Summary

The pilot of this science-fiction television series about a newspaper reporter who spontaneously travels through time.

Dan Vasser, a reporter for the San Francisco Register, goes about his day, leaving work early to meet his wife at a restaurant for their wedding anniversary. During his cab ride he experiences an odd flash of light and enters the restaurant, where the patrons are celebrating over a football game they are watching on television. Dan is confused, as the game in question occurred eight years ago. He notices a woman he recognizes, named Livia, outside, and she gets in a cab before he can catch up to her. He gets in another cab and suddenly awakens in a different cab, much to the driver’s confusion. He meets his wife at the restaurant, apologizing for his lateness. He recounts his experience to his wife, Katie, believing it to be a dream. They return home later and sleep together, but early that morning Dan awakens in an unfamiliar campsite surrounded by homeless people, and flees when several mounted policemen arrive. He finds out he is in Golden Gate Park and tries to return home on foot, but finds that his house has mysteriously become dilapidated. He looks around the house and is soon attacked by a man with a baseball bat. Dan tries to fend him off, believing that he is still dreaming, and leaves the house. Before he leaves, the man informs him that the date is October 6th, 1987, further confusing Dan.

Katie is concerned about Dan’s disappearance and visits the police station to ask if Jack, Dan’s brother and a police detective, has seen him. Jack initially suspects that Dan may be having an affair, although Katie discounts this possibility. He believes she is panicking unnecessarily but agrees to help her find him. Dan wanders around the streets and rescues a man attempting to commit suicide by allowing a streetcar to run over him. Dan convinces him to go home, and the man, Neal Gaines, is grateful to him. Suddenly Dan finds himself back in the present-day and returns home, where Katie solemnly greets him after spending the past two days worrying about him. He tries to explain what happened, still believing that he experienced an unusually long and vivid dream. Dan’s editor Hugh comes down on him for missing his deadlines, and is also concerned about his recent disappearance. Dan decides to do an internet search about Neal and discovers that he exists, making him question his own sanity. While out driving, Dan experiences another shift in scenery and at the same time Katie, along with her and Dan’s son Zack, sees a news report about an accident involving Dan’s car. Dan is nowhere to be found, and Katie speaks to Hugh; neither can account for Dan’s whereabouts. Hugh believes Dan may be abusing drugs and suggests getting him some help.

Dan awakens and narrowly avoids getting run over by a streetcar. He soon runs into Neal again and follows him into a restaurant, eavesdropping on a conversation between him and his girlfriend Nicole; she indicates that she is not ready to start a family with him and doesn’t want to keep his child, whom she is pregnant with. He also literally bumps into a young Livia, working as a waitress in the restaurant, and has a brief, cryptic conversation with her. He is unable to stop Neal before he drives away, but has a conversation with a distraught Nicole, subtly trying to convince her to keep her child. Katie attends Zack’s piano recital, which Dan manages to attend in time. He attempts to explain his disappearance to Katie, but she doesn’t believe him. He believes that his trips through time are somehow connected to important moments in Neal’s life. Katie is highly distressed about Dan’s recent behavior and asks him not to run out on her. Dan returns home later with a ring for Katie in honor of their anniversary and finds her surrounded by his friends, apparently staging an intervention for him. He tries to convince them that he does not have a problem with substance abuse, but they believe that he is simply in denial about his problems. Jack arrives as well to arrest Dan for what appears to have been a hit-and-run for his earlier car accident.

Jack brings Dan to the police station, where he reveals that he has no intention of charging him for the incident, as no one witnessed Dan driving. Dan tries to explain the truth to Jack and mentions his encounter with Livia. He notes that he wanted to tell her not to get on board the plane which crashed, killing her, but did not, as he noted that his presence seemed to unnerve her. Further investigation on the internet reveals to Dan that Nicole Gaines and her son, Jacob Gaines, where both killed in 1997. Before he can find out how, he goes back in time again, this time ending up sometime in the 1990’s. This time he takes a tool box and enters the house which will become his, currently abandoned and up for sale. He manages to get in to his apartment at the time and changes clothes. Livia enters as well, discussing their upcoming wedding. She invites him to have sex with her, but he feels awkward about it and decides to leave. He exits and finds himself at a later point in time as Livia finds him in the hallway. She urges him to run and hide with her as what appears to be another Livia enters the hallway. She reveals that she exited the plane before it crashed and somehow survived. He tells her about Neal and she urges him to keep following his life even if he “gets it wrong.” Before he can find out more, Livia disappears and he discovers that he is sometime around December 1997, just before Nicole and Jacob are killed.

Dan tries to call Jack to get his help in preventing the murders, but Jack doesn’t believe him, particularly when he sees Dan coming down the street to meet him for lunch. Dan finds the restaurant where he and Jack are meeting and sees himself along with Jack, Livia, and Katie celebrating Dan’s upcoming marriage; at this time Katie is Jack’s girlfriend. The 1997 Dan is called away for an important assignment at work and leaves abruptly, and the Dan of present-day hides so as to escape his notice. The present-day Dan enters to rejoin the party just after the past-Dan leaves, asking for an address to help him find Neal. She finds the address for him and he races to catch up with Neal, finding him on a bus. He introduces himself to him, posing as an old classmate of his from high school. Neal informs him that he and Nicole are getting divorced despite the fact that he still loves her. Dan follows Neal as he tries to corner Nicole and Jacob on a street corner; Nicole sends Jacob inside. Neal runs into the street and a bus slams into him, killing him instantly. Nicole and Dan discover that Neal was carrying a handgun, and she realizes that he meant to kill her, as he had threatened to do so that morning. Dan walks away and disappears in a flash of light, but only Nicole seems to notice.

Dan emerges back in the present day and gets a ride home from Jack. He discovers that Jacob Gaines became a medical prodigy and saved a handful of children from a bus accident. Dan believes that his actions back in time contributed to this outcome. He goes home and Katie tells him that he needs to leave. He pleads with her to listen and tears up their patio with a sledgehammer, confusing Katie. He extracts the toolbox he planted there in 1997 and reveals its contents: a newspaper dated December 31st, 1997 and her wedding ring. A shocked Katie embraces him as he promises that he will “always come home.” Commercials deleted.