Hello, and an update

From notes I made last month…

I wake up, another nice sunny day in Southern California and has become my habit, roll out of bed, toss on a t-shirt and go to my home office, hitting the shift key to wake my Mac up. The first thing I do is lookin the upper right hand corner of the screen and check the date.

May 14.

Oh, right. Today’s the day. I briefly consider leaving a note, but realize when I came here from almost two weeks ago, there was no note. So, my inner weenie again coming out, I elect not to tempt fate and the universe by doing something that might well result in paradox. Maybe someday, but not today.

I reflect on how interesting it is, that when I was in 1976 (and 1977, ’78…well, that story’s not finished yet, so I won’t spoil it) I had no sense of not wanting to mess with the past. It’s entirely possible that my time back there, and the resulting timeline created by my actions that were far different than my first time through the period, instilled in me enough caution that I didn’t want to ever go messing with branching timelines again. Whatever the case, at this stage in my jouney through life, I’m not interested in screwing around with things. So no note.

I do catch up on some email, make some notes for the day, get dressed, kiss my family goodbye (which, knowing I could sparkle out to 1933 at any moment, I take very seriously these days), grab my work bag and vintage “go-bag” and head out the door, knowing the me that I was 12 days ago would be popping back in a couple hours from now.

Little did I know that I wouldn’t be making it to work that day, or for the next couple days. Because of what happened halfway down the front walk to my car, I’d never get the chance to see the breakfast I would put in the microwave that morning. It would be long gone, in the garbage, by the time I returned home.

Tags: John Titor, Space time, Spacetime, Time Travel

No spoiler this time

July 1, 2008

By Rich in Posts

As I wrote recently, I’ve traveled to the future on two occasions recently. They weren’t particularly enjoyable trips, in no way similar to the warm “been-here-before” feeling journeys that trips to the recent past can be. I have to admit, for a long time, the feelings those trips to the past engendered were a reason I thought this whole thing could well be purely psychological, simple (if that’s possible) hallucinations. Let’s face it, for most of us, the past creates feelings of nostalgia. We remember the good things that happened, and forget the bad. There was a time when I thought my “trips” there were just fantasy.

Those theories ended when I started bringing things back from the past, and in one case, the future. Simple things, nothing that would be at all incriminating if my house were searched. Just things from sometime else. I’ll follow up on my future souvenir at another time, but will say that it was a strange event in its complete normality. Truly fascinating, but again, another time.

I think the good feelings a trip to the past creates are good because my past, for the most part, WAS very good. I’ve lived a fortunate and pretty happy life. I won’t say it’s been a life without challenges, but it’s been a happy one. I think if my life had been filled with tragedy and trauma, my trips to the past might be much darker than they are. In this, I believe I’m blessed.

But, I will say that a startling thing about time traveling to the past is how vivid it is. Even a creative right-brainer like myself apparently tends to dull the colors out when memories are stored in our brains. Everytime I’ve traveled more than a few months past-ward, I’m struck by just how vivid and colorful it all is. We tend to think of the past like photographs before digital cameras, and anything before the 50s we’ve almost entirely experienced as black and white. I think seeing 1933 Indiana in the flesh will be shocking, since I’ve seen so many pictures of that time, and of Belton specifically, rendered in the black and white photography available then.

Though it’s a very, very bad idea, I’m seriously considering adding a small digital camera to my TT go-bag.

Tags: Time Travel, Time Traveler

Past and Future – Not the same – Plus a spoiler

June 7, 2008

By Rich in Posts

Since my previous post, I’ve traveled six times. Four times to the past, ranging from about six hours to a max of 15 years (I spent almost three days in 1993 – more on that coming – what a trip!). I traveled to the future twice, once about 18 hours and once just over a year. Those trips were really quick, about 5 minutes each in length.

I’m trying to figure out why trips to the future are so brief, if in fact that’s the case. So far, it has been. I will say I believe it’s an internal thing, because I’m in no way comfortable in the future. In fact, it’s decidedly uncomfortable. There seems to be a tension in the air, an almost-audible shrieking in my head as if my body is saying what the hell are you doing here? I tend to pop back pretty quickly, and the shrieking (which I can never quite hear, but definitely feel) subsides. I never feel that way in the past.

Maybe it’s a metaphor for how uncomfortable we humans are with the unknown. I’ve always been at least a little adventurous, and never fearful traveling someplace new. But the future is just a place that doesn’t feel right. Probably just me.

And probably just as well that I’m not there very long. I didn’t have time to read what “President Obama” was talking about in the article I clicked on during my 3 minutes in 2009 last week.

There you go, a rare spoiler. When am I going to remember to click on the California Lottery website instead of the news when I go to the future!

Preparation – Gear for the Past

May 11, 2008

By Rich in Posts

As the frequency of my bodily traveling increases, it’s becoming clear that something is building. Something that, according to the letter from my Grandfather, will send me back to 1933. As many questions as the readers of this blog may have, believe me, I have more.

I’m not sure at all what the details of this trip will be. Will I travel back to the exact date the letter from my Grandfather was written? If so, obviously my “landing” will take place pretty close to, if not in, Belton, Indiana. Or, will I travel back to 1933 San Diego, Indianapolis, or somewhere else? I haven’t a clue.

As much as I’d like to believe it will be a quick trip there and back, I have the feeling it won’t be that simple. Deep in my gut, I believe I’m going to be there awhile. I don’t know why it feels that way, it just does.

So, in preparation, I’m trying to put together some things that will make the trip more comfortable. I won’t lie to you, the thought of appearing in a cornfield in 1930s Indiana wearing a pair of sweatpants and a Ralph Lauren t-shirt is a big fear. That’s why I’m trying to make sure of two things:

Tags: Time Travel

Travel – 2 Weeks Into the Future

May 2, 2008

By Rich in Posts

More than anything, we are creatures of habit. Most of us tend to do the same thing day in, day out, usually at roughly the same time every day. It’s why we, time travelers all (one-way, at least), look back on our lives and think “where the hell did the time go?”

Time, for the most part, gets invested in habit and routine. I believe that if you spend a great portion of your days doing the same things over and over again without much variation, when you stand at the end of a year, a decade or a lifetime, all of those routine days flatten out and seem to be few in number. When you find yourself asking “where did the time go?” look for an overabundance of routine. It’s a huge time sink. This thought came to me earlier today when I made a quick trip to the future.

Tags: Time Travel

The Time Traveler FAQs

April 25, 2008

By Rich in Posts

By popular demand, I’ve prepared a set of FAQs.

Here it is!

Time Travel and Marriage

April 19, 2008

By Rich in Posts

In one of those interesting ironies that present themselves to us every now and then, a portion of the story I was working on last night – well, early this morning, actually – relates to a post I just stumbled across at The World History Blog, called Time Travel and Fidelity.

Miland Brown brings up the subject of fidelity independent of chronology. In other words, if a time traveler travels beyond the period of his or her nuptials, is he still bound by them? One commenter suggests the concept as book fodder, and others cite The Time Traveler’s Wife and Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series and their takes on the concept.

In short, the arguments as I see them are:

Another Chapter Down

April 8, 2008

By Rich in Posts

Just finished “The Road Not Taken.” Obviously, the title of the chapter was inspired by a line from the Robert Fost poem. This particular analysis of the poem, I think, directly relates to my experience. Read into it what you will

I think “The Road Not Taken” is the longest chapter of the story yet, and I know it is the most enlightening.

Home

April 4, 2008

By Rich in Posts

1 Comment

I knew it had to happen sooner or later, and that it was sooner was no surprise to me at all.

Middle of the night two nights ago. I woke suddenly, a strange feeling of vertigo washing over me as I snapped out of sleep. It was dark, and my wife was sleeping beside me. Taking a deep breath, I willed the vertigo away and stood, holding my arms out to steady my balance, which wasn’t all there. Suddenly I was glad I’d worn a pair of gym shorts and a t-shirt to be last night, because what I was afraid was coming…was here.

Tags: Time Travel

On Purpose

March 22, 2008

By Rich in Posts

This time, I knew what had happened right away. It was the middle of the night three nights ago. I was sitting on my back patio, looking up into the night sky, the slightest glow coming from the east, and suddenly realized I hadn’t been doing this a few seconds ago. I was in a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt and was cold. Not bone-chilling cold, but a little uncomfortable. I quickly snapped out of my reverie and reached for the memory of what I’d been doing before I found myself displaced here, somewhere in a time distinct from where I’d just been.

Walking.
Continued…

Pondering the future

March 4, 2008

By Rich in Posts

When I started this whole thing, in the summer of 2005, I had no idea where it was going. From the moment that I stepped out of my ill-fated Chrysler Pacifica (may she rest in peace :-/ ) in Belton, Indiana on that beautiful, perfect day, everything’s been different. Not bad, mind you…Just different.

As I’ve hinted at in a couple posts, I seem to be traveling in two distinct ways. My trips back to my own past and body have had subtle, but significant effect on my life today. If my traveling were limited to that, I think I’d be much more comfortable with it all. But it’s not limited to that kind of travel, and I know from the events of that day in 2005 that sometime in this year I’ll be taking the longest leap so far, all the way back to 1933.

To be honest, that scares the you-know-what out of me.

Though I haven’t covered it in the telling of the whole story yet, I’ve done a great amount of research trying to find out everything I can about my trip back there. I know exactly when I’ll show up in 1933, I just don’t know from when I’ll depart from 2008. I just know from my Grandfather’s letter that I’m “anchored” in 2008.

The use of the word “anchored” is interesting, and suggests to me that my trip back there isn’t an isolated one, despite my concern that I wouldn’t be able to get back to 2008. But then again, I realize that language changes subtly over time (and the 75 years between 1933 and 2008 could change linguistics a lot) so that particular word may not mean anything at all.

So I wait. And I prepare to suddenly find myself in 1933.

I’ll try harder to update this blog as frequently as I can, so any long gap (or cessation of new content) would be meaningful to my wonderful and supportive readers. I don’t want to leave you hanging, and I certainly want to give you (and me) a satisfying end to this story.

Tags: Time Travel

The Two Kinds of Time Travel

February 26, 2008

By Rich in Posts

1 Comment

If you’re following my story in the left sidebar, you may have noticed that what’s happened to me over the past 3 years is different from every fictional time travel story you’ve ever read or seen on TV or in the movies. My experience seems to be of two distinct types, corporeal and…well, non-corporeal. In other words, sometimes I travel bodily, where the “me” I am now somehow moves to a different time while other times only my consciousness makes the journey. It’s puzzling, and for obvious reasons, fictional treatments of the phenomenon confine themselves to one or the other method. Examples:

The Time Traveler’s Wife – Bodily travel only. Henry disappears, leaving his clothes fluttering to the ground when he travels in either direction.

Back to the Future – Bodily. Thanks to the Delorean, Marty takes everything, including his 1980s clothes into the past.

The Butterfly Effect – Consciousness. Interesting in that when the main character returns to the time period he originally travels from, his consciousness shoves aside whatever “him” that was residing there. See this earlier post of mine for some discussion of this situation.

Journeyman – Bodily. Dan Vasser seemingly is able to take everything attached to him (clothes, stuff in his pockets, cell phone) when he blinks out into the past.

Obviously, the bodily-only travel is the most common in fictional accounts of time travel. In my case, I seem to be experiencing both kinds of travel, with differing result. When I found myself standing in my home office 18 days in the past, I was able to interact with things there and make a change that persisted after I returned from the time I had departed. My experiences in 1976 are obviously consciousness-only, since when I woke up in my old bedroom in Indianapolis after my accident, I was in my 17 year-old body. Interestingly enough, what happened to me back there seemed to have some effect on my present-here, but I’m not sure how much is cause and effect and how much is just psychological.

Clearly, later this year, it looks like I’ll be bodily traveling back to 1933, the trip that started this whole adventure, and after that, I haven’t the foggiest idea what will happen.

Or what has happened.

I know, I know. Sometimes these posts raise more questions than answers.

Technorati Tags:
Time Travel, Journeyman, Back to the Future, Time Traveler’s Wife

A New Chapter

February 10, 2008

By Rich in Posts

Finished “Living in the Past” the last few days, and got a great start on “The Road Not Taken.” A lot of this portion of the story, while fun to tell, was really hard to write, and even harder for my wife to read. See, there are some important parts of the story and my background that are important to see the importance of some of the things that have happened. I couldn’t gloss over them, and had to write it.

She’s been great about it, though. There’s no more supportive wife in the world than mine – Thanks, Honey.

The pace of my writing has picked up, and it’s been over 3 weeks since I traveled even a second one way or another! Yay!

Fresh Update

February 4, 2008

By Rich in Posts

To Living In the Past. I’m through a difficult time at work – tough projects, nothing to worry about – and writing more now.

Thanks for the support!

Technorati Tags:
Time Travel

Waking up while still asleep

January 18, 2008

By Rich in Posts

I have to get this down…Right now, before I forget it.

I wake up, standing in the dark, wondering where I am. The realization comes and I understand that I’m standing in my darkened office at home. It’s clearly the middle of the night, as I always keep the top part of the blinds lowered a few inches to let in light during the day, and there’s no light spilling into the room. I stand for a couple of minutes and let my eyes adjust to the dark. Then, it’s back to bed. It’s interesting, because I haven’t sleepwalked in years.

The bedroom door is closed, and as quitely as I can, I open it.

Oops.

Stepping lightly into the bedroom, I see that there are two people in bed, and the light coming in from the French doors that lead to the second floor deck shows that the one closest to where I’m standing is me. If I wasn’t wide awake before, I surely am now. I’m frozen for a few seconds and wait to see if I wake up. I don’t.

I glance toward the source of the light coming through the doors to the outside and realize they are Christmas lights. So, Christmas lights from this year, next year or further into the future? I thought about it for a minute. We did lights out back this past Christmas, and the one before. But that was it. How far into the future we decorate, I have no idea, of course. So far, I’d only bodily travelled into the future, and that time it was a 16 day trip. One way.

But here I was, clearly in a time that I already inhabited, even though the then-me was asleep. Very weird.

As quietly as I can, I back out of the bedroom and ease the door shut. I head back to my office, and sit down in front of my computer. I always leave the Mac on, so touching the shift key brings the screen to life in a couple seconds. No apps are open, so I mouse down to the dock and it slides up from the bottom of the screen. I immediately see that the operating system on the Mac is still OS 10.4, and I ugraded to 10.5 a couple weeks after Thanksgiving this past year. I moved the mouse to the time display (3:19 AM) in the upper right corner of the screen and clicked. It showed that the day was Thursday, November 29, 2007.

Hmm.

So I’ve travelled back from January…18th, 2008. About two months. Okay. Not sure how long I’ll be here, but since I don’t have any memory of running into myself in the past three months, I guess I either go back pretty soon, or go get lost for awhile. I suppose if I have to, I could raid my cash stash in the floor safe in the basement and go stay out of the way for 90 days. Actually, wouldn’t be a bad time to do so. I could use the vacation.

Sitting at my computer, I laugh to myself, not believing I’m thinking this way. But, I guess being in your own past, knowing everything that’s going to happen in the next couple months makes things pretty comfortable. Then it hits me. Knowing what’s going to happen. Think. What could I turn that $3,000 cash stash into, knowing what’s going to happen in the next few weeks?

But no, I’ve been into the stash, adding to it in the last three months and didn’t find any of it missing. So that idea must not go anywhere. Then, another one hits me.

I log into the editor for this blog and write a quick post. As soon as I hit “publish,” and close the browser, I start to stand up and immediately start to get dizzy and suddenly so exhausted I feel like I’m falling asleep, unable to stop the process.

The next thing I know, I’m looking at the ceiling of our bedroom, and the gray light through the window shade tells me it’s morning. I’m certain I’m back to when I should be. I hear small footsteps crossing the floor and see my little girl climbing on the plastic step that helps her get up into our bed. She’s crawling toward the space between my wife and me, and I see both of them look at me, neither surprised that I’m here.

I immediately remember where I had just been, but know I’m back. I kiss them both, and after a few minutes, climb out of bed, walk to my office and check this site. Clicking on the November, 2007 archives, I quickly scan the page.

My mouth drops. It’s there. The post that I made, one that I had never seen, since I apparently don’t pay attention to the headers of previous posts when I write new ones, was there. It says:

Here for a quick visit. Big news. She died, waving from the sunroof of her SUV.

Butto.

Wow. This is a first.

Things That Make You Go “Hmmm”

January 13, 2008

By Rich in Posts

When you’re involved in something that you have no hope of completely understanding, I think it’s natural to look at every little mysterious coincidence and occurance, with the thought that it could be part of your experience, and may shed some light onto the big picture.

Such is the case of a conversation I had today with my friend Jeff, an avid runner, who came by earlier today when I was in my garage, door open, clearing some junk out of the cabinets. As he is often able to do, he got within a few feet of me before I realized it. Jeff is about 5’8″ and weighs maybe 130 pounds, soaking wet. He’s a good guy.

“Hey buddy!” he said, slightly startling me. Actually, I think he enjoys the hell out of being so light on his feet people often don’t hear him coming.

I tried not to flinch “Hey Jeff. What’s up?”

“I had the weirdest friggin’ experience this morning,” except he didn’t use the word “friggin.”

“Yea?” I answered. You don’t know weird, my friend, I thought. “What happened?”

“Were you out picking up your paper at about 5 o’clock?” He asked.

“Today? Nope.” I had slept in until almost 7:30. I usually woke up about 6am, but had stayed up late last night and so layed in a bit this morning. We’d allowed Sam to stay up a little later than normal too, so she wasn’t up that early.

“Well, I swear to friggin’ GOD that I saw you standing in your driveway with your paper when I was running by here. I said ‘hi’ to you, and you turn around and friggin’ disappeared! He was laughing as he said it, but had a funny look in his eye.

I tried to give him my I’m listening to you and seriously considering what you’re saying look and slowly nodded. “Really? I was in bed. 5 AM? Definitely in bed.”

“Maybe somebody stealing your paper,” he ventured, still looking at me.

I nodded more vigorously this time “We didn’t get a paper this morning. Maybe you caught someone stealing it.”

“Man, if I could disappear like that, I wouldn’t friggin’ waste it on stealing newspapers…” He shrugged. “Sometimes the dark plays tricks on your eyes, I guess.”

“I guess,” I answered. Jeff seemed pretty sure it was me, and my gut told me it was.

But from when?

What happens to the “then ME” when I time travel?

December 3, 2007

By Rich in Posts

The flip-side

As I continue to think about and chronicle the experiences I write about on this site, one of the biggest questions I have is this one:

When I travel to another time in my life, I’m “replacing” the consciousness in the body of that time with another. Our consciousness changes from second to second, if not microsecond to microsecond (or nanosecond to nanosecond, if you will). The “me” that drops into 1976, 1983 or 2000 is different than the one that was “there” before. So what happens to the one displaced?

I think I got a bit of that answer today, when I’m certain that I had a TT event while driving, and it has to do with deja vu, the (usually) brief feeling that you’ve “been here before.” Since waking up this morning, I’ve had feelings of familiarity every few minutes. Maybe two distinct deja vu episodes, once while shaving and the second while pulling out of my driveway and heading to work.

About 10 minutes into the drive, I was taking a different route to the office, after deciding to grab a bagel on the way. As I drove through an interesection (on the green) in Kearny Mesa, my attention was drawn directly to a white Nissan Altima waiting to merge into traffic. I slowed down and made a snap decision to turn into the parking lot the Altima was attempting to leave, I slowed, and as activated my turn signal, I saw the woman driving the car seem to disappear as she bent down to apparently retrieve something from the floor of the passenger side of her car. Her foot must have slipped off the brake an onto the accelerator, because just as I was turning into the parking lot, her car lurched forward into traffic, narrowly missing a car that had just gone past in the lane to left of me. Startled, I glanced in my driver door mirror and saw her head pop back up in the rear window, and her car jerk to the right. She came very close to missing a pickup truck in the far right hand lane, but didn’t. She clipped the left rear of the pickup truck, spinning it to the left. Her car, now slowed by the impact, skidded a bit and then hit the far curb, bringing it to a stop. I pulled my car into a parking space and jogged to the sidewalk on my side of the road, wanting to make sure no one was injured. The pickup truck driver had gotten out, and was stalking toward the woman in the Nissan, who was sitting very still in her car.

I stood there for a couple minutes while the two drivers exchanged information and calmly talked. The pickup truck driver had calmed almost immediately after he looked in the Nissan’s window and saw an obviously distraught woman. It didn’t hurt that a SDPD police cruiser pulled up within two minutes of the accident, either.

As I walked back to my car, I realized that I had no reason at all to turn where I had, and that I was extremely lucky to have avoided the accident, since if I hadn’t turned in when I did, I probably would have broad-sided the Nissan. I also realized that I hadn’t been wearing my seatbelt, something I almost always do. Immediately sensing what had happened, I started searching my memory and have to admit that, thought it may just be imagination, I could see the Nissan pulling out in front of me and feel the memory of tensing before the impact. But that never happened.

Or did it?

Did the accident that I can see in my mind actually happen in another time stream and did I come to this one to make sure it didn’t happen here? If that’s the case, is the deja vu I’ve been experiencing, especially the intense episode immediately surrounding the accident I witnessed, an artifact of the process of my “then me” consciousness overlaying my “current me” consciousness? If that’s the case, then given the number of people who experience deja vu, there’s a lot of travelling going on all the time.

Just visiting

November 29, 2007

By Rich in Posts

Here for a quick visit. Big news. She died waving from the sunroof of her SUV.

Back To the Future

October 16, 2007

By Rich in Posts

1 Comment

I have to say, I love the movie Back to the Future, It’s not the most thought-provoking, mind-bending TT story, but it’s great entertainment. Michael J. Fox is wonderful in the movie, as is Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson and even Crispin Glover in his twisted, eerie way. The guy who played Biff Tannen in all three movies was in an episode of House recently and though it took me a few minutes to place him (he’s 20 years older, after all), it was great to see him. He did such a great job with that character.

There’s not much technical zowie in any of the three movies, though except for the bit in the first movie with the fading photographs, and Marty having what looked like either a stroke or the effects of an inflamed gall bladder, when it looked like his parents wouldn’t get together at the "Enchantment Under the Sea" dance, the basic rules of single universe / cause and effect timelines were pretty well maintained. It all makes sense to our human brains, if we try hard enough to stretch them and understand how the universe may work.

Of course, our puny human brains and even smaller minds may not be able to grasp the reality of the space/time continuum and how it deals with cause and effect and multiple versions of the same timeline. That’s something we have to work out, if we can.

The first Back to the Future movie came on cable this past weekend, and I called my daughter in to watch it. "This is great!" I explained to her. "Why doesn’t he want to kiss her?" she asked, when Marty and his future mother were in the car outside the dance.

"She’s going to be his mother," my wife answered, which didn’t really help.

I jumped in, "see, he’s gone back in time to see his parents before they were married." She looked puzzled, but then inspiration came.

"It’s like Meet the Robinsons!" I said.

"Oh!" Now, armed with the proper reference (one of her favorite movies – she especially likes strong karate-chopping Mother in that particular animated movie), she got it.

Enough said.

What the…?

September 27, 2007

By Rich in Posts

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.

A Review of NBC’s New Show – Journeyman

September 25, 2007

By Rich in Posts

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.

Bubbling under the conciousness

September 25, 2007

By Rich in Posts