S01.E01: Pilot

[KaveDweller]

3 hours ago, iMonrey said:

That's 34 people out of billions, so the odds that any one of them would have made some significant, historical change in reality is infinitesimal, mathematically speaking. Sure, there are going to be changes to their lives, and their families, and their immediate surroundings, but significant enough to change history for the entire planet? How many people in this world really make it into history books? Compared to the common people who live and die unnoticed by history? 

I don't think it would be major historical changes, but it would be a lot of little changes. Those tend to add up, so I bet there could be lots of things like sisters not existing or mothers not being sick. Especially if one of those 34 people had a kid that invented a cure for whatever disease the mother had.

[possibilities]

Part of why the changes are significant to history is that the rogue time travellor who stole the time machine is deliberately trying to engineer changes, targeting significant events, and that's why the team was dispatched to stop him. How that happened to also impact the immediate family of Lucy, I don't know, but I bet the show has an explanation for that, as hinted by the existence of her diary in the hands of the guy initiating the attempted changes.

If dude was just sightseeing, maybe it would have less of an effect.

[Netfoot]

49 minutes ago, possibilities said:

Part of why the changes are significant to history is that the rogue time travellor who stole the time machine is deliberately trying to engineer changes, targeting significant events, and that's why the team was dispatched to stop him.

The implication here is that the events he targets (the Hindenburg crash, and whatever else comes in the future) are particularly significant to the flow of events in the timeline.  He know which events are particularly significant because he has the notebook.  How the info in the notebook was compiled will have to become clear later on, but for now, we have to accept it as a given.

So, if the crash of the Hindenburg is particularly significant, presumably the altered fates of the 34 people would cause more disruption than if, say, on the way to the landing ground he had been involved in a vehicular accident with an omnibus, which killed 34 different, and presumably less significant, people.  

Personally, I think that changes to the lives of any 34 people, or any 34 butterflies, for that matter, have the potential to bring about catastrophic changes in the present day reality.  The potential increases, the further into the past those changes occur.

1937 to 2016 is 79 years for those people to do/not do something significant that they didn't/did do before.  And it isn't just the 34 people themselves.  It's all the people that they interacted with, who may behave differently as a result.  It's a chain reaction that starts in 1937 with 34 neutrons and could possibly end in the present day with a huge "atomic explosion" of differences in the timeline.  

From 1865 to 2016 is 151 years.  Nearly twice as long for the chain reaction to build and build, greatly increasing the chance of huge timeline differences.

[bros402]

Perhaps wrt the cancer, in this reality, it was caught early - or maybe she got it through exposure to something through work and someone else got a job she got - lost it to one of the people born due to the different Hindenburg.

[green]

Just now, iMonrey said:

Depending on how deep they get into the concept of time travel - or what their concept for time travel is going to be - the show could easily address these anomalies which are certain to keep cropping up every time they go into the past and change something. Continuum did a good job of "repairing" time travel anomalies (although it took them awhile to get around to it). In that instance, the timeline wants to "correct" itself, so even if these people managed to save 34 people who originally died in the Hindenburg, none of their lives would have greatly affected the timeline which would have made course corrections to fix any damage they might do in changing history. They might have all been killed off in other ways, for example, in the ensuing months or years without managing to really affect anything.

Time is obdurate - according to Stephen King's 11/22/63. It doesn't want to be changed. You can go back and change events but it's really hard to do.

Got to disagree.  All life is interwoven.  Remove that butterfly from the fabric of the universe and it is like a loose thread that starts to unravel everything.

34 lives is massive.  They interact and each would have contact with and influence with thousands of other people and animals and insects in a life time.  And procreate a next generation that extends the cone of probabilities with bigger numbers. 

And it doesn't have to be a deep influence.  Just being alive then maybe getting the last seat on a train may make someone else miss that train.  They then get on a bus instead that is involved in an accident and bang you could have killed the father of the future Noble Prize winner in medicine say.  And I'm not even talking the more common change of events of minor things extending 20 or even 200 actions in even.  There are ripple effects in every action we take no matter how minor that result in unintended consequences.  That is how we create the world after all.

So with apologies to Stephen King's fictional rules of time travel physics, I think time is indeed very fluid and can easily be changed.  Just not in this show apparently where only a few key things regards the main cast and selected parts of modern day world will ever be shown to shift. 

And I assume one of them will revolve around soldier boy's dead wife sooner than later.  In fact I'm not writing off the female journalist Kate because they are going further back next week and some action there could change her destiny and she might not become a journalist and be there in New Jersey to be killed if she is born at all. 

But I think she still is born because I really assume she has some connection historically with soldier boy's now (as far as we know) still dead wife given he got such a strong vibe from her.  Or she remains dead which allows other stuff to happen and her sister or brother or someone else related gets connected with his wife's lineage instead which causes her to be alive. Can't imagine the writers made such a big deal of her unless she mattered to his personal life in the future.  I assume that whole bit was a set-up for a payoff later.

Also why did Rufus sit at the back of the bus?  It was New Jersey, not the deep south.  There was (and is) always prejudice in the north of course but no laws that forced a black man to sit in the back of the bus.  Maybe the show doesn't plan a trip south and wanted to get their "Afro-American man trapped in the old south" horror show point transferred to Jersey standing in for the south instead but it doesn't send a good signal for how our real history will be treated. 

It's going to be plenty rough on Rufus as it is.  Social and cultural prejudice exists even if laws "protect" in the north but I really don't know of any northern state where even culturally a black man would move to the back of the bus even in the 1930's.  Not feeling welcome at that bar I can "get" due to it being all whites inside that particular one though he wouldn't be physically threatened per se.  And it would be near impossible in most places in the north to find say open housing then.  But a deep south "back of the bus" thing?  Really?  Correct me if I'm wrong but I don't see that happening in Jersey even in the 30's.

Edited October 6, 2016 by green

[Netfoot]

Hey, I just watched the pilot of Frequency, which has a different, but equally interesting take on the butterfly effect.  Just saying.

[sarthaz]

On 10/4/2016 at 11:56 AM, sarthaz said:

Let's spot the Kripke tropes: John's journal? Check. Jessica dies? Check.

Can't believe I didn't think of Rufus when I wrote this, which doubles as a Supernatural callback and a Bill & Ted reference.

[saber5055]

To get nit picky, will the Giant Flying Eyeball always set down in a remote field and not in the center of a metropolis, crushing people and buildings? And how did Lucy et. al. get from that wooded clearing to the Hindenburg landing site, run? Call a Uber? Plus, what's up with these geniuses not tossing in a rope ladder, you know, the kind used to escape fires from second-floor bedrooms. Or would that take away the "hilarious" scene of the three travelers falling out of the eyeball? And yeah, Christmas present to the office gang: Paperweights!

[kay1864]

On 10/4/2016 at 0:10 PM, iMonrey said:

Yeah, I'm trying not to be too literal with the concept because the instant Flynn went back in time, everything should have changed for the characters still in the present. That's how time works. Flynn didn't need an hour, or a day, or a week in the past for the present day characters to change (or for their lives to change). He's got a time machine, so from his perspective 2016 hasn't happened yet the instant he travels back to 1937. Lucy shouldn't have known how/when the Hindenburg really crashed because the split second Flynn went back in time it would have been different as far as she knew. 

Agreed, but oddly enough (as someone who wants science in his science fiction), I'm okay with the show's apparent premise that if it takes Flynn X hours to make the change (from the time he arrives in the past), then it takes X hours (from the time he left the present) for the change to take effect in the present.  This premise also explains why they had to hurry to get Lucy and cohorts into the backup machine.

Otherwise you can't have a show.

[kay1864]

Anyone else wonder if most / all of the bridge crew wouldn't understand a word that terrorists Lucy and Rufus were saying, since they were German?

Edited October 6, 2016 by kay1864

[kay1864]

On 10/4/2016 at 1:59 AM, Silver Raven said:

Yeah, I'm sure that weird silvery sphere in the middle of a field won't attract attention from anybody, including the people flying overhead on the Hindenburg.

Yep, both ships totally need an invisibility field.  All it takes is one news photographer to stumble across their landing site.

(You're welcome NBC, please send my residual in the form of a cashier's check, kthx)

[kay1864]

On 10/4/2016 at 10:09 PM, ACW said:

Except for the bit with the bomb.  Oh no, the Hindenburg has taken off and is flying over an unoccupied field, and you've found a bomb in the kitchen, set to go off within minutes!  If only the kitchen had windows, similar to the ones we later see the characters easily breaking, both with heavy objects and with their feet!  

ITA, I was actually waiting for him to search for the closest window to toss it out of.

[LoneHaranguer]

11 hours ago, Netfoot said:

From 1865 to 2016 is 151 years.  Nearly twice as long for the chain reaction to build and build, greatly increasing the chance of huge timeline differences.

If Flynn wanted to change history, shouldn't he have started as far back as he needed, then worked his way forward? It makes no sense to go to 1939 first, then 1865, since the 1865 visit could completely wipe out what happened in 1939. This isn't Time Tunnel or Quantum Leap, where the destinations are random; Flynn supposedly has a plan.

[Enigma X]

4 minutes ago, LoneHaranguer said:

If Flynn wanted to change history, shouldn't he have started as far back as he needed, then worked his way forward? It makes no sense to go to 1939 first, then 1865, since the 1865 visit could completely wipe out what happened in 1939. This isn't Time Tunnel or Quantum Leap, where the destinations are random; Flynn supposedly has a plan.

Yeah. I get that time travel shows need the story in order to have a TV show, but there has not been one time-travel show or movie (even ones that I like) where I have not wondered the exact same thing.

[snarktini]

48 minutes ago, LoneHaranguer said:

If Flynn wanted to change history, shouldn't he have started as far back as he needed, then worked his way forward? It makes no sense to go to 1939 first, then 1865, since the 1865 visit could completely wipe out what happened in 1939. This isn't Time Tunnel or Quantum Leap, where the destinations are random; Flynn supposedly has a plan.

Maybe he has to follow the order in the journal? Like in 12 Monkeys, they have to live through events in order up to a certain point.

[kay1864]

On 10/5/2016 at 11:11 AM, sacrebleu said:

The love of Snickers is immutable

This is Commandment #13 on the tablet that Mel Brooks dropped and broke.

[kay1864]

21 hours ago, lordonia said:

But what are the odds that those changes would specifically affect the 20 or so people involved in the time travel project, out of a US population of 320 million? I'm interested in the changes to Lucy's life as a plot point of the show, but it would strain credulity for me outside the TV.

This.  We keep talking about the magnitude of the butterfly effect, but to me it's equally plausible that many of the people who no longer died had an effect that diminished over time (ie they had little impact beyond their own circle of friends and relatives).  Ripples in a pond that faded with distance.

[kay1864]

3 hours ago, saber5055 said:

 And how did Lucy et. al. get from that wooded clearing to the Hindenburg landing site, run? 

I Google-mapped Station Lakehurst (the landing site), and even today, there appear to be fields and wooded areas within a quarter mile.

[Bing]

It had a very The Librarians vibe to me. Low-budget, goofy, implausible with the magicks, but not without charm. I said out loud several times in the first 20 minutes that I would enjoy it more if I quit dwelling on the sizable plot holes, and goldangit, I was right!

[Chaos Theory]

I had a friend awhile back who I don't talk to anymore who would dwell on plot holes no matter how small.  It ruined tv for him and he annoid the hell out of me with his ranting.  Me the plot hole has to be large, noticeable and pretty much in my face or something that annoys me anyway for me to notice which helps me enjoy tv so much more.  I honestly didn't notice too many plot holes that could be hand waved to pilot stuff and time travel stuff move on.   

Personally I am finding this one of the more enjoyable new shows of the season so far so unless episode 2 takes a noticeable downturn the show gets a season pass for me.  Hell it is a contender for live watching which has gotten rarer and rarer in the age of Netflix. 

[iMonrey]

Quote

34 lives is massive.  They interact and each would have contact with and influence with thousands of other people and animals and insects in a life time.  And procreate a next generation that extends the cone of probabilities with bigger numbers.

But again, the show hasn't yet established its own rules. Why was the reporter, seemingly, not allowed to be saved? Whereas the 34 random passengers apparently were? I also think "random" is key here - for all we know all 34 of them got on a bus 10 minutes later that crashed and burned. The inevitability of their destiny to change the world simply by surviving the Hindenburg is not a given. Too many factors were left with question marks.

[Silver Raven]

15 hours ago, Netfoot said:

So, if the crash of the Hindenburg is particularly significant, presumably the altered fates of the 34 people would cause more disruption than if, say, on the way to the landing ground he had been involved in a vehicular accident with an omnibus, which killed 34 different, and presumably less significant, people.  

The plot was apparently not to save those who were in the initial Hindenburg explosion, but to kill the notable people who were scheduled to be on the return flight.

4 hours ago, saber5055 said:

To get nit picky, will the Giant Flying Eyeball always set down in a remote field and not in the center of a metropolis, crushing people and buildings? And how did Lucy et. al. get from that wooded clearing to the Hindenburg landing site, run? Call a Uber?

They waved down a passing truck, which obligingly let the black guy ride with him.

[biakbiak]

37 minutes ago, iMonrey said:

But again, the show hasn't yet established its own rules. Why was the reporter, seemingly, not allowed to be saved? Whereas the 34 random passengers apparently were? I also think "random" is key here - for all we know all 34 of them got on a bus 10 minutes later that crashed and burned. The inevitability of their destiny to change the world simply by surviving the Hindenburg is not a given. Too many factors were left with question marks.

They were two different groups of people. The original disaster had 35 passengers dying on landing. All of those people survived. His plot was to kill all the people who were on the return flight which was a different group of people but they foiled the plan enough so only two people died but in the original timeline those two people wouldn't have died because they wouldn't have been on the first flight.

[Tara Ariano]

In case you missed it, here's the Previously.TV post on the episode!

Should You Set An Alarm For Timeless?

NBC's latest attempt at sci-fi sends experts back in time to make sure history doesn't get all screwed up. Is it worth an hour of your time?

[Lugal]

I would agree that the show hasn't established the rules yet.  There are a few questions that they need to answer, like: Is time self-healing or is the butterfly effect unmitigated?  The fact that the Hindenburg exploded anyway and the reporter died in both timelines may indicate that time will self-correct, but the fact that the mother is cured of her disease and the sister does not exist seems to indicate that there is some level of butterfly effect.  It may work out that there are fixed points in time that happen no matter what with other more mutable events around them.

Quote

If Flynn wanted to change history, shouldn't he have started as far back as he needed, then worked his way forward? It makes no sense to go to 1939 first, then 1865, since the 1865 visit could completely wipe out what happened in 1939. This isn't Time Tunnel or Quantum Leap, where the destinations are random; Flynn supposedly has a plan.

I've wondered about this.  My crazy theory is if there is more than one dimension of time, then going through various time dimensions could make sense, like in the movies where the villain travels around the country seemingly at random while enacting his plan.

[ketose]

In Frequency, history changed most because of a different person holding something in an elevator. We like to think a person's life is hugely important, but people interact with other people and eventually the group kind of continues even if a few people are moved in or out.

What I wonder is if the team goes back, something goes really wrong and they go to the present and the whole bunker is gone, would that cause the time pods to disappear? Probably not, because there seems to be a time bubble where things are unaffected by changes in history. Is there a grandfather paradox where Garcia can't change certain things because the time machine would never be built or Lucy would be dead?

What if they never intended to blow up the Hindenburg on the return trip and just set things up like that because the journal said to?

[iMonrey]

Quote

the fact that the mother is cured of her disease and the sister does not exist seems to indicate that there is some level of butterfly effect.  It may work out that there are fixed points in time that happen no matter what with other more mutable events around them.

It might also be the case that the only timelines affected are those of the time travelers themselves. 

[LoneHaranguer]

1 hour ago, Lugal said:

It may work out that there are fixed points in time that happen no matter what with other more mutable events around them.

That's the explanation they've been using in Doctor Who.

[Trillian]

On October 4, 2016 at 7:06 PM, Latverian Diplomat said:

It's funny how TV sees teaching a low level class to a huge hall of undergrads as an important part of being a "fast track to tenure" professor.

Not to mention that, only on tv and in movies do professional historians know dates. Historians  specialize; they do not know all things about all eras of history. And even within their own fields, they cannot reel off every date - right down to the time of day (according to Lucy) - of every historical event ever.  Historical significance, contributing factors and ultimate impact - yes; May 29th 1453 at exactly 2:15am (with the exemption of some very very major events of international importance) - no. 

[Randomosity]

On 10/4/2016 at 7:06 PM, Latverian Diplomat said:

It's funny how TV sees teaching a low level class to a huge hall of undergrads as an important part of being a "fast track to tenure" professor.

I would agree that there's not really such a thing as fast track to tenure , but at least in some fields (I'm in the sciences), it actually IS important to teach those classes. Waltz in as a new prof and right away develop a huge new popular 'butts-in-the-seats' intro class? Maybe it won't matter at an R1 school, but at many others, that will definitely leave a serious impression on your superiors and be looked upon very favorably come review of your tenure package.

[possibilities]

4 hours ago, iMonrey said:

It might also be the case that the only timelines affected are those of the time travelers themselves. 

That would be interesting. We've seen this show already changed the history of the Hindenberg, but I'd like to see your idea explored somewhere, even if this particular show doesn't do it.

[ketose]

6 hours ago, iMonrey said:

It might also be the case that the only timelines affected are those of the time travelers themselves. 

I don't see how that's possible unless "the rules" in this series make it so the universe only changes for them. This gives me a chance to mention the 1993 series "Time Trax." In that show, there was a time bridge (You could only travel exactly 200 years into the future or past) and the future was not changed by events in the past. That gets into the quantum reality theory, where any change in the past puts the world in a different quantum reality where that alternate history is already happening.

[lianau]

On 5.10.2016 at 6:43 AM, Emma9 said:

From the second that it was mentioned that Luka killed his wife and child, I called that he wasn't the actual killer and his motivation for all this is to try and get them back. c

That's the one thing I immediately noticed . Poor Luka always with the dead wife and the dead child but this time he killed them .

 

On 6.10.2016 at 8:03 AM, bros402 said:

Perhaps wrt the cancer, in this reality, it was caught early - or maybe she got it through exposure to something through work and someone else got a job she got - lost it to one of the people born due to the different Hindenburg.

I was thinking this . Maybe a Hindenburg survivor had a kid who wrote an article about early detection for a magazine and mom read it or mom was taking the subway and overheard  HS kid  talking about Auntie Ethel's cancer diagnosis ...  Lot of ways to work this out .

[sjohnson]

Changing history is like replaying the game or simulation. When you do that, random events, those whose specific causes are so complex they can only be modeled as mathematically random, will change randomly. Early detection of breast cancer could well be one of those. There doesn't have to be an identifiable chain of determinate causes from the Hindenburg to a walking, talking Susanna Thompson (thank God!) That is, by the way, the idea in the notion of the butterfly effect: The chain of causation in determinate systems can't always be traced. The flapping wings of a specific butterfly in Brazil are too tiny a cause to separate out. Such causes can only be modeled statistically.

[AbsoluteShower]

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

[kay1864]

1 hour ago, AbsoluteShower said:

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

He might have ducked out for Taco Tuesday, since Rufus was in the time machine. 

[LoneHaranguer]

10 hours ago, ketose said:

That gets into the quantum reality theory, where any change in the past puts the world in a different quantum reality where that alternate history is already happening.

Or, from another POV, whatever you do (or don't do) determines which reality you're stuck with unless/until you can do something that'll get you back to where you want to be. That was illustrated in Back to the Future II wherein Doc and Marty couldn't get to their original future to fix Marty's carelessness; they had to go back to before the realities split and push things back onto their original track. The heroes of this show weren't as successful, so they're in a different reality that's closer to the original than the one Flynn wanted, but not where they started.

[Shanna Marie]

18 hours ago, Trillian said:

Not to mention that, only on tv and in movies do professional historians know dates. Historians  specialize; they do not know all things about all eras of history. And even within their own fields, they cannot reel off every date - right down to the time of day (according to Lucy) - of every historical event ever.

I suspect Lucy will be the history equivalent of the "science" character we see so often on TV, who can hack a computer system, write a virus, do DNA analysis, synthesize a poison and an antidote from a plant found in nature, identify the origin and know the life cycle of an obscure insect, know the chemical composition of a rock, figure out the location of a shooter based on physics formulas, identify and create a cure for an epidemic, and do major surgery in the field using only the supplies that are available. If it's in any way related to any kind of science, this person is an expert because science is science, and not multiple fields like computers, physics, geology, botany, biology, medicine, etc. "History" will be a general skill that allows her to know names, dates, and precise times relating to every major historical event in every era they happen to visit. I guess they could kind of get around this by having Flynn's scheme somehow relate to her areas of interest and research. If he's doing all this based on what's in her journal, then what's in her journal may be based on things she knows or is interested in.

[Raja]

On 10/5/2016 at 0:07 PM, Shanna Marie said:

I didn't think they looked all that different, but the show seemed to be treating it like she was a lot older, like with her taking great offense at him calling her "ma'am." Or maybe that's just me, but it doesn't bother me if someone I consider a peer calls me "ma'am," but it makes me feel old if someone a lot younger but still an adult does. She also seemed to treat him like he was a lot younger. But we are dealing with Hollywood, where her being two years older translates into being cast as his mother once she turns 40.

I think it is more a matter or modern ethics and address she might take Doctor because it was an accomplishment beyond being born a certain gender. I wouldn't be surprised if her students addressed her by her first name. As a soldier he would be conditioned to use "sir" until he knew differently. No matter what the age, as a Master Sergeant, a senior NCO he would be a decade older than the Lieutenants who out rank him.

On 10/5/2016 at 5:15 PM, LoneHaranguer said:

But, the chances of someone doing something significant isn't the same for everyone. At the time, Joe Average wasn't taking intercontinental trips, so the odds would be much, much greater for that group of 34.

34 people is nothing. The entire world is about to go to war and people are about to wipe entire ethnic groups off of the face of the earth. 34 executives out of millions is no different than 34 out of an infinite number. Even if they did name drop Omar Bradley, who was a Lieutenant Colonel at the time. So another officer would have stepped up to work for Patton, and Patton would have worked for someone else after he slapped a soldier.

[Raja]

1 hour ago, Shanna Marie said:

I suspect Lucy will be the history equivalent of the "science" character we see so often on TV, who can hack a computer system, write a virus, do DNA analysis, synthesize a poison and an antidote from a plant found in nature, identify the origin and know the life cycle of an obscure insect, know the chemical composition of a rock, figure out the location of a shooter based on physics formulas, identify and create a cure for an epidemic, and do major surgery in the field using only the supplies that are available. If it's in any way related to any kind of science, this person is an expert because science is science, and not multiple fields like computers, physics, geology, botany, biology, medicine, etc. "History" will be a general skill that allows her to know names, dates, and precise times relating to every major historical event in every era they happen to visit. I guess they could kind of get around this by having Flynn's scheme somehow relate to her areas of interest and research. If he's doing all this based on what's in her journal, then what's in her journal may be based on things she knows or is interested in.

I think the engineering, picking locks and all general purpose MacGyvering is the black guy's , along with the Delta Force soldier's main roles to split . So we await the reveal of how she is able to maintain knowledge of the prime universe knowledge of all history. Maybe something outlying like Marilu Henner's type of memory.

[FurryFury]

So they did take the El Ministerio Del Tiempo premise, took all the uniqueness and fun out of it and inserted a bunch of generic characters and plots. Ugh, so not a fan. And really, why you're there, was leaving the dead wife stuff that necessary? That was like the worst part of season 1 for me.

I watch a bunch of time traveling shows, but this one didn't appeal to me at all. Characters are what I care about the most, and here, they were just so bland and boring. 

[OtterMommy]

I only got a chance to watch this last night, so I'm going to post this before going back to read all the other comments.

I was really looking forward to this series and both my husband and I felt a little disappointed with it.  I really love the premise--I have a degree in history and I think this whole time-era hopping is very promising.  However, I didn't feel like this was an especially well-written episode (but I usually give new series a few episodes to get their feet under themselves) and I was particularly underwhelmed by the performances by Abigail Spencer and Matt Lanter.

I'm torn on this....the premise is strong enough to get me to tune back in, but I'm not sure that the creative forces behind the show will be able to handle it.  I've had my "TV heart" broken by this scenario--strong premise, weak delivery before (although those other shows usually had stronger acting) and I'm not sure if I'll be able to stick with this one for the long haul.

Edited October 8, 2016 by OtterMommy

[basiltherat]

Rufus reminds me of a young Forest Whitaker, which is always good . . .

Also, every time I hear "Rufus" I want to answer "Tell Me Something Good"  (They could work that into the show; they worked in "Dr. Dre and Nurse Jackie")

[txhorns79]

Quote

(They could work that into the show; they worked in "Dr. Dre and Nurse Jackie")

I did smile when she identified them as Dr. Dre and Nurse Jackie from General Hospital.  I enjoyed the show.  Yes, it kind of falls apart if you think too much about what is going on, but I appreciate it for what it is, a generally entertaining show.   

Quote

That was illustrated in Back to the Future II wherein Doc and Marty couldn't get to their original future to fix Marty's carelessness; they had to go back to before the realities split and push things back onto their original track.

And even then, they were only trying to get things back to the better timeline Marty had created from his first trip to 1955. 

[Bookish Jen]

Finally, got to see the pilot, and for the most part I was entertained. Like some of you I was very surprised by the twist ending. And instead of overthinking this show, I'll just enjoy it for the fun of it all, the history lessons, and the retro fashions. Oh, and Goran (swoon).

[blueray]

I actually liked it which is kind of supervising. I doubt it'll last more then a season, but I plan on watching it. I did like how things did change as a result of their time travel. I think this is because 34 people lived that shouldn't have. I'm not sure how this would have stopped her mother from getting sick, unless she was cured from it. Not sure why this would cause her sister not to exist.  I'm glad that they kept it to little things right now, as oppose to the world being completely different. I am looking forward to the next episode.

Edited October 8, 2016 by blueray

[Raja]

3 hours ago, basiltherat said:

Rufus reminds me of a young Forest Whitaker, which is always good . . .

Also, every time I hear "Rufus" I want to answer "Tell Me Something Good"  (They could work that into the show; they worked in "Dr. Dre and Nurse Jackie")

And "Rufus" was gone around the time Rufus was probably  born. I do wonder which songs would survive in old school status or would he just think of Chaka Khan.

[sjohnson]

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. 

[Lugal]

25 minutes ago, 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. 

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.

[BabyVegas]

Boy, I really enjoyed playing this video game when it was called Where In Time Is Carmen Sandiego. It had some entertaining moments, but it seems like it's going to become terribly convoluted and I'm not sure how they can keep the premise going. Are they just never going to catch Dr. Kovac or will some new villain take his place? But I do love history and it was fun enough. I'll give it a few more episodes before I really settle into an opinion.