# "Timeless" New Time Travel Show **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 4, 2016, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/timeless-new-time-travel-show/767613 "2016-10-04T03:05:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 10
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2017, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/timeless-new-time-travel-show/767613/182 "2017-03-07T15:05:25Z")
Yeah, the reasons for having Lucy seem contrived as they could easily do the research before their trip. Yes, there have been times when she had useful knowledge that no one would have thought to research, but the idea that being a historian means that you know every bit of minutia about any given time period is silly. ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2017, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/timeless-new-time-travel-show/767613/183 "2017-03-07T15:12:53Z")
Lucy has the Historian version of the Power of SCIENCE! That tried and true TV power where the smart person knows everything about everything for a given field, like the Professor on Gilligan’s Island. ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2017, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/timeless-new-time-travel-show/767613/184 "2017-03-07T15:27:00Z")
Did they ever explain why they were always in such a hurry to get back to where the bad guy had jumped? What’s the rush? Take some time to do some research, _then_ go back to a point in time just after (or just before!) the bad guy arrives. You have a _time machine_. Show up in 1865 two days before Lincoln was shot, and intercept the other travelers when they get there or something. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2017, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/timeless-new-time-travel-show/767613/185 "2017-03-07T15:36:37Z")
The fact they ended on a cliffhanger gives me hope the producers have reason to be confident for renewal. ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2017, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/timeless-new-time-travel-show/767613/186 "2017-03-07T15:37:23Z")
> [@Skammer](#): > > Did they ever explain why they were always in such a hurry to get back to where the bad guy had jumped? What’s the rush? Take some time to do some research, _then_ go back to a point in time just after (or just before!) the bad guy arrives. You have a _time machine_. Show up in 1865 two days before Lincoln was shot, and intercept the other travelers when they get there or something. They appear to be working with “single timeline” time travel, as opposed to “branching timeline/many universes” time travel, which means if Flynn goes back and changes something, theoretically it will instantly change everything in the present, rather than creating a parallel universe in which the changes are in effect, but the formerly “present” timeline still exists, unchanged. So they have to go back before the present is altered by whatever Flynn does in the past. Cite: ['Timeless' Time Travel Rules Overview](http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/timeless-time-travel-rules-overview-934368) . ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2017, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/timeless-new-time-travel-show/767613/187 "2017-03-07T17:25:22Z")
> [@DCnDC](#): > > They appear to be working with “single timeline” time travel, as opposed to “branching timeline/many universes” time travel, which means if Flynn goes back and changes something, theoretically it will instantly change everything in the present, rather than creating a parallel universe in which the changes are in effect, but the formerly “present” timeline still exists, unchanged. So they have to go back before the present is altered by whatever Flynn does in the past. > > Cite: ['Timeless' Time Travel Rules Overview](http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/timeless-time-travel-rules-overview-934368) > . But then what does it mean to “go back before the present is altered”? The bad guy is in the past. By the time they realize that he’s there it’s already too late. The change will have been made years before any of them have even been born, so the present will already be changed. They can try to travel to a point before he’s made the change, but they can’t leave from a point before he’s made the change. It’s years too late for that. ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2017, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/timeless-new-time-travel-show/767613/188 "2017-03-07T17:58:51Z")
> [@davidm](#): > > But then what does it mean to “go back before the present is altered”? The bad guy is in the past. By the time they realize that he’s there it’s already too late. The change will have been made years before any of them have even been born, so the present will already be changed. > > They can try to travel to a point before he’s made the change, but they can’t leave from a point before he’s made the change. It’s years too late for that. I know. It doesn’t necessarily make logical sense. They seem to be treating past destinations as if they are present destinations, i.e. it’s just a different place and ignoring the time aspect. So they must leave the present in a time span shorter than the time span between Flynn arriving in the past and Flynn changing something significant in the past, lest the present be changed before they can intervene. Again, it doesn’t make any logical sense, but that appears to be the rules of their universe. ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2017, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/timeless-new-time-travel-show/767613/189 "2017-03-07T18:13:12Z")
It’s a common problem in a lot of time travel fiction. As you say, they treat different times as if they’re different places. I suppose we just have to suspend disbelief and not think about it too much, which is what you have to do to accept the idea of time travel to begin with. ---
**Author:** ![Slash1972](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slash1972/32/6461_2.png) [@Slash1972](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slash1972)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2017, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/timeless-new-time-travel-show/767613/190 "2017-03-07T18:17:24Z")
I always wondered why, every time Flynn had a gun on Lucy, she didn’t say “I know you don’t kill me now, because I haven’t given you the diary yet” ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2017, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/timeless-new-time-travel-show/767613/191 "2017-03-07T18:39:42Z")
> [@Slash1972](#): > > I always wondered why, every time Flynn had a gun on Lucy, she didn’t say “I know you don’t kill me now, because I haven’t given you the diary yet” It’s possible for him to shoot her, since time is obviously malleable, but yeah, it would screw up his plans, wouldn’t it? ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2017, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/timeless-new-time-travel-show/767613/192 "2017-03-15T01:02:11Z")
I just binge watched the last 3 episodes this afternoon. > [@AK84](#): > > So, apparently Lucy’s mom is > > Riitenhouse It certainly makes a lot of sense given the emphasis Rittenhouse places on families & lineage. More along the lines of arranged marriage ala **Game of Thrones** than actual selective breeding. > [@davidm](#): > > Yeah, the reasons for having Lucy seem contrived as they could easily do the research before their trip. > > Yes, there have been times when she had useful knowledge that no one would have thought to research, but the idea that being a historian means that you know every bit of minutia about any given time period is silly. In the 2nd to last episode she identified the Kennedy Assassination as occurring in 196_2_; thought that was probably just a mistake by the writers. Lucy being “Rittenhouse royalty” however does explain why she’s being treating as being as irreplaceable as Rufus. > [@davidm](#): > > It’s a common problem in a lot of time travel fiction. As you say, they treat different times as if they’re different places. > > I suppose we just have to suspend disbelief and not think about it too much, which is what you have to do to accept the idea of time travel to begin with. Agreed, it’s best not to think to hard about the logistics of time travel. ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2017, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/timeless-new-time-travel-show/767613/193 "2017-04-25T14:35:17Z")
When you started watching this series, did anyone else think there was a connection to the 2003 Richard Donner movie _Timeline_, or was it just me (it wasn’t a hit)? The setup was similar and I was sure they were related somehow but I’ve not found any connection. I couldn’t remember the name of the movie when I started watching the series. ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2017, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/timeless-new-time-travel-show/767613/194 "2017-04-25T14:47:50Z")
> [@DCnDC](#): > > When you started watching this series, did anyone else think there was a connection to the 2003 Richard Donner movie _Timeline_, or was it just me (it wasn’t a hit)? The setup was similar and I was sure they were related somehow but I’ve not found any connection. I couldn’t remember the name of the movie when I started watching the series. Other than traveling back to notable historic periods, I didn’t pick up on any connection. Timeline was an adaptation from Michael Crichton’s book of the same name. Both were pretty meh. _Timeline_ was about a group of archeologists finding the glasses (or something) of their professor that had recently disappeared in their dig site, and utilizing a lab that just invented time travel to rescue him from medieval France — There was no underground society/conspiracy or hopping around through time to combat such efforts as in this show, If I recall correctly. So yeh, no direct connection as far as I can tell. ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2017, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/timeless-new-time-travel-show/767613/195 "2017-04-25T14:58:46Z")
Yeah, I didn’t remember the movie that vividly, but it was just the setup in the first episode of the series that reminded me of it and I couldn’t remember the name of it (because it was so forgettable). ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2017, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/timeless-new-time-travel-show/767613/196 "2017-04-25T15:50:49Z")
When I saw this thread pop back up I was sure it was going to be someone reporting it was canceled. Hope not but doesn’t look good. ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2017, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/timeless-new-time-travel-show/767613/197 "2017-05-10T23:38:26Z")
Aaaaaaand it is indeed [canceled](http://www.avclub.com/article/nbc-stops-clock-timeless-255126). Shame. I liked it. ---
**Author:** ![Slash1972](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slash1972/32/6461_2.png) [@Slash1972](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slash1972)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2017, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/timeless-new-time-travel-show/767613/198 "2017-05-10T23:42:30Z")
That sucks ☹ ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2017, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/timeless-new-time-travel-show/767613/199 "2017-05-11T00:30:52Z")
I think this was caused by time travelers who didn’t want their tricks exposed in a TV series. (Seriously, I’m kinda ticked as I thought it was doing OK ratingswise.) ---
**Author:** ![Snooooopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2017, 7:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/timeless-new-time-travel-show/767613/200 "2017-05-11T07:16:36Z")
I was talking with someone I work with just this afternoon about the show. We had guarded optimism. But as I was grabbing some dinner at Hardee’s, I surfed on my phone to an entertainment website and got the bad news. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2017, 7:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/timeless-new-time-travel-show/767613/201 "2017-05-11T07:45:59Z")
Of the sudden burst of time travel shows, it was the better one. It had a pretty good premise for ongoing stories, the cheese was low, and the performances were all great. A shame. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/timeless-new-time-travel-show/767613.md?page=9) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/timeless-new-time-travel-show/767613.md?page=11)