I’m not sure how I did it, but, somehow, I managed to watch the screener for the pilot of “Journeyman,” write about it in Bullz-Eye’s fall preview, and focused on the similarity to “The Time Traveler’s Wife” without naking the obvious comparison to “Quantum Leap.” Maybe it’s because I never really watched the Scott Bakula time-travel drama very often, but it just never occurred to me…which, in retrospect, makes me feel like a complete idiot, because the similarity – a guy travels back and forth through time, each time following a particular individual, never knowing where his next trip is going to take him – is undeniably there.
In a word, D’oh!
The pilot is definitely strong, offering up the premise as well as the mystery surrounding it – why is Dan Vasser (played by Kevin McKidd) jumping through time, and what does his supposedly-dead ex-fiancee, Livia (Moon Bloodgood), have to do with it? – as well as setting up an explanation for how he could possibly convince his wife, Katie (Gretchen Egolf), that he really is jumping through time. In the second episode, “Friendly Skies,” we get more of a glimpse as to how quickly this abrupt disappearing problem of Dan’s is on its way to ruining his marriage, even if Katie does know what’s happening to him. We also see that not only are the producers planning to continue using music to help set up the various eras to which Dan travels but, more importantly, they aren’t afraid to steer away from the most obvious selections. Sure, when he pops back to the ’70s, it’s all about listening to disco on an 8-track player, but trips to the ’80s and ’90s bring songs from The Psychedelic Furs and Freedy Johnston. (On a side note, it’s clear that, during the aforementioned ’70s visit, the crew had a hello f a lot of fun reminiscing about how much fun it used to be when flying the friendly skies.)
“Studio 60” might’ve been a poor fit for the post-“Heroes” timeslot, but “Journeyman” still looks as strong now as it did when we first checked it out…and, better yet, the ongoing romantic aspect of the show seems poised to grab a larger female audience than your average sci-fi drama.
Here’s a teaser:
