Hello ladies and gentlemen, I have just finished watching all three series of Travellers. It’s probably the best sci-fi series you’ve never heard of.

I have bad news for you, folks. There is an apocalypse on the way. I know what you’re thinking, no shit. But don’t worry. You see, the nineties were the key decade. A future super-intelligent computer (Is this even sci-fi anymore?) called the Director is sending back time travellers on missions to ensure a better future. The fact that I might like warmer summers, and will almost certainly be dead by the forthcoming ice age, doesn’t come into its calculations.

Alas, the time travellers have to take over a living body and erase the previous person. Kind of reminds me of “Body Snatchers”. Fear not, it’s all done very ethically. They take over the bodies of those who are about to die anyway.

The travellers have several protocols to protect the timeline (from Wikipedia) –

• Protocol 1: The mission comes first.
• Protocol 2: Leave the future in the past.
• Protocol 3: Don’t take a life, don’t save a life, unless otherwise directed. Do not interfere.
• Protocol 4: Do not reproduce.
• Protocol 5: In the absence of direction, maintain your host’s life.
• Protocol 6: Do not communicate with other known travelers outside of your team unless sanctioned by the Director.

The team historians have an additional secret protocol involving the periodic updates they receive concerning “historic information relative to [their] team’s role in the Grand Plan”. It is a sub-protocol of Protocol 2:

• Protocol 2H: This forbids the revelation about the existence of the updates “with anyone, ever”.

The Director can invoke three other protocols in special situations:

• Protocol Alpha: temporarily suspends all other protocols when a critical mission must be completed at all costs
• Protocol Epsilon: can be invoked when traveler archives are threatened
• Protocol Omega: permanently suspends all other protocols when the Director abandons the travelers because the future has either been fixed or deemed impossible to fix

Each episode is fast-paced and action-packed. A large part of the series is the relationships between the travellers and those who previously knew the host. The love story between Macy and David plays a key role in maintaining continuity and interest from episode to episode.

Another key relationship is between Grant and his wife, Kat, who can’t quite bring herself to believe her husband. Correctly, as it turns out. I don’t know if this series could be made today, as it brings up thorny consent issues. Can Kat give consent for sex if Grant isn’t who she thinks he is? Hey, it is kind of philosophical. Let’s leave it at that.

They end up completing many missions, but the future doesn’t seem to be getting better. In fact, “The Faction” ends up being created. This is a group from the future that opposes the Director. Ironically, they are from a newly created timeline where their shelter was not destroyed.

Then there is 001, who has gone way off mission, creating an empire and actually killing travellers.

Spoiler Alert.

It all comes to a head at the end of Series 3, which is probably one of the best finales ever. The director calls Protocol Omega, effectively giving up on the timeline. By the end nuclear war is breaking out, and the travellers are told all they’ve done is speed up the Earth’s destruction. What a downer! Ouch.

But there is one last throw of the device. Grant is transported even further into the past and sends a message that the Traveller program failed.

The final scene is the Director acknowledging its failure and initiating Team Two instead. So, everything you’ve watched at least in this timeline ends up never happening. Almost, like the whole thing is just one calculation of the director. I love it!

Travellers can currently be viewed on Netflix.

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