Journeyman (TV series)

Journeyman
Intertitle
Genre	Science Fiction Drama
Created by	Kevin Falls
Starring	Kevin McKidd Brian Howe Gretchen Egolf Moon Bloodgood Reed Diamond Charles Henry Wyson
Theme music composer	Amanda Ghost, James Dring, Jody Street
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	13 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producers	Kevin Falls Alex Graves
Running time	42 mins. (approx)
Original release
Network	NBC
Release	September 24, 2007 – December 19, 2007

Journeyman is an American science fiction television drama created by Kevin Falls for 20th Century Fox Television. It stars Kevin McKidd as Dan Vasser, a San Francisco reporter who involuntarily travels through time. Falls serves as an Executive Producer alongside Alex Graves, who also directed the pilot.

The show premiered on September 24, 2007, airing Mondays at 10 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on the NBC television network. The initial order from the network was for 13 episodes, all of which were produced prior to the 2007 Writers Guild of America strike by screenwriters. However, the series suffered from low ratings, and NBC allowed its option for a full season order to lapse by the December 11, 2007 deadline for renewal. According to trade reports, such an action effectively means a series has been cancelled. The final episode of Journeyman aired on Wednesday, December 19, 2007.

Plot

See also: List of Journeyman episodes

The series centers around Dan Vasser, a newspaper reporter living with his wife Katie and young son Zack in San Francisco. For an unknown reason, one day he begins jumping backward in time. He soon learns that each series of jumps follows the life of a person whose destiny he seems meant to change. Dan's jumping affects his family life and his job, and instills suspicion in his brother Jack, a police detective. While in the past, Dan reconnects with his ex-fiancée, Livia, whom he had believed was killed in a plane crash but is actually a traveler like him.

Fictional cosmology

Dan's "shifts" through time occur seemingly at random, the only indication he has to an oncoming jump is a feeling in his head which varies from right before he jumps to several seconds of warning. Dan appears to have no control over the shifts. The first jump is typically several decades into the past; through a series of jumps, he jumps nearer to the present, usually years at a time.

The jumps manifest themselves with a small blue flash and a ripple as Dan appears to vanish from the present, and appear instantly in the past. He is missing from the present for a period of time unrelated to the period he spends in the past. His disappearances and reappearances are rarely witnessed by anyone else; it is unclear if this is a factor in his jumps, or merely coincidence. Dan does not arrive in the same location he departed, but instead arrives near the person who he is supposed to help. His jumps are typically restricted to the area he leaves from, usually keeping him in the San Francisco area. Dan is also trying to figure out the mechanics of his travels. He has questioned a physicist who seems to have known his father in the past, and has discussed the possibility of tachyon particles being able to cause time jumps. It is now clear that the scientist is aware of Dan's travels, as well as those of others like him. It has also been discovered that those born around the time of a rare passing comet have this ability.

Dan's journeys appear to each have an innate purpose, which is not always apparent to him, but involves positively changing the destiny of a certain person. Likewise, fate seems to conspire against him if he tries to alter other events beyond his current charge. Alterations Dan makes to the timeline affect the present and the memories of everyone in it. His own memories, however, are unaltered, and he recalls events as they originally occurred before his interference.

Dan is not alone in his ability. His ex-fiancée Livia, thought to have been killed in a plane crash, actually traveled back to her "home time", currently living in 1948 from where she jumps forward in time. Dan meets Livia on his jumps into the past, as she jumps into her future to offer her experience and assistance with Dan's missions.

Cast and characters

See also: List of Journeyman cast members

• Kevin McKidd as Dan Vasser, a reporter for the San Francisco Register, a San Francisco newspaper. Dan is the main protagonist of the series, who finds himself jumping through time, unable to stop or control the jumps. He has a son, Zack, with his wife of 7 years, Katie - his brother's ex-girlfriend. Dan was previously engaged to Livia Beale before her disappearance and supposed death in a plane crash. Dan is a recovered gambling addict.

• Gretchen Egolf as Katie Vasser, Dan's wife and mother of their son Zack. Until recently, she was the only one in the present who knew about her husband's time-traveling. Katie was the long-time girlfriend of Dan's brother Jack. Since their break-up nine years ago, the two have remained somewhat distant; partly because Katie ended up getting pregnant by Dan and they married soon after. Before marrying Dan, Katie was a television reporter. In response to cutbacks at the Register, and Dan's traveling, Katie returns to television to ensure a stable income for the family.

• Moon Bloodgood as Olivia Beale (often shortened to Livia), Dan's ex-fiancée who was presumed dead after a plane crash nearly ten years before the start of the series. It is revealed that she is actually a traveler from 1948 who jumps into the future. After not being able to jump home, she was stuck in Dan's present and adapted to life there, where she began a legal career and fell in love with Dan, only to finally jump back home while on the plane. In the series' final episode, she and Dan speculated that Dan was the target of her extended jump, and that her mission was to get Dan and Katie together (which happened because of her supposed death). She now jumps to the same times that Dan visits, and offers him advice and assistance in his missions.

• Reed Diamond as Jack Vasser, Dan's brother. Jack, a police detective, is dating Dr. Theresa Sanchez (Lisa Sheridan), but also has feelings for Katie (his ex). Jack forms a number of misconceptions about Dan's disappearances and apparent irresponsibility, refusing to believe his brother when Dan tries to explain the time traveling. Believing Dan has perhaps returned to his gambling vice, Jack uses his police resources to investigate Dan's life. Jack is finally convinced of Dan's time traveling when Livia meets with Jack to enlist his help in getting Dan out of a desperate situation.

• Brian Howe as Hugh Skillen, editor-in-chief of the San Francisco Register and Dan's boss and friend.

• Charles Henry Wyson as Zack Vasser, Dan's son, who has seen Dan disappear, believing it to be magic.

Production

Episodes of the show were made available online, and NBC distributed the pilot on a fall-preview DVD at Blockbuster and other retail video-rental stores.

Australia's Channel Ten and Canada's Global network acquired broadcast rights to the series.

Fan campaign

Some Journeyman supporters initiated an attempt to revive production of the series by sending boxes of the "Rice a Roni", a product with San Francisco connotations, to NBC, echoing the "Nuts" campaign which led to a second season of the CBS series Jericho. Journeyman creator Kevin Falls has acknowledged the campaign in his blog, saying "Your fight to save Journeyman has humbled and moved us. I'm certainly not going to tell you to stop now." However, Falls has also said that there are long odds against a revival, stating "Journeyman will likely not be getting a back nine order."

Reception

U.S. ratings

Nielsen ratings

#	Episode	Air Date	Rating	Share	18–49 (Rating/Share)	Viewers (m)	Rank (Overall)
1	"A Love of a Lifetime"	September 24, 2007	5.9	10	3.7/9	9.48	#43
2	"Friendly Skies"	October 1, 2007	5.2	9	3.3/8	8.39	#50
3	"Game Three"	October 8, 2007	4.5	7	3.0/7	6.94	#61
4	"The Year of the Rabbit"	October 15, 2007	4.5	7	2.9/7	7.00	#67
5	"The Legend of Dylan McCleen"	October 22, 2007	4.0	6	2.5/6	6.28	#72
6	"Keepers"	October 29, 2007	3.8	6	2.4/6	5.93	#71
7	"Double Down"	November 5, 2007	3.4	6	2.1/6	5.25	#80
8	"Winterland"	November 12, 2007	4.0	7	2.4/6	6.08	#70
9	"Emily"	November 19, 2007	3.8	6	2.3/6	5.75	#66
10	"Blowback"	November 26, 2007	3.8	6	2.5/6	6.21	#68
11	"Home By Another Way"	December 10, 2007	3.7	6	1.8/6	5.56	TBA
12	"The Hanged Man"	December 17, 2007	3.1	5	1.6/4	4.36	TBA
13	"Perfidia"	December 19, 2007	3.2	6	1.8/5	4.65	TBA

References

• Official website at NBC