The (mostly) true story of a time traveler
Got home from work last night, and after a celebratory dinner with the family went into my home office to find this:
I will tell you two things without doubt:
1. It IS my handwriting, on a pad I keep on my desk, written apparently with a blue Sharpie that was lying by my mouse.
2. I did receive a completely unexpected bonus today, for a project I’d worked on over a year ago.
And yes, I DO think I know what THIS is all about…More later.
Journeyman
NBC’s new weekly series, Journeyman, is the story of Dan Vasser, journalist, husband and father who begins to travel in time, much to the frustration and disbelief of his wife, boss and police detective brother. Similar in situation to Audrey Niffenegger’s "The Time Travleler’s Wife," the main character doesn’t seem to have any control over when he travels, nor can he seem to control to when he journeys. Much like the show Quantum Leap, Vasser seems to travel to a time and situation that needs his influence.
In the pilot episode, during an early "dislocation," Dan saves a man from committing suicide, only to discover later that something terrible may well happen because of his intervention. In addition to this, his wife, boss and brother are convinced he’s got (take your pick) gambling, drinking or drug problems. They even stage an intervention of their own. Oh, and his brother arrests him. It’s an action-packed hour of television!
All in all, Journeyman makes a good start and explores a concept that many of us think about (some of us more than others, believe me), whether if we had the opportunity to change something in the past, could we do so for the better? Launching a television show has to be difficult. You must lay the foundation that all subsequent stories build from, but you have to get right to the point and have the pilot interesting enough to stand on its own while opening the audience’s minds to the possibilities. That’s a tough job.
On the Journeyman website at NBC.com, creator Kevin Falls talks about the process of writing the early episodes and the obvious comparisons to "The Time Traveler’s Wife." I understand those, but critics should take a break. Audrey Niffenegger didn’t invent the concept of time travel, and Journeyman would be far poorer a drama if Falls tried to avoid any comparison at all. It was eerie enough watching Journeyman and seeing a couple familiar issues, things and feelings I’m dealing with right now, but I don’t believe for a second that the producers of the show pulled anything from this blog and used it. That didn’t happen. I think it would be just as impossible to write a story about a married time traveler that didn’t in some ways resemble Niffenegger’s wonderful story.
The casting of Journeyman is excellent. Kevin McKidd (of HBO’s Rome) is excellent as a family man thrust into a strange and unsettling situation. He’s unflappable as he fights to save his marriage and family while in the middle of such a bizarre phenomenon.
Most new shows fail. I certainly hope Journeyman doesn’t. Though it casts a strange shadow on my story and this website, I think it has the potential to be a really good show. Best of luck to the producers, cast and crew. I’ll be watching.
Continued the "Living in the Past" chapter a little. I know the going is slow, and it’s tough because as interesting experiences happen, the early part of this adventure gets further and further away. I’m hoping for another flurry of production to get somewhat caught up very soon. Maybe even this weekend.
I’m noticing a lot of attention to time travel recently, both in the media and in popular entertainment. My family and I took a relaxing vacation, going to Newport, a couple hours north of here. Fun on the beach, and relaxing evenings took some of the edge off daily life. At night, we watched movies with our daughter. Two of the three we watched ended up being time travel stories. I didn’t pick them out, and as the first story, "Meet the Robinsons" unfolded, I caught a look and a sigh from my wife. I shrugged and shook my head in apology that although I hadn’t picked the movies, my "adventure" was again intruding into our life. She smiled a weary "apology accepted" and we watched the movie. Which turned out to be really good.
The next night, watching "The Last Mimzy," it became apparent close to the end that time travel was involved, and again my wife shook her head, this time without looking at me. In the morning, sitting on our balcony, looking out over the beach and ocean, she asked me, "is it just me, or is the whole world going time travel crazy?"
"Maybe it’s just like when you start looking at a certain make and model of car to buy, you start seeing them everywhere," I ventured.
"Could be," she said.
"If I were really self-centered, I’d say the universe was trying to tell me something."
"Who says you’re not self-centered?" she asked, laughing. The vacation was doing it’s job, and we were both relaxing back to a state of normalcy.
Then, last night, the first episode of "Journeyman." A review and more thoughts on the "time-travel crazy" world to follow.
