Timeless : Lack of changes to current time

So basically, when they go back in time and alter something it has a ripple effect that can drastically alter the current time. The main example of this is Amy no longer exists and Lucy's mother is alive Lucy is engaged. But as more changes occur shouldn't there be more changes to the current time? For example one where Wyatt gets re-married, Lucy is a single parent, Jiya doesn't exist etc.

Also, I know Lucy wants her sister back but this is the last thing to do on the list. They can't stop going back in time until they stop Flynn so all the changes to the current timeline are liable to change with the trip back in time.

There could be changes affecting other people(like Christopher having a husband, now a wife) as well as the rest of the world. They just have not shown anything as of yet. But I have a feeling there will be a big one soon.

So far the changes we know about have been relatively small: New James Bond book and movie, French settlers spotted the first UFO, Lincoln's assassin was an unknown gunman who was never found, Hindenburg was brought down by anarchist group. I believe every time history is altered, the old timeline is destroyed, and the team that exists inside the lab before the mothership departs on its mission cease to exist when the team alters time. When they get back, they meet the same people who lived through the new timeline, but have no memory of the old timeline. I think it would be funny if every time they got back, Rufus's lab tech girlfriend is a different actress because somehow they altered history in a way that a different girl was hired for the job.

I think this show is a little too serious to have Rufus girlfriend change every episode, but that's a brilliant idea where it could lead to some hilarious moments

The Butterfly effect gets no respect on this show. With the amount of changes they have made in a single epside (pick any one you want), let alone all of the episodes combined, the present should have become totally unrecognizable to them. In other words, pretty much everyone who was alive on the planet when they left should be replaced by someone else, not just Lucy's sister and a few other people.

The home base itself should have been wiped out by the changes, The show would be far more interesting if they had gone that route, but it's clearly beyond the capabilties of the showrunners.

I essentially agree with everything up to that last sentence. If things were to change "catastrophically", it makes it impossible to tell a story in a serial fashion with any sort of continuity. We'd just get a "random new world of the week" series, with no coherent, continuing storyline.
So it's not that the showrunners aren't capable, it's that doing so would result in a show that would be unwatchable. That was a sacrifice that has to be made.

It would be very watchable (and compelling) if handled the correct way.

Imagine this scenario - At the end of the first trip back in time, the trio return home and find everything has changed.

They get arrested for being illegal aliens with no identity and perhaps separated. It takes them multiple episodes having to escape, reunite, figure out how to recharge their time machine and and look for clues in the changed history books to figure whenout back in time next. That gives the audience time to understand for the new time period and let it breathe a little before we leave it behind.

Perhaps, they decide to take back a character or two with them to prevent them from being wiped out. There are many possibilities with this approach, but as I said, the writers are too lazy.

One did the things I hate about this show is every episode is new trip. It's beyond stale at this point.

Nah. I like this approach. A different historical event every week.

Well, enjoy it while it lasts. This show is a lock to be cancelled.

I like that idea as a multi-episode story arc. It would be a nice break from the weekly history lesson format while not abandoning it altogether, because everything will return to normal once the story arc is resolved. Unfortunately, I think the show will play it safe and not deviate from the weekly format.

Likely to be cancelled. If you hate the format so much, it might be best not to watch anymore.

'Primeval' took more chances with that kind of thing, like changing the timeline so Jenny Lewis became a stranger to Nick Cutter, just after he became romantically linked with her (OK, maybe losing a sister entirely is worse, but that character only appeared for a few minutes, if that, in the pilot). That said, apart from one episode where it was the major plot device, the danger of ancient microbes devastating the present with unstoppable plagues was ignored.

Actually, the same could be said of 'Timeless'. Just going back to the Alamo should have risked at least one of the trio picking up something that would lay them low in hours, or worse, be missed until they returned. But instead of being quarantined, they are allowed to leave the homebase pretty much on their return. Maybe an organisation that can develop time travel has Star Trek style medical screening, but does that cover sending bacteria *back* in time?

I think maybe it's also a time constraint thing, don't you think? Hour long dramas are tech. only like 48ish minutes due to commercials. Also binging is absolutely the best way to watch a series, and WITHOUT Commercial interruption so a 24 episode season of any show, makes it like a 24 hour movie! Or due to my first point a "48 minutes X 24" - hour long movie!

As I mentioned on another thread, the writers gave up on the "be careful not to change history" idea several episodes back. They apparently found it too constraining. How effective would the Benedict Arnold episode be if somebody said "Hey, we can't kill Quark, his absense might change history!"

How effective would the Benedict Arnold episode be if somebody said "Hey, we can't kill Quark, his absense might change history!"


Uh, they did kill Quark, and his absence has not changed history at all. Rittenhouse is still here.

Yeah, this is the worst sin they have done. We know this isn't a ''everything will happen as it is supposed to happen'' time travel show. Stuff gets changed, there is no closed loop. So taking out Quark and having his son be the founder of Rittenhouse should have had an enormous impact. It shaped the kid. His dad wasn't dead before. So it's a big one.

Yet nothing changed. Nothing. It is completely idiotic.

The biggest problem with very little changing is that it undermines the entire premise of the show. Remember that all of this was supposed to be about the concern that Flynn would change history to destroy the United States. But every week, we see history changing, people dying who were supposed to live, living who were supposed to die, etc. and nothing changes in the present.

Their time travel model is clearly that you can make small changes, but the main flow of history goes on. We might get a new James Bond movie, but the U.S. will not be destroyed or rendered unrecognizable, which means that they may as well just ignore Flynnhe can't do any real damage anyway.

This, of course, was one of the problems with The Time Tunnel: they could get all upset and concerned about saving the American fleet at Iwo Jima, for example, but none of that was really an issue because we knew all along that the time travel model in that show guaranteed that they could never change anything in history. So every week, all they really needed to do was to kick back with a cold one and watch history unfold as it inevitably would.

I was going to post about this.

As other posters have said, so far there have just been small changes to each of the new timelines.

But, by killing people who shouldn't have died, or others live who should have died, to my mind all sorts of things could have changed.

Here's a couple of ideas let's say someone who should have died but didn't, has a child who grows up, travels the world and somehow kills Hitler's mother. Or maybe they ran over Joe Kennedy when he was crossing the roadno Kennedy dynasty. What if they killed the person who would have fathered .oh crap.. this could go on forever.

So, not only would the world be very different, Lucy wouldn't know about it. She only knows the original timeline history.

Next time they say Flynn jumped back to a certain date perhaps Lucy shouldn't know why. They look it up and lo and behold something very important happened that she doesn't know anything about. LOL

I do like the show, but the butterfly effect really could be so different.

We dont really know how much has changed. They only really look at the event they went back to and compare it to Luckys memory of history. Changes that wouldnt be in the history books to began with and arent relevant to the three people in the time machine arent going to be known. There could be thousands of people who lost a sister, gained a fiance, or whatever without anyone knowing.

I agree completely! Flynn especially seems ridiculous. I'm having trouble taking his "motive" seriously. How can he seriously believe that destroying the founding history of America would somehow bring his wife back to life?? In reality this would change the timeline so much that it would completely erase his wife, and nearly everyone he has ever met, from ever existing!

His hatred of Rittenhouse and blaming them for his family's death, believes if he can cut off the trunk now, the branches won't grow. But supposedly inventors and finance people were Rittenhouse and he is willing to kill those who were inventors of the car and electricity and how that outcome could change the future in such a way that maybe a time machine would never exist or cars and electricity in the present be non existent

I always had the impression that for Flynn it's a whole lot bigger than bringing back his wife. It's a CAUSE with him. He identifies himself as a patriot. He doesn't want Rittenhouse to do what they did to him to anyone ever.

I predict there will be an episode soon where Rufus is about to profess his love to Jiya or maybe ask her to marry him, but has to wait until after they return from a mission. When they get back something has changed and in this new timeline she has no feelings for him. Rufus is heartbroken but cannot say anything to her.

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So basically, when they go back in time and alter something it has a ripple effect that can drastically alter the current time. The main example of this is Amy no longer exists and Lucy's mother is alive Lucy is engaged. But as more changes occur shouldn't there be more changes to the current time? For example one where Wyatt gets re-married, Lucy is a single parent, Jiya doesn't exist etc.

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Time travel isn't real and too many drastic changes would be too hard for the writers to juggle so they stick with the 'rubber band' theory where the timeline tries to snap back as much as possible to the correct way it was.

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Also, I know Lucy wants her sister back but this is the last thing to do on the list. They can't stop going back in time until they stop Flynn so all the changes to the current timeline are liable to change with the trip back in time.

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She knows what. It's why she keeps going again and again.

We try but we didn't have long
We try but we don't belong

-Hot Chip (Boy from School)

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