ATV's 1970 TV series TIMESLIP was, for me, worth the effort. However, I probably won't be revisiting it again soon if ever. It has the interesting elements and common writing/production flaws that permeate UK science fiction shows of the time. One must take into consideration the sparse camera work and bad staging that comes with union enforced labor hours and low budget work ethic to compensate for lack of resources.
TIMESLIP has Time Travel, Immortality, Computer Domination over Society, Cloning, Mind Control, Environmental Degradation and ESP. That is probably a reason for its failure in that it tries to cover too many intriguing phenomena without serving any of them well. Teenagers Liz Skinner and Simon Randall discover a "Time Barrier" which transports them respectively to a Naval base in 1940, an Antarctic research facility in 1990, back to their own English village in 1990, albeit one that has changed into a jungle due to environmental damage, and finally to 1965 to the genesis of the antagonistic catalyst that propels the story.
THE WRONG END OF TIME introduces Liz and Simon, Liz's parents and the mysterious Commander Traynor played by Denis Quilley with Cheshire Cat-like presence. This adventure establishes the Time Barrier, located in a hole in the fence that surrounds an old, abandoned WWII base. The 1970 village where Liz and her parents live is just down the road, so the base draws bored kids to play there. Simon, a boy who is visiting the Skinners for the summer, is a brainy book reader while Liz is the happy-go-lucky "emoter" of the pair. The writers overuse this difference as a device to create dramatic conflict between them. Unfortunately, it detracts when we'd rather see them acting truthfully about their situation.
They "sense" the pulsations of the time barrier and "slip" through it into 1940, when the base was an active, secret research lab. Coincidentally, they arrive at the same time the base is being invaded by a German U-Boat Captain and his team on a commando mission to steal the lab's secret project. The project has something to do with RADAR experiments. Also coincidentally, the German Captain Gottfried (Sandor Eles) happens to have been in the same physics class at Cambridge as Commander Traynor, who also, coincidentally, happens to be the base commandant in 1940. It's implied but never discussed, that the experimental equipment may be responsible (ala The Philadelphia Experiment) for creating the time barrier. Liz and Simon, though not together, manage to respectively get back to 1970 to report what's happening. Traynor makes each of them go back to 1940 to find out if Gottfried found the plans for the project, implying Traynor is more than just a retired military officer. There's also a subplot with Liz's mom having telepathic empathy with Liz and is able to sometimes monitor what's going with them in 1940. There's also a subplot about Liz's father Frank coincidentally serving on the base at the time and getting his memory wiped by the aforementioned experimental equipment; And, there's also a subplot involving the local village publican (played by wonderful character actor Royston Tickner, who played Capt. Leckie in the excellent series Danger UXB) as the Nazi spy who signaled the U-Boat crew and who's still pulling drafts at the pub in 1970! Unfortunately, none of this is ever satisfactorily resolved. We never find out what the radar experiments were. Mom's ESP only works sporadically and with just enough salience to keep the character in the story. Dad's memory loss remains a mystery and the spy, though discovered, gets away without any kind of retribution. In the end, Liz and Simon duck through the time barrier and end up in Antarctica!
The next adventure is THE TIME OF THE ICE BOX. Liz and Simon land in the year 1990 at yet another research facility. At this frozen laboratory, they discover that a hand picked team is busy working on a Longevity Formula designed to extend human life. Coincidentally, Liz's mom Jean (Iris Russell) works there, but looks just like she does in 1970, due the Longevity experiments no doubt. Coincidentally, Liz's future self, twenty years older, also works there! Wouldn't that create a Time Paradox?!? Liz's older self seems to have forgotten all about her time travels with Simon and when prompted to remember, merely puts it off by saying something like, "Oh, that time barrier thing. Best to have left that behind!" Liz isn't too pleased with the way her future self turns out in 20 years. Beth is ambition driven, toadies up to the project director and derides her co-workers. Simon and Liz again go back to 1970 and inform Traynor what's going on. Traynor admonishes Simon to go back to the Ice Box and get the Longevity formula! The "Ice Box" as the scientists call their facility, is run by The Director, Dr. Morgan Devereaux (played by the marvelous John Barron), a strict leader whose authority is unquestioned until one of the research doctors and coincidentally, a test subject, dies from the treatment, aging many years in a few minutes! Then it turns out that the complex is controlled by a sophisticated computer which has a human interface that only Devereaux is allowed to connect to. Coincidentally, Devereaux turns out to be a Clone! And a bad one at that, who is deteriorating! Chaos ensues. The faulty clone who invented the faulty longevity treatment and controls the facility computer control goes haywire and the whole place starts to shut down and freeze up. (BTW, for those who know John Barron's comic turn as the company president C. J. in The Rise and Fall of Reginald Perrin, with his clipped, rapid fire delivery, will get a big kick out of watching him self destruct in Timeslip.) Also, there's a subplot involving Liz's dad being kept in cryogenic suspension (basically, in a block of ice, ala The Thing From Another World) that never goes anywhere. As the Ice Box shuts down, Liz and Simon go through the time barrier and wind up in...
THE YEAR OF THE BURN UP, also takes place in 1990 but in an alternate timeline and geographically back near their village. Here, society has split into two groups, those who live in the techno city state and those who are unregistered (called 'misfits'), living "off the grid", in primitive huts. This story unabashedly lifts from Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, even calling some of its class strata Alphas and Deltas (Clones again!) Liz and Simon emerge in a hot jungle this time. They come across a misfit village and artists retreat run by Beth, Liz's future self again! This time Beth is much nicer, living as a sculptor and village leader. Simon also meets his future self, now called 2957, a director in the Technocracy. This character is hilariously played by David Graham who in 1970 is the doppelganger of Alexis Denisof's Wesley Wyndam-Pryce from Buffy/Angel! A grand plan calling for the rearrangement of the Earth and humanity has become an all controlling Ministry, building a sea wall across the Atlantic and diverting seawaters and rivers while herding the populace into mega cities! Something goes wrong of course and the planet begins to heat up, turning Britain into a jungle. Climate damage goes critical and the heat starts killing off all the flora. There's also a subplot with Beth and 2957 as star-crossed lovers. Finally, Commander Traynor turns up as an old man, the progenitor of the entire Technocracy, whom 2957 betrayed and deposed. Traynor went underground, a ghost in the machine, sabotaging the project causing the environmental meltdown. Liz and Simon escape through the time barrier.
The final chapter is THE DAY OF THE CLONE. Back in 1970, they are reunited with Liz's parents, whose father admonishes them for using the time barrier against his wishes. Even Traynor forbids Simon to use the time barrier anymore. He does, however, invite Simon to come to work for him in the new ministry that's just been created, a project "calling for the rearrangement of the Earth and humanity!" (Great Reset, anyone?) Simon declines the offer. Then things get weird. Traynor kidnaps Liz and takes her to a scientific research facility! Simon rescues her and they go back through the time barrier to... 1965! Morgan Devereaux is the head of the facility then and the visiting Traynor, whom it turns out is really a nice guy, is gassed, cloned and replaced by Devereaux, explaining why Traynor is so duplicitous throughout the entire series! Somehow, Liz and Simon use the time barrier and manage to make it all right again, even if little of it makes sense.
While the poor dialogue and plot holes kneecap Timeslip, it nevertheless is compelling to watch, at least from a 2022 retroactive POV in that it foreshadows many of the exact same themes which are running through our current societal ills. Predictive Programming is a retro label that can be applied to almost any sci-fi project because so many of the themes, usually having to do with technological advances, are prevalent today. They got the power of the computer correct, but no one saw the internet coming. Cloning equals stem cell research. Global warming in 1970 has certainly manifested itself if not in actual disaster mode then at least as a media threat. The main flaw is the time barrier itself. It doesn't seem to have any rules other than as a convenience for transporting Liz and Simon into their various adventures. How does it know to move them from 1940 England to 1990 Antarctica in the one adventure? Why do Liz and Simon fail to ask the most pressing and obvious questions to their future selves about their pasts? All of the adult characters treat the time barrier's existence like a nuisance rather than a life, changing encounter with an unexplained, phenomena. And in its final act, the time barrier acts as a character itself with its own solution for the evil Traynor clone.
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