10 Years Ago Today, A Sci-Fi Time Travel Show Premiered That Fans Had to Save Twice

NBC has sent people through time almost as long as it has been broadcasting sci-fi. Star Trek would regularly send the crew of the Enterprise back into the past, both as a plot device and to save money. The classic Harlan Ellison-penned episode “City on the Edge of Forever” serves as a classic example. Quantum Leap became one of NBC’s defining sci-fi shows in the 80s, following the adventures of a scientist getting uncontrollably bounced around time. The short-lived Journeyman approached the subject matter with a more melancholy spin, following a man involuntarily pulled into the past while trying to maintain his life in the present day. In 2016, the network tried its hand at time travel once again. This time the network combined historical adventures with a conspiracy thriller, assembling a team of specialists to chase bad guys through the timestream. Their mission was to literally save history, sometimes to mixed results.

Timeless premiered on October 3rd, 2016. Co-created by Supernatural and The Boys‘ Eric Kripke and The Shield‘s Shawn Ryan, the series starred Abigail Spencer as historian Lucy Preston, Matt Lanter as soldier Wyatt Logan, and Malcolm Barrett as engineer Rufus Carlin. When an entrepreneur builds a time machine called the Mothership, it’s stolen by a supposed terrorist named Garcia Flynn, played by Goran Višnjić. Using an early prototype called the Lifeboat, our heroes are sent into the past after him. As the team stops Flynn from changing the past, their efforts still create subtle ripples, changing things in the present. In the first episode, they manage to stop the bad guy, but accidentally erase Lucy’s sister in the process.

The Time Team Teaches History 101

Timeless stood apart because of its trio of heroes, known as the Time Team. Lucy was a history professor who could keep the team informed on the ground of what needed to happen. Wyatt was a soldier sent to protect the team and, if needed, take out bad-guy targets. Rufus was the engineer who co-developed the time machines and served as the mission’s pilot. Each week the team would drop into another era of time to prevent Flynn from destroying America before it could start. Episodes took them everywhere from the Hindenburg disaster and Abraham Lincoln’s assassination to subverting the Alamo and the Salem Witch Trials. Kind of like if the A-Team were Doctor Who companions.

The series was smart enough to understand that history looks very different depending on who’s experiencing it. Rufus had to routinely remind the rest of the team of the dangers of time traveling while black in America’s history. “I am black. There is literally no place in American history that’ll be awesome for me.“ During one memorable episode, the team would go back and meet Bass Reeves, the former slave turned lawman who inspired the Lone Ranger. Lucy faced misogyny throughout the ages, but the show smartly highlighted the contributions of countless women and minorities to history. The team would often miss their chance to set history exactly right and have to improvise a solution, sometimes resulting in tiny positive deviations in the timeline.

As the show progressed, Flynn would begin revealing to Lucy that he’s not actually a bad guy, but a man trying to stop Rittenhouse, a secret organization that’s been manipulating history for generations. Lucy discovers her family’s own connections to the shadowy organization, and Flynn becomes an uneasy ally to the Time Team. By the second season, Timeless was no longer about preventing someone from changing the past, but about stopping the people who thought they were entitled to it.

The Clockblockers Changed History

Even though critics loved the show, audiences never really showed up for it in large numbers. After its first season, Timeless was canceled by the executives at NBC. After a massive response by viewers petitioning NBC and the show’s production company, Sony, the cancellation was reversed just three days later. Season 2 would hit the same ratings wall as the first, leaving NBC to cancel Timeless again. This time, the fans responded with an even bigger campaign for a very real reason: the show ended on a cliffhanger. In the season 2 finale, Rufus dies saving the team. The final scene features a future Lucy and Wyatt telling their past selves, “Do you want to save Rufus?” The show’s die-hard fans, who adopted the moniker Clockblockers, definitely did. They pushed #SaveTimeless across social media and funded a banner that flew over San Diego Comic-Con, hoping someone would save their series. Then, someone actually stepped up and saved the show.

Attempts to find a new network home for the series failed, but NBC eventually relented. The network agreed to bring Timeless back for a two-hour finale. “The Miracle of Christmas” aired on December 20th, 2018, letting the show save Rufus, wrap up the Rittenhouse conspiracy, and give its characters a fulfilling ending. The finale became the show’s most-watched episode since season 1. The show still finds new audiences on streaming, and hopes for a follow-up film or series always linger in any interview the cast does. Much like the Time Team, the Clockblockers changed history for the better and saved Timeless twice. The show’s message about history not being permanent must have gotten through.