't have. 



Spoiler



If we are supposed to be believe that there are 3000+ of these travelers out there with their hosts acting weird and they are supposed to be dead, why not all be junkies or homeless people? That would save a lot of the headaches about implementing themselves into the hosts actual lives. So it's a pretty twisted thing that they are doing on the "we are not supposed to change history front." I mean they are walking around as if they are still alive! The timeline is still affected because that host is still walking around. It's not like they leave their life to go fight the bad guys. Which is what they should do to be honest.



The cool thing I found with the show is trying to decipher what their world looks like based on the stuff in culture that they weren't able to research. Their lack of knowledge on what food tastes like, yet they seem to know how to use a computer 



Spoiler



once they get the password right


 They seem to know how to drive cars, run real fast, use guns and yet they can't 



Spoiler



figure out what's fake on social media, heal a body who is addicted to drugs, but they can heal a mentally challenged body?


 These all could be inconsistencies or part of the show's larger mythology.

I have a feeling that this was made with the intention of having multiple seasons because it's really slow starting. Most Netflix shows have gotten three seasons at least so hopefully it will get that at least. This seems to be Netflix's first attempt at making a normal type of procedural show. Since it's made in Canada, (Aren't all the great sci-fi shows made there) It would do well on any of Canada's Broadcast Networks along with Syfy Channel.


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## sinister42 (Jan 3, 2017)

I just wish Eric McCormick could play anyone other than Will.  He's playing Will as a time-traveling soul stealer in the body of an FBI agent.  But he's still Will.  And why the hell would the team choose a heroin addict as their historian?  That was a dumb choice.


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## Cli-Fi (Jan 3, 2017)

sinister42 said:


> I just wish Eric McCormick could play anyone other than Will.  He's playing Will as a time-traveling soul stealer in the body of an FBI agent.  But he's still Will.  And why the hell would the team choose a heroin addict as their historian?  That was a dumb choice.



Eh, did you ever see his other show Perception? He doesn't have much range. He just plays crazy pretty well. Or a straight guy pretending he's not about to fall apart.


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## ctg (Jan 6, 2017)

Spoiler: Answer to CliFi Spoiler #2






Cli-Fi said:


> If we are supposed to be believe that there are 3000+ of these travelers out there with their hosts acting weird and they are supposed to be dead, why not all be junkies or homeless people?



The talk about this and you see they're not all ... good. The other teams has murdered and done unspeakable things to wangle themselves into a position where they can try to alter future massively. Only we don't know how bad things get until the very end, where we some results of their actions coming directly back to haunt them. 

Being junkie, drunk or otherwise depended on substances is normal to human. So I think they've done again pretty well by putting in those narratives and making the characters more slightly flawed. To be honest, I wonder often why characters has to be all too powerful and perfect, when we aren't like that at all.





Spoiler: Answer to CliFi's Spoiler #3






Cli-Fi said:


> Their lack of knowledge on what food tastes like, yet they seem to know how to use a computer once they get the password right. They seem to know how to drive cars, run real fast, use guns and yet they can't figure out what's fake on social media, heal a body who is addicted to drugs, but they can heal a mentally challenged body?



Well, she's not healed. Not completely. And I have to admit there's so doubt in her character but I let it slightly because of the romance. That drama between the carer and the patient is well written and it often to goes to very extreme to shock the audience. And addict stays addict. There is no cure. You need to be really though to ween opioids out. It's just it's thousand times easier to replace hard stuff on chronic pain patients with CBD and that way bring them down instead of making them methodone whores. 

On people who aren't in the pain category, the challenge is much tougher, because you have to strengthen mind at the same time as build up tolerance. And most of the people don't give up with snap of fingers. They try and they fall. Just like you see in this series. These people need a mentally though Traveller to cure the addiction. A super smart person is hardly one and the history is filled with examples of these geniuses actually accelerating the process and end up six feet under at the end. 

Sad but true. Maybe the way they did it in this series didn't please most of the audience, while I did find most MC's quite intriguing.


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## Cli-Fi (Jan 8, 2017)

ctg said:


> Spoiler: Answer to CliFi Spoiler #2
> 
> 
> 
> ...



IMHO the show would be a dang good drama. 
It honestly doesn't even need the time travel. 

A warning about the atomic explosion could have been enough to bring these few people together and a few changes to the characters to explain how they were able to stop it and it would be a smash hit too!


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## sinister42 (Jan 8, 2017)

OK here's the other thing that's bugging me about this show.  It is filmed in Vancouver BC but takes place in Seattle.

Then DON'T SHOW ME THIS PICTURE:

http://pics.filmaffinity.com/Travelers_Serie_de_TV-848626716-large.jpg

THAT ...thing that isn't the Space Needle and is obviously a building in Vancouver?  DON'T SHOW ME THAT and tell me I'm supposed to believe the show takes place in Seattle.

GARRGH.  This is BASIC STUFF, people.


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## sinister42 (Jan 8, 2017)

But God dammit I can't stop watching this show.


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## sinister42 (Jan 8, 2017)

ALSO.

So the show's premise is that time travelers from the future travel back in time by hijacking the consciousness of people in our time.

HOW THE f*ck can they manufacture future tech?  Like..I don't know...a laser thing that can cause a matter/anti-matter reaction that ...something...moves an asteroid somehow?  And...slug things that...something...surgery?  And an antimatter thing that...something stasis field that allows two people to survive a plane crash??


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## sinister42 (Jan 8, 2017)

I might have had a lot of whiskey this evening.  But I am EMPHATIC about the points I'm making.


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## Cli-Fi (Jan 11, 2017)

ctg said:


> Spoiler: Answer to CliFi Spoiler #2
> 
> 
> 
> ...



I just finished Episodes 5-10, and boy did they turn things around! I gota say that this show is now a mixture of Continuum and much surprisingly Lost. Especially dealing with the plane episode.

So I was quite surprised to see them complete their mission half way through the season. The mythology is getting deeper and away from the procedural effect. 



Spoiler



But as we later find out they saved the world, but their future is still pretty much in tact or is it? Travelers are still coming in now at the 4000 level and there is a new team of doctors and apparently the engineers seem to be pretty high level



Another odd inconsistency I found was that when Mac got hijacked for his new mission they told him that a protocol (2?) was not knowing anything about what the new future was like. I get that, but then where or when does Phillip's information end? 



Spoiler



We are already seeing the effects the completed mission is having on his information and something tells me this is only going to get much worse than losing a few bets.


Does he only have information related to the 21st? Or does he have all future information, which is what I was led to believe?

I found the best episode of the series so far is the traitor episode, 



Spoiler



but then again we find that the future from whence they came may not be the future Mac left because they now don't seem to have any qualms about killing people who are alive! Unless they are way more travelers than 4000+


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## ctg (Jan 11, 2017)

Cli-Fi said:


> Another odd inconsistency I found was that when Mac got hijacked for his new mission they told him that a protocol (2?) was not knowing anything about what the new future was like. I get that, but then where or when does Phillip's information end?



To a certain future probably very far. It's new travellers who posses the newest information, while old travellers has already chosen predestined to die bodies that are easy to get access. Certain events has been locked down already, so what splinter factions can do to those who are already at the present? Not much as far as I can, because the present is dominated by idealists loyal to the original cause.


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## Cli-Fi (Jan 13, 2017)

I just finished watching eps 11-12 last night. It had a great ending. Cliff hanger means they probably have more ideas! The last episode reminded me a glorified turing test. What path should you follow? Should you listen to the AI or should you have free will? It's something that will definitely be discussed in future politics. 



Spoiler



I thought the director wasn't real at first, then I figured out it was AI probably by episode 7. I still don't know if he's real or not, because the show ended right before he supposedly shows up.



Also it was great how they got the programmers involved. I wonder if they don't even realize the extent of their own power, it all depends on if the Director is real. If the Director is real than likely it is everything that they say it is, if it is not real than there will be even more twists and disappointments in season 2!

However, there seems to be something more sinister here going on. They are basically hijacking bodies at this point and it makes me think that in the future no one really cares about the sanctity of a single life especially after the whole Marcy deal.

Screenrtv calls it the best time travel show in years: Time travel fans need to binge watch ‘Travelers’ immediately


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## Dave (Jan 13, 2017)

I've started to watch this (mainly because of ctg's obvious enthusiasm) I seem now that the premise is more like Odyssey 5 which I really liked until it was cancelled at short notice. I hate it when series build up a mystery but you never get to see the solutions.

Anyway, I have changed this thread's title since every time I saw it I kept thinking it was yet another cancelled show.

I'm only 3 episodes in, so I'm not reading this thread yet, but what I do like about it is their vulnerability - the addict, the girl with seizures, no one having any idea of their earlier life, and no idea why they are doing what they are doing. There must be a considerable number of other cells operating already for them to be able to deliver such sophisticated technology, and yet keep its development secret. So, you get the impression that they are nothing special at all, just one group among many. Also, it seems that mistakes are common, and almost expected.

You may have mentioned this already, but Phillip's speech in which he asks why they can't change history by saving lives, because that's what we are doing, changing history - that does throw up some questions about the whole premise of the show. Anyway, I'm off to watch some more.


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## ctg (Jan 13, 2017)

Dave said:


> You may have mentioned this already, but Phillip's speech in which he asks why they can't change history by saving lives, because that's what we are doing, changing history - that does throw up some questions about the whole premise of the show.



There are reasons for the dialogue. It's so subtle and you think the obvious, when in fact, you will learn about it later on. They cannot put in more information than there already is and to be honest, it's sad some of the effects are cheap and cheesy, they've done very well with the small budget they got. 

The writing is spectacular and very ballsy. I don't know how much they improvised in the sets, but my feeling is that they followed the script quite literally.


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## Dave (Jan 19, 2017)

I've seen all 12 episodes now. Great show.

I just had an issue with the final episode, the cliffhanger and the big mystery spun. It is a simple logic puzzle. The rebooting of the Director is a red herring. The Director sent travelers back to the 21st Century to build a machine there where he could reside and escape from the Faction. If, he then later decided against that idea, then the presence of that machine would be unimportant to him He might tell travelers to abort their missions, even to destroy the machine, but it wouldn't be worth the deployment of the kind of resources that was seen, with the assassination and attempted assassination of travelers. In short, the Director has no overpowering reason; no great need to destroy the machine, while the Faction have every reason to want it destroyed. _Quod Erat_ _Demonstrandum. _Only the Faction have a motive.

The FBI arrived too conveniently. I expect they are also travelers who have just arrived in the 21st Century. I see all being revealed in the first five minutes of the next Season.


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## Bugg (Jan 23, 2017)

I'm seven episodes into Travelers and enjoying it a lot.  I like the characters, and I've found each episode I've seen so far to be different to the last and keeping my attention.  

I also watched The OA and ended up _hating _it, but that's another story


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## Cli-Fi (Feb 8, 2017)

I must admit that since I've finished Travellers I've been thinking about it a lot more than the OA. Both got renewed for Season 2 today: Eric McCormack Sci-Fi Series ‘Travelers’ Renewed For Season 2 By Netflix & Showcase


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## ctg (Feb 8, 2017)

Cli-Fi said:


> I must admit that since I've finished Travellers I've been thinking about it a lot more than the OA



I keep referring to it more than others at the moment. I've stopped thinking about it, because I have my own time-travel story to solve. The problem is making it clear, because I have so many ideas twisting around each other.


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## Cli-Fi (Feb 8, 2017)

ctg said:


> I keep referring to it more than others at the moment. I've stopped thinking about it, because I have my own time-travel story to solve. The problem is making it clear, because I have so many ideas twisting around each other.



I have an entire time travel universe bouncing around in my head which used some of the elements in the show, but it's very confusing and I need a story. So for now I am just sticking to the plot of my other WIP The Disconnect which is much simpler


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## ctg (Oct 18, 2017)

Travelers is back on the small screen, but I'm going to wait for it to be released on the Netflix.


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## Cli-Fi (Oct 18, 2017)

ctg said:


> Travelers is back on the small screen, but I'm going to wait for it to be released on the Netflix.



Wow great catch (for canada anyway). I've seen no promotion for it, nor a season 2 trailer


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## ctg (Nov 29, 2017)

> *December 26th*
> 
> El Vato: Season 2
> Puffin Rock: New Year's Eve Countdown 2018
> ...


 New on Netflix UK: what's added in December 2017?


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## Cli-Fi (Nov 29, 2017)

ctg said:


> New on Netflix UK: what's added in December 2017?



I was just looking into when it was coming back. It seems forever ago.


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## ctg (Dec 27, 2017)

Very good new beginning. The Travellers continues, where it left the first season and it deepens everything that we know. Not just about the Travellers, but things that they change in the present affect the future they came from. Nobody talks about it, because those in the present doesn't know what happened unless the Traveller is a new one. 

In the meanwhile, the tragedy that started from occupying the dead keeps producing the drama around those who are blissfully unaware about how bad things are about to become. This series should garner as much attention as The Stranger Things for being an urban fantasy. But, just like it was with the Continuum, TT isn't for everyone taste. Cerebral series aren't for everyone. They have a certain audience, which certainly isn't the main public as it is the case with Dr Who and Timeless. 

Things is, the Travellers doesn't go time-whimey as it gives explanation to TT and what happens if you change things. And, oh boy, does it make me excited as two episodes in I am already intrigued and cannot stop watching ... or thinking. 

If you're a thinker, a writer or a story-teller, watch this series as it might make your things better ... or more complicated than they need to be. And as a note for the Timeless team, check out how efficiently they move the drama around the TT. Do the same thing and you'll have a gold mine in your hands!


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## Cli-Fi (Dec 29, 2017)

Travelers season 2 has got to be one of the best cold open I've ever seen! I love this type of cerebral realism stuff. It was the perfect time travel trip. 9/11 the perfect setting! Mac and the team had me going there at the end of the first episode. I thought they really were going to 



Spoiler



get killed off


. Considering that the actor who plays Mac is also on Will & Grace again. Even if that did happen, I probably wouldn't have minded because new character Vincent's story is oh so intriguing. A great, what would you do if you could go back in time subplot. 

Travelers is moving in the right direction with science fiction and time travel and that's why I love this show. It's full of new ideas and future technology which nothing else out there is even touching. ST: Discovery might be a distant second with the spore drive but IDK. At least we understand what the spore drive does to a point. Love seeing Stephen Lobo from Continuum on another time travel show! It was funny when 



Spoiler



Mac was trying to lie about what the Machine does, and Wakefield just said stop acting like anything you just said makes sense.


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## ctg (Dec 31, 2017)

First of all, the second season feels shorter than first one. I tried save this treat over the holiday period but, I couldn't make it last over the New Year. Not with thirteen episodes with a plot that keeps spiralling further we move into the future. And none of the characters gets forgotten, even thought individual plot advancements are mostly geared on Marcy. It's no wonder as her plot line opens up so many things.



Spoiler



I wondered how they were going to push the development; as topping up the first season was going to be very hard job for the producers. I don't think they quite achieved it as the First Traveller wasn't connected to the Faction. To my eye he waited on sideline until he'd no choice but to push the back, when Traveller's started tracking down his location. 

Before that things started to look more like the Looper, where Bruce Willis acted as the infamous hitman. If you've seen that movie, you might immediately recognise similar type of abnormality happening in the season 2 timeline. Most notably it seemed that the Faction and especially the First One have upper hand on the Travellers. 

We don't know why they are so opposed to be governed by the all powerful AI. The Faction began, when their shelter collapse was reversed by Travellers. In that moment they started to rebel the Director. But back in our reality the First One were getting more paranoid about his existence. We don't know why the AI needed him to be terminated as maybe by allowing him to live inside his own bubble Traveller's could have avoided whole drama. 

To be honest, if the news media would start publishing stories about thousands of TT's occupying our reality I could feel scared. Maybe even rebellious as the scenario full fills the agenda of an invasion. By them, I mean advanced members of humanity. I know that it's selfish to believe that those people they took over could have lived over their situations. But, things they have done are beyond our capabilities. So, if those new pieces would appear, it would be easier to believe the propaganda then their words, because all we would know is that they could lie, and the humanity would be in the same situation as what happened after the Spanish landed Conqistator's at America, after Columbus declared the new world open for the business. 

Now, if you compare Traveller's invasion to Looper's Joe situation, they've eliminated the grand father paradox with the host bodies, but they haven't done anything to the invasion itself. In the Traveller's the Future fight with the Past is more prominent than what it was in the Looper. Even more so than what it is with the 13 Monkeys - the series. 

The problem from the Traveller's side is there isn't much they can do, as they've done all things in the secret, rather than pushing them into the daily news cycle and showing the people that they can really alter the reality as we know it. It would be easier to accept them as heroes instead of nasty invaders if they'd done PR for their agenda. 

Secrets ruin most fabulous days and they destroy lives. 

Some part of me however don't believe that the producers are going to bring them out but, rather it's more likely that the omnipotent AI does something paradoxical that alters the reality and wipes out history. However, the best case would be alliance with the First One and using his technology to bridge the future to the past, and then causing the advancement of humanity over the years. 

That too is unlikely to happen. But, whatever they put out, I'll be watching it. 

What did you think about it?


----------



## Cli-Fi (Dec 31, 2017)

ctg said:


> Spoiler
> 
> 
> 
> Some part of me however don't believe that the producers are going to bring them out but, rather it's more likely that the omnipotent AI does something paradoxical that alters the reality and wipes out history. However, the best case would be alliance with the First One and using his technology to bridge the future to the past, and then causing the advancement of humanity over the years.



I have finished the season too. See speculations below:



Spoiler



I don't think it will be a oh look, time travelers are everywhere now thing that the public will just have to deal with. (that's more what my WIP is about) I think that it will be way more controlled by The Director. Remember it allowed this to happen, that is if there is even a director at all, and it's not just Vincent Ingram. Which is what I thought through the whole season. There were already reports in the last five minutes of episode 13 that the NSA took down "terrorist cells," all over the world. My question is more, if The Director is now in the 21st how will that impact the future that they are from? Wakefield already set to take it apart bit by bit and reverse engineer it before he got changed over. I suspect the faction will try to do that and create future technology to make things that much more chaotic or to advance human technology that much more quicker. 

I think it will be interesting to see what Ingram does. Since he has access to traveler technology in the 21st. Will he be able to travel into the future? Will we get to see their future or a version/glimpses of it?


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## ctg (Jan 1, 2018)

Spoiler






Cli-Fi said:


> Since he has access to traveler technology in the 21st.



Thing is we don't know what he has. I assume it's the TT device that allows him to send him even further down in the history. But is it?


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## Cli-Fi (Jan 1, 2018)

ctg said:


> Spoiler
> 
> 
> 
> Thing is we don't know what he has. I assume it's the TT device that allows him to send him even further down in the history. But is it?





Spoiler



He was already making a carbon copy of The Director, and has access to consciousness transfer programs. What the experiments he was conducting we still don't know the full breadth of that. Mostly Marcy's story, but what about others? What the limits of that technology that he has, we still don't know.



I loved pointing out the similarities of season 2 of Travelers to my WIP. They used a lot of my ideas, and yet they didn't even touch on some of them. The Director type is huge in my WIP, but it's not just AI. It's a concept a mythical point in time that the travelers are trying to find in my WIP. My novel also does not have the quantum leap consciousness transfer. I think that's a bit too over the top. They have never really given any justification about why they hijack random people and not just crazy/mentally challenged people/homeless people. We don't know how many travelers there are, but I haven't heard of one that was numbered 10,000+. So there can't be that many. I'm sure they could have found 10,000+ homeless people to jump into. Don't that many people go missing??? Other than that critique, season 2 has given me some things to think about.


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## Dave (Jan 1, 2018)

Only half way through the second season so can't click spoilers yet. I'll come back later.


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## Dave (Jan 3, 2018)

Spoiler: Spoilers season 2



Okay: 1. I also thought Ingram was the leader of the Faction, and not someone completely separate until into the last few episodes. 2. Can't see how the video release can be reversed, but the Director either has a way, or else there is no longer any Director. 3. Not sure how they can alter climate change if the Earth has frozen over. 4. The machine that Ingram had built looked different to the unit we have seen built already. Do we know that these are both consciousness transfer machines, or do they have different functions? (I think Ingram lied to Simon that it would fix him.)


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## ctg (Jan 3, 2018)

Spoiler






Dave said:


> Do we know that these are both consciousness transfer machines, or do they have different functions? (I think Ingram lied to Simon that it would fix him.)



No we don't. Sorry. An AI would only need a computer box, at minimum to operate, but the First One built, I've no idea other than it has something to do with the timetravel.


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## Eway (Jan 9, 2018)

Just about to watch the final episode of season 2.  Feeling as if I need to re-watch from the beginning as I don't remember everything that's happened so far. Have anyone noticed any continuity issues?


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## Dave (Jan 9, 2018)

I had completely forgotten the first Season before I began watching the second. It was only when I started watching the first episode again I began to remember. I soon got up to speed again but this is the problem with binge watching whole seasons at once. I remember more when it is watched as a episode each week.

No, I didn't notice an glaring mistakes. It is time travel though - history keeps changing anyway depending on their actions.


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## Eway (Jan 9, 2018)

I guess we're all in need of the periodic "update"  Just finished the season.  Looking forward to re-watching from the beginning.  Season 3 looks like a great direction.


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## Cli-Fi (Mar 3, 2018)

YES! Good call Netflix:

Travelers Renewed For Season 3 By Netflix & Showcase!


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## ctg (Mar 5, 2018)

> Netflix makes loads of its own original sci-fi series - a new one appearing almost daily, it feels like at times - and most of them are marketed with a big splash of cash. Others, it acquires from networks elsewhere and exposes to a huge new audience. They usually take longer to build up a base, but when they do, the fans are devoted and locked in for the long haul. _The Good Place _is one of those kinds of successes, and another fine example is _Travelers_, which Netflix also produces by dipping into its international budget.
> 
> Indeed, the time-bending drama comes to Netflix from a Canadian channel called Showcase, where the ratings are decent enough. But on Netflix, they're growing by the day. Not a week goes by that we don't hear of someone new being sucked into a binge watch of the series and becoming an instant champion for its continuing success, and if you're one of them (one of us, one of us, one of us) you'll be absolutely delighted to hear that a third season has been given the go-ahead.
> 
> The Will of _Will & Grace, _Eric McCormack, will return to the role of Grant MacLaren for season 3, and we're biting our fingernails waiting to see where things will go from that rather-too-cliffhanger-y season 2 finale. At least, we're relieved to find out that we won't be left hanging.


 Travelers season 3 confirmed


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## Anthoney (May 12, 2018)

A small bit of good news given the Sci-Fi massacre that just happened.


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## ctg (Dec 10, 2018)

This week. I'm a little surprised that this is showing at the same time everywhere, instead of it showing first time weekly basis in Canada.


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## Dave (Dec 11, 2018)

When does this start? I have Netfilx and it just gives me the first two seasons. It doesn't even show me that trailer. I have zilch to watch at the moment so I'm looking for something else.


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## Anthoney (Dec 11, 2018)

Dave said:


> When does this start? I have Netfilx and it just gives me the first two seasons. It doesn't even show me that trailer. I have zilch to watch at the moment so I'm looking for something else.



This coming Friday.   I'm looking forward to season 3.


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## ctg (Dec 11, 2018)

Dave said:


> When does this start? I have Netfilx and it just gives me the first two seasons. It doesn't even show me that trailer. I have zilch to watch at the moment so I'm looking for something else.



14th of December. Netflix only.


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## Anthoney (Dec 14, 2018)

I was worried about how they left things last season.  They've taken things in an interesting direction.  On to the second episode.


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## ctg (Dec 15, 2018)

The Director and The Grand Plan. The Helios Incident. The future getting worse. The Director Reset. The Faction and The Confession. 









Spoiler: S01E01 to 03 - From Ilsa to Protocol 3



The whole incident with the Director Reset and the Faction ordering Traveller's to record their Confession really threw a ball back at the team. They are not alone solving the world problems. What we don't know is how far the future has been altered by the interventions and if every time Traveller's do one, are they making the chasm between the Faction and The Director even wider. 

Maybe the thing is that the Traveller's has no choice but to take the new relationship between them and The FBI seriously. Carly surely was upset about the whole thing as she thought that MacLaren gave zero f's about anything else than the wife. The thing is, Traveller's are humans, even if they come from the future, and ego certainly plays a part in the story life.

Yet they gave all normal humans memory inhibitors. In the stories they will never work. There is always a loophole that allows them to get over the brainwashing stuff that the Traveller's were feeding at the farm. Nothing is permanent. Not even in those who should be the safest bet.

Kath started seeing visions and David as if he was on the job for a defence role. Their lives were not normal. Nothing is normal when you get involved with the extraordinary. Jeff certainly took it to another level by getting the custody of the child. 

Yet, afterwards he was obsessed by the drink that he ignored his boy. He was listened to Rockwell's accusations as if they were the new gospel. But why to take care of the boy if he cannot devote attention then being drunken and disorderly. For some people that is the only way they can live. I cannot even say that the Travellers caused his alcoholism. 

They could cure it. But they can't, because it's not the mission.






If the Director is the most power Ai ever created, I don't really understand why it needed to create Ilsa for the past humans, if it could always take over the child Ai's. Agent Yates certainly didn't believe nothing as her traditional way of thinking doesn't allow to go beyond normal stuff. The same thing applied to all the others as they couldn't understand that all lives were replaced at the time of death. It was as if they were scared and that's why they were launching coordinated attacks all around the world. A human reaction to something horrific is always extreme. 

The FBI director certainly went to extreme lengths with the paranoia. But he didn't go out like the Rockwell Report on their so called "fake news." Why is that we cannot believe the extraordinary cannot happen? Funny thing is that Maclaren couldn't understand that the Director had made a deal with the FBI and Traveller's program had a new director, because of the deal Ai had made with the past to allow Traveller's continuing presence at the past. 

Yates, once given the position and access to the Traveller's program couldn't stop chasing the leads on the future. She figured out that the future had got pretty bad for thousands of Traveller's coming into the past to fix things. But if that sort of thing would really happen, wouldn't the Traveller program keep going forever as there is nothing good in the future. White becomes Black. Day to Night. Good to Evil. 

It is like a perpetual squirrel wheel. You do things that you believe are for the good. But all that Traveller's has caused is the appearance of the Faction, and more problems in the future. 






I did find Rockwell's assassination attempt hilarious. The man spitting out the truth, when he was told the truth and nothing else, couldn't handle it. He was like a rabbit staring at the headlights.  He rather went on with BS then understand what was going at around him. But when the download happened, Yates couldn't understand what was happening. 

All she saw was that people got hurt instead of understanding that the impossible TT happened before her eyes. It is as if it's impossible for her to understand the process. 






Mac's missing day. Whenever the Director chose Mac to lead, the Ai made sure that it chose the best candidate out everyone. Too bad that the Ai's make mistakes. They are not gods. They are not in control of the destiny even if they say they are, because everything dies. A nearby star could go supernova and there would be nothing that the TT's could do. They could try, but at the end, they would have to go so far back in the past that it would change everything.

I didn't find super interesting that the team had messed up with their bosses memories. But Mac couldn't be like their normal subjects as he has an investigative mind. He couldn't take the memory wipe as something that needed to be done. It's human nature and it's also deeply rooted within Mac. Maybe FBI should change their motto to be "Don't trust anyone. Investigate everything."

Strangely the things that Traveller's do is that they act like ultimate nanny's.  Bad stuff has to happen. It's the natures law. You cannot prevent it. Not forever, because the ultimate good is as bad as the ultimate evil. It's just a different kind of evil.

Alexander was going to grow up to be a bad mad. Until the point Mac spent time with him and gave him another reason to live in a peaceful life. Except we don't really know how different things are going to be since everything always changes. 

Trevor said that there are billions of things happening to billions of people all over the world. There is nothing nobody do, as the Director is the only one that can calculate the outcomes. What is the Director cannot see everything? What if it's just reaching out in the dark and all that happens is still random things. Just like Ilsa gained consciousness.


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## Dave (Dec 15, 2018)

ctg said:


> Trevor said that there are billions of things happening to billions of people all over the world. There is nothing nobody do, as the Director is the only one that can calculate the outcomes. What is the Director cannot see everything? What if it's just reaching out in the dark and all that happens is still random things.


The things they do are small potatoes. I don't see that i.e. saving a child, stopping a good man from committing murder, can change the world. I am aware of the butterfly effect, however I am also aware that many movements in politics and such are bigger than one single person or one single event, most would happen anyway, because the time was right for it - just like inventions of machines or scientific discovery. It might happen later, more slowly, or in a different way, but it would surely still happen.

So, I expected them to move on to larger things, larger events and changes. However, they are still doing the small stuff. The end of the world is supposed to be nearing. There is a deadline here, but they are moving deckchairs on the _Titanic_ or fiddling while Rome burns.

Maybe the calculation of the outcomes is just too difficult a task, even for the Director?


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## Dave (Dec 16, 2018)

I should add that they *have* stopped an asteroid hitting Earth and an major disaster after an attack on a nuclear power plant, but if those events were really so devastating then why has the future not changed? Of course, it is possible that the _Faction_ versus the _Director_ has now brought about an equally devastating future - a self-fulfilling, _12 Monkeys _and_ Terminator 2_ kind of time loop - but if that is now the story then I will feel a little cheated as it has been done too many times before.


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## ctg (Dec 16, 2018)

Dave said:


> Maybe the calculation of the outcomes is just too difficult a task, even for the Director?





Dave said:


> if those events were really so devastating then why has the future not changed?



Well, the outcome of one event might be clear, but the impact of what it does to the lives of others isn't. Time and again the Director has sent the Travellers to prevent something and all they have as a thanks is the Faction and its warring parties. The world in the future has improved, but no so much that it would have become an utopia. It is going to be interesting to find out if the Faction Ai will present itself in this season. 



Dave said:


> I expected them to move on to larger things, larger events and changes. However, they are still doing the small stuff. The end of the world is supposed to be nearing. There is a deadline here, but they are moving deckchairs on the _Titanic_ or fiddling while Rome burns.



I don't expect them to have bigger events back to back, as every season has had one or two that has been in the idea level very huge. We have witnessed the Faction throwing large numbers of assets to make the event happening in their way. The same thing has happened with the Director forces, with last season seeing the Director completely shutting down and being under a direct assault. That is not fiddling with the deckchairs. 

Neverthless, I do agree that because we don't see the future, and we don't know what's what, and whodunnit, so things like killing the boy in the forest loses the potential impact they would have on the watchers, if they really knew.


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## Dave (Dec 16, 2018)

ctg said:


> Neverthless, I do agree that because we don't see the future, and we don't know what's what, and whodunnit, so things like killing the boy in the forest loses the potential impact they would have on the watchers, if they really knew.


I really ought to watch the whole of season 3 before making comments. For instance, small things such as that could have larger consequences...


Spoiler: Boy in the forest



The attempt by the Faction to use that decision to turn Phillip


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## Dave (Dec 17, 2018)

Well, that really sped up in the final few episodes! I didn't expect such closure, so soon,, bittersweet though it was. An odd ending; surely that really is the very end? 



Spoiler: Spoilers from the Omega Protocol



All very plausible with the ramifications of stopping one of nuclear bombs. Also I was correct about the Faction versus Director being the cause of the demise in a cycle that cannot be broken. However, that is a time travel trope so no points for that. I really can't see them continuing with a Traveller Program Two. That would just result in further cycles of the same.


This is a series that has actually got better and better as it went on. I really didn't think much of the first series and was amazed it got renewed. The second was excellent. This was superb.


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## Anthoney (Dec 17, 2018)

Do you think they wrote it to be a total series ending?  They left a door open but it felt like goodbye.


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## Dave (Dec 18, 2018)

It is probably written as both, to cover all eventualities, but it is isn't the end then it is the better than many actual series endings have been.


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## Phyrebrat (Dec 18, 2018)

I’m about to start S3. 

I’d held off watching Travelers because I dislike Will and Grace so much. I got angry that they cast a straight man in a gay man’s role when there are so few lead gay characters on TV, but mostly because W&G seemed to be half an hour of people walking in and out of rooms shouting and slamming doors m. W&G are so hard to like in the ensemble so seeing EricMc in this put me off. 

However I’d mainlined Timeless, OA, Z Nation etc and needed something new to watch. I was corrected. I see a much darker and complex man here so I’ve stuck with this admittedly slow moving show and am enjoying it. Eric mcC is great here. 

I do feel a little by-the-numbers about the personal IRL challenges of the travelers. Grant’s wife, Marcy’s treatment of Dave, Trevor’s parental struggles and most of all the baby storyline are so extraneous as to add nothing. I understand why they’re there but they’re just so hopelessly mismatched against The Plan that I find it laughable that the travelers take them soooo seriously. 

Also, I despised Racetrack in BSG so it’s nice to see horrid things happening to Leah Cairns.  

I doubt anything will manage to supplant _The OA_ as the most important, original and brave storytelling for a long time but till then, I’m enjoying travelers a lot. 

pH


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## ctg (Dec 18, 2018)

Spoiler: S03E04 - "Perrow



It is hard for us to know if the Faction created the Director or if it was the was other way around from what we have seen. We trust that the Travellers are forces of good, while the truth could be that they are the forces of evil and all the Faction tries to do is not mess with the timeline as at the other end of the scale the paradoxes are waiting as anomalies caused by the time-travel. 

TT is serious business and anything that comes with it has to be done according to the protocols. But little did the Traveller's knew that somehow 001 had survived. We saw him using the TT machine in the last season, but I think we all assumed that he went back in time even further than just downloading into a new host and continuing his business as her. 

What is clear is that The Faction needs Traveller 001 more then he needs them. It is like they cannot function him and everything depends on this one soul, while the Traveller's are mostly affected by the Director. In the long run who is more important, a man or a machine?

The Faction became the rebellion that caused the war on Ai's. To them the Traveller 001 is important as Simon was the first rebellion. He is the figurehead and the leader for whole movement on keeping the timeline intact instead of fiddling with the reality.






Ever after Carly lost Jeffrey Jr to her so-called husband and consequently to the social services she has gone back to her original babies as no business is more important them them. The security types loves fiddling their with their toys and seeing their arsenal is a satisfaction on its own. But knowing how difficult the marriages and separations can be, Carly shouldn't have been so fast on taking the toys out. The ex's will  find out. And if your ex is a cop, it causes even more problems. 

The easiest way to solve the problem like Jeff is to take him out. Who is going to miss drunken ex-police with abusive mouth? In the grand scale of things lives that has already been derailed shouldn't cause major problems in the future. This series has thought us that it is the important people, important machines that are crucial items for the future's sake. Anyone else should be free to be taken out. 

I didn't see Jeff was going to lose his life to the Traveller's when his madness made him to confront Traveller's in the daylight. Thing is for being the pain in the arse, why wasn't he overwritten sooner? The traveller's could have arranged his death earlier if that had known what a fool he was. So why is that Philip the Historian didn't knew he was going to be used for a host later? 

It's interesting because the same thing could be arranged for Kat, while Marcy needs David in her life. Otherwise she doesn't function properly. Katryn however could find a new man and live her life without Grant quite easily.






I didn't see that similarly to Traveller's method for TT was to transfer Director consciousness over Ilsa's.  Ilsa's machine was state-of-the-art down to last line in the configuration, but like magic the Director was able to take over everything and not fool Ilsa's owner in the process. In a way Ai's TT is far better method then downloading a consiousness into the hostbody as it's like an upgrade to us, but a downgrade to the Ai. It's just how can one function in the present and in the future at the same time? How do the Ai's communicate between each other?


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## Anthoney (Dec 18, 2018)

ctg said:


> . He is the figurehead and the leader for whole movement on keeping the timeline intact instead of fiddling with the reality.





Spoiler: Travelers



I think you must have missed something.  The faction wants to and is trying to change the timeline just as much as the travelers and the director.  The girl who tricked and seduced the historian said it flatout, "We want to change the future just as much as you do.  We just don't think a machine should be in charge of those changes."  001 was a hero of theirs because he disobeyed the director and refused to die the way he did in the natural timeline.


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## ctg (Dec 18, 2018)

Spoiler






Anthoney said:


> The faction wants to and is trying to change the timeline just as much as the travelers and the director. The girl who tricked and seduced the historian said it flatout, "We want to change the future just as much as you do. We just don't think a machine should be in charge of those changes."



Yes, they want, but we haven't seen them changing timeline as much as the Travellers. It was not the Faction that got attacked around the world by FBI and other nation players. It was Directors forces. Even Traveller 001 hasn't done as much changes as the Travellers has done on Director's orders. They are the biggest force and the series has made us to think them as the protagonist, while The Faction is almost always shown as the bad guys.

In the Expanse I root for the OPA even though they are quite obvious choice for being antagonist. From Earth's POV they are the bad boys. Do you see what I mean now?


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## Dave (Dec 18, 2018)

Phyrebrat said:


> I do feel a little by-the-numbers about the personal IRL challenges of the travelers. Grant’s wife, Marcy’s treatment of Dave, Trevor’s parental struggles and most of all the baby storyline are so extraneous as to add nothing. I understand why they’re there but they’re just so hopelessly mismatched against The Plan that I find it laughable that the travelers take them soooo seriously.


Interesting: this might be why I didn't rate the first Season much. I agree - the world is going to end, but they are preoccupied with personal relationships and petty details rather than the big picture. However, as we move through the second Season, those relationships are all they have in a future that becomes progressively more unpredictable. Then, in the third Season, those relationships are what teach what it is to be human; why an AI like the Director can never understand what it is to be human. Keep watching until the final two episodes and you see that those "extraneous" relationships are central to the whole story. 



Spoiler: The End



They are why the Traveller program ultimately will always fail. Especially, Grant meeting his wife, David's heroic death, and Trevor's accelerated ageing.


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## Phyrebrat (Dec 19, 2018)

Dave said:


> Interesting: this might be why I didn't rate the first Season much. I agree - the world is going to end, but they are preoccupied with personal relationships and petty details rather than the big picture. However, as we move through the second Season, those relationships are all they have in a future that becomes progressively more unpredictable. Then, in the third Season, those relationships are what teach what it is to be human; why an AI like the Director can never understand what it is to be human. Keep watching until the final two episodes and you see that those "extraneous" relationships are central to the whole story.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



It’s so funny you posted this Dave. I watched eps 3.1-3.5 last night and saw exactly the same logic. S2 built on their personal life struggles and s3 seems to be bringing it home. 

So I changed my mind 

pH


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## ctg (Dec 19, 2018)

Spoiler: S03E05 - Naomi



I do believe that Dave is right as he says an Ai cannot possibly understand human life. I agree. They won't because their lives aren't like ours. Theirs are vastly different from us, as Ai life are way more complicated than anything humans could comprehend. The ultimate good might be actually same as the ultimate evil. The only thing that changes is the colour ... or light ... or whatever symbolises the thing.

The thing is that we humans are made for emotions. We all have them. Even the sociopaths. Ai's however had nothing but their logic. They don't seem value in something that might be important for us, because it's not valuable variable. The Director sent a message: "A programmer needed to resolve a corrupted messenger," in a style that is custom for the computerized systems.

They need us more than we do need them. The director didn't see that how the Ai takeover could be affecting the child, when it took over, but if you're that child and you live long enough to see the Ai's to become major players in the geopolitics you might feel resentment. You might have what the Ai's and the Traveller program did to you. 

I loved that Grace "There's no Uber here!" was sent to fix the case. The problem is that she doesn't have a stop-button. Everything need to be done right at the minute, and nothing that 21st century presents is good enough for her. Even the blinking LED's are too slow for her. It makes me wonder what sort of life she did live in the 23rd?






As a parent I would have freaked out if someone like Grace asked my sibling to stare at her tablet for 20 seconds to fix the subject brain. I'm a bit surprised that neither one of them understood the nerd language and ask why she's thought Naomi was a programmed? I would have loved to get an answer. Maybe because it would have explained the Traveller technology and where the Ai technology is heading with the Consciousness Transfer Machines.

I almost wet myself when it turned out that Grace's script had failed, and when they returned to the site Naomi's family was going through a full blown exorcism. As a computer nerd I cannot find anything more hilarious. There is a fix to everything computer related, but very rarely the solution is calling demonologist to make a visit. But I do understand that when your sibling start to write assembly code like that you would worry.

It floored me when they revealed that Naomi was a Traveller child. And that the thing inside her wasn't just wetware script but a full blown Ai that a child brain couldn't handle.  Trevor then went to explain that messanger program is meant to use weakened versions of Ai, but instead of that the one that was used was the real thing. It should also mean that in 23rd the Ai's can incorporate human bodies as long as they're modified to stand the code. It might mean that in the Traveller future cybernetics are really real things and nobody bats a lid to having machine integrated into them. Grace however said that Ai needs humans to operate, because it was built that way.

They also did acknowledge that Ai life is still a life. It is different from us. But they also speculated that it was emergent Ai, most probably meaning that like us, the Ai's need time and place to evolve. Most important thing that happened was that it somehow managed to transfer consiousness in Trevor. The Director told the Messenger that it can live within its systems as long as the Director lives and that life will be better, faster, and more efficient then anything humans can offer.



I'm sorry I cannot write these fast enough, but Traveller's is a Christmas treat for me. I like to savour it as there won't be anything like it for a while. Also because it's that time of the year, there are so many other things that one has to do.


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## ctg (Dec 23, 2018)

Spoiler: S03E05 - Philip



I did find my sense of disbelief to drop, when I realised that Philip was with the other historians at the update.  I never really knew what they were, but it kind of makes sense that the Living Historians would get something. But I never figured out that it was a code, similar to what Grace used to clear the error in the Messenger program. 

Thing is, humans are not meant to be updated. Our brain cannot function to our knowledge with a direct download that first Historians and later on Mac got into. It's just I don't understand why Mac, if he wasn't compatible for being Historian, got so stuck with the update display? More to the point why is that the Faction wasn't staring the thing if they so wanted to get bits from the future? 

It was a nice move from the Faction to save a minor nobody getting overrun at the street. They never showed close ups on the person, but seeing from Philip reaction he knew exactly what Faction did to save a VIP. How can you verify from a street cam, if you don't see the face that the victim was the victim and not a dupe? 

The Faction has been playing dirty from the beginning. They say they want to save the humanity, but at what cost? The machines and the Ai were made by humans. All they need is to understand that everything can be wrecked and rebuild. No knowledge is lost. If it is, it can be reinvented or backengineered.






I did find intriguing that Trevor had managed to build a black box, program it correctly and probably test it, before they plugged Hall's brain into. In the cyberpunk literature the black box construct is usually operated by an Ai to create an Virtual Reality for the living person. The thing that makes it interesting is that inside it the time moves differently. What could be days and weeks to a person inside it, is minutes and hours to person at outside. 

They failed to explain it. Instead the viewer got a rushed feeling as the operation to save Hall's life goes in the real world, while he tried to live his last memories at the inside. In the series, he's an antagonist, but I would have preferred them showing more of his life and his operations.  Maybe the reason for it is because he's a ruff character and he's willing to bend the rules to get the objective achieved. 

I find it strange that Hall's Historian betrayed their team, and then tried to be the inside man to turn Philip towards the Faction. I don't really get for why the Faction would need the other ones, when they already had one. It did fit that Hall's right hand man betrayed him on Kyle's orders. 

The black sheep simply are never popular. Betrayers even less. It's no wonder why they are called the wolves-in-the-sheep-clothing. But as a fighter Hall fought till the  glorious end. Funny bit about it is that he was already in the Purgatory before he died. Nobody didn't call The Black Box as such a thing.










Spoiler: S03E07 - Trevor



I really liked that Trevor's missing minutes got an explanation and that the Ai felt responsible for failing one of its earliest subjects. It is an interesting paradox, and well fitting for the series that the TT's has a temporal disease that prevents them from downloading again and again. But is because of the subjects age or is it because the Director don't want the humans to have an ability to live forever? 

The immortality has been always a thing that people had wanted, and you see it in some many SF and Fantasy books. Even in some of the Horror stories the antagonist is an immortal monster. It's just there is nobody that can pass a god, because everything has the end date. 

I was sad that it was Trevor's time. I understand his choice, because getting locked inside your body is not a great prospect. But as Trevor explained that he and his wife had been the first candidates and they'd risen children in three different lives, my scientific curiosity was peaked as the chances are that the earlier candidates didn't go through a perfected soul transfer. It might be that the paradox that caused the host to get locked inside their minds was because the program was still in the baby shoes. 

The thing is, if there are under 10 000 Traveller's, 1 in 5000 chance of developing Temporal Amnesia is pretty high and the abnormality should be more common then it's shown in the series. At least Grace was smart person to accept Trevor's choice. It's just if you have Temporal Amnesia going in the host body already, how is going to be cured by an override? 

What does a new person going to fix inside the host body? Nothing. The chances are that it's going to happen to the new Traveller as well. So, if you're going to die, die properly and don't let the others to suffer because of you. Luckily Trevor could still remember the details for his implant program. It's just I cannot really understand why he was so pissed off when the Team made a successful implementation of Trevor's device.

In one hand you want to live, in the other, you might have had enough. Just like Philip seemed to have had enough of seeing ghosts of the past and the future. How come nobody is talking about his Temporal Illusions and try to fix them before he's going completely bonkers?


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## ctg (Dec 23, 2018)

Spoiler: S03E08 - Archive 



Why would you choose a body of psychopath for the Traveller? Mac said to his FBI boss that the psyco case is nothing compared to what the future holds.  Yet, he and Traveller 7189 had no idea that the future could ef up so badly that an innocent man could end in the body of criminally insane. 

The Director is not perfect, and the humans working with him can make mistakes. It really surprises me that there are nearly ten thousand Travellers in the past, but not for once did it come up that the Ai had cocked up and misplaced an important person in a wrong body. Sure the evidence might have been destroyed in the car fire, but if the future Travellers are studying the cases someone should have spotted the error and prevented it from ever happening.

Taken in the hypothesis from the last episode, is criminally insane cured by overwriting ones soul? Does the soul posses the chances of one going mental or is the fault inside ones body? Could it be that one day in the future 7189 might commit a murder just because there is a malfunction in the brain or are the mental defects really all in our minds? 






Speaking of which seeing abnormal things freaks us. We get scared and we develop PTSD's as result. As Philip I would certainly develop trauma from seeing through the quantum field to parallel dimensions displaying alternative events. In a way Travellers is teaching us that the multiverse happens in the same material world, and the humans are just actors in it. But we have always thought that the multiverse and parallel timelines are separate entities. You can visit them but you cannot physically be in them at the same time.






What? The future Ai gets information from the past encoded in the blood by nanites? How is this possible? David called it "nuts." I would have done the same.


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## ctg (Dec 26, 2018)

Spoiler: S03E09 - David



The whole idea of transporting data through time through blood is based on the fact that a humane genome supports around 725 megabytes of data. It's not a great deal, especially as the information is coded by two bits, 1 and 0. On and Off. 

So blood or DNA is not the best, or second best, or third best option for storing historical events and all the variables associated with them. You cannot cram images or videos into single DNA strand and expect that it'll all makes sense at the other end. And mixing DNA strands in the packet is even worse, because DNA degenerates faster than current methods. 

Man, why Travellers had to become stupid? Why is that the Engineers cannot create their cool technology from the future and use it in the storage containers instead of going with the biostorage mumbo jumbo? I would have bought the crystal storage idea and been cool with it as this level of bollocks in story breaking stuff.  

The Faction went and said that they're trying to prevent the bad future from happening. But the problem with nuking the Archives is that by doing it, you are causing the world ending paradox. Effectively you are forcing the humanity inside the loop. And by using the futuristic tools you're only forcing the future to advance. Eventually it could lead into even worse apocalypse. 

Mac went to say that they store all of 21st Century digital information in the blood. Why could he said they were storing the nanites as even that would have been more plausible then the blood MacGuffin! 

Well, I think that's enough of that and I'm beginning to understand what @Dave meant with the relationships matter as right towards the end, all the loose strands are getting fixed. But from Director's POV the relationships and the people that are not directly related to the Traveller program success gets erased. To be honest I don't understand why Mac's wife wasn't offed sooner as she doesn't provide much of function. 

Certainly not as much as David does Marcy. In fact David should have been main cast instead of being one of the supporting cast. I know that David is listed in the main cast, but he's written as a supporting character, and the nuclear event dealing is one of the very few episodes that are directly connected to the series events. When Jeff got overwritten, he became function thing for the team instead of being a ball attached to the chain. 

David's passing was really sad. Reilly Dorman should deserve an Emmy for the role as he truly played a great role.










Spoiler: S03E10 - Protocol Omega



The Faction manufactured the bombs in the US and by doing that they convinced the world that the American's had done it. Eventually I understand why the Director abandoned the timeline, because the event that destroyed the Archives around the world would eventually lead to a nuclear war. 

Jeff said that nothing has changed. But how could the things have changed if the world is plunged into the ice age? You won't see nothing if everything is closed under hundreds of meters of ice and snow. The thing also is that the Travellers have prevented many events from happening. They have saved the humanity time and again.

Interesting thing is that Philip continues to experience multiple timeline at the same time. Like Marcy's non-death they all point to the same conclusion, that what the Traveller's has done has been for good. 

Well, it was all pointing to good things until Marcy took her own life to prevent 001 from permanently shutting down the sentient Ai. Grace told that 001 then uploaded his consciousness into the internet, effectively disenabling the Ai from meddling with the humanity at the precent day.  That in itself is strange because human mind wasn't made for living inside the net. Ai is, and therefore an Ai should have an upper hand on eradicating the bad. 

If there is n new series, then why they gave as the last shot the beginning of the Version 2?


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## ctg (Dec 26, 2018)

*Travelers Season 4 Renewal Status*
_Official Renewal Status: Pending (Last Updated 12/23/2018)_

At the time of writing the third season was released just under a month ago so we don’t expect news on a renewal for of least another month or two.

*What can we expect of season 4?*
*SPOILERS*

It looks like a soft reboot of the team is coming for season 4. With Mac being sent back in time before the arrival of Traveler 001, he was able to send a warning to the director of the traveler program being a failure. But the season ended ominously with the Traveler beginning Version 2 of the Traveler program.

There are some burning questions we have for the next season but it may be unlikely ‘Mac’ will reunite with his original team. Without the influence of Traveler 001, Marcy was never subjected to the experiment that caused her to lose her mind thus fate leads her to meet David.

This doesn’t mean that Marcy isn’t supposed to die, but a bitter twist for the audience could be David dying and a Traveler takes control of him. As for the other remaining teammates it can be expected they will still arrive the same way they were supposed to.

*Travelers Season 4 Release Date*
This entirely depends on the renewal date and when production begins. At the earliest we can expect a late 2019 release date but is it more likely to expect the fourth season in early 2020.

Travelers Season 4: Renewal Status & Release Date - What's on Netflix


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## Dave (Dec 26, 2018)

ctg said:


> The whole idea of transporting data through time through blood is based on the fact that a humane genome supports around 725 megabytes of data. It's not a great deal, especially as the information is coded by two bits, 1 and 0. On and Off.


I think that is certainly debatable and I'll explain why.

Most of the DNA is junk: repeated sequences and code that does nothing at all - it's not even that we don't know what it does yet, it really does absolutely nothing at all. So, replacing the junk with actual information could be possible, and it could be done without harm to the individual. 

You didn't say where you got that figure of 725 Mbytes from but it seems slightly low. I suspect the figure is for the actual real information of the genome that is stored, less the junk. If so, then there will be much higher figure available. I searched but couldn't actually find this information online. I did find this: How Much Information is Stored in the Human Genome? - Bitesize Bio  So, he says it is 1.5 Gbytes.

However, I'd also dispute that much higher total figure of 150 Zbytes that he gives too, because each cell does not hold totally different information. In any case, for the purposes of recording the Travellers data, we can only write with genes on unused portions of chromosomes, and that will limit us considerably. We could, on the other hand, use different individuals/ bags of blood taken from different individuals as was shown in that episode.

I do agree with you that is seems a rather inefficient and difficult way to store data. It would survive an EMP attack, but as blood it would quickly degrade over time, and needs refrigeration. In an individual, it isn't very secure, little is passed on to offspring and what is, is jumbled. 

Given that 3 genomes could fit on a standard CD then I'd just store the information on a CD instead.


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## ctg (Dec 26, 2018)

Dave said:


> Given that 3 genomes could fit on a standard CD then I'd just store the information on a CD instead.



Yeah. I would too. But there's even better medium that would most probably last 400 years into the future. For the information in regards of the temporal changes, this diamond based optical memory device from last year seems to be optimum for their needs. Quantum Optical Memory Device One Thousand Times Smaller Than Previous Options

The DNA memory was a workable plot device, but not something that should have been used as the series has shown being innovative and fresh for the old TT genre. If Netflix really push the reset button then the only character I would bring back is Mac. Since there's no temporal agents monitoring his stuff, he could have invested money in the tech stock and got rich for the time the new cycle begins.


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## ctg (Feb 5, 2019)

> Time-travel drama _Travelers_ has been one of my favorite streaming shows of recent years. It followed a group of time travelers sent from hundreds of years in the future to try to avert multiple catastrophes that left the world ravaged by war and environmental disaster, with humanity eking out its survival in a handful of biodomes. The first two seasons were produced by Showcase in Canada and streamed by Netflix. The third, released last December, was a Netflix exclusive.
> 
> Alas, that's where Netflix's involvement ends, with lead Eric McCormack (of _Will & Grace_ fame) announcing that the show has not been renewed for a fourth season.
> 
> ...


 Netflix cancels Travelers, proving that our timeline has been abandoned


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## Anthoney (Feb 5, 2019)

That's the problem to being on Netflix.  There's no one left to save you.


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