Christina and I have just finished watching the last episode Travelers, described on IMDb as “Hundreds of years from now, surviving humans discover how to send consciousness back through time, into people of the 21st century, while attempting to change the path of humanity.”
During the three riveting seasons, I started to grasp that, in essence, Travelers was about the difficulty for people coming from the future to respect the protocols they had been ordered to adhere to:
- Protocol 1: The mission comes first.
- Protocol 2: Never jeopardize your cover.
- 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: No inter-team/deep web communication except in extreme emergencies or when sanctioned.
Interestingly, given that travelers from the future are still human beings, Protocol 4 is one of the most difficult protocols to follow. Sure, it is easy not to reproduce but it is very difficult not to develop feelings for someone else and, hence, have this natural urge to build something together.
In other words, for me, Travelers is an interesting exercise in exploring the dynamics of different kinds of couples, especially when one partner is from now and the other one from the future (and has taken the body of the original partner).
The couples
The first and most adorable couple by far is Marcy Warton (played by MacKenzie Porter, a well-known Canadian actress and singer) and David Mailer (by Patrick Gilmore). As Marcy would say at the end, David is the most decent human being of them all. From the first sight of “new” Marcy to the last, David is in awe and is in love.
The second couple is Kathryn MacLaren and Grant MacLaren, respectively portrayed by Leah Cairns and Eric McCormack. Grant is the boss of the team of travelers and Kathryn, Kat, is his wife, who, little by little, come to realise that Grant is not the Grant she knew before. A couple goes beyond just looks.
The third “couple” is quite atypical. Trevor Holden (by Jared Abrahamson) is the oldest of the group of travelers but is sent in the past in the body of a young high-school athlete. He is the old wise man. Initially, he has a young girlfriend, Rene Bellamy (by Alyssa Lynch) who Trevor nicely lets go and, later, he falls in love with the older Grace Day (by Jennifer Spence), a programmer from the future.
Philip Pearson (portrayed by Reilly Dolman) is unfortunately sent into the body of a heroin addict and a large part of the story is about him getting help to become sober. Initially, Marcy, as a medic, is the one helping him but, at one point, Jenny (by Stephanie Bennett) is sent from the future with a miracle cure… which is unfortunately abused by Philip.
Carly Shannon (played by Nesta Cooper) is the tactician aka bad ass from the future. Unfortunately for her, she comes in the body of a woman whose husband, Jeff Conniker (by J. Alex Brinson) is a violent husband and a cop too. Of course, she beats the hell out of him but, during the show, another conscience is sent to Jeff’s body and things become good… until things become bad again.
A last note about a multidisciplinary artist
MacKenzie Porter is a great actress who plays the adorable and beautiful Marcy Warton. She is a very good singer too and she has a number of her songs on her YouTube channel. One example is:
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