“Murmurs” Sci-Fi time-travel drama by CBS in development

[jefferiestubes8]

The project is set in a world where time travel is a reality and centers on the Commission, an agency that detects and corrects alterations in time called murmurs, ensuring that history remains unchanged.

CBS is developing time-travel drama "Murmurs" with writer Jason Smilovic and producer Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Smilovic and Goldsmith-Thomas are executive producing, with Mitchell serving as supervising producer and Goldsmith-Thomas Productions executive Marisa Yeres as co-producer.

December 10, 2009
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr...sion/news/e3i5d459dabd48db3c75f66a13c8aa59bdc
via
http://www.comingsoon.net/news/tvnews.php?id=61577

Murmurs writer Jason Smilovic was a Exec. Prod. & writer on 2007's "Bionic Woman" and a writer on 2008's Action/Thriller spy TV series "My Own Worst Enemy"

This sounds like Sliders meets Timecop. Hey I'm just happy it is CBS even considering the Sci-Fi genre even though it is really the sci-fi police procedural subgenre.
Something tells me this is supposed to be the competition to the police procedureal-sci fi show Unfinished Business starring Will Smith for SyFy for 2010.

 

[Christopher]

Also shades of Voyagers, another show where the heroes' job was to keep history "on track" (though the mechanism that threatened to divert it was never explained). It also sounds very similar to the excellent but failed pilot for a remake of The Time Tunnel a few years back. I wish they'd made that instead.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

As mentioned, that's very reminiscent of 'Timecop' (the film and the short-lived series), right down to the premise and terminology (the agency was the Time Enforcement Commission, they detected "ripples" IIRC in time and went back to change them to preserve history, and so forth).

Not that I'm complaining, since the premise itself is a good one to build a series on if done right, and Timecop certainly wasn't the first of its kind in that respect.

 

[Mistral]

At least I have something to look forward to....

 

[jefferiestubes8]

Timecop stuff

As mentioned, that's very reminiscent of 'Timecop' (the film and the short-lived series),

and there was a direct-to-video sequel to the 1994 film:
Timecop: The Berlin Decision (2003) (V)
It had a runtime of only 81 minutes and none of the same actors from the first film.

I never heard of a TV series but just searched and here it is:
"Timecop" (1997)

"Timecop" follows the adventures of Jack Logan, a time traveler from 2007, who hunts down rogue travelers and brings them to justice before they can alter the past.

One of the series producers Philip Sgriccia went on to be a supervising producer on the "Supernatural" TV series.
And the Director of Photography from the Timecop TV series went on to be the D.P. of "Dollhouse" (13 episodes, 2009).
Nice that they returned to the SciFi genre...

 

[AviTrek]

Let's see if this makes it past a pilot. Also, CBS has tried Sci Fi procedural in the past and it didn't get past 1 season(Eleventh Hour). I'll give the show a chance if it makes it to the air, but I'm not hopefully that the geriatric set will watch anything not named CSI or NCIS.

 

[Christopher]

Re: Timecop stuff

^It should be mentioned that Timecop was originally a comic book created by Mark Verheiden, who also wrote the movie script and produced and occasionally wrote for the TV series. Verheiden has gone on to work on Smallville, Battlestar Galactica, and Heroes.

 

[jefferiestubes8]

Also, CBS has tried Sci Fi procedural in the past and it didn't get past 1 season(Eleventh Hour).

ABC had the single season show "Life on Mars" which was a police procedural with a time travel element sorta (it was set in 1973.)

a New York City homicide detective who suddenly finds himself inexplicably transported from 2008 to 1973.

It was remade from a UK BBC series of the same name. We can compare and contrast these various police procedurals but at least ABC attempts sci-fi.

CBS doesn't do sci-fi really so I'm happy that they are trying it by doing development for a pilot...

 

[FreezeC77]

The reason why I don't think procedural Sci-Fi works is it alienates the two demographics.

I think most Sci-Fi fans like arc-based story-telling, they like a grander storyline and weekly plots that lead somewhere.

I think the people who don't like Sci-Fi as a genre and who do like procedural dramas are likely to not watch a procedural drama in a Sci-Fi setting.

Thus you've created a mishmash of two genres and alienated fans of both in your creation.

and yes I do realize I'm generalizing. There's viewers who watch both, I'd classify myself as a Sci-Fi fan, but I really enjoy NCIS.

 

[John Picard]

Theorizing that one could time travel within his own lifetime, Doctor Sam Beckett led an elite group of scientists into the desert to develop a top secret project, known as QUANTUM LEAP. Pressured to prove his theories or lose funding, Doctor Beckett, prematurely stepped into the Project Accelerator and vanished. He awoke to find himself in the past, suffering from partial amnesia and facing a mirror image that was not his own. Fortunately, contact with his own time was made through brainwave transmissions, with Al, the Project Observer, who appeared in the form of a hologram that only Doctor Beckett could see and hear. Trapped in the past, Doctor Beckett finds himself leaping from life to life, putting things right, that once went wrong and hoping each time, that his next leap will be the leap home.

Thought I'd seen this concept before. There was another one -- early-1980's, where some time traveler had a device that blinked whenever there was a problem in the timeline, and then it shifted to green once he and his associate(s) fixed it.

 

[Holdfast]

As mentioned, that's very reminiscent of 'Timecop' (the film and the short-lived series), right down to the premise and terminology (the agency was the Time Enforcement Commission, they detected "ripples" IIRC in time and went back to change them to preserve history, and so forth).

Not that I'm complaining, since the premise itself is a good one to build a series on if done right, and Timecop certainly wasn't the first of its kind in that respect.

I remember Time Trax as well, which had a similar premise.

I agree with you though, the premise is still a good one, if done right.

 

[jefferiestubes8]

I don't think procedural Sci-Fi works

The original TV series in "Alien Nation" (1989-1990) (TV series) had 22 episodes over 1 season .

oh we forgot this one also:
Alien Nation to be remade by TIM MINEAR on SyFy


I'm guessing the Unfinished Business, Alien Nation, & "Murmurs" shows will all come out within the same 18 month period.

 

[mirandafave]

At least I have something to look forward to....

Or back to!!

And let's not forget though not a cop we had Sam Beckett Quantum Leaping through time to fix things. Although I do see potential in the idea and even some way in which some sort of story arc could be introduced and still retain episodic procedural aspect too.

 

[Christopher]

Re: “Murmurs” Sci-Fi time-travel drama by CBS in development

There was another one -- early-1980's, where some time traveler had a device that blinked whenever there was a problem in the timeline, and then it shifted to green once he and his associate(s) fixed it.

That was Voyagers, which I mentioned above. It starred the late Jon-Erik Hexum as a time-traveller named Phineas Bogg (a play on Jules Verne's Phileas Fogg, for some reason), and his sidekick was child actor Meeno Peluce. The device in question was a pocketwatch that functioned as their time machine. As I said, there was never any explanation for why history wasn't going the way it "should." The whole thing was pretty much an excuse to teach history lessons to young viewers.

I remember Time Trax as well, which had a similar premise.

That was similar to Timecop in that it involved a future cop chasing future criminals into their past, but it was different in that their time machine only went to one era, the present day of the series. And there was no changing of history involved, since they came back from an alternate timeline. (Though that didn't explain how the hero was able to send messages to the future by placing classified ads they later read in old archived newspapers.)

 

[Tom]

CBS and Scifi, what a concept, does Moonves actually know it's scifi? LOL

 

[AviTrek]

The reason why I don't think procedural Sci-Fi works is it alienates the two demographics.

I think most Sci-Fi fans like arc-based story-telling, they like a grander storyline and weekly plots that lead somewhere.

Star Trek: TOS
Star Trek: TNG
Star Trek: VOY
Star Trek: ENT(for the most part)
Stargate: SG1 (Early seasons)
Sliders
Seaquest
Twighlight Zone

But I thought you said Sci-Fi fans didn't like episodic tv and need arcs?

 

[Holdfast]

I remember Time Trax as well, which had a similar premise.

That was similar to Timecop in that it involved a future cop chasing future criminals into their past, but it was different in that their time machine only went to one era, the present day of the series. And there was no changing of history involved, since they came back from an alternate timeline. (Though that didn't explain how the hero was able to send messages to the future by placing classified ads they later read in old archived newspapers.)

Yeah, that's the one. I never bought the whole parallel universe thing for the reason you mentioned, but I did enjoy the show, esp. the eps when he caught up with the Nobel prize-winning (or something like that) scientist who invented the Time Trax system. The main character also had a pretty hologram computer in a credit card as his sidekick.

In fact, the more I type, the more I'm sure we've discussed Time Trax previously in this forum. Either that, or it's deja vu caused by someone messing with the timeline...

 

[Christopher]

Re: “Murmurs” Sci-Fi time-travel drama by CBS in development

The main character also had a pretty hologram computer in a credit card as his sidekick.

Not exactly pretty... more plain and matronly.

http://www.tvacres.com/images/computer_selma5.jpg

In fact, she was based on an image of the protagonist's mother.

And the credit-card disguise was a blatant and intrusive product placement, though not as bad as those final-season Dead Zone episodes where they actually included dialogue about how great the credit card was.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Murmurs writer Jason Smilovic was a Exec. Prod. & writer on 2007's "Bionic Woman" and a writer on 2008's Action/Thriller spy TV series "My Own Worst Enemy"

ARGH! Not a pedigree that inspires confidence.

But what the frak, I'm always up for any new sci fi show. CBS will do it's usual dumbing-down/vanilla approach (it's the worst of all the networks for sf/f) but maybe they can hire some decent actors who will be fun to watch.

Interesting to see CBS hasn't entirely given up on the notion of getting itself some kind of genre cult series. They vacillate between being happy with their dull, safe police procedural lineup and being jealous of other networks' genre shows like Lost and Chuck, that generate buzz and viewer loyalty, and just make going to work in the morning more fun, I suppose.

 

[startrekwatcher]

Actually this reminds me of ENT's Temporal Cold War and the temporal agents. Brannon pitched that as a possible fifth Trek series which became ENT. I liked the TCW the only problem was it didn't receive the kind of development it demanded in fleshing out the various players and their motives in why they wanted to change history.

This sounds interesting--I'd check it out. For all the bashing time travel gets as an overused plot device it certainly has been used as the basis driving entire season long arcs to great effect in recent tv history(LOST season 5, Heroes season one, ENT's Xindi arc, SCC, The 4400).