Timeless - NBC's "Hard SF" & "Historical" TT Series

REBerg said:
What? You mean we're not already in one? :p
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True, sometimes it feels like we have already been down this path, but for life of me I cannot prove it. But if they would acknowledge that they've 'fixed' certain things and as a result we have to endure people like Mr tRump, then we would know that they cocked it all up and they're trying their best to fix things. So, if he's a result of 'what if' fix, we are doomed and the future is going to be really crazy one. But that what if also brings up the question of what it was like before the TT alteration/paradox fix?

Can a paradox be really fixed? With this series we got a Disney ending with a possible opening for continuing the series. In the traditional way of thinking we can apply the fix and it works, but before that happens, there is going to be a number of failures. As important as the time is, how many failures you can endure before something catastrophic happens?

For some reason I cannot imagine what a catastropic TT incident would look like. I only know that it would be hazardous to travel in the zone that has been altered, as there would be a high chance that you would get trapped inside. You would be very certain that you wouldn't get back in the same time unless you can anchor yourself to the outside reality.

Maybe you would have to be like the aliens from the Nightflyers.
 
This might have been the record for consecutive "Spoiler" posts. :)
 
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Well, it gave closure. It tied up some loose ends to the story, made temporal sense, and explained much previously unexplained plot. However, it wasn't a very exciting finale. Parts of it were actually quite dull. I never felt they were in any jeopardy in North Korea, which might have changed how I felt, but...
since they had already brought back Rufus from the dead, they were unlikely to kill off anyone else. In fact, I was expecting them to somehow rescue Flynn too.

Was that "apparently for each significant character saved, another must be sacrificed" a time-travel rule that was mentioned explicitly by someone, or is that just what you surmise? I didn't catch anyone saying that. In fact, the few rules that they did set for us in this show's bible, they have ultimately broken and torn up.

The other thing is, what happened to all the Rittenhouse tough guys in the present, and sleeper agents in the past. In previous episodes we were shown the organisation to be huge and now, one single last base was all that was left. Surely, removing Jessica from the timeline could not have achieved that much change?
On the plus side, they did reference that Jiya had experienced three years of hardship, and that the Lucy and Wyatt relationship would be strained. They didn't explain the "forbidden colours" that Stanley had been raving mad about last episode. I guess he was just crazy after all.
 
Dave said:
On the plus side, they did reference that Jiya had experienced three years of hardship, and that the Lucy and Wyatt relationship would be strained. They didn't explain the "forbidden colours" that Stanley had been raving mad about last episode. I guess he was just crazy after all.
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They didn't had time to give explanations. I like that they didn't tried to cram in everything. It was a Disney ending, and it did tie down the narrative nicely. It also worked well as an American Christmas Special.
 
It sounds like great television and appreciate the sense of detail to science but have we really proved the ixistence of parallel universes? Sure, quantum physics is an excellent tool at demonstrating many theories yet we don't even know what dark matter is or understand our own universe. As for actual time travel...
 
Dave said:
Was that "apparently for each significant character saved, another must be sacrificed" a time-travel rule that was mentioned explicitly by someone, or is that just what you surmise? I didn't catch anyone saying that. In fact, the few rules that they did set for us in this show's bible, they have ultimately broken and torn up.
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No, just a personal observation. When it comes to time travel, anyone can set the rules -- including fans. :D
 
Apologies for going back quite a way in the series. I'm only just catching up, and have only just got to 1.08. Space race.

Generally I'm enjoying it, and more or less accept the "Hard SF" and "Historical" labels given in the thread title. (Apart from the argument against any hard SF that can include time travel, of course.)

But I've just noticed something very strange in this episode.
Both Anthony and Rufus are seen to mount a tape on a tape drive in the computer room, and in both cases they mount them with the yellow "write enable rings" on the spool showing which is the wrong way round.
It seems a rather trivial mistake to have made by the production team. (and quite difficult, as you would have to spool the tape on backwards à la "Paul is Dead")
Hardly rocket science after all. So why have they made it.

Has anyone else seen any apparently deliberate mistakes in the series.
 
I wouldn't have called it "hard sf" or "historical" any more than The Time Tunnel was. It is a little better than TV shows like Dr Who but The Ministry of Time is a much more accurate portrayal of history, if from a very Spanish perspective. Mistakes? Can't think of any that made me suspend my disbelief, but there must have been. Even big films like Apollo 13 had loads.
 
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Dave said:
Can't think of any that made me suspend my disbelief,
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I quite agree. And the fact that most of the kit in the computer room wasn't about until nearly 10 years later didn't bother me at all.

So why mount a tape the wrong way round, when it was so easy to mount it the right way round? It doesn't make it look any better. It just seems odd.
 
farntfar said:
So why mount a tape the wrong way round, when it was so easy to mount it the right way round?
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The answer is Hollywood. They don't care and the production team doesn't always see. You also have to also add in the actors and the chance of them doing something goofy. Like Dave says, don't worry about it. Mistakes happen and you are not supposed to spot them.

Timeless does a wonderful job on making their best to make the historical settings to look accurate. But we are living this day and they only had so little time to produce the episodes, when they're shooting that mistakes will filter in and there is no point to try to correct them in the post-production process.

Thing that Timeless does best is to make the settings accurate enough to pass as real. We don't know for sure, because we didn't live in those times. Later on you will notice that the TimeTravel has consequences and something's that should be, aren't and it adds up even more to the pile of "mistakes."

I recommend reading the comments. 11 pages isn't a lot.
 
You're right, of course, ctg.
I'm just being fussy.:)
All in all it's pretty well done.
 
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