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Journeyman 1.3: "Game Three" |
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Monday, 15 October 2007 |
By John Keegan
Visit Critical Myth for an archive of John's TV Review archives, with more than 1100 entries.
The series premiere covered the basic premise and set up the series with plenty of material to explore. The second episode focused more on the effect of Dan’s time travel on his family and “present” relationships. This episode tries to meld elements of both, and whole is not necessarily the sum of its parts.
Sooner or later, the writers would have bring the matter of Livia’s survival into the story in a more tangible way. Introducing her as a fellow time traveler was clearly meant to up the stakes for Dan. It’s one thing to have the younger and more alluring Livia in the past, where Dan might occasionally be tempted. It’s quite another to have Livia alive and well, intersecting with his life on a regular basis.
The first scenario gives Dan a clear choice between living in the past and living in the present. It makes the choice simple, because on some level, he knows that the past is just someplace he visits. He has to live with Kate and maintain a living for his family. Under that scenario, Dan could see his trips, however involuntary, as something like exotic business travel.
Livia’s presence within the time travel, as an active and living participant, brings a layer of continuity to his travels. He’s not living one life with interruptions; he’s jumping from one relationship to another at random. The temptations are much higher, especially when Livia has clearly been successful at making the travel work.
More to the point, Livia explains that her travels through time had been happening before she met Dan. She was under the impression that they had stopped. It wasn’t her choice to leave him, but it was her choice to stay out of contact until Dan’s own travel began. That implies that Dan could figure out how to do the same. He could, theoretically, leave his old world behind and embrace his new world, and it might even be possible to be with Livia in the process.
This is actually an implication drawn from relatively little material from the episode. Dan spends more time with Livia during this “mission”, and that leads to an inconvenient mistake. Kate finds out about Dan’s run-ins with Livia, and that will doubtless cause tension. That’s far more interesting than the “mission” itself, which continues to be the least interesting part of a “Journeyman” episode.
The somewhat disappointing exploration of the earthquake, even taking into account the revelations about Dan’s gambling habit, undermine the strengths of the relationship quandary. Coming this early in the series, it feels like the producers were trying to find an early hook for the audience. Unfortunately, because it comes across as a transparent stunt, it takes something away from the episode itself. Given how “Journeyman” is struggling in the ratings, that’s not what they need to do. They need to avoid the “Quantum Leap” penchant for stunts and focus on the core relationships. That is what will give the viewers a reason to come back. |
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