S01.E01: Pilot

[iMonrey]

I watched the pilot a second time and the clunky bits really stood out more. There was too much packed into one hour, honestly, and they probably should have saved the whole "she looks just like my dead wife" plot point for a later episode. That was just some really hackneyed character backstory there.

I think the worst part, though, is when the Hindenburg came crashing down (the second time) and Lucy, Wyatt, Flynn and the reporter are just standing around right in front of the burning wreckage having conversations with no sign of any fire fighters, police or anyone else you'd think would be trying to clear the area. Also the fact that after they broke out of prison they were able to just get straight onto the air field, run up to the airship and board without anyone stopping them or even hindering them. Talk about lax security - even for 1937.

[nottopbravo]

Things that bugged me this episode:

1) No stairs on the eye for our time travelers

2) Not throwing the bomb out the window (or at least trying to)

It will be interesting to see how they deal with all the timeline changes in the present time (and there should be many).

[Terrafamilia]

On 10/7/2016 at 9:18 AM, AbsoluteShower said:

Never mind all this time travel/butterfly effect stuff - what happened to Max Headroom?

He was the inside man (there just had to have been an inside man).

Another thing that confused me was that the GPS thingy that told the prototype where/when the newer timesphere would be. Am I misremembering in that it indicated that Flynn went to some bar? Why would Flynn land his ship in/on/under a bar? If that isn't where he landed, how would they know to go to that particular bar to ask around?

Black and British Steve Jobs needs to move his whole operation outside of time ASAP, or waaaaay into the deep past, or invent some normality inducers. Something. Or the team will return one episode to find out someone else is responsible for building the machine.

Maybe he is from the future/an alternate timeline and he became a tech billionaire so he could build a way to go home.

[bros402]

9 hours ago, Terrafamilia said:

He was the inside man (there just had to have been an inside man).

Another thing that confused me was that the GPS thingy that told the prototype where/when the newer timesphere would be. Am I misremembering in that it indicated that Flynn went to some bar? Why would Flynn land his ship in/on/under a bar? If that isn't where he landed, how would they know to go to that particular bar to ask around?

Black and British Steve Jobs needs to move his whole operation outside of time ASAP, or waaaaay into the deep past, or invent some normality inducers. Something. Or the team will return one episode to find out someone else is responsible for building the machine.

Maybe he is from the future/an alternate timeline and he became a tech billionaire so he could build a way to go home.

1. The knew the area he was in, going to a bar in as good a place as any to start.

2. He's not Black & British Steve Jobs, he's Black & British Elon Musk (hence the "I have one of your electric cars!" comment)

[thuganomics85]

Finally got around to this.  It was entertaining enough for a pilot, if a bit goofy at times.  It felt like a mixture of The Liberians and Legends of Tomorrow, although none of the main characters grab my interest like the ones in those do.  Well, except Flynn is already a more compelling villain then Vandal Savage, but that's likely because Goran Visnjic is a way better actor then Casper Crump.

Still, I do like that they aren't always going to magically save the day and reset everything, so the present is likely going to change in various ways. I doubt they'll ever explain what leads to all of the changes, but it will be kind of fun to see the differences.  The big one for this episode was obviously Lucy's mom now better, but Amy never existing.  Sucks for her, but I guess it's best to go with Susanna Thompson over Bailey Noble. Nothing personal, but Moira Queen > Adilyn Bellefleur from True Blood.

It's cool seeing Abigail Spencer in a lead role compared to seeing her in a kind of thankless role (Mad Men) and an extremely thankless, unlikeable role (True Detective.)

Wyatt's kind of dull, but I did find it strange Lucy and Rufus seemed so shocked over him killing the guy.  Why did they think he was on the mission?  It's not like he's here to brush up on history or see the sights.

Feel kind of bad for Rufus, because no matter what time period they go to, he's bound to have to deal with some form of bigotry and racism.  I'm sure the eventual big Rufus-centric episode is going to have him dealing with some kind racial tension movement in history.

Fun seeing Shantel VanSanten (Patty from The Flash) as Kate.  Also, you know a show is shot in Canada when Matt Frewer pops up (I guess we'll see that character again?), along with Hiro Kanagawa.

Not sure what to make of either Manson or Sakina Jaffrey's character.

I so think Flynn is going to end up not being responsible for his family's death.  I can still seem him being flat-out bad, but it being his family's death that somehow drove him to his evil turn, as opposed to doing it himself. 

And, yes, Chekov's Wired Bra was such an obvious turn of events!

The writing team for this episode was an interesting duo.  You've got Eric Kripke from Supernatural and Revolution, and then Shawn Ryan from The Shield and Terriers.  Never would have predicted that these two would join forces.

Edited October 11, 2016 by thuganomics85

[green]

Caught part of it again and was reminded that as much as the back of the bus stuff was inaccurate that I mentioned in another thread so was the jail stuff.  Soldier boy and Rufus would share a cell.  They didn't segregate prisoners by race in Jersey.  But no where no how whether in NJ or even the deep south would a woman be put in with a man in a cell.  Especially since they had the extra cell Rufus was in alone.

If this series is gonna give us an alternate version of "real history" not meaning it to be an alternate one for the viewers -- aka New Jersey suddenly being part of the deep south in the 30's -- we will really have a mess of timelines on our hands.  Psssst, show.  Go hire someone that knows history.  Like any eighth grader who could do better than your writers.

[Ottis]

This show was so predictable. From the make up of the trio chasing Flynn (which we predicted from the first scene with the female lead as "genius scientist who is the only one who can make this work, then a soldier body guard and finally a nerdy but talented scientist") to the "you might change events but fate still causes some things to happen (i.e. the reporter dying, this time from a gun shot) to the "they still changed something personal in the timeline - the mom and sister/daughter," were were correct on 100 percent of our predictions.

BTW, the soldier boy wanting to rescue people was unforgiveable in a show like this. The number one rule, the only thing that should have been stressed in the limited time before they left, was "don't change anything outside of your mission, no matter how hard." Make them watch "City on the Edge of Forever" at least once. He was a rube.

I'm afraid this show will look pretty and give us the guilty pleasure of reliving historical moments, but the plots will be so cliched and recycled that we will tune out in boredom. 

Please prove us wrong, show. Which, BTW, is more like Stargate than anything, IMO.

Edited October 10, 2016 by Ottis

[Cranberry]

I finally had time to watch this, and I liked it. I agree that it was predictable, but I'm okay with that as it was a pilot and they had to introduce the characters and set up the in-universe rules of time travel, so it makes sense that they wouldn't want to go too complicated with the first mission at the same time. I think this has the potential to get pretty convoluted if every mission changes the present day in many little ways, so I hope the writers can keep it all straight. They better have a book like Lucy's, is what I'm saying.

I also agree that Wyatt should not have attempted to save Kate, but at this point I'm going to charitably assume that he's a dumbass who just doesn't grasp how much saving one person could alter history. He better learn that lesson soon, though.

[ketose]

On 10/8/2016 at 7:58 PM, Lugal said:

I completely agree, but I think it's mainly due to the fact that audiences want a familiar face.  Someday, someone should do an anthology series like this where characters are played by different actors every week due to changes in the timeline.

I think Sliders eventually had 3 Quinn Mallorys, and one was female.

[Eolivet]

I admit, I went through five pages of discussion rather quickly, but did anyone else notice the "underwire from your bra to pick the lock" is an exact plot point from "Friends" (and who knows how many other sitcoms/movies)? It's when they get stranded on the highway on their way to skiing because someone locks the keys inside Phoebe's grandmother's cab and Joey picks the lock using the underwire from Rachel's bra. I saw the episode about a month ago!

That aside, I found this fun. The premise moreso than the characters, for now, although I agree with those calling Flynn as Lucy's future son. When they mentioned how you can't go to a timeline where you already existed, I may have asked the TV "Didn't you see the Doctor Who episode, 'Father's Day?!'"

Also, now I'm not going to be able to look at the time machine without thinking "Giant CBS Eye."

[psychoticstate]

On 10/4/2016 at 9:35 AM, statsgirl said:

I don't get the premise that they had to rush to save the Hindenburg because it was going to blow up anyway.  And yeah, as others have pointed out, they should have had all the time in the world to prepare for their trip since they were travelling back in time anyway.

Apologies if this was addressed already as I am working my way through the posts but they weren't initially trying to save the Hindenburg; they wanted to make sure that it followed correct history and blew up on landing.

I'm happy to see that there are a few others who enjoyed this.  I loved it.  I don't care about scientific accuracy; I love time travel and will just enjoy the hell out of it.  I also love history and adore the 1920s and 1930s so this was a lot of fun to watch and gave me loads of visual candy.

I too remember Voyagers! with Jon-Erik Hexum (what a gorgeous man.)  Phineas Bogg - - sad I can remember his character's name but not what I ate for lunch yesterday. 

NBC having this show makes me nervous.  The last time travel show they did was Journeyman with the amazing Kevin McKidd and NBC (Nothing But Cancellations) never gave it a fair shake before they cancelled it.  I'm hoping they give this show a decent amount of time to develop its characters, plots and fan base.

I watched this pilot via On Demand and then immediately set my DVR for future eps.  Look forward to seeing where this goes.  If Kripke really loves us, he'll have Sam and Dean crossover for an episode or two. 

[crowsworks]

Why didn't they send back 3 different people to fix the Hindenburg crash. Maybe a Delta Force guy who's a bit more delta-ey. He got beat up a lot. Some folks who can keep their mouth shut. Give them super full thumb drives to carry with so they know what history got trashed.

[Clanstarling]

20 hours ago, psychoticstate said:

The last time travel show they did was Journeyman with the amazing Kevin McKidd and NBC (Nothing But Cancellations) never gave it a fair shake before they cancelled it.

I loved that show. I will watch pretty much anything that's time travel related, and have enjoyed most of them. (except for Looper, hated Looper - loved the concept, hated the execution <pun unintended, but I'll go with it>)

[Raja]

7 hours ago, crowsworks said:

Why didn't they send back 3 different people to fix the Hindenburg crash. Maybe a Delta Force guy who's a bit more delta-ey. He got beat up a lot. Some folks who can keep their mouth shut. Give them super full thumb drives to carry with so they know what history got trashed.

They act like there is some kind of time pressure to get the mission out, so the Master Sergeant was drunk presumably who was nearby and available fast and not a team member. Perhaps the British Jobs is playing Homeland Security causing the panic mission planning.

[bros402]

17 hours ago, Clanstarling said:

I loved that show. I will watch pretty much anything that's time travel related, and have enjoyed most of them. (except for Looper, hated Looper - loved the concept, hated the execution <pun unintended, but I'll go with it>)

Oh man, I loved Journeyman. That was such a good show. The Writer's Strike had so many casualties. Like Pushing Daisies.

[withanaich]

On 10/9/2016 at 5:02 PM, Terrafamilia said:

 

On 10/7/2016 at 10:18 AM, AbsoluteShower said:

Never mind all this time travel/butterfly effect stuff - what happened to Max Headroom?

He was the inside man (there just had to have been an inside man).

I'm still not sure, but that's what my husband suspected. Maybe that's why Matt Frewer tried to rush Rufus out the door to buy tacos before the bad guys arrived? 

[Zanne]

On 10/4/2016 at 5:02 PM, KaveDweller said:

It would have been interesting if they started the show with some kind of fictional history existing. Then make it that what we know in reality only happened because of what the characters did. 

So much yes to this, particularly after watching the second episode. It is really bothering me that they are leaving time wrong in a way I can't handwave. I would have preferred your version, though I realize that would take out the "surprise" of the changes.

[KaveDweller]

35 minutes ago, Zanne said:

So much yes to this, particularly after watching the second episode. It is really bothering me that they are leaving time wrong in a way I can't handwave. I would have preferred your version, though I realize that would take out the "surprise" of the changes.

I guess it would take out the surprise, and networks are definitely big on being able to "shock" audiences these days. But sometimes it's nice to know the end and be surprised by how exactly things played out to get that way.

[withanaich]

On 10/13/2016 at 2:31 AM, bros402 said:

The Writer's Strike had so many casualties. Like Pushing Daisies.

Amen. Amen all day long to that.

Quote

It is really bothering me that they are leaving time wrong in a way I can't handwave.

Except we would REALLY have to handwave how they were able to go back and undo the changes they made. They haven't addressed whether the former timeline (the one they came from) gets wiped out when they alter it, so we don't know if anything even exists for them to get back to.

[legaleagle53]

1 hour ago, withanaich said:

Amen. Amen all day long to that.

Except we would REALLY have to handwave how they were able to go back and undo the changes they made. They haven't addressed whether the former timeline (the one they came from) gets wiped out when they alter it, so we don't know if anything even exists for them to get back to.

Besides, isn't one of the rules of time travel that you can't go back to an era that you've already visited, which means that you only get ONE shot to get it right and if you don't, too bad, so sad?

[BooBear]

1 minute ago, legaleagle53 said:

Besides, isn't one of the rules of time travel that you can't go back to an era that you've already visited, which means that you only get ONE shot to get it right and if you don't, too bad, so sad?

But as many have pointed out I think the rule is that only those specific people can't go back. Two of you can't exist in the same space... but not sure why other people can't go back and fix things.  It might be funny if this core group totally messes up history so bad with all their small changes that Garcia Flynn gets knocked out of stealing the time machine in the first episode and erases all of the consequences.  That would be a great ending.

[Clanstarling]

4 minutes ago, BooBear said:

But as many have pointed out I think the rule is that only those specific people can't go back. Two of you can't exist in the same space...

What about the machine? Physical matter is still matter - it seems to me it would be constrained by the same rules. Now if they had another machine...

Edited October 14, 2016 by Clanstarling

[Camera One]

I really like time travel and historical fiction, so I was drawn to the concept of this show.  I was disappointed in the promo, but I liked the episode more than I expected.  The scene snippets I saw worked better within the episode.  I thought the three main characters were likeable enough.  They seemed really bland in the advertising.  The only thing I didn't like was the villain with that notebook Lucy supposedly wrote in the future... I'm not a big fan of prophesies.  

I did think it was a little ridiculous how they decided to split up at the Hindenberg site and the soldier guy told Lucy and the coder to "find him" if either of them see Flynn.  How are they supposed to find him in a crowd amidst a possible disaster?

Edited October 16, 2016 by Camera One

[SlackerInc]

On 9/30/2016 at 5:34 PM, SomeoneElsa said:

OH man, Siberia. I'm embarrassed to admit I thought the finale was cool and was interested to see how it continued...and then it didn't.

 

On 10/3/2016 at 7:36 AM, withanaich said:

Uh ... so how did Siberia end? Because that show was my guilty pleasure and then I ended up missing the finale (where I presume they explained everything).

As was subsequently explained, it was just the opposite.  Unlike SomeoneElsa, I liked the show fairly well before that point, but was enraged by the finale.

On 10/3/2016 at 10:28 PM, Enero said:

The previews made this look promising and I believe the critics were giving it rave reviews.[snip]

The episode didn't get interesting, mildly, until the last five minutes when Lucy went home to find her mother alive and well and her sister to be nonexistent.  

The reviews I have seen were much more in the realm of "meh".  But I checked it out anyway because I'm always interested in time travel.  Like you, though, I didn't find it very interesting until that scrambled timeline right at the end.  Damn you, show!  I was all ready to delete this from my list until that point.  I think maybe I will in the future just watch the parts set in the present day, to see how all that plays out.

On 10/8/2016 at 6:30 PM, sjohnson said:

Biologically the birth of a person is due to the fusion of an egg and a sperm. The number of eggs at any given time is finite, but the notion that any particular one will be released *on schedule* is just as likely as absolute regularity in menstruation. As if that weren't enough, there are hundreds of millions of sperms. The really astonishing conceit in time travel stories with changes possible is that the same people are conceived. Conception is as random as it gets. Hitting rewind with a time change shouldn't produce the same results, aka people. It's like reshuffling, then dealing the same hand to all the players. 

Good analogy.  A fun little scientific/mathematical fact is that there are so many different ways a deck of cards can be shuffled, that when you give a deck of cards a good shuffle, you are almost certainly holding a deck that has never existed in that exact order in all of human history.

On 10/9/2016 at 4:02 PM, Terrafamilia said:

Another thing that confused me was that the GPS thingy that told the prototype where/when the newer timesphere would be. Am I misremembering in that it indicated that Flynn went to some bar? Why would Flynn land his ship in/on/under a bar? If that isn't where he landed, how would they know to go to that particular bar to ask around?

They only know when, not where, the ship is going.  They figured out the bit about the bar from an address they found in the dead henchman's pocket.

On 10/14/2016 at 0:38 PM, BooBear said:

But as many have pointed out I think the rule is that only those specific people can't go back. Two of you can't exist in the same space... but not sure why other people can't go back and fix things.  It might be funny if this core group totally messes up history so bad with all their small changes that Garcia Flynn gets knocked out of stealing the time machine in the first episode and erases all of the consequences.  That would be a great ending.

That would indeed be pretty cool.  But what it also makes me think of is that their best bet, really, would be to go back and give the bad guy's mom some kind of drug that makes her infertile (or just kill her, but that's pretty harsh).  Sure, his never existing will have some ripple effects, but given what we've already seen it seems like they would be less than letting him continue to do all the crap he is doing.

I need my own supply of Advil, though, to figure out if keeping the bad guy from ever being born would bring back the sister (and put the mom back in a coma).