The genetics behind this one are pretty impressive: the creators of The Shield (Shawn Ryan) and Supernatural (Eric Kripke) have come together and brought forth their creative love child, Timeless, a time travel TV series that largely avoids the cliches of the sci-fi sub-genre and keeps the audience guessing.
In some ways, the set-up doesn’t seem too extraordinary, as an experimental time machine is stolen by former NSA agent Garcia Flynn (Goran Visnjic), who is intent on doing damage to the timeline. To stop him, the government brings together a team consisting of history professor Lucy Preston (Abigail Spencer), US Army Delta Force member Wyatt Logan (Matt Lanter) and Rufus Carlin (Malcolm Barrett), who is ordered to pilot the “lifeboat,” a prototype of the time travel mothership. The twist that develops is that the actions taken by these characters — whether it be Flynn or our trio of heroes — actually have an impact on history. On a personal level, Lucy’s mother is no longer dying of cancer (that’s the good news), but her younger sister has vanished from existence and she’s engaged to a man she’s never met. In the greater scheme of things, the team learns that Garcia is intent on wiping out the family name Rittenhouse, the power behind a centuries-long Illuminati-like organization, unconcerned with what sort of impact this will have on history.
Empire recently had the opportunity to conduct a video interview with actors Matt Lanter and Malcolm Barrett. In the first segment, they discuss what drew them to the show in the first place, the ways that Timeless has avoided becoming more about the sci-fi than the people, the fact that they actually do impact on the timeline and how their characters have evolved.
In the second segment, Lanter and Barrett reflect on how the series itself has changed through the first season, and share their feelings on why the concept of time travel continues to remain so popular. As Lanter muses, “Being a time traveler is like being a superhero, and being a superhero is as close as you get to being God in a way."
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