Travelers

Our Review

The most under-watched great sci-fi show of its decade. Hundreds of years from now, humanity is dying; the last survivors project their consciousness back into the 21st century, taking over the bodies of people at the moment of their historical death (an overdose, an assault, a fall) — using them as cover to prevent the future’s collapse. The premise’s genius is moral: each traveler must live a stolen life, maintaining relationships with people who think they know them, while executing missions for a Director nobody has met.

The team (MacLaren the FBI host, Marcy the medic, Philip the addict host hiding his knowledge of the future, Trevor the oldest soul in the youngest body) is superb, and the serialized conspiracy (the Faction, the Director’s true nature, the program’s ethics) builds to a finale that completes the story with a devastating time-loop gut-punch. Three seasons of taut, character-driven sci-fi with real ideas about identity and sacrifice — canceled, but the ending works as an ending.

Verdict: Watch it. Protocol 6, everyone.