The main trajectory for the plot in Journeyman, one of NBC's new shows coming this Fall, is steered by the traveling back in time by the main character, Dan Vasser (Rome star Kevin McKidd). Time Travel: you may feel you have traversed this road before, and you would be correct in your assumption. But seeing as how time travel has not actually been accomplished (yet) in the real world, the rules are very…flexible. Rather than the probability, the important factor for Journeyman will be picking a set of rules that work for the storylines they are aiming to tell and then sticking to them.

In previous incarnations, time travel has been accomplished by a special machine (H.G. Wells' Time Machine; Doc Brown's flux capacitor-equipped DeLorean) or a portal of some kind (Quantum Leap, Sliders). But in Journeyman, Dan has no machine, no portal that we know of, and really no idea of when, where or how he will travel back in time. It is a mystery.


There are definite similarities between Dan Vasser's situation and that of the Henry DeTamble character from the book The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. Henry also travels spontaneously with no ability to control when or where it happens, but Dan does have the advantage of traveling with his clothes still in tact. Another difference is that Henry makes great effort not to change things while he is in the past, believing that he can't make a different future because the future has already happened.

However, Dan's time travels will involve him actively and sometimes inadvertently changing things in the past. This will lead to both positive and negative consequences that he will have to deal with when he makes it back to his present life.

So yes, time travel has been done before – in movies, in books and on television. But Journeyman is writing its own recipe – some ingredients we have seen before, but not in this exact combination. We'll have to wait until Fall to see how it tastes.


Amy J. Johnston, BuddyTV Staff Columnist
Source: televisionary.blogspot.com
Photo courtesy of NBC.com