Crime Traveller
| Crime Traveller | |
|---|---|
 Crime Traveller opening sequence | |
| Created by | Anthony Horowitz |
| Starring | Michael French Chloë Annett Sue Johnston Paul Trussell Richard Dempsey Bob Goody |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| No. of series | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 8 |
| Production | |
| Producer | Brian Eastman |
| Running time | 50 minutes |
| Original release | |
| Network | BBC One |
| Release | 1 March, 1997 – 19 April, 1997 |
Crime Traveller is a 1997 science fiction detective television series produced by Carnival Films for the BBC based around the premise of using time travel for the purpose of solving crimes.
Anthony Horowitz created the series and wrote every episode. He got the idea while writing an episode of Poirot. Despite having over eight million viewers on a regular basis, Crime Traveller was not renewed after its first series, because according to Horowitz, "The show wasn't exactly cut. There was a chasm at the BBC, created by the arrival of a new Head of Drama and our run ended at that time. There was no-one around to commission a new series...and so it just didn't happen." Other sources cited at the time that the BBC was concerned by a steady decrease in viewing figures from 11m to 7m by the end of the show's run, and feared viewing figures would continue to decline if the series was recommissioned.[citation needed]
Rules of time travel
The rules of time travel in the series are as follows.
- The time machine sends the traveller back in time by a random interval. Usually this is about a day but it may be as little as a few minutes or as much as a week. (N.B. In the final episode of the series it is found that the length of time traveled back can be controlled by altering the length of the photon rods, this is discovered by the research company Webb Biotech, who have also invented a time machine) If you travel back twenty-four hours, you must relive those twenty-four hours all over again.
- You must not meet yourself in the past. It is not clear what would result if you did, but the consequences are likely to be dire.
- You cannot change the past. One of the results of this restriction is that the effects of the time traveller's journey back in time are already visible "before" the journey is made.
- You cannot exist more than twice in the same time frame. If you try to go back a second time, the machine will simply fail.
- When "in the past", you must get back to the time machine by the time you "left". If you don't, you will be trapped in a "loop of infinity". This is what happened to Holly Turner's father.
- The time machine never travels into the future. Holly clearly points out to Jeff in the first episode "You can't travel into something that doesn't exist." However this isn't to say that future time travel couldn't at some time have been achieved. The first episode contradicts Holly's comment about the future not existing, because a future version of Jeff and Holly had gone back in time, posed as caterers which in turn got Jeff interested in Holly's time machine only for them to go back and pose as the caterers, thus completing the cycle.
Characters
| Character | Artist | Role |
|---|---|---|
| Jeff Slade | Michael French | Detective and the only person other than Turner who knows about the time machine. |
| Holly Turner | Chloë Annett | Forensic scientist whose father invented the time machine, which she keeps and adjusts in her apartment. |
| Kate Grisham | Sue Johnston | Slade's irritable boss whom, thanks to his methods, he is constantly getting on the wrong side of. |
| Morris | Paul Trussell | Slade's slow-witted colleague, who usually takes the credit for his success. |
| Nicky Robson | Richard Dempsey | Posh, intelligent but naive trainee detective, too helpful and trusting for his own good. |
| Danny | Bob Goody | Janitor at Turner's apartment block, who is constantly having to deal with the power outages caused by Turner and Slade's use of the time machine. |
Episodes
| # | Title | Original airdate | Director |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jeff Slade and the Loop of Infinity | Saturday 1 March 1997 | Brian Farnham |
| 2 | Death in the Family | Saturday 8 March 1997 | Rick Stroud |
| 3 | Fashion Shoot | Saturday 15 March 1997 | Brian Farnham |
| 4 | The Revenge of the Chronology Protection Hypothesis | Saturday 22 March 1997 | Rick Stroud |
| 5 | Sins of the Father | Saturday 29 March 1997 | Rick Stroud |
| 6 | Death Minister | Saturday 5 April 1997 | Brian Farnham |
| 7 | The Lottery Experiment | Saturday 12 April 1997 | Brian Farnham |
| 8 | The Broken Crystal | Saturday 19 April 1997 | Rick Stroud |
See also
- Quantum Leap (an American science fiction show involving time travel to fix the past; this often involves crime solving).
- Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd century (an American cartoon featuring Sherlock Holmes and a robotic Dr. Watson).
- Life on Mars, a more recent BBC time travel crime drama.
- Seven Days.