Theorizing That One Could Time Travel Within His Own Lifetime, Dr. Sam Beckett Stepped into the Quantum Leap Accelerator ... and Vanished
"Journeyman" / The TV Whore
Sept. 24, 2007
“Journeyman” is yet another in the line of shows where someone jumps around in time trying to fix the mistakes of the past. Of course, no show has done this better (in my humble estimation) than “Quantum Leap.” While “Leap” was by no means a flawless show, it was an absolute joy to watch throughout its five-season run, and I still miss it dearly. Which is why I was set to hate “Journeyman” from the get-go — I’m prejudiced against shows that are like “Quantum Leap,” because I’d rather be watching new episodes of Dr. Beckett’s travels, damn it, rather than some wannabe. But one episode in, it turns out that I don’t hate “Journeyman.” I don’t love it, either, but the show at least appears to have some potential. And in one respect, “Journeyman” is actually a sort of continuation-in-theme of “Quantum Leap.” Fans of “Leap” (I believe the die-hards call themselves Leapers) will recall that about the only thing we sort of learned in the frustrating season finale was that Sam was apparently going to start leaping around in his own body, rather than leaping into the lives of others. Similarly, “Journeyman’s” Dan Vassar jumps around in his own body.
As the show begins, Vassar is a simple reporter for a big San Francisco newspaper, happily married with an attractive wife and a cute kid, and getting ready to celebrate his wedding anniversary. But after a splitting headache, he finds himself having what he thinks must be a bizarre dream — he’s walked into a bar where a 49ers game is playing, only it’s an old game featuring (cocksucking) Terrell Owens catching a game-winning touchdown for the Niners. And the bar owner and patrons are treating it like it’s actually happening live. Vassar soon wakes from his “dream” to find that it’s much later in the day, and he’s now running late for his anniversary dinner. The viewer knows, of course, that this wasn’t a dream, but was his first trip through time and throughout the first episode Vassar will make several more trips back in time. By the end of the hour, we don’t really know many of the rules of the show’s universe, but we get the basic idea (what I mean here is that any good sci-fi story, particularly one involving time travel, has certain internal “rules” which shape the structure of what can and can’t happen within the reality of the story).
For example, we know that Vassar physically leaves the “present” when jumping back in time, which causes a host of problems. One imagines that he’ll eventually learn a little control over the timing of these trips but until he does there can be immediate consequences of a sudden jump, as he learns when he’s yanked back in time while in the middle of driving. Perhaps even more problematic for him, time in the “present” continues to move forward while he’s in the past, and it’s not even proportional to the amount of time he’s gone. That is, while one trip to the past appears to only have taken a couple of hours, Vassar returns to the present to find that he’s been “missing” for two days. This causes a particular amount of trouble with regard to his job and family life because, you know, bosses and wives don’t like it when you just go up-and-missing for days on end. With his sudden absences, it comes as no surprise that folks immediately jump to the conclusion that Vassar’s been on drinking or drugging benders, and there are hints that he might have had some type of addiction problem in the past (although that specific conversation may have instead been hinting that he had an affair — I wasn’t quite paying as much attention as I should have).
By the end of the first episode, Vassar seems to have smoothed things over with his wife, which leads to another “rule” we know about this show’s universe — the things Dan does while in the past have an effect on the “present” he returns to. That is, his changes to history become part of the present’s past, erasing whatever “originally” happened. Of course, this is a common aspect of time travel stories (think Back to the Future, and the changes Marty effected just by inadvertently causing his pops to knock out Biff at the Enchantment Under the Sea dance), but it’s not necessarily the way these things have to play out. The ramification of this cause-and-effect business is that Dan can set things up in the past for a payout in the future. We see one example of this in the first episode, and one wonders whether this is something the show will play with more in the future — the idea, for example, that Dan could do things in the past to enrich his present (not to mention the notion that he could try to make money in the past based on his knowledge of the future). But the other impact of this rule is that Dan, unlike the good Dr. Beckett, doesn’t need a holographic Al feeding him information about the future supplied by supercomputer Ziggy.
See, Dan eventually learns that he’s apparently jumping through time for the purpose of fixing things (“striving to put right what once went wrong,” if you will). While he’s in the past, he doesn’t know, per se, where he needs to go or what he needs to do. But apparently part of the whole time travelling deal for him is that he has an instinct for being in the right place, coupled with some not-so-dumb luck (and the show basically tells us we’ll learn more about this aspect of things as time goes on). But since he jumps back and forth, Vassar can also hit up the old Google while in the present, which lets him not only see the ramifications of what he did during his last trip, but allows him to figure out what he might need to do the next time he goes back. It’s definitely a convenient way to handle the need for information about the past, but I miss my Al Calavicci.
Other rules about Vasser’s trips through time remain vague at this point, although one presumes they’ll be fleshed out a bit more over time. For example, we know he can go back at least 20 years, but is there a limit on exactly how far he can go back? (The good Dr. Beckett had a rough rule that he couldn’t travel before his birth, although the show managed to get him back into the Civil War during the “we’ll do whatever we want” last season.) Similarly, we know he can show up in a different physical location, but so far his travels have been limited to San Francisco — can he wind up in an entirely different city or state? And what about the fact that his clothes and anything he’s holding travel with him — how big is the time travel “aura” surrounding him?
But I digress. Contrary to all this nerding, the show really isn’t all that science fictiony. If you don’t care about those elements, you can just accept the fact that Vassar travels through time, move on, and try to enjoy the show for its other elements. For example, it’s not hard to enjoy Kevin McKidd in the lead role, particularly if you were a fan of his wonderful performance on “Rome.” The only problem I had with his performance is that I actually found his American accent a bit suspect at times, although I was probably listening a bit more carefully than usual because of my familiarity with his real accent (but I’ve also paid close attention to Hugh Laurie’s accent in “House” and have found it to be generally flawless). But, again, this is a small complaint, as his accent doesn’t distract terribly from the performance, and McKidd ultimately brings the same gravitas to this role as he did to Lucius Vorenus (in fact, there’s so much of Vorenus’ seriousness in some of his performance that I kept waiting for him to boil over with anger and break someone’s neck). As for the rest of the cast, it’s mostly folks I didn’t recognize, and they all performed just fine. None of them stood out as anything particularly special but, more importantly, none of them were terrible.
The only other cast member I did recognize was Moon Bloodgood, who just so happened to be on last year’s time-travel show, the quickly cancelled “Day Break.” Here, she plays Vassar’s ex-fiance, and while she’s presumed dead in the “present,” there may be more to that story. But she’s certainly alive in the past, and Vassar finds himself repeatedly bumping into her, sometimes on purpose, sometimes not. This actually brings up another interesting aspect of the show which is that, because Vassar travels through time as himself, he’s able to “slip into” his past life, pretending to be the Vassar of that time. He does this twice in the premiere episode, once accidentally and once on purpose. There are some interesting character development elements that come with all this, not just regarding his relationship with the ex-fiance, but also with regard to his current wife and brother (with whom he presently has a somewhat strained relationship).
Look, here’s the point. “Journeyman” is a surprisingly decent show. It seems to carefully walk the line of not getting to sci-fi, while having enough of those elements for the folks who want ‘em. But the important aspect of this show will be the stories set in the past. As much as I loved “Quantum Leap” on the whole, my favorite episodes were the ones where the “once went wrong” aspect of the story was particularly strong. Here, the part of the story involving the things Vasser was trying to fix wasn’t particularly engrossing. If the show can fix this, spinning strong stories as the best “Quantum Leap” episodes did, I think it could wind up being a worthwhile hour of viewing. That being said, I also have a suspicion that “Journeyman” isn’t going to get the kind of ratings NBC is hoping for with the post-“Heroes” timeslot, so regardless of its quality, it may not be long for this world. Which just means if you’re interested in the show, you might want to catch it while you can.
(“Journeyman” premieres on NBC tonight at 10 p.m.)
Seth Freilich is Pajiba’s television editor. He wishes he could travel back in time to make some changes to his fantasy football roster, ‘cause he’s just getting fucking killed this season.
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Comments
Hmmm. Sort of sounds like "Goodnight Sweetheart", which was a fairly decent time travel show in which the protagonist actually ends up with a wife in each time (he jumps back to the Second World War). Although he does his utmost not to affect the present day. And it's sort of a comedy.
The other thing that immediately sprang to mind, with regards to the actually-vanishing-in-the-present-for-different-lengths-of-time-and-at-bad-moments is The Time Traveller's Wife.
Posted by: Zarahruth at September 24, 2007 8:22 AM
Zarahruth- I too thought of The Time Traveler's Wife when I was reading about this show.
I am obligated to watch anything with time travel in it (a combo of too much Doctor Who and Quantum Leap as a child) so I will give this a go. Glad to hear it is decent enough.
Oh and Seth I totally feel you on the fantasy football end. This season is totally kicking my ass.
Posted by: Jackers at September 24, 2007 8:45 AM
The problem with these shows (especially on network TV), is that they will NOT respect their own premise/rules and just start doing whatever the hell the hack writer of the week needs to get his cheesy episode idea in the can.
PS: If I had the power to travel back and affect the future, I wouldn't stop Hitler, I wouldn't prevent 9-11 etc. I'd make myself rich and retire to be sexually serviced, constantly.
Posted by: BarbadoSlim at September 24, 2007 8:48 AM
This definitely sounds intriguing, and I'd love to catch it. But losing Day Break when it was just getting so good pretty much broke my heart, so I now refuse to watch any new shows on network TV. If it survives to a 2nd season, I'll check out the DVDs and catch up that way.
Posted by: Gabs at September 24, 2007 9:57 AM
Well thank goodness. Shew! I was thinking of blowing this off because I don't want it to sully my opinion of Kevin McKidd. If this show is a bomb, will I be able to wipe it from my memory of him? But if it's OK, just OK, by TVWhore, then I'll go ahead - tentatively - and give it a try.
As for Rome?
Well.
It's up there in television history with Deadwood - maybe better? I mean the intensity of Vorenus, Pullo and Mark Antony vs. Bullock, Swearengen & Tolliver? Hard to pick that one. And, of course, both are so very soft-porny.
Posted by: GinKirk at September 24, 2007 10:48 AM
I'll probably give this show a try because there is nothing I currently watch on Monday nights. I'm happy it begins tonight, so that they will hopefully stop showing the blessed commercial where one character says "You went back in time?" like a grown-up Gavin from KITH. I seriously hate that spot.
Posted by: Kt at September 24, 2007 11:04 AM
I miss Quantum Leap - it was one of my favorites. I knew it was over when they changed the theme song.
And speaking of Day Break, why didn't you say that Adam Baldwin is in Chuck? I count on you to keep me updated with important information like this. I almost didn't set the Tivo up to record it.
Posted by: Three-nineteen at September 24, 2007 11:44 AM
While it sounds promising and I loved Quantum Leap as a kid, I don't think that I will be wtaching tonight as I have to see if Brees is going to be riding the bench this season for my fantasy team.
I am in quarterback purgatory.
As a side note, Grossman is ruining the Bears, including their defense. Damn you Grossman, Damn you.
Posted by: Melody at September 24, 2007 11:46 AM
I watched this last week when the TIVO optioned downloading through Amazon Unbox. I wasn't that taken in by it... it seems like it is another 'serial' drama. Out of the 3 shows I watched (Journeyman, Chuck, and Bionic Woman) I think Bionic Woman has the most potential. Chuck was not as fun/quirky as I thought it would be from the previews.
Posted by: Tereasa at September 24, 2007 11:56 AM
This sounds like it's worth a viewing. I loved "Quantum Leap" and even taped the reruns off the Sci-Fi network, so I'm willing to give this a try.
Does anyone remember a short-lived time travel series from the 60's(I think)called "The Time Tunnel?" It was probably the first show I saw that treated time travel in a kinda serious way.
Posted by: rlr260 at September 24, 2007 12:15 PM
Does anyone remember a short-lived time travel series from the 60's(I think)called "The Time Tunnel
Totally! I loved that show as a kid. James Darren was one of my first TV crushes; six-year-old me thought he was seriously hawt.
Posted by: Jerce at September 24, 2007 12:56 PM
BarbadoSlim, your passion for bettering the world has inspired me to great lengths, which includes wondering how I too could make lots of money and retire to be sexually serviced continually.
This looks like an awesome show, given my complete obsession with Quantum Leap and Rome, it's a marriage of two loves that just cannot miss.
And the comparisons to The Time-Traveler's Wife are spot on. Someone should make that book into a movie......although maybe it would just be better in my mind.
Posted by: Racahael at September 24, 2007 1:11 PM
*sigh* LOVED Quantum Leap. Damn you, network or whatever asswads that left Dr. Sam Beckett, the hottest, coolest time traveler ever to just drift out there forever...*sniff sniff* totally can't watch the epi where halo Al tries to dance with his wife while real Al is in a Vietnamese prison-camp....
I also immediately thought of "Time Travelers Wife" when I first heard of this show. It looks pretty good, and I am willing to give anything with Vorenus in it a try. Will Pullo make a guest appearance? You know, in the past or something? That would be awesome! What happened to his new show, about the zombies?
sorry, gonna go back into my corner and think about Sam, standing in the particle chamber....
Posted by: dammitjanet at September 24, 2007 1:28 PM
Zarahruth, I LOVE The Time Traveler's Wife. To death.
Posted by: Ben at September 24, 2007 3:49 PM
Does anyone remember a short-lived time travel series from the 60's(I think)called "The Time Tunnel?"
Hah I *hated* that show. The way they kept saying 'oh they're in a bad spot, but if we try to time travel them out, there's only a one in a thousand chance they'll survive' and every week they DID survive and landed somewhere dangerous. Then when I saw a new show about time travel was coming out, somthing about leaping and quantums, I was completely uninterested!!! (Ok I was just a kid, and there wasn't any internet, or pajiba, to tell me better). Luckily I accidently switched the telly on at some point and 1min viewing was enough to convince me that QL was well worth watching. But I still blame the Time Tunnel for making me miss those first few episodes.
Posted by: chrisD at September 24, 2007 4:28 PM
Sadly, I have heard rumours that they are making a film of Time Traveller's Wife. And the gossip says that Brad Pitt got the lead.
I hope it's all a lie: a) because I love this book and have read it about 18 times and b) because personally I saw Adrian Brody in the role. And whatsherface from Cybil (the daughter) and That 70's Show as Clare. You know, the red-headed actress. I have a bad memory for names and can't be bothered to look on imdb. It's late.
Posted by: Zarahruth at September 24, 2007 7:04 PM
whoa let's not mistake Alicia Witt (Cybil) for Laura Prepon (that 70's show). I mean come on! but you're right, Alicia Witt would make a great Clare. How about Matthew Fox as the time traveller? I'd like to see him running around naked and barefoot.
Posted by: MC at September 24, 2007 7:55 PM
I caught this one in the preview section of my On Demand thing (yeah, I just upgraded to digital cable after not having cable for like 10 years). I thought it was a solid show as well. There were some parts where I was thinking "WTF!" because my inner nerd could not get over the gaps in plot. But, as a whole, it was good, and anything that remotely resembles "Quantum Leap" I will give a shot. I'm just hoping "Heroes" doesn't jump the shark this season. That season 1 finale episode was questionable at best.
Posted by: Gigi Worthington at September 24, 2007 8:02 PM
It will last 11 episodes.
Posted by: BarbadoSlim at September 24, 2007 9:03 PM
A TTW movie IS in production, with Eric Bana and Rachel McAdams attached as Henry and Clare. Works for me.
Posted by: Gabs at September 24, 2007 9:42 PM
Watching right now; def a prior gambling addiction
Posted by: Grant at September 24, 2007 10:18 PM
I watched it tonight and really, reaaly liked it. It will be a nice show to wind down to after watching Heroes =) The acting was solid, and it certainly seems to have the potential for interesting storylines and character development. I am already looking forward to next week's!
Posted by: Jen13 at September 24, 2007 11:16 PM
Meh. If it hadn't been for Kevin McK., I'd have bailed at the halfway point.
I'll tune in next week, and if it's not WAY better next week, I won't be back.
Posted by: Jerce at September 25, 2007 9:13 AM
This was a pleasant surprise, although there were times when I was desperate to figure out the "rules" of traveling. McKidd is excellent, though. The fact that I like this will probably doom it for certain, but it was great to have something to salvage the night after the disappointment and boredom of the "Heroes" premiere.
Posted by: Shaz at September 25, 2007 9:48 AM
MC - apologies, I didn't even realise it was two different actresses! My excuse lies in that I used to watch Cybil when I was about 13 and I haven't seen much of That 70's Show. And I'm just a bit blind (for years I thought Diane Keaton and Dianne Weist were the same person. Don't ask me why).
Gabs - I'm so relieved it's not Brad Pitt that I'm happy that it's Eric Bana. He's definitely a closer match, though I like MC's Matthew Fox suggestion as well. I adore Rachel McAdams. She can do no wrong in my eyes. But I still hold out hope for Alicia Witt (but not much, this being Hollywood).
Posted by: Zarahruth at September 25, 2007 2:13 PM
Sadly, like The Kite Runner, I think that The Time Traveler's Wife will fare poorly in its transition to the screen. Both books just cover too much emotional space and time to fit nicely into Hollywood's idea of the perfect 120-minute drama.
The previews for this show didn't really do it for me either. That, and 10pm is past my bedtime. :)
Posted by: Ariel at September 25, 2007 7:49 PM
"Thirteen!!!"
Sigh.
Posted by: Vi at September 25, 2007 9:58 PM
Ok, more like 15! (I just checked the dates)
Posted by: Zarahruth at September 26, 2007 2:23 PM
Great Review.
Before this show aired, I was thinking, "I've seen this show before, and it was called Quantum Leap."
I was a bit skeptical of this show at first, but by the end of the first episode I'd decided it could be OK. Hard to tell from the first episode, though.
Posted by: Eric at September 26, 2007 5:46 PM
We DVRd it and watched it last night. I liked it quite a bit, and I'm looking forward to the next episode. The wife is annoying as all get out, though. I hope she dies or something. ;)
Posted by: Kolby at September 27, 2007 9:39 AM
Finally watched it this morning. I was hesitant because it looked like a Quantum leap knockoff, and because I hate getting sucked into series that end up getting axed before resolution. That being said, this is my favorite new sci-fi show of the season. Hopefully we get at least a season out of it and some kind of ending other than "Dan Vassar never returned home".
Posted by: Rob at September 29, 2007 12:08 PM
I was a huge Quantum Leap fan, but I tend to like scifi in general. That being said, I welcome a new show like Journeyman back to prime time TV. I also have made comparisons to Quantum Leap and also see this show as almost a direct spin-off. Over all I think the show was well produced and some thought and good ideas were present in the story line.
Speaking for myself, I hope this starts a trend away from "Reality Shows" not that reality shows are all bad, I liked a few of them, but I think we have all had our share of "Reality" for a while, and need some good new "SciFi" the new Bionic Woman show was not bad either, Keep up the trend! ... looks like serious potential for some good stuff!!!
Posted by: Quantum Leaper at October 1, 2007 10:34 AM
