Timecop: TV series (1997-98)

Timecop: TV Series (1997-98)

Dirs. Various | 9 eps, approx 45 mins each.

A short-lived (i.e., quickly cancelled) TV Series based on director Peter Hyams' time-hopping sci-fi action movie Timecop (1994) - the one that's often cited by Jean-Claude Van Damme devotees as being one of his better efforts.

Personally, I thought he brought nothing of value to the role that many equally physical actors couldn't have did just as well, or better.

The story relied on clichés built atop clichés and the comic-booky plot frequently made little sense and/or contradicted its own established rules. In short, I thought it was shit. But the concept had some mileage, so a TV Series without JCVD was something I was willing to try. But first, a brief synopsis for anyone not familiar with the movie or the original Dark Horse comic book:

Time travel is real and, as you'd expect, opens doors to all sorts of problems for mankind. The old question of 'if you could go back in time and kill [insert military dictator of choice], would you do it?' is now a reality. And from the opposite perspective, if you could go back and become [said dictator of choice] with knowledge of the past/future, could you succeed where he/she failed?

To stop such chaos from repeatedly breaking recorded history, the Time Enforcement Commission was formed. Its members, the titular timecops, are granted the authority to travel in time and prevent self-serving criminals from wrecking everyone else's day/month/year, etc.

The series has the same problems as the movie with regards temporal contradictions and gaping plot holes, but it has a cheesy charm that I feel the latter lacked. It's standard tea-time sci-fi, like something from the 80s but with 90s era special effects; i.e., cheapo CGI.

The lead, Officer Jack Logan (Ted King), sits somewhere between inoffensive and likable. He has a dedication to duty that isn't so rigid that it prevents him occasionally stepping outside of established rules to get the job done, which in story terms is both a way to generate conflict and drama, and an important factor in making him seem relatable for the viewer, because, as I'm sure folks who are old enough to watch the show will know, sometimes ethics and legality aren't the same thing; unlike the real world, in fiction it's okay for peace-keepers to favour the moral thing.

Logan is aided by a small group of co-workers and friends, none of whom are anything more than the usual bunch of TV stock types, including the insensitive tech-guy (Kurt Fuller) who's not as inconsiderate as he seems but is simply misunderstood; the stern but dependable superior (Don Stark) who has final say but isn't as knowledgeable as his staff and so depends on them as much as they depend on him; and the 'more educated than he is' female love interest (Cristi Conaway) who sometimes shuns Logan's romantic thoughts but secretly enjoys them, etc.

A decent amount of effort is made in later episodes to suggest that the Time Enforcement HQ has daily goings-on that aren't related to the main cast's weekly adventures, and there's at least one character introduced that would surely have become a recurring thorn in Logan's side, which suggests they were thinking ahead to later seasons, if it hadn't been cancelled during its first.

In some ways it feels like a poor-man's Stargate, but it lacks the breadth of possibilities that travel to other worlds and explorations of alien cultures offers a weekly series and I don't see how it might have overcome such limitations in the long term. Ultimately, it's a fun if forgettable sci-fi series that I enjoyed more than its parent movie, for as long as it lasted.