Yesterday, About Sci-Fi/Fantasy reported “on excellent authority” that the sets for the imaginative science-fiction series were not only dismantled right before Christmas but destroyed, as well. In other words, at this point, there seems to be absolutely no turning back or chances of renewal for Scottish star Kevin McKidd and his fellow, equally excellent cast members.

Why even ask why anymore? It’s such a shame that in the midst of a hellacious writers strike that’s left the current television landscape as barren as a forest after a rampant wildfire, a major network woefully behind on the Nielsen leaderboard refuses to see the value in prolonging the existence of what boils down to a very high-quality and deserving scripted series.

Although I can’t make any guarantees about such an unpredictable situation, I have a strong feeling that many devoted fans of the intelligent, mature show will not forget this travesty when the strike is long over, fresh scripts are written, new series are pitched and picked up, and the next complete television season begins. If I’m correct—and I truly hope I am—NBC had better prepare for some major delayed fallout. It’s time we viewers stop taking these kinds of serious programming missteps lying down.

Tags: Journeyman, Kevin McKidd, NBC, television, tv

As the situation now stands, with no more Journeyman on the horizon unless NBC executives finally come to their senses, the series did manage to go out on a high note rather than a disappointing one with last night’s excellent swan song “Perfidia.”

The episode is both intriguing and revealing on several levels. For the first time ever, the title character Dan Vassar (Kevin McKidd) has the opportunity to meet another time traveler besides his former significant other Livia Beale (Moon Bloodgood). The man, Evan Patterson (Don McManus), is at first trapped in a mental institution, where he plots to escape in order to visit his one true love, Lauren (Joanna Going), the wife of a prominent government employee who no longer remembers him. As the situation unfolds, Dan and Livia’s disbelief that Evan is really a fellow traveler gradually diminishes with the reality of just how integral the newcomer is to Dan’s ability to defy the laws of time.

It’s the final scenes of the episode, however, that carry the most poignancy and that reveal the promise of which direction the series could have gone in next if it had more time. In one of them, Dan finally encounters the elusive Elliot Langley (Tom Everett) in an elevator and learns why the scientist has been so keen to avoid him. Then in the closing scene, Dan’s wife Katie (Gretchen Egolf) has an experience of her own that will surely transform how she feels about her husband’s place in the world. What a smart decision by the showrunners to end the episode and perhaps the series with such a subtle yet stunning incident. It alone proved that Journeyman would have risen to the occasion quite well in the remainder of a full season.

Tags: Journeyman, Kevin McKidd, NBC, television, tv

On last night’s episode, it wasn’t so much a question of where the title character Dan Vassar (Kevin McKidd) went, but rather what havoc he wreaked as a result. His companion in time travel, Livia Beale (Moon Bloodgood), has warned Dan over and over (and over) again not to change the timeline by, for instance, interfering when and where he shouldn’t. The aim is to focus on the person or people he’s supposed to help, and to leave everything else by the wayside, even if he has the knowledge and ability to mediate other situations, as well.

The last episode “The Hanged Man” didn’t find Dan unnecessarily butting into business not his own, the typical case. Instead, he inadvertently left something behind while saving a woman and her teenage son just before their trailer home went over a steep cliff: a digital camera light-years beyond the technology available in their mid-1980s era. The repercussions of that mistake were, let’s just say, monumental, giving viewers the weirdest glimpse yet of the grave hazards of being in Dan’s shoes. It was completely mesmerizing TV.

Don’t forget to tune in to the—dare I write it—final episode of Journeyman this Wednesday night at 10pm EST. Dan will meet a fellow time traveler played by actor Don McManus and hopefully also finally track down the elusive scientist Elliot Langley (Tom Everett), a questionable man who clearly knows a whole lot more about the travelers’ predicaments than he’s currently admitting. The last possibility alone makes the next installment “Perfidia” a must-see television event for fans who’ve remained loyal.

Tags: Journeyman, Kevin McKidd, Moon Bloodgood, NBC, television, tv

I already said it once, and I’ll say it again now: a large part of Journeyman‘s downfall was the disappointing performance of its Monday-night sci-fi lead-in Heroes, the once popular and now troubled sophomore series that almost imploded under the weight of too many characters and meandering storylines. Far worse, the two shows were essentially mismatched. Both are science fiction without a doubt. But, the individual plots and main characters don’t appeal to the same demographics. Thus, the comics-inspired Heroes skews much younger and likely more male, as well. It’s no great surprise, then, that Journeyman regularly lost several million viewers from its lead-in. If Heroes had retained or increased its first-year audience to begin with, though, maybe more of its fans would have been interested in the later series.

Another huge factor in Journeyman‘s inability to get a leg up on its competition was the fact that the competition is already so entrenched among the TV-watching public. ABC’s The Bachelor is, in my opinion, an inexplicably popular reality series, while CBS’ CSI: Miami is a seemingly unbeatable member of the insanely loved CSI franchise. How can a newbie earn significant ratings against not one but two such behemoths? When you look at the situation from that commonsensical perspective, Journeyman did a darn fine job attracting the audience it managed to build.

I sincerely hope that NBC reconsiders its shortsighted decision to not pick up a well-crafted and well-acted series, in the midst of a tumultuous writers strike, no less. The only hourlong fall rookie on the Peacock Network that deserves to fade away into oblivion is Bionic Woman, and that’s regardless of whether Katee Sackhoff ever returns or not; even she can’t bring the misguided dud back to life. So, I’m keeping my fingers crossed despite all odds and fervently hoping that some Peacock executive will finally see the light before its too late. Journeyman does not deserve to be canceled.

If you share my high regard for the time-travel series, there are a couple of options available in the form of two active fan campaigns currently underway to save it. While it usually irks me to see people biting off of Jericho‘s Nuts to CBS success earlier this year, in the present case I’ll keep my objections to myself. Both campaigns, Save Journeyman at funurl and SaveJourneyman.net, aim to inundate NBC bigwigs with boxes of Rice-a-Roni (the show and the famous culinary treat each have strong ties to San Francisco). You can visit their respective websites to learn more about how to lend a hand and help rescue a deserving show. I already have.

Tags: Journeyman, Kevin McKidd, NBC, television, tv

I truly hope Falls is wrong since after having watched every single episode of Journeyman, I can vouch that its quality and promise for future improvement is as strong as any other freshman series that has already been picked up this season. One of the show’s main problems is that its much-hyped lead-in Heroes performed so underwhelmingly in recent months.

On December 3, NBC pulled Journeyman in order to give the post-Heroes midseason finale time slot to another entertaining rookie, the recently picked-up police procedural Life. The two shows have something else in common besides their network. They both star talented actors from across the pond who do an incredible job coming across as bona fide Americans, Englishman Damian Lewis in Life and Scotsman Kevin McKidd in Journeyman.

McKidd and Journeyman fans will be happy to learn that, despite previous speculation to the contrary, NBC will air all 13 episodes of the show that have been produced, starting with tonight’s eleventh installment “Home by Another Way.” The twelfth episode, “The Hanged Man,” follows on Monday, December 17, with the thirteenth, “Perfidia,” coming to Life‘s former time slot on Wednesday, December 19.

If you want to see Journeyman picked up for a full season, I urge you to make sure you watch all of the remaining episodes. I’d hate to see a show this good get the boot just because of unfortunate scheduling, a sluggish start, and inadequate word of mouth.

Tags: Journeyman, Kevin Falls, Kevin McKidd, NBC, television, tv