Now this is a strange one that may go over a lot of people's heads. 'Crime Traveller' was a science fiction mystery show that ran for eight episodes in 1997, and was then sadly unrenewed allegedly due to their not being a BBC controller in place at the time. As a result, one of the most interesting, cheesy, fun and intricate television shows just got forgotten, and went on to become an enduring cult favourite.
What is the basic idea behind 'Crime Traveller', written by the innovative Anthony Horowitz? It was a detective show based on the unlikely partnership between detective Jeff Slade and police scientist Holly Turner, who has a time machine in her apartment. Upon discovering the time machine he obviously starts using it to solve crimes, as you do, and resurrect his deeply troubled career. So far, so goofy and lovely.
One of the chief fascinations of 'Crime Traveller' is the intricacy of the fixed history time travel. History couldn't be changed, but that didn't mean the two couldn't participate in it. No, it meant that everything they did was already a part of their history, that they had to travel in time in order to establish their own present. Even if it didn't always make sense, it was great fun to identify the incidents and events that may have been orchestrated by the time travellers who had yet to step into machine, and the chemistry between the lead actors Michael French and Chloë Annett was great fun. The show also inherited the luxury of casting from the grand set of British character actors still around in the late 1990s, and the timeslot from the equally fun but less intricate 'BUGS'. Oh, the good old Saturday evening slot was a fun place once upon a time!
'Crime Traveller', to switch tacks, was a massive collection of clichés that clung together into a daftly entertaining whole. Slade was the very definition of a maverick police officer, his police department was run in a ridiculously television-like and messy way, every simple murder motive was displayed over the course of the eight episodes, all the other police officers were comical to some extent, and the undeveloped romance at the show's core was one of the more promising to ever be cut off before flowering. It was a fascinating mix of all things, and one that alternated between charmingly goofy and goofily stupid. It's not quite a classic, but lots and lots of fun, and people still like it enough for there to be DVDs. Oh, why couldn't it be renewed and not lost in the shuffle?!
According to Horowitz, part of the power was in the shifting of classical murder mystery tropes so that the culminating flashback that explained everything was converted into the time travel jaunt that the detectives use to observe the crime directly instead. If you were doubting the word 'innovative' earlier, you have to dispel those doubts a little now, surely? Also, on the positive side now, there is the greatness of seeing 1997 Saturday evening production values all over again. Yes, that's one retro-silly time machine, and nostalgia demands it be loved.
Love the time machine!
O.
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