TIMELESS: PILOT {SERIES PREMIERE} (TV)
Summary
This pilot in this sci-fi adventure series about an unlikely trio of crime-fighters and their rush to stop a time-traveling villain. In this episode, on May 6, 1937, spectators in New Jersey are horrified as the Hindenburg airship bursts into flames and crashes, killing 36 people. In present day, history professor Lucy Preston returns home to her sister Amy and her terminally ill mother, upset to learn that she has just been denied tenure. Amy, however, points out that she should "make her own future" rather than following in her mother's academic footsteps. Elsewhere, a mysterious man reads through a handwritten notebook before leading a group of men into a scientific facility, Mason Industries, and killing several guards before entering a ship-like device and vanishing. Lucy is baffled when Homeland Security arrives at her door and whisks her off to Mason Industries, where she meets taciturn Master Sergeant Wyatt Logan. Agent Denise Christopher tells them about the mysterious man, a former NSA asset named Garcia Flynn who murdered his own family before going on the run, and Lucy and Wyatt are shocked by the footage of his sudden disappearance. Famed investor Mason Lark then explains that the "Mothership" was in fact a time machine, and that Flynn has used a "closed time-like curve" to travel to the past, specifically to the time and place of the Hindenburg disaster, for some nefarious purpose.
Wyatt and Lucy are further stunned when Christopher and Lark instruct them, along with shy computer expert Rufus, to travel back in the secondary "Lifeboat" ship and stop Flynn from dangerously altering history. Rufus protests that he is not only a mere coder, but a black man who will surely encounter a good deal of old-timey prejudice in the past, but Lark pointedly states that "they both know why" he is the man for the job. With no time to lose, the trio is hustled into the ship after donning semi-accurate period clothing, and they awkwardly introduce themselves before hurtling off to 1937. Once there, Rufus explains the vagaries of time-travel, including the fact that they cannot travel to a time in which they already exist, lest they run the risk of encountering themselves. Lucy describes the cause of the famous explosion, a fatal combination of wet ropes and static electricity, and guesses that Flynn intends to kill more than the "original" thirty-six. Rufus receives uncomfortable stares as they search for Flynn, and Wyatt is struck by the sight of plucky reporter Kate Drummond, who reveals that she spotted Flynn volunteering for the ground crew working to "bring the Hindenburg down." Rufus and Wyatt are then startled to learn that Kate is soon to die in the crash, but Lucy reminds them that they cannot change even a small detail of the past. They find the commander in charge of the landing and, claiming to be "Dr. Dre and Nurse Jackie," state that Flynn is a Spanish Flu patient who must be immediately found and quarantined. Wyatt breaks the rules and desperately tries to pull Kate away from the scene – but the Hindenburg lands safely without incident, meaning that Flynn actually saved everyone's lives by preventing the ropes from touching the wet ground.
Lucy angrily confronts Wyatt when he kills one of Flynn's men with his "futuristic" gun, and when Rufus attempts to track Flynn using the man's "walkie-talkie," he finds that it is actually a detonator. Lucy realizes that Flynn intends to blow up the ship later on, when it is returning to Europe with important "luminaries" like John D. Rockefeller onboard, thus changing the future far more profoundly. The trio is then arrested for trespassing, and while in their cell, Wyatt admits that he tried to save Kate because of her resemblance to his late wife, for whose death he blames himself. Rufus loses his temper on the racist jailer as Wyatt and Lucy use her "anachronistic" brassiere underwire to break out of their cells, and they rush back to the Hindenburg and recruit Kate to help them find Flynn's bomb. Finding that they have only minutes to spare, Rufus and Kate hijack the ship and order the Nazi leaders to land it as Wyatt attempts to disarm the bomb, while on the ground Flynn realizes that something has gone awry. Wyatt cuts the right wire, but a bad guy's misfired bullet causes the explosion all the same, and the trio rushes to help all of the passengers to safety as the ship goes down in flames. On the ground, Flynn confronts Lucy and states that he knows "all about her," revealing that he has her journal – which she will write in the "future" of the 1960s. He hints that she was chosen for the mission for a reason and tells her to ask about the meaning of "Rittenhouse," but Wyatt intervenes and shoots Flynn. When Flynn fires back, he ends up killing Kate, much to Wyatt's distress.
Back in the present, the team learns that the history books now state that the so-called "Black Cross" anarchist group caused the deaths of only two people, Kate and an unidentified man, in the Hindenburg bombing. Lucy admits that she spoke to Flynn, though Christopher denies any knowledge of "Rittenhouse," and when Rufus reminds them that there are "no do-overs" in time-travel, Lucy suggests that Flynn is trying to bring down America altogether by altering its fragile past rather than its resilient present. Rufus privately gives Mason a recording of Lucy and Wyatt's comments during the mission, and Lucy gently tells Wyatt that Kate's death, as well as his wife's, were simply up to "fate." Rufus asks out his workplace crush, Jiya, as Flynn peruses Lucy's diary, noting her comments about the 1969 moon landing. Upon returning home, Lucy is stunned to find that her mother is perfectly healthy, meaning that her own actions in the past somehow prevented her illness – but then learns that her sister Amy was never born. As she reels in shock, she receives a call from Christopher summoning her back to Mason Industries: Flynn has jumped back into the past again. Commercials deleted.
Details
- NETWORK: NBC
- DATE: November 30, 1999 10:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 0:46:09
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: 127889
- GENRE: Drama, fantasy/science fiction
- SUBJECT HEADING: Drama, fantasy/science fiction; Drama, action/adventure; Time travel
- SERIES RUN: NBC - TV series, 2016-2018
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- John Davis … Executive Producer
- John Fox … Executive Producer
- Marney Hochman … Executive Producer
- Neil Marshall … Executive Producer, Director
- Eric Kripke … Executive Producer, Created by, Writer
- Shawn Ryan … Executive Producer, Created by, Writer
- Brad Van Arragon … Producer
- Nick Bradley … Co-Producer
- Michaela Starr … Associate Producer
- Robert Duncan … Music by
- Abigail Spencer … Cast, Lucy Preston
- Matt Lanter … Cast, Master Sergeant Wyatt Logan
- Malcolm Barrett … Cast, Rufus
- Paterson Joseph … Cast, Mason Lark
- Sakina Jaffrey … Cast, Agent Denise Christopher
- Claudia Doumit … Cast, Jiya
- Goran Visnjic … Cast, Garcia Flynn
- Shantel VanSanten … Cast, Kate Drummond
- David Sutcliffe … Cast, Lucy's Fiancé
- Bailey Noble … Cast, Amy Preston
- Matt Frewer … Cast, Anthony Bruhl
- Susanna Thompson … Cast, Lucy's Mother
- Doug Chapman … Cast, Stiv
- Hiro Kanagawa … Cast, Agent Kundo
- Donal Thoms-Cappello … Cast, Herb Morrison
- Todd Thomson … Cast, Bartender
- Kurt Max Runte … Cast, Commander Rosendahk
- Noel Johansen … Cast, Captain Max Pruss
- Primo Allon … Cast, Deputy
- Fulvio Cecere … Cast, Sheriff
- Matthew Mandzij … Cast, Cop
- Christine Gavin-Bartlett … Cast, Matilde Doehner
- Jara Zeimer … Cast, Irene Doehner
- Aiden Longworth … Cast, Werner Doehner
- Walter Doehner … Cast, Rowan Longworth
- Matthias A. Brunert … Cast, Piano Player
- Chad Riley … Cast, Derek
- Sandy Robson … Cast, Grounds Crewman
- Bracken Hanke … Cast, Crying Girl / Kid Singer
- Cameron Forbes … Cast, Blue Collar Local
- Joel Cottingham … Cast, Charlie Nehlson