There’s no denying that time travel has officially taken television by storm over these past two seasons. These shows that bring us concepts of “what if” in realistic scientific explanations definitely appeals to a broad audience.
But what makes Timeless so unique when it comes to other time travel shows is that every week finds our group traveling to specific eras in history and dealing with experiencing history up close and personal.
“We’re actually trying to do a grounded version of the show,” co-creator Eric Kripke told us during a roundtable interview at NYCC. “The goal is always, how can we be the modern version of Quantum Leap or the modern version of Back to the Future? Like we want to be fun and rollicking, but there’s a reality to those shows.”
While you’d assume that the biggest challenge for Kripke would be these rules of time travel, the difficulty lies in essentially creating a new history every week.
“It has turned out to be the most logistically challenging show I’ve ever produced by a mile,” Kripke said. “Creating an entirely new, historically accurate period every single week is incredibly painful…But I think the audience is the beneficiary. We’re really setting a high bar of production quality. We’re really trying to bring people into a very visceral, dusty reality of what those times were like, and that level of detail takes an incredible amount of effort.”
Watch our full interview with Kripke as he discusses the consequences of changing history, perfecting the serialized television show, and more.
Timeless airs Mondays at 10/9c on NBC.
