# "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:** 9
**Author:** ![Tibby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tibby/32/17030_2.png) [@Tibby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tibby)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2016, 10:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/timeless-new-time-travel-show/767613/162 "2016-12-16T10:47:24Z")
> [@E-DUB](#): > > I see they’re doing a Lincoln episode next. Has anybody ever done a story where a time traveler trying to prevent the assassination of Lincoln bumps into a bunch of other time travelers trying to do exactly the same thing? I don’t believe that would be the case. The _first_ time travel mission to succeed in preventing Lincoln from being killed at Ford’s Theater would change the timeline and negate the need for subsequent travelers to do the same. The reality of any time traveler traveling even a moment after the successful mission would include no historical record of Lincoln being killed. To them, Lincoln was saved, therefore no reason to go back to that place and time (…unless they want to prevent the save and have Booth succeed). ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2017, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/timeless-new-time-travel-show/767613/163 "2017-01-02T19:41:09Z")
Man did they play fast and loose with computer history in the Space Race episode. They’re using paper and metal tape (good)…but then Rufus finds a CRT with a keyboard, and types code that you can see on the monitor, which at one point even listed the a: drive. None of that hardware/ software was even close to being period accurate. [This](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PDP-1#/media/File:Steve_Russell_and_PDP-1.png) is more like 1962 state of the art. ---
**Author:** ![Khesahndra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b2d939/32.png) [@Khesahndra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khesahndra)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2017, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/timeless-new-time-travel-show/767613/164 "2017-01-02T21:37:33Z")
I think the show is really well done - fascinating that ever time they return to the present, there’s some slight tweek in their reality - people with end stage cancer are well, siblings disappear, historical characters have a different story. Hope they can keep this going - the cliff hanger was the possibility the thing they’re trying to keep from happening may have been caused by their time travel (but they haven’t said that…yet) ---
**Author:** ![Khesahndra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b2d939/32.png) [@Khesahndra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khesahndra)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2017, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/timeless-new-time-travel-show/767613/165 "2017-01-02T21:46:11Z")
> [@Morbo](#): > > Man did they play fast and loose with computer history in the Space Race episode. They’re using paper and metal tape (good)…but then Rufus finds a CRT with a keyboard, and types code that you can see on the monitor, which at one point even listed the a: drive. None of that hardware/ software was even close to being period accurate. [This](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PDP-1#/media/File:Steve_Russell_and_PDP-1.png) is more like 1962 state of the art. Seeing it on the monitor may have been a stretch, but FORTRAN was introduced in 1957 and COBOL in 1959, so the software in 1961 COULD be “close”. Good call all the same - considerably harder to have spotted than that tire track in the sand as Ben Hur staggered past… ---
**Author:** ![Khesahndra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b2d939/32.png) [@Khesahndra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khesahndra)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2017, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/timeless-new-time-travel-show/767613/166 "2017-01-02T21:57:24Z")
Nice to see someone else considered just hauling Rittenhouse Jr Back “To The Future”, but Stephen King (who else) did a great job pointing out why we don’t even want to think about messing with History - check out 11.22.63 on NETFLICKS for enjoyable details. On this subject, what if you managed to get back to Braunau am Inn in 1889, successfully strangled Hitler in his crib, and come back to 2017 only to find Europe and Asia a unified Soviet State? ---
**Author:** ![Khesahndra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b2d939/32.png) [@Khesahndra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khesahndra)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2017, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/timeless-new-time-travel-show/767613/167 "2017-01-02T22:01:16Z")
> [@Morbo](#): > > Man did they play fast and loose with computer history in the Space Race episode. They’re using paper and metal tape (good)…but then Rufus finds a CRT with a keyboard, and types code that you can see on the monitor, which at one point even listed the a: drive. None of that hardware/ software was even close to being period accurate. [This](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PDP-1#/media/File:Steve_Russell_and_PDP-1.png) is more like 1962 state of the art. Seeing it on the monitor may have been a stretch, but FORTRAN was introduced in 1957 and COBOL in 1959, so the software in 1961 COULD be “close”. Good call all the same - considerably harder to have spotted than that tire track in the sand as Ben Hur staggered past… ---
**Author:** ![That\_Don\_Guy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/that_don_guy/32/538_2.png) [@That\_Don\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/That_Don_Guy)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2017, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/timeless-new-time-travel-show/767613/168 "2017-01-03T02:15:46Z")
> [@Morbo](#): > > Man did they play fast and loose with computer history in the Space Race episode. They’re using paper and metal tape (good)…but then Rufus finds a CRT with a keyboard, and types code that you can see on the monitor, which at one point even listed the a: drive. None of that hardware/ software was even close to being period accurate. [This](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PDP-1#/media/File:Steve_Russell_and_PDP-1.png) is more like 1962 state of the art. Keep in mind that the Space Race episode takes place in 1969, not 1962. Still, you’re right that it wasn’t historical accuracy; I doubt that there would be any sort of “progress bar” displayed when running software. Also, wasn’t the Apollo code pretty much entirely in assembly/machine language, especially given that it had to interact directly with the hardware? I don’t know how accurate this is, but I remember a scene in _From the Earth to the Moon_ where the MIT scientists who helped develop the lunar lander software had to talk the astronauts in one of the later missions into entering machine code directly into the lander’s computer to prevent a glitch in the hardware from causing a premature abort. ---
**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:** [January 3, 2017, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/timeless-new-time-travel-show/767613/169 "2017-01-03T04:30:31Z")
> [@Khesahndra](#): > > …On this subject, what if you managed to get back to Braunau am Inn in 1889, successfully strangled Hitler in his crib, and come back to 2017 only to find Europe and Asia a unified Soviet State? I once read a short story where it turned out that Adolf Hitler’s rise to power was a side effect of time travelers preventing an even _worse_ Germanic dictator from being born. ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2017, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/timeless-new-time-travel-show/767613/170 "2017-02-15T17:05:53Z")
I guess people have given up on this but I still enjoy it. I like that they basically decided to say “Screw history” and play fast and loose with the time line. I also like the ambiguity as to who exactly is good and bad. The show is interesting and the fun kind of dumb. I am wondering if next week they will pull a trick like Deep Space Nine did and have Rufus actually die and then pluck another Rufus from earlier in the timeline to replace him ---
**Author:** ![Sunny\_Daze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunny_daze/32/438_2.png) [@Sunny\_Daze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunny_Daze)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2017, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/timeless-new-time-travel-show/767613/171 "2017-02-15T17:47:37Z")
We’re still watching it and enjoy it. I wish that they played a bit looser with the time line, since they decided to go that direction. I wish they had saved Lincoln, for example. I liked seeing how things had changed when they got back. They seem to have stopped having the ripple effects, which was one of the more interesting things about the show. I hope they go back to it. I did want to smack Lucy around for not cozying up to her father (I’m an episode behind right now I think). Seriously, the man is running Rittenhouse and you can’t even pretend to like him to get some intel? ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2017, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/timeless-new-time-travel-show/767613/172 "2017-02-15T18:24:02Z")
Still watching. It’s sort of at a nexus of what my wife finds entertaining and what i do, so it’s a good “watch together curled up with the dogs” show. While understanding the conventions of drama, we do find ourselves slightly annoyed by all the references to time pressure and deadlines, though. Every time someone says “we have to get there before x,” or “we only have 2 hours…” or “hurry, …” we turn to each other and say, “If only we had a time machine!” Our suggestion was to bring Rufus forward in time to a desegregated-but-modern-medicine time – 1970? 1980? – that doesn’t cause a time paradox for Rufus…not sure when he was born. Hope they don’t lose Rufus, he’s by far the most fun character on the show. Also, when Connor Mason was defeating Rufus’ computer worm, the moment his screen comes back he announces everything is clear. If I ever need to write a worm, it’s going to return a user to an _apparently_ normal screen that _appears_ to be correctly responding to his input, suuuuuure it is… Good to see Wyatt completely own the gangsters in the gunfight. I turned to my wife and said “_that’s_ why they bring him.” ---
**Author:** ![That\_Don\_Guy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/that_don_guy/32/538_2.png) [@That\_Don\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/That_Don_Guy)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2017, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/timeless-new-time-travel-show/767613/173 "2017-02-15T19:59:35Z")
> [@Quimby](#): > > I guess people have given up on this but I still enjoy it. I like that they basically decided to say “Screw history” and play fast and loose with the time line. I also like the ambiguity as to who exactly is good and bad. The show is interesting and the fun kind of dumb. I was half-expecting them to go to Berkeley in 1979 to try to make sure Lucy’s parents meet, only for - _oops!_ - Lucy’s father to have never been born, as his parents never met; instead, one of them met somebody who, in Lucy’s original timeline, was killed in the original Hindenburg crash. Speaking of 1979, I wonder if they chose that year becuase there’s supposed to be a Rittenhouse “gathering” in 1979? They’re supposed to happen every 25 years, and they mentioned that one takes place in 1954. Also, they never actually say that all of the Rittenhouse gatherings are in DC - just the 1929 one. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2017, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/timeless-new-time-travel-show/767613/174 "2017-02-15T22:36:02Z")
I’m still enjoying the show. It’s not highbrow fare, and sometimes you have to just roll with the needs of the plot, but the characters are interesting and the plots are generally a fun romp. Given that they poached Bobby and Castiel from Supernatural, I am waiting for asam and/or Dean to show up… ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2017, 11:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/timeless-new-time-travel-show/767613/175 "2017-02-21T11:13:23Z")
So, apparently Lucy’s mom is Riitenhouse ---
**Author:** ![Cell\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df705f/32.png) [@Cell\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cell_Guy)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2017, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/timeless-new-time-travel-show/767613/176 "2017-02-22T23:01:49Z")
I wasn’t expecting that. I’m looking forward to season 2, which means it’s going to be cancelled. ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2017, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/timeless-new-time-travel-show/767613/177 "2017-02-23T00:40:40Z")
I could tell from the framing and tone of that scene she was going to turn evil as they talked. If this were a horror show she would have turned into a monster. ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2017, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/timeless-new-time-travel-show/767613/178 "2017-02-23T01:24:18Z")
And from the casting–Susannah Thompson was the Borg Queen (or one of them), after all. ---
**Author:** ![Snooooopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2017, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/timeless-new-time-travel-show/767613/179 "2017-02-25T04:19:30Z")
I tell you what, the season finale made me go from not minding if the show got another season to actively wanting the show to get another season. The scene with Jiya and the bridge flickering in the background was what really did it for me. It seemed to open up a lot of interesting possibilities. Maybe mucking about with the time machine has done so much damage to reality that they have to go around fixing stuff. Maybe they just explore some alternate realities. Maybe there’s a war with another reality. In any case, the Rittenhouse stuff hardly interests me at all, and I hope, should there be another season, that it gets packed off in an episode or two. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2017, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/timeless-new-time-travel-show/767613/180 "2017-02-25T19:17:39Z")
Yeah, this series really grew on me. I’m looking forward to its return in the fall (I hope) ---
**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, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/timeless-new-time-travel-show/767613/181 "2017-03-07T14:12:46Z")
Not a bad show, but… Is it just me, or could Lucy be completely replaced with just an hour or so of prep time reading a history book, or even Wikipedia? Seriously, at least once an episode there’s a scene where someone rattles off a date and location, and everyone, in the present day, standing around a computer, looks around for Lucy. :smack: “If only there were some kind of magical website where you could type in a time and place and it would tell you what historical event occurred, but all we have is this useless time machine!” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/timeless-new-time-travel-show/767613.md?page=8) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/timeless-new-time-travel-show/767613.md?page=10)