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Meredith Quill

By Meredith Quill
in Timeless [V]

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shantown
shantown

Timeless being un-cancelled feels like a 3 people course-corrected a glitch in history that caused it to not be renewed in the first place... :)

TexasGal
TexasGal

This cracked me up.

giovannif7
giovannif7

Guess who's getting a 2-episode wrap-up!

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Lebanna

Lebanna

(edited)

Sony Pictures TV, the maker of 'Timeless', is about to be sued by the makers of Spanish show 'El Ministerio del Tiempo' ('The Ministry of Time') which, to be fair, has a very similar premise to this show. Government organisation. Time travel to save the history of the nation. A scientist, an historian and a soldier as the three main characters.

And apparently the makers of the Spanish show were in talks to produce a remake in the US.

Here is a link on the story - but sorry, WARNING, it is in SPANISH. I've read it and what I've written above is basically what it says, but haven't found a translation to English yet. http://cultura.elpais.com/cultura/2016/09/02/television/1472816593_008401.html

It all sounds a bit dodgy - but I'm sure 'Timeless' will go ahead in the autumn just fine anyway. I'm looking forward to it.

Edited by Lebanna
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anghara2001

anghara2001

Yes, NBC an Sony are going to be sued for plagiarism. The producers of "El Ministerio del Tiempo" were in negociations with Sony, gave them the scripts, the show's ideas and all, and they were on it, they liked the show enough to make the american version of it but suddenly they said no and backtracked with no explanation.  Now we know why.

It's not that both shows have a similar premise, it's that Timeless copy so much from EMDT that it hurts. As a Ministry of Time fan - we are called "ministericos"- , I would have loved an american version, but not like this. I will watch "Timeless", but even when I might like it, I won't, I can't betray my love for a series that made me wait for Monday nights eagerly, something that didn't happen to me since X- Files.

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Lebanna

Lebanna

(edited)

Yes, I'm a bit of a 'ministérica' too, anghara. I remember the first time I saw the blurb for this show thinking it had to be a remake of EMdT! I had heard that there was going to be a US version. So I was rather sad to see this news of the court case.

Anyway, I am still looking forward to the show, but I hope everyone involved in the creative process gets whatever money they might be owed and also that "El Ministerio del Tiempo"  gets a third season and many more to come!

Edited by Lebanna
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marihunc

marihunc

(edited)

Another ministérica here :D As soon as I saw the first promo of Timeless, my first thought was "MdT-ripoff"! And not only is it a ripoff, it's a pretty watered-down version. One of the things I love the most about MdT is that everyone in the Ministerio is from different eras (Velázquez FTW! :DDDD) I'll probably check out Timeless, since I can't say no to any time-travel show, but probably only until we get the news that MdT finally got its third season order! :D

Edited by marihunc
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anghara2001

anghara2001

Lugal, if you are brave to watch it in spanish, here they are both seasons in HQ.

http://www.rtve.es/television/ministerio-del-tiempo/capitulos-completos/

 I love Velazquez too, he's an egocentric - having Google ping him whenever his name comes up on the internet - but he's a dear

Monday the 5th all the ministericos we have a date on twitter at 22:00 spanish time to watch episodes and make the show trending topic, as it was every monday night.

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legaleagle53

legaleagle53

On 9/3/2016 at 1:48 PM, anghara2001 said:

Lugal, if you are brave to watch it in spanish, here they are both seasons in HQ.

http://www.rtve.es/television/ministerio-del-tiempo/capitulos-completos/

 I love Velazquez too, he's an egocentric - having Google ping him whenever his name comes up on the internet - but he's a dear

Monday the 5th all the ministericos we have a date on twitter at 22:00 spanish time to watch episodes and make the show trending topic, as it was every monday night.

Hmm -- I have tomorrow off, so I'll have to do a bit of binge-watching, assuming that this isn't geo-blocked in my country.  It will be a good workout for my Spanish!

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marihunc

marihunc

8 hours ago, legaleagle53 said:

Hmm -- I have tomorrow off, so I'll have to do a bit of binge-watching, assuming that this isn't geo-blocked in my country.  It will be a good workout for my Spanish!

I don't think it's geo-blocked. BTW just so you know, the episodes are 70 minutes long! :)

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legaleagle53

legaleagle53

55 minutes ago, marihunc said:

I don't think it's geo-blocked. BTW just so you know, the episodes are 70 minutes long! :)

I know.  I visited the official website last night.  I'm fluent in Spanish, so I think this will be a challenge of stamina for me as well as a good workout in the language!

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Lugal

Lugal

I watched the first ep and learned my Spanish is not as strong as I thought.  I loved the show and the actors but I know I missed a lot of the nuance.  Now I'm hoping Dramafever or someone will pick it up.

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FurryFury

FurryFury

My Spanish is just way too bad, I have to watch with both English (or my native language) subtitles and Spanish. It annoys me to no end because I just can't seem to learn the language enough even if it's not that hard (I'm around Intermediate level, but not quite).

And yeah, I also though about EMDT when I read about this new show.

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Kromm

Kromm

(edited)
On 9/3/2016 at 4:10 PM, Lugal said:

Wow, it really sounds like NBC/Sony ripped it off and so shamelessly.  I'll still check it out, but now I have to find El Ministerio del Tiempo

I dunno. I agree it is suspicious if Sony and NBC were specifically in negotiations over another Time Travel show, however the other side of the coin is that the concepts of Time Cop-like people go back a heck of a lot further than 2015 (when El Ministerio del Tiempo was on).  The actual movie "Timecop" dates from 1994. I read a series of Science Fiction books called "TimeWars" with that exact premise dating from 1984. Quantum Leap, from 1989, had elements of fixing time, even if it wasn't a government group.  Doctor Who, while largely just about traveling AROUND time, had it's share of Time Enforcement agent type plots, as have multiple Star Trek shows. Comic books (both Marvel and DC, but slightly more DC) had Time Police type stuff way back in the 1960s. Various Anime/Manga have had the plot for decades too. 

Unless there are specific situations (plots and similar characters) taken from El Ministerio del Tiempo, it's going to be hard to convince anyone that they invented Time Policing storytelling a mere year ago. I suppose if it comes down to if the "A scientist, an historian and a soldier as the three main characters" part is really as identical or not, because the rest of the setup is fairly generic. 

Edited by Kromm
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Lebanna

Lebanna

(edited)

Actually, 'Quantum Leap' was a government group - specifically the scientific division of the United States Navy (that's why Al dressed up in his admiral uniform whenever they needed extra funding...). And UNIT in 'Doctor Who' is also UK military. And, yes, 'Time Cop' and everything else.

I think it's the fact that this show is now and the characters seem to be just so similar and that apparently they were in talks with the producers for a remake, that is getting up people's noses and what is leading to the court case. Because it's kind of an odd coincidence, eh? It's like there are a million 'girl meets boy, girl finds out boy is serial killer' stories, or 'kid goes to magic school' stories, but whether it's plagarizing someone else all depends on the way you tell 'em. 

But we haven't seen the show yet. So we don't really know how it'll pan out.

Edited by Lebanna
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Lebanna

Lebanna

(edited)

Yes! And a full season of 13 new episodes too! Fantastic! And they're getting more money for even better CGI!

(I have to admit to feeling more positive about watching Timeless now, as well. I was starting to get worried. I want to watch Timeless as well not instead of EMdT)

Edited by Lebanna
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Camera One

Camera One

(edited)

I'm not sure if this video can watched from outside Canada.  ET Canada did a segment on the filming of next Monday's episode.

I typed up some of it:

Production Designer:
"One of the challenges of Timeless is we don't have repeating sets.  We're doing something new every week, we're basically reinventing the wheel each time to make it work, to make it authentic... we had to go back... do a heck of a lot of research, look for the oldest photos, look for artist representations of the time, look for stories.  Every episode is a crash course in history"

Art Director:
"Every week when I read the scripts is the amount of work I have to go to to make the sets as accurate as possible because there's always *that* guy who watches and goes, it wasn't like that."

Costumer Designer:
"There are a lot of people who will weigh in on it.  the production designer, the director, the producers, the actors, have strong opinions about how their characters feel with the written work and we try to get that across through the clothes"

Edited by Camera One
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Ariah

Ariah

(edited)

Timeless gets a "full season".

I don't know since when 16-episode run is called a "full season", but...

Edit: this info already was posted in the 'Ratings' thread :) Sorry for doubling that up.

Edited by Ariah
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Chaos Theory

Chaos Theory

Full seasons vary these days.   Channels like FX and the like consider full seasons to be 13 episodes.  I think Showtime and HBO are around that as well.  Network tv is still under the (in my opinion) false assumption that quantity it better then quality and tries to square in 22 but that often feels like two seasons in one.   I think 16 episodes is a good respectable season for a first season show.  

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CooperTV

CooperTV

Quote

Last year, the creators of NBC’s time travel series Timeless got smacked with a lawsuit, claiming they’d stolen the idea for their history jaunting show from the Spanish series El Ministerio Del Tiempo. Now, Variety reports that a U.S. District Judge has denied NBC’s efforts to have the case thrown out outright, meaning it’ll move on to the summary judgment stage of the litigation process.

The suit—lodged by Onza Partners, the producers of the Spanish series—alleges a number of similarities between NBC’s show and its own, including shared goals of using time travel to stop a villain from changing the past, and “the presence of a three person team of one woman and two men,” in which the woman has “an academic background (with unorthodox elements) and knowledge of historical accuracy helpful—or crucial—to carrying out the given missions.” (Aura Garrido plays that part in El Ministerio, Abigail Spencer in Timeless.) Onza says it met with Sony in 2015 to discuss an American version of El Ministerio, negotiations that were abruptly cut off when Shawn Ryan and Eric Kripke’s show went into development.

Judge Stephen Wilson ruled that “an examination of more than just the pilots is required” for a determination of similarity between the two shows, and that Onza’s “well pleaded facts state a plausible claim for an implied contract.” Timeless is currently 15 episodes into its first season.

NBC can’t stop the clock on the Timeless lawsuit

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green

green

(edited)
12 hours ago, CooperTV said:

NBC can’t stop the clock on the Timeless lawsuit

Good find.  I hope the Spanish series made some kind of sense.  If so maybe they should have done a better job of stealing/plagiarizing the original series at least.

The reviewer for this week mentioned the rating for the show are really terrible at this point.  Can we then assume this version is finally belly-up?  Or, at least, this law suit may do it in?  I'm all for it getting cancelled.  Such possibilities with nothing to really show for it except the actor playing Rufus was great and I like the guy playing Flynn too but Flynn went from interesting and complex to just two-dimensional alas.  But I'm happy at the thought of never seeing "Wyatt" on my screen ever again.

Edited by green
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CooperTV

CooperTV

5 hours ago, green said:

I hope the Spanish series made some kind of sense.

I don't know what the Timeless creators were thinking but they should have just done a remake of that show. Because they only took the superficial similarities, like two dudes, one girl set-up and that it has time travel.

The Spanish series actually have this thing that called the Department of Time, it has no time machine whatsoever, it instead has doors to different time periods, and two out of three characters are from another time. And they use access to those doors very liberally, as in bringing actual ER teams to save a historical figure when they're in danger of being killed out of time and stuff like that.

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green

green

10 hours ago, CooperTV said:

I don't know what the Timeless creators were thinking but they should have just done a remake of that show. Because they only took the superficial similarities, like two dudes, one girl set-up and that it has time travel.

The Spanish series actually have this thing that called the Department of Time, it has no time machine whatsoever, it instead has doors to different time periods, and two out of three characters are from another time. And they use access to those doors very liberally, as in bringing actual ER teams to save a historical figure when they're in danger of being killed out of time and stuff like that.

That would have been so so much better than what we got.  Houdini or the Lone Ranger or bad girl Bonnie with Rufus instead of Wyatt and Lucy.  Hey Timeless dudes, you should of at least plagiarized that idea.

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CooperTV

CooperTV

13 minutes ago, green said:

That would have been so so much better than what we got.  Houdini or the Lone Ranger or bad girl Bonnie with Rufus instead of Wyatt and Lucy.  Hey Timeless dudes, you should of at least plagiarized that idea.

In El Ministerio del Tiempo the lady was from 1880s and the first female student in the Bareselona university, the dude #2 was some sort of Captain Alatriste, 17th century badass with magnificent mustache, and the dude #1 was a mopey ex-ambulance driver with PTSD and no skills except for moping and the Beard of Sad because he had dead wife he wanted back. The most interesting character was the "Cpt. Alatriste", but El Ministerio del Tiempo liked itself some boring middle-aged beardy angst, for reasons I'm not sure about. I greatly prefer Wyatt's beautiful mug, if they want him to to mope around, tbh.

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orza

orza

5 hours ago, CooperTV said:

In El Ministerio del Tiempo the lady was from 1880s and the first female student in the Bareselona university, the dude #2 was some sort of Captain Alatriste, 17th century badass with magnificent mustache, and the dude #1 was a mopey ex-ambulance driver with PTSD and no skills except for moping and the Beard of Sad because he had dead wife he wanted back. The most interesting character was the "Cpt. Alatriste", but El Ministerio del Tiempo liked itself some boring middle-aged beardy angst, for reasons I'm not sure about. I greatly prefer Wyatt's beautiful mug, if they want him to to mope around, tbh.

It doesn't seem like the two shows are similar enough to claim plagiarism. It sounds like Onza is pissed off that their talks with Sony didn't go anywhere and now they are looking for someone to blame.

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CooperTV

CooperTV

21 minutes ago, orza said:

It doesn't seem like the two shows are similar enough to claim plagiarism.

Well, I happen to be agree! The timing of it all indeed seems suspicious but the premise of Timeless itself is so broad it could be derived from pretty much any other sci-fi show of the last fifty years. It's a mishmash of Time Tunnel, Stargate SG1 and Seven Days, and the fact that there's a Evil Guy that Wants to Screw Up Time and Space only points to Doctor Who's the Master for me.

Timeless and El Ministerio del Tiempo both would wish they'd had the level class and original thought the Classic Doctor Who has, in any case.

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green

green

(edited)
6 hours ago, CooperTV said:

In El Ministerio del Tiempo the lady was from 1880s and the first female student in the Bareselona university, the dude #2 was some sort of Captain Alatriste, 17th century badass with magnificent mustache, and the dude #1 was a mopey ex-ambulance driver with PTSD and no skills except for moping and the Beard of Sad because he had dead wife he wanted back. The most interesting character was the "Cpt. Alatriste", but El Ministerio del Tiempo liked itself some boring middle-aged beardy angst, for reasons I'm not sure about. I greatly prefer Wyatt's beautiful mug, if they want him to to mope around, tbh.

Well we know where Timeless found Wyatt now.  Took the worst feature form the Spanish show and made him even worse in this one. 

It sounds like there was plagiarism going on especially since they shopped the show, got turned down and "bang" another show pretty much like it pops up soon after.  Judges don't usually side with the plaintiffs in plagiarism cases like this so the fact this judge did says that where there is smoke there is fire.

Edited by green
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LoneHaranguer

LoneHaranguer

4 hours ago, CooperTV said:

t's a mishmash of Time Tunnel, Stargate SG1 and Seven Days, and the fact that there's a Evil Guy that Wants to Screw Up Time and Space only points to Doctor Who's the Master for me.

Except that the first three shows featured competent agents. Doctor Who is a good fit; team members getting kidnapped, people around them winding up dead, no real victory against the "bad guy", distinctive travel machine... The BBC may have a better case than Onza.

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Camera One

Camera One

(edited)

Beware this article is full of spoilers about the season finale:
http://tvline.com/2017/02/17/timeless-spoilers-season-1-finale-rufus-renewed-cancelled/

However, part of it is about changes of renewal and how they approached writing the last episode:

Quote

TVLINE | How much did not knowing whether the show was renewed or not impact the finale and how you chose to end it?

RYAN | It did not have a great impact. We had a story that we wanted to tell from the beginning. We’re moving forward optimistically. We think there will be a Season 2. I’ve been in a situation before on Last Resort, where it was clear as we were making Episodes 10 and 11 that the show wasn’t going to continue, and we chose at that point to write what was essentially a series finale for Episode 13 to give closure. I think there are a lot of reasons for optimism for a Season 2. We’ll find out in two or three months. We’ve always set out to tell this one-season story that then would provide a launching point for a Season 2, but that would answer a lot of things, and I think we did it. We didn’t have any conversations where we were pulling out ratings and trying to do the math. We’re just writers, and we told the best story we could. So we’ll let the chips fall where they may.
KRIPKE | When you write these things, you plan for success. You just sort of have to, and whatever happens happens. But you write it as if the show’s coming back, because I think doing it any other way, you’re compromising the story you set out to tell.

 

KRIPKE | In a way, yeah. What I think my experience with Supernatural gives me is stamina and perspective when it comes to something like Timeless. I don’t panic about this stuff or even really worry about it at all. Certain things are outside of my control.

Every time we finished a season of Supernatural, and we didn’t know we were coming back, we never pulled our punches. We always ended on the craziest possible cliffhanger we could. We knew that had we been cancelled at that point, the fans would’ve gone crazy because our heroes are either smashed up by a semi truck one year, or Dean’s in Hell another year. But you just go for it. My philosophy — and I know it’s Shawn’s, too — is if you’re in the General Lee, and you’re racing towards that smashed-up bridge, you don’t pump the brakes. You put the pedal to the metal.

They're a tad arrogant in assuming they would be renewed, but even putting that aside...

If it's true that "we had a story that we wanted to tell from the beginning" or "we've always set out to tell this one-season story", then their pacing and plotting was lame.  The finale is not building up to anything all that significant.  Even in the last few episodes, there was no consistent momentum, since the characters would simply pause and complete their formula of the week.  The details of Rittenhouse are still extremely vague.  Most of the episodes have been procedural with a tons of little threads that have been dropped and picked up almost in a random fashion.  There's no way a single episode can "give closure" in any way.  These 15 episodes have not told a coherent story in any way, shape or form.

Edited by Camera One
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methodwriter85

methodwriter85

On 2/16/2017 at 4:52 PM, green said:

 I'm happy at the thought of never seeing "Wyatt" on my screen ever again.

NBC will probably recycle Matt Lanter for something else, though. I think The CW is done with him because he's just a tad too old but NBC will probably try to see if they can put him somewhere that works. I can totally see them shipping him over to one of their Chicago franchise shows.

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Free

Free

On ‎2‎/‎18‎/‎2017 at 2:34 PM, Camera One said:

Beware this article is full of spoilers about the season finale:
http://tvline.com/2017/02/17/timeless-spoilers-season-1-finale-rufus-renewed-cancelled/

However, part of it is about changes of renewal and how they approached writing the last episode:

They're a tad arrogant in assuming they would be renewed, but even putting that aside...

If it's true that "we had a story that we wanted to tell from the beginning" or "we've always set out to tell this one-season story", then their pacing and plotting was lame.  The finale is not building up to anything all that significant.  Even in the last few episodes, there was no consistent momentum, since the characters would simply pause and complete their formula of the week.  The details of Rittenhouse are still extremely vague.  Most of the episodes have been procedural with a tons of little threads that have been dropped and picked up almost in a random fashion.  There's no way a single episode can "give closure" in any way.  These 15 episodes have not told a coherent story in any way, shape or form.

Pretty much, it's been stuck on formulaic that's devoid of tension or anything that remotely deviates from the status quo, which is easily resolved in the very next episode.  All that's left is a de facto shadowy organization.

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methodwriter85

methodwriter85

I think the problem is that the show wanted to have it both ways- it wanted to be a fun, popcorn show where people travel and meet historical figures, and it also wanted to have a high-stakes drama with a serious threat our heroes had to fight against. It worked well on the first level; not so much on the second.

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legaleagle53

legaleagle53

The writers are doing a Q & A session on Twitter, and they answered the question of how Anthony was able to go back to 1962 and 1972 when he shouldn't have been able to.  According to them, Anthony, like Emma, spent ten years stuck in the past but was actually born later.  The explanation of that was cut.

They also said that they had talked about doing an episode about the War of 1812 and that Harriet Tubman's era is on their wish list for Season 2.

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methodwriter85

methodwriter85

1 hour ago, legaleagle53 said:

The writers are doing a Q & A session on Twitter, and they answered the question of how Anthony was able to go back to 1962 and 1972 when he shouldn't have been able to.  According to them, Anthony, like Emma, spent ten years stuck in the past but was actually born later.  The explanation of that was cut.

They also said that they had talked about doing an episode about the War of 1812 and that Harriet Tubman's era is on their wish list for Season 2.

See that would have made sense, and it would explain why Anthony would be so bitter. He's probably contemporaries with Flynn.

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