Travelers 2: Chess Match of the Centuries

I had high praise for the first season Travelers (on Netflix) a year ago.  I have even higher praise for the second season (of 12 episodes, like the first).  I'll try to talk about it with a minimum of spoilers.

First, my favorite episode was almost a standalone - though each episode follows closely from the previous one - and amounts to one of the best takes I've ever seen on the genre of do-over time traveling, probably most known in the Groundhog Day movie.   In Travelers, the hour begins with a massacre of our team.  The rest of the episode details the Director's (AI from the distant future usually in control of most things) painstaking attempts to reverse that massacre.  It's played out beautifully, like a chess match in which the superior opponent has the opportunity of redoing each of her/his movies until a win is obtained.

Chess match is a good metaphor for the most significant parts of this season, and indeed most of the season in general.  Although there's plenty of action, the peak moves involve MacLaren and his team matching wits with the Faction (the group from the future who oppose the Director), and a new villain, Vincent.

Vincent was the very first traveler.  He was supposed to die in the Towers on September 11 - a daring beginning - but defies the Director and survives, and thrives.  He's played by Enrico Colantoni, whom I first noticed in Flashpoint (an excellent Canadian swat team drama), and he projects a worthy bad guy in Travelers (which, by the way, is also a Canadian production).  The acting is top-notch throughout, with MacKenzie Porter (Hell on Wheels) even better than last year as Marcy.  In fact, everyone was stronger than last year, likely because the plot was more advanced.  Eric McCormack as MacLaren, Reilly Dolman as Philip, Nesta Cooper as Carly, and Jared Abrahamson as Trevor all put in memorable performances.   Even Patrick Gilmore as David was excellent.

I say "even," because you don't often see secondary characters who play such important roles in a fast-moving story like this.  But they're there, in and out, throughout the twelves episodes, especially McLaren and wife Cat, Marcy and David, and Philip with a Factor agent and then the beginning of something with Carly.  And the families and friends and relations really come into their own in the finale, which changes everything - though you never know, given the possibility of do-overs.

And that's all I say - other than, see this. If you enjoy a time-travel story with all the trimmings - intellect, action, humor, culture class - you'll love this.

See also: Travelers (review of Season 1): 12 Monkeys Meets Quantum Leap with a Story All of its Own

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Travelers: 12 Monkeys meets Quantum Leap meets Air Raid, with a Story All Its Own

The premise of Travelers - people from the future coming back to save our world from devastation, by changing the past, and traveling via insertion of their minds into 2016 bodies, of people who are on the verge of dying - is something we've seen before in time travel, notably in 12 Monkeys (save the world), Quantum Leap (mind from the future into present bodies), and Air Raid/Millennium (bodies on the verge of death).  Travelers even feels a little like Trancers (1984) - which is to say, very welcome, since Trancers is one of my all-time favorite low-budget time travel series of movies - but the actual story and stories of the new Canadian series, streaming since a few days ago on Netflix, has twists and turns and an appeal all its own. And, in the end, it's altogether outstanding.

Indeed, the episodes get better and better, with the last few being brilliant pieces of time travel narrative, culminating in a puzzle as profound and vexing as ever we've seen on television, and left almost in mid-air and crying out for continuation in a second season.  This first season is a classic case of a story that goes from interesting to engaging to absolutely riveting.

Time travel, of course, can never work exactly as planned.  Imperfection is the demon of the most carefully designed time travel strategy, and it makes for an intriguing story.   The present bodies that our future travelers shunt into are supposed to be in good physical and mental health, about to die by accident or some external assault, but sometimes the future's reconnaissance on the would-be hosts is not up to snuff.  One of the most interesting characters ends up in the body of someone who was supposed to die of his first drug dose, but the hosts turns out to be an addict.   Another appears in the body of young woman who was to be killed by some thugs, but her brain is already suffering from a congenital problem that the new possessor has to deal with.   Romantic relationships from the future and past also complicate and animate the doings of our time-travelers, and become mainsprings of the stories.

There are a couple of weaknesses in the plot - the main one being that new travelers from the future appear a bit too often as solutions and dangers.   But the fundamental tale is strong and provocative, the acting excellent -  especially good to see Eric McCormack (of Will and Grace) and MacKenzie Porter (of Hell on Wheels) on the screen - and we're treated to not only superior time-travel reckoning but sophisticated AI dilemmas as well in Travelers.

The big time travel questions are handled well, including the chestnut of how will the future unexpectedly change due to the changes deliberate and accidental in the past, especially with unforeseen consequences for the primary mission from the future? The details are done with savvy, including the travelers can't go further back in history than the digital age, since our computers are needed to precisely track times of death for the hosts and arrival for the travelers. So how would I rate Travelers in comparison to other time travel television series now or recently on the screen?   Better than Timeless and Frequency, and in the end as good as 12 Monkeys, which is high praise indeed.   Great work by Stargate creator Brad Wright.

 
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