Travelers Season 3 Review Thread

Discussion in 'Science Fiction & Fantasy' started by Tom, Dec 10, 2018.

  1. stj

    stj Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    MacLaren was murdered in 9/11. His body goes to the World Trade Center to send the message and dies in 9/11. MacLaren, both Traveler and the fragments of the original MacLaren, spare Kat losing two babies and becoming a relatively young widow. This is supposed to be the noble and tragic self-sacrifice. Since Traveler-MacLaren loves Kat because he incorporates the original MacLaren's love for her (that is why he dumps Carly, after all,) Kat's repudiation of MacLaren is a repudiation of the original MacLaren too, which is a tragic irony.

    (By the way, time changes everyone and no husband or wife is the person the spouse married.)

    Philip, Trevor, Carly and Grace Day all die on their appointed days. Everyone in the future is supposed to die rather than tamper with the past/change the future, because. That is 0001's program. Resenting the idea that someone trying to save humanity could be portrayed as benevolent when they are actually rapists is offended prudery. Philip made the alleged point about the travelers doing bad things far more effectively. It seems like perverse moral values to worry so much more about sexual impurity than letting a man die. Traveler-MacLaren went off mission to save Kat's life at the expense of his own but all that matters is being MacLaren's body but not his entire memory?

    Onne of the core ideas of this show was that the body is an inextricable part of the whole person. That there is no program that can be injected into it and change someone into a different person (no matter what Kat thinks.) That's why Philip stays an addict. It's why the show expects us to simply accept that Carly renounced her entire previous life to become Jeffrey's mother. (I think that needed a little more to be convincing, but female characters tend to be underwritten.)
     
  2. spinnerlys

    spinnerlys Commander Red Shirt

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    I don't think MacLaren was killed in 9/11, since it seemed to have been prevented by his look at his watch and then his confusion. At least that is how I interpret the last scene before the coda.
     
    Last edited: Jan 3, 2019
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  3. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    Yes, that seems to be the case. Although why the attack didn't occur is a mystery, perhaps a setup for season 4.
     
  4. Snaploud

    Snaploud Admiral Admiral

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    Interesting. I considered that MacLaren was about to leave the building but not that the 9/11 attacks were missing. That would be a good twist. It makes sense to prevent 9/11 if you're trying to stabilize the future. In fact, you might want to go one further and make sure Gore takes the presidency so that he can (hopefully) do something to mitigate the effects of global warming (which I believe they indicated on the show was one of the problems with the future). Would MacLaren have noticed if Gore became president instead of Bush? It might not have been a high priority to teach him that part of history if his original mission was to change the world from 2018 onward.
     
  5. Kirby

    Kirby Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Oh wow, now I have to go back and re-watch that scene! I didn't really notice the time on his watch, I just assumed that he was waiting for the first plane to hit.
     
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  6. spinnerlys

    spinnerlys Commander Red Shirt

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    Well, now that you say that, I might be confused myself, as I always thought the attack happened at 8:30 and his watch showed something after 8:30. But Wikipedia says the first crash was at 8:47. Hmm. Might have interpreted too much, but then again, I find it strange to do a suicide like this, though MacLaren still has the time to leave the building, if he remembers the time correctly compared to me. ;)
     
  7. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    Mac definitely looked confused to me when he looked out the window, not just expectant. The impression was that he was puzzled that the plane hadn't hit and the sky outside was clear.
     
  8. Guy Gardener

    Guy Gardener Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Mac created a new timeline that started before 001 showed up, so 001 was never sent and neither were every other travelers, the next 19 of which took over four planes and crashed into the twin towers, the Pentagon and a paddock.

    911 created a world of intense cyber security that helped the traveller program and it makes sense that the Director is responsible since he would have been impotent without it... Although given the time allowance, the hijackings would have already have been underway for the planes to hit their targets minutes after 001 arrived in the 21st.
     
  9. Snaploud

    Snaploud Admiral Admiral

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    The timing wouldn't work unless those travelers were sent to a time before 001...and the Director was willing to kill a bunch of people who weren't already about to die...and the Director thought the benefits of extra surveillance over-rode the global instability brought about by those attacks...
     
  10. Guy Gardener

    Guy Gardener Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    The 911 attacks could have failed, even if the passengers still died. The planes could have been shot down or the pilots cold have crashed their planes into paddocks or water, before the terrorist pilots took control of the planes.

    All help to 911 would have happened after 001 arrived, so yes, it's tight.

    The Twin Towers at that time of day (3 thousand people?) was not a great target. Originally the terrorists could have been planning to strike a different building, or land mark entirely.
     
  11. Aragorn

    Aragorn Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Is this the end or is a season 4 in the works?

    If the same team gets sent back, would there be a second MacLaren in this timeline? If they were to shake up season 4, what about switching up which Traveler goes into which host? Maybe David can be a host this time.
     
  12. Tom

    Tom Vice Admiral Admiral

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    it's still unknown what the future plans are. I suspect they left it open ended because McCormick may want out of the series, due to his Will and Grace schedule. This a speculation on my part. We shall see.
     
  13. c0rnedfr0g

    c0rnedfr0g Commodore Commodore

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    I feel like the end of S3 will set up a S4 w/ an entirely new, or mostly-new, cast. I just hope when the show does finally wrap up that the future is "fixed" for good and they don't undo it à la Terminator 3.
     
  14. Snaploud

    Snaploud Admiral Admiral

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    I would like to see the McCormick version of Traveler 3468 (post-9/11) at least show up for an episode to meet the new team (possibly with a new Traveler 3468 in a different body).
     
  15. Gary7

    Gary7 Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Not good on the spoiler trapping here...

    I was just curious to see what folks were thinking about this season. I stopped short of the last 2 episodes, then went back to revisit S2. I really don't want it to end. Disappointed there are only 10 episodes. So what I glanced from things said, S3 ends with finality... at least for this cast. I am seeing that there is a shortage of things to cover... so I guess it makes sense to end it.

    Eric McCormick was terrific here. He really shines as an actor, showing impressive range. I'd only known him from his lighthearted easy going character on Will & Grace.
     
  16. EnderAKH

    EnderAKH Commodore Premium Member

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  17. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    Oh, well. It did get a pretty definitive ending. It didn't resolve the dystopian future, but it wrapped things up for the characters pretty decisively.
     
  18. EnderAKH

    EnderAKH Commodore Premium Member

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    I agree, it could be worse as far as endings go, I just feel like I just met all these people and they already have to go.
     
  19. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    Well, look at it this way -- if this had been a movie trilogy, it would've been about 1/4 as long.
     
  20. c0rnedfr0g

    c0rnedfr0g Commodore Commodore

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    At least we never had to witness the show jump the shark or run out of ideas. And so far Travelers still has more episodes than the über-popular Stranger Things.