Travelers

velk

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But if every change in the past fractures the timeline into new ones, with the number of travelers you'd have 100's or 1000's of timelines, each with their own Director and time travel equipment. And you'd probably start to see duplicate travelers sent back, because in a future timeline perhaps they didn't send the same guy at the same time, so you'd see copies coming at different times.

If they all come to the same "present" timeline, things would get well and truly fucked real quick. The only way such a premise works is if you have one future timeline and one present timeline, or if a timeline fracture occurs it fractures both the present and future together so that any action by that future occurs in the present that it is associated with. It's really a complicated issue, made more complicated by the fact that it's impossible and we have no idea what'd actually happen...

They mention that due to the tech they can only go back as far as the last person they sent. That means the present time is always happening in a fixed order and not being revised.

There's actually reasonably good indications that what the present timeline is getting fucked up by people from all different future timelines showing up with conflicting orders and 'things getting fucked real quick' pretty much sums it up ;p
 

kaid

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They mention that due to the tech they can only go back as far as the last person they sent. That means the present time is always happening in a fixed order and not being revised.

There's actually reasonably good indications that what the present timeline is getting fucked up by people from all different future timelines showing up with conflicting orders and 'things getting fucked real quick' pretty much sums it up ;p

Given all the travelers are under do the mission no matter what it is or what it sounds like with no questions they also have no real authentication if the orders they are getting are valid. It looks like this could very easily go down some interesting rabbit holes.
 

Void

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Really enjoyed this series, even with a few "huh?" moments. I'm sort of annoyed at the repeated cock teasing of Marcy's boobs though, hopefully they offer her more money next season and she shows those glorious boobs. However, reading now that it was co-produced with Showcase, I see that will never happen. They did the same thing with shows like Lost Girl, get as close as possible without ever showing the nipple.

Really did enjoy the show though, all boob talk aside. At first I misunderstood how the time travel worked, and I was sort of outraged that the main guy (Will from Will & Grace) was still replaced even though they saved him, because I assumed it had to do with them actually being in the process of dying. Now I realize it is just a matter of knowing the time and place of their death, and knowing that their affect on the timeline is basically ended at that point (within reason anyway), so replacing them even if you "saved" them is still achieving the same goal. Took me an episode or two to realize that though, and I was a little rustled in the meantime.

Looking forward to Season 2, as they opened up enough questions that I want answered to keep watching. And I enjoyed most of the characters, now that I think about it.
 
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Cad

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Really did enjoy the show though, all boob talk aside. At first I misunderstood how the time travel worked, and I was sort of outraged that the main guy (Will from Will & Grace) was still replaced even though they saved him, because I assumed it had to do with them actually being in the process of dying. Now I realize it is just a matter of knowing the time and place of their death, and knowing that their affect on the timeline is basically ended at that point (within reason anyway), so replacing them even if you "saved" them is still achieving the same goal. Took me an episode or two to realize that though, and I was a little rustled in the meantime.

I think it's more a moral question, they want people who would have died anyway so they aren't taking their life away from them. They don't care if they could have saved them because its part of their directive not to save people.

The "get people right before they die" thing makes for cute TV situations and also relieves you of any moral burden that you stole someone's life away.
 
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iannis

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Saw no thread on this. Have finished the 12 episodes. Have any of you watched it? Good in places, a few plot holes. Overall good time travel fun.

Pretty much my thoughts. I commented on it in the netflix thread.

It's not a bad show if you don't expect too much. There are good scenes, good acting, the premise is bland but they manage to make the show not bland. There's a lot of bog standard tropes in it which could have made it horrible, but they're executed well and it comes out to be entertaining.

It's got those tug on your heartstrings moments. The back half of the season gets a little TOO thick with the black woman for my tastes.
 

iannis

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I think it's more a moral question, they want people who would have died anyway so they aren't taking their life away from them. They don't care if they could have saved them because its part of their directive not to save people.

The "get people right before they die" thing makes for cute TV situations and also relieves you of any moral burden that you stole someone's life away.

And yeah, that's answered pretty definitively in the second to last episode. Maybe the final episode?

They CAN use people who aren't "destined to die". They just don't. Usually. All they have to know is exactly where they are and an exact time. Which for that second to last episode is a little bit of a inconsistency with the little girl -- they acceptably handwaved it with the asian counsellor.

They also bring up a few moral questions which they then ignore. Like the assassination. Ok, so... why do that? If you've already decided on the moral validity of an assassination why not assassinate him with a traveler instead? Seems like a foolish waste of perfectly good meat. But -- it makes for a dramatic moment.
 
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iannis

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It is a very interesting concept also interesting that the number of travelers is actually pretty high it seems so its not just a few here and there. One issue as with all time traveling shows is if you are taking orders from the future as you are working to make changes to the future the place place you are getting orders from may have little to no relation to what you originally left from and supported initially. Given the cell nature of how they work its more likely to cause an apocalypse than to prevent it.

Yeah, they deal with that directly in the final episode. They don't spell it out for you but they come as close as they're able to without tedious exposition.

It's the central conceit of the premise. It requires unfailing devotion to the Director, unquestioning and unfailing... and once that devotion starts to fray the entire thing goes to shit.

Season 2 will be everything going to shit and it will become us against them. Captain "The Only Protocol that matters is the first" McAsshole will be the villian of the season.

I think they do get a second season. It's about a 6/10 for a netflix show but it's damn sure better than anything on network.
 

Qhue

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Finally got around to this and binged the whole thing in a week. The MMA kid does a great job assisted by the fact that he has a raspy voice so it makes it believable that he's pretty freaking old.

Of course this is by the same production team that did Stargate so we get to see lots of old Stargate actors show up in various capacities which was also pretty fun.

As soon as they mentioned shelter 41 collapsing under the ice sheet at exactly revely on a specific date I felt certain that a certain aspect of predestination paradox was going to come into play. The rebel faction having grown from that place means that killing all of them off before that can happen becomes a natural way to restore what they think is the proper timeline.

Also means that they themselves likely have a somewhat different future than did those travelers who arrived before them. Seems like a thorough investigation of protocol 2 may be in order.
 
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Jorren

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Binged through, very much enjoyed it. Looking forward to next season.
 
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Intrinsic

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Really enjoyed this, sucks that if / when there's a season 2 it won't be until October probably.

It did a good job of not trying to over complicate things by laying out a ton of rules that they just continually violate over the course of the season. The protocols were dropped here and there, they were pretty open ended rules to interpretation. They didn't spend two episodes trying to outline how every little change in the past impacted the future. I'd consider that fairly smart Sci Fi and not burdening us with picking apart what was going on. Which isn't to say it is without faults...

Like... why not just zap in to the Congressman before he boarded the plan? He was effectively dead when he stepped on so whether from a moral or timeline impact view his contributions to life were over. Zap him in the terminal and walk out of the airport. But we got to see a cool fore field thingy and some CGI plane crash.

Also one thing that was cool is they weren't afraid to totally kill people. They showed kids and everything on the plane and we weren't forced in to a main character moral anguish about saving everyone. Just like hey I've got this mission and my wife. Forget the rest of these fools.

Same with the scene to turn the key and fire the laser. Made for a pretty cool scene seeing them zap in to solider after soldier. But really, just zap the lead dude or all 5 at once.

Plus the other small things people have pointed out. Oh and for a dystopian wrecked to fuck future there are a shit ton of people from the future. They mentioned 1,000s (?) in one of the early episodes? And people seem to pop in whenever they need. Might have been nice for that to be a little more scarce resource. Kind of trivialized a few things.

Non-spoiler related though Marcy is smoking hot but I gotta say Will and Grace's wife is the highlight for me.

Really you couldn't go wrong with this or 3% when it comes to recent NetFlix Sci Fi. Between some of the quality stuff on SyFy things FeelsGoodMan.
 

Faltigoth

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Just binged this and I really enjoyed it. For me the best moment of the entire season was

when Grace in the last episode is 'counseling' that homely chick right before the assassination attempt on her. 'You have to establish dominance'. God I haven't laughed that much at TV for awhile, it was just so random and out of nowhere for the mostly-serious tone of the series that the humor was amplified for me.

Hopefully it gets renewed, will be interesting to see where they take it from that ending. Good job Canada! Also Marcy, knees have just the right amount of sharpness. More Marcy.
 

Jasker

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Five episodes in. Just can't get through it. I don't see much appeal to the show besides Marcy being hot. It's really boring.
 

uncognito

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I hated this show. It has nothing that I like about time travel, and just about everything I hate about tv in general

There was so was much forced 'personal life drama' that I just don't give a fuck about.

Every single scene with the black girl's baby or her baby daddy was just terrible in every way.
I like the actor who played the social worker guy, and the girl was hot. But god damn their platonic/romance arc was so bad.

Really every part of the show that involved their hosts prior lives was just cringeworthy awful. and that makes up like 60% of the show.

But for some reason I was entertained enough to keep watching. I think that was mostly cause I love Stargate Universe and this had many actors from that show... and really I am just such a sucker for anything time travel related. Even if it's as awful as this was.

2/10 will never rewatch
 

ShakyJake

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I love Stargate Universe

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Qhue

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I do concede that the "I have to keep custody of my baby!!" plotline was really dumb. Isn't she supposed to be the chief tactical officer? What exactly was the plan heading into the situation for handling the kid? Presumably the historical record had the kid going somewhere else after his mother was murdered by his father.
 
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iannis

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Non-spoiler related though Marcy is smoking hot but I gotta say Will and Grace's wife is the highlight for me.

THAT'S where he's from. I'd been trying to place him and couldn't. I kept thinking he was Greg from Dharma and Greg but I knew he wasn't.

Greg has that other FBI show.
 

iannis

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I liked SGU a lot up until they had to rush the ending.

But SGU had more than 60% soap-opera bullshit, so it's kind of strange that it's a complaint in this show but not for SGU. It must be the specific soap-opera lines. They were slightly more obscured in SGU. They were still there though and they were the backbone of the series.
 

ShakyJake

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I liked SGU a lot up until they had to rush the ending.

But SGU had more than 60% soap-opera bullshit, so it's kind of strange that it's a complaint in this show but not for SGU. It must be the specific soap-opera lines. They were slightly more obscured in SGU. They were still there though and they were the backbone of the series.
Well, out of the entire Stargate franchise I don't know how anyone could pick SGU as the one to "love". Unless I'm missing some other connection outside of Brad Wright.
 

iannis

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I feel like SGU was trying to do to SG what DS9 did to Star Trek. They were trying to make a dark stargate. Figuratively and literally, that entire show was barely lit.

It fell apart on them. Ratings tanked and it got stupid. But that's why I liked it, really.
 

Void

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and I was sort of outraged that the main guy (Will from Will & Grace) was still replaced even though they saved him,

THAT'S where he's from. I'd been trying to place him and couldn't. I kept thinking he was Greg from Dharma and Greg but I knew he wasn't.

Greg has that other FBI show.

iannis confirmed has me on ignore :(