Journeyman

I saw the new NBC show Journeyman which is very similar to Quantum Leap. It stars Kevin McKidd (he was Lucius Vorenus from HBO’s Rome) as Dan Vassar a reported for a fictional San Francisco newspaper. The beginning of the show we meet his wife Katie and son Zack. Dan is in a cab on his way to a meeting in the afternoon when he is randomly transported back to 1999. He sees his dead fiancé; Livia on the street hailing a cab but Dan does not realize what is going on yet and he is jolted back to 2007. .

While Dan is sleeping he is transported back to 1987. After the initial shock of being in 1987, he saves the life of a man named Neil who was about to commit suicide. After Dan saves Neil’s life he is transported back to present time where he has been missing for 2 days. Dan’s wife is not very happy with what has been going on, she thinks he is on drugs.

Again Dan is transported back to 1987 and runs into Neil again. He follows him to a restaurant and Neil is talking to a woman. She is pregnant and is telling Neil that she is going to have an abortion. Neil quickly leaves the restaurant and Dan has a conversation with the girlfriend and convinces her to keep the baby. He is again transported back to 2007 and is again had been missing for several days.

Dan goggles these people in 2007 and realizes that the girlfriend and son have been killed on Dec 31 1997 but before he has time to know how Dan is transported back to 1997. Dan is a little smarter this time and goes to his 1997 apartment to get freshened up and a change of clothes. There he runs into 1997 Livia and quickly leaves and in the hallway he bumps into what appears to be 2007 Livia but she was supposed to have died in a plane crash but apparently she never got on the plane and has been time traveling too??

Anyway Dan catches up with 1997 Neil who informs him that his wife and son are moving to Los Angeles and he is going to stop them. Dan calls for him when Neil is crossing the street and sees Neil’s family and Neil ends up getting hit by a bus. On Neil is a gun that he was going to kill family. Dan is then transported back to 2007 where he tells his brother, Jack (who by the way we learn in 1997 was Katie’s boyfriend) that Neil’s son Jacob was some medical prodigy and graduated medical school at 18 or something. The previous year (2006) Jacob rescued six kids out of a bus. So that was Dan’s mission was to make sure that Jacob survived.

Dan’s wife Katie was not happy because he has been missing for several days and tells him to leave. Dan says he is going to prove that he has been time traveling. He goes into the backyard; underneath their patio (which they put in 7 years ago) Dan digs up a toolbox with the newspaper dated Dec 31, 2007 and Katie’s engagement ring which Dan had been holding onto since the beginning of the episode because he was getting it fixed. Katie now believes him and all is well.

I actually enjoyed the episode. The only part I was confused with was the whole encounter with Livia in the hallway in 1997. So is she alive? Who knows? Maybe they will explain it better next week.