Time After Time is a 2017 television series developed by Kevin Williamson and based on the 1979 film of the same name. The show stars Freddie Stroma, Josh Bowman, Genesis Rodriguez and Nicole Ari Parker. In 1893 London, Jack the Ripper has now returned, murdering another prostitute in a dark alley. Nearby, a young H. G. Wells is holding forth in his home on the glorious utopia he foresees for the future, to his friends' skeptical amusement.
When the latest guest enters, he is revealed as Jack the Ripper-or rather, Dr. John Stevenson, a respectable surgeon. Wells unveils an invention of his to the guests in his basement-a time machine. The police are on the hunt for the Ripper after the body is discovered, and Wells freely allows them to search his house. When they open Dr. Stevenson's bag, the bloody knife used in the murder is revealed. Stevenson himself is nowhere to be found however, and Wells soon learns to his horror that he has escaped into the future-March 4, 2017.
Determined to stop Stevenson from using this to escape justice and wreaking more havoc in what he thinks will then be an unsuspecting utopia, Wells sets out in the time machine after him. After his arrival, Wells finds to his surprise that the time machine is in a New York City museum on display. Naturally, no one believes his claims of traveling through time or who he is. After being released, Wells goes on the hunt for Dr. Stevenson. Jack the Ripper has plans of his own though...
The series was cancelled after five low-rated episodes. However, all 12 episodes have been broadcast in Spain and Portugal. The entire series has now been made available to watch on CW Seed.
Examples:
- Adaptation Expansion: A given with a movie being adapted to a TV show, but this one goes above and beyond by having Wells chase Stevenson through several time periods.
- Adaptation Name Change: Amy Robbins, H. G. Wells's love interest from the original film, is renamed Jane Walker here.
- Arc Words: Utopia (specifically Project Utopia).
- Artistic License – History: Stevenson expresses astonishment over how one can buy guns in 2017 New York City without questions asked. However, it was actually easier to do this in 1893 London. Licenses to buy guns weren't needed until 1903.
- Baddie Flattery: H. G. is clearly unhappy to learn that Mad Scientist Dr. Munroe took his inspiration from Wells's work (specifically A Modern Utopia) and tried to "improve" humans by altering their DNA with a serum that actually turns them into homicidal maniacs, complimenting him profusely for his great insights. Munroe in turn inspired Dr. Moreau.
- Based on a True Story: In the show's universe, H. G. Wells's 1896 novel The Island of Doctor Moreau was an example of this. The novel's plot about a scientist named Dr. Moreau creating monsters through strange experiences is inspired by Wells's time-travel adventures, specifically his trip to the Project Utopia facility in 1980 where he meets Dr. Munroe and encounters the products of his illicit genetic experimentation.
- Born in the Wrong Century: As in the original film, Richardson gloats to Wells on how someone like him would be considered a monster in 1893 but today, his murders would barely make the evening news.Richardson: 90 years ago, I was a monster. Here, I'm an amateur.
- Broken Pedestal: Wells feels this for the future rather than a person. He had expected a utopia where war, hunger and other ills had been overcome, but instead discovers those things are still very much around in 2017, to the point of him almost crying while he watches the news. Ironically as this series is related to The Time Machine, that was one of his novels where the future isn't depicted as a utopia.
- Cliffhanger: The series has this, due to being canceled before most of the episodes had even aired (in most places, only the first five did). H. G. travels to a bad future in 2021 where John is still alive somehow, and has developed gene enhancement techniques which are used for making super soldiers fighting World War III. Vanessa is dead, and Jane's suffered a Fate Worse than Death of some unspecified kind.
- Digging Yourself Deeper: Jane points this out when Wells assumes the museum curator is a man (after he previously assumed she wasn't a person of authority):Jane: It's a "she" too, but keep digging your grave.
- Disappeared Dad: John never knew his father, since he was born to a prostitute. He also discovers he's sired a son who he'd never known about, the man's mother having kept this from him. John sets off to rescue him in the past but this only changes how he dies.
- Enemy Mine: After episode 6, "Caught Up in Circles", Wells and Jane form an alliance with John in order to save Vanessa from Brooke and stop Project Utopia. This alliance lasts for the next few episodes before John turns against Wells again.
- Evilutionary Biologist: Dr. Edward Munroe is an unhinged geneticist intent on improving humans by enhancing them with a serum he's created. Unfortunately, it's turned all his subjects into homicidal maniacs thus far, but he doesn't let that stop him. He's delighted after getting ahold of John, who was Jack the Ripper, believing that his DNA is the key to fixing this. Appropriately, he also serves In-Universe as the inspiration of the eponymous doctor in The Island of Doctor Moreau. Like most, he explicitly claims "survival of the fittest" rules, while mentioning John as being the "next stage of evolution", indicating his poor evolutionary knowledge (unsurprisingly).
- Fish out of Temporal Water: H. G. Wells and Dr. John Stevenson (aka Jack the Ripper) travel from 1893 London to 2017 New York City. Stevenson adjusts better, quickly adopting contemporary clothes and technology, while Wells is initially stunned by the experience, especially that his longed-for utopia didn't happen.
- Have We Met Yet?:
- H. G. Wells meets Vanessa Anders for the first time in the pilot but she already knows him, having encountered a future version of him during her freshman year of college.
- Played with in the case of Chad Holland. Wells assumes that Have We Met Yet? is in play, and that Holland is someone who's already met a future version of him. In fact, Holland has never met Wells before...but his mother has met a future version of Wells.
- Historical Hero Upgrade: H. G. Wells in the show is a charming man who wishes to be single after going through a divorce. In real life, H. G. Wells had multiple affairs. He left his first wife to marry his second wife Amy Robbins, who allowed him to continue to see other women. He also had children from two separate affairs. The writers seem to not want to show this historical fact, doubtless thinking a cheating womanizer would be less sympathetic. Wells is also portrayed as enthusiastic at seeing more racial equality in the future, saying he'd predicted it as a part of his posited utopia. In fact, his actual stated views on that (admittedly, years after when Wells is portrayed here) were far less savory-he said people of color would "have to go", i.e. become extinct if they didn't evolve enough. It's true his views were more progressive later, praising African-American endurance despite racism, criticizing xenophobia, all "racial purity" ideas and denouncing racism. However, Wells in 1893 may well have still had less pleasant views. Thus, he might not have adapted so easily to having a mixed race descendant in Vanessa.
- Hollywood Law: New York City actually has numerous restrictions on buying or possessing guns, contrary to what Dr. Stevenson says.
- Honey Trap: Brooke Munroe seduces John so she can hold him captive as a test subject.
- Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: The episodes are titled after lyrics from the Cyndi Lauper song.
- Idiot Ball: If Jane had simply whacked John a second time she and her friend would have escaped without having to gingerly step over his body and have gotten away unscathed. She knew he was waking up - what did she expect?
- In Spite of a Nail: Wells disappeared from 1893 before he finished writing The Time Machine, yet he arrives in a future where the book was both written and published in his name, just as it was in real life. Though there does seem to be a case of Stable Time Loop in play.
- Kid from the Future:
- Vanessa Anders, who is H. G. Wells's great-great-granddaughter. Later in the season, we meet Vanessa's father David Anders, who is Wells's great-grandson.
- In "Picture Fades" Stevenson meets Henry Ayers, his illegitimate son, as a grown man in 1918.
- Mythology Gag: There are several references to H. G. Wells's real-life novels, as well as other adaptations of his work.
- Vanessa Anders' boyfriend is named Griffin, which is also the real name of the title character from The Invisible Man.
- The whole Project Utopia storyline is heavily inspired by The Island of Doctor Moreau, in that it involves Mad Scientist (named Dr. Munroe here) on an island who created 'monsters' through his experiments. This is acknowledged in the show several times. In fact, it is stated that Wells was inspired by his encounters with Dr. Munroe and Project Utopia to write the novel when he returned to his own time...and that Dr. Munroe in turn was inspired by the novel to carry out his experiments, making it a case of Stable Time Loop.
- There are frequent references to the word 'utopia', especially in the context of HG Wells's idea of one, which are a reference to his work A Modern Utopia which we learn, is another text of Wells's that inspired Dr. Munroe's "Project Utopia".
- In the season finale "The Second Hand Unwinds" Wells travels back in time repeatedly to prevent Jane's death. This is reminiscent of the 2002 film adaptation of The Time Machine (2002) which begins with the protagonist also attempting to go back in time to prevent the death of the woman he loves.
- Plot Coupon: Without a special key, the time machine will return to its previous location after a couple minutes. Stevenson is constantly trying to get his hands on it to end Wells's pursuit.
- San Dimas Time: A more justified case than most, as Wells could program the machine to return him to the same time he left, but worries about the effect this would have on the space-time continuum (it's not like this could be safely tested, after all).
- Set Right What Once Went Wrong:
- Brooke's plan. She wants to alter the past to prevent her father's death, and the theft of his 'Project Utopia' research by Vanessa's father David Anders.
- In the season finale H. G. Wells uses the machine to go back in time and stop John from killing Jane.
- Shout-Out: Stevenson refers to his struggle with Wells as a "war of the worlds" in 1918 Paris, because they arrive in many different "worlds" across time.
- Son of a Whore: John's mother it turns out was a prostitute. It's mentioned this might be why he killed prostitutes as Jack the Ripper, but he denies this, saying it was just because they're vulnerable.
- Stable Time Loop:
- The series will apparently end up being one giant loop, as numerous people already know about the whole situation from trips Wells and Stevenson haven't taken yet.
- H. G. Wells only ended up in New York City in 2017 because at some point in his future, he visits a younger Vanessa Anders and tells her to find his time machine and take it to New York so that he will materialize there. He also only trusts Vanessa because his future self wrote a letter to him which he gave her in the past.
- Project Utopia is the product of one. H. G. Wells goes back to the 1890's and writes The Island of Doctor Moreau based on his encounters with Dr. Munroe and his illicit genetic engineering project. Dr. Munroe in turn is inspired by the works of H. G. Wells, and particularly that specific novel, to start his project in the first place! Also, Dr. Munroe's serum only becomes 'successful' due to the addition of John Stevenson's DNA. The only reason why he got his hands on John's DNA in 1980 was because he wrote about it in his journal which his daughter Brooke received, which in turn led her to orchestrate a series of events that resulted in John being sent back to his research facility in 1980.
- Super-Soldier: What Project Utopia is essentially all about.
- Time-Travel Romance:
- H. G. Wells, the 19th century novelist, with Jane Walker, a 21st century museum curator.
- Jack Stevenson and Brooke Munroe too, though their relationship is a little more disturbing than a 'romance'.
- Timey-Wimey Ball:
- The mechanics of how H. G. Wells's Time Machine works, as well as how time-travel affects causality is inconsistent throughout the series. For instance, much like in the film in some instances, the machine disappears from one place and time and reappears somewhere else, whereas in other cases, it seems to just transport the traveler to wherever the machine is on the target date.
- For the most part, it seems that You Already Changed the Past is in effect. Wells and Stevenson were always destined to come to New York City. They were also always destined to be sent back to Dr. Munroe's island facility in 1980 where Stevenson's DNA is harvested by Munroe to perfect the Project Utopia serum. And Wells is ultimately destined to go back to his own time and write his novels, which are inspired by his experiences in the future. However, in "I Will Catch You", Wells does succeed in changing the future and preventing Jane's death three days later, as well as saving the life of another one of Stevenson's future victims. More significantly, in the season finale "The Second Hand Unwinds", Wells succeeds in traveling back in time and preventing Jane's murder at John's hands again.
- Wham Line: The mysterious owner of the H. G. Wells exhibit interrupts Wells's pursuit of Stevenson...and addresses him by name.
- You Can't Fight Fate:
- In "Picture Fades", John travels back to 1918 Paris to try and stop his son Henry's death. Despite his best efforts, Henry dies anyway.
- Later in the season Brooke Munroe's plan to alter her family's history of tragedy and death fails. She sends back HG Wells and Jack Stevenson to her father's island lab in 1980, along with a message for her father embedded in a microchip she implanted on Jack, expecting her father to avoid his death. But this only ends up causing the chain of events that leads to his death. It's heavily implied that the events on the island are all part of a Stable Time Loop.
- Averted in the season finale "The Second Hand Unwinds", in which H. G. Wells succeeds in going back in time and preventing Jane's death at Stevenson's hands.
- You Wouldn't Believe Me If I Told You: In the pilot, Jane asks Wells how he got past security and into the exhibit (believing him to be an actor). This is his answer:Wells: I'm certain you won't believe the answer to that question.
