Time travel tv series creation tips

[Alias Elysum]

What year is he from? Is he married? Does he have any special skills? Is he tempted to change the past for personal reasons? What kind of personality does he have?

Just thinking about character development. I've seen plenty of time travel shows and movies ranging from amazing to amazingly bad. Too many people rely on the concept of time travel to carry the story along and forget the basics.

I'm not a producer or anything like that. You don't want to see a marshmallow trying to write a script. It makes for a really messy story line with too many sweet characters talking about the dangers of campfires.

He is from 2200, he is divorced, he is good with a gun as well as a sword but sucks at archery, he sometimes oversteps his bounds in how much he changes (not for personal reasons but because he feels it is the right thing to do), he is becoming more emotionally distant and is at times seen as asexual.

For the female character she was a comfort woman, got rescued by the male character and brought to 2190 where she established herself and in 2200 joined the time travel agency and now travels as his partner.

 

[IroncladMarshmallow]

What year is he from? Is he married? Does he have any special skills? Is he tempted to change the past for personal reasons? What kind of personality does he have?

Just thinking about character development. I've seen plenty of time travel shows and movies ranging from amazing to amazingly bad. Too many people rely on the concept of time travel to carry the story along and forget the basics.

I'm not a producer or anything like that. You don't want to see a marshmallow trying to write a script. It makes for a really messy story line with too many sweet characters talking about the dangers of campfires.

He is from 2200, he is divorced, he is good with a gun as well as a sword but sucks at archery, he sometimes oversteps his bounds in how much he changes (not for personal reasons but because he feels it is the right thing to do), he is becoming more emotionally distant and is at times seen as asexual.

For the female character she was a comfort woman, got rescued by the male character and brought to 2190 where she established herself and in 2200 joined the time travel agency and now travels as his partner.

The UN doesn't exist in 2200, and there may be other aspects to reconsider. How do they keep from infecting people in the past with diseases to which those in the future are immune? How does the comfort woman become inoculated against all the communicable diseases which exist up until 2200? Some nanotech might help explain it. Otherwise, some appropriately described medical techniques may lend credibility.

How does he tell time? Is it a conventional watch or something different?

How have the English and Chinese languages evolved by 2200? Is the accent too strong for people in the past to understand? What about slang and vocabulary which didn't exist in one time or the other?

How have national borders changed? Do any countries not exist anymore? Are there any new countries?

 

[Alias Elysum]

The UN doesn't exist in 2200, and there may be other aspects to reconsider. How do they keep from infecting people in the past with diseases to which those in the future are immune? How does the comfort woman become inoculated against all the communicable diseases which exist up until 2200? Some nano-tech might help explain it. Otherwise, some appropriately described medical techniques may lend credibility.

How does he tell time? Is it a conventional watch or something different?

How have the English and Chinese languages evolved by 2200? Is the accent too strong for people in the past to understand? What about slang and vocabulary which didn't exist in one time or the other?

How have national borders changed? Do any countries not exist anymore? Are there any new countries?

The UN does exist but not the way you know it.
Countries no longer have their own military, all soldiers are a part of the UN army.
Every country now acts as those in the UK with each having their own government but with a world capital elsewhere (possibly in Iceland since it is in the center of the world but still thinking about it).
To prevent them from spreading diseases they are inoculated once they join the program. I'm not a medical professional so I'll have to get back to you on that.

I'm glad you asked on how he tells time. He does so through a watch that looks like the Samsung Galaxy Gear which allows him to travel in time, and has a lot of over functions one of which makes the watch appear as if it is a normal watch from the time period he is in.

I didn't think too much about language, the English language should remain the same as it is today but for Chinese the dialects have almost all died out leaving only Mandarin and Cantonese.

 

[IroncladMarshmallow]

The UN doesn't exist in 2200, and there may be other aspects to reconsider. How do they keep from infecting people in the past with diseases to which those in the future are immune? How does the comfort woman become inoculated against all the communicable diseases which exist up until 2200? Some nano-tech might help explain it. Otherwise, some appropriately described medical techniques may lend credibility.

How does he tell time? Is it a conventional watch or something different?

How have the English and Chinese languages evolved by 2200? Is the accent too strong for people in the past to understand? What about slang and vocabulary which didn't exist in one time or the other?

How have national borders changed? Do any countries not exist anymore? Are there any new countries?

The UN does exist but not the way you know it.
Countries no longer have their own military, all soldiers are a part of the UN army.
Every country now acts as those in the UK with each having their own government but with a world capital elsewhere (possibly in Iceland since it is in the center of the world but still thinking about it).
To prevent them from spreading diseases they are inoculated once they join the program. I'm not a medical professional so I'll have to get back to you on that.

I'm glad you asked on how he tells time. He does so through a watch that looks like the Samsung Galaxy Gear which allows him to travel in time, and has a lot of over functions one of which makes the watch appear as if it is a normal watch from the time period he is in.

I didn't think too much about language, the English language should remain the same as it is today but for Chinese the dialects have almost all died out leaving only Mandarin and Cantonese.

Ok, cool. I can come up with questions all day. Haha. You don't have to answer any you don't want to. I understand not giving away juicy details that others might use.

Does he have an emergency escape plan/route back to the future or another time? Can he time travel any time he wants, or is it only possible/practical at certain times or on certain days?

Does he have a cache of weapons or supplies hidden in the past in case he gets stuck there? What if someone steals his watch?

If he dies in the past, does it activate some protocol in the future to go back and prevent his death?

Does he make use of brain or face scanning technology or other related things to identify people who might wish him harm, or does he just use his instincts?

Does he use any sort of technology to boost his situational awareness?

Does he have an end goal in mind? At what point will he be "done"?

 

[Alias Elysum]

Ok, cool. I can come up with questions all day. Haha. You don't have to answer any you don't want to. I understand not giving away juicy details that others might use.

Does he have an emergency escape plan/route back to the future or another time? Can he time travel any time he wants, or is it only possible/practical at certain times or on certain days?

Does he have a cache of weapons or supplies hidden in the past in case he gets stuck there? What if someone steals his watch?

If he dies in the past, does it activate some protocol in the future to go back and prevent his death?

Does he make use of brain or face scanning technology or other related things to identify people who might wish him harm, or does he just use his instincts?

Does he use any sort of technology to boost his situational awareness?

Does he have an end goal in mind? At what point will he be "done"?

I want to answer since it helps me with the story so keep them coming. If there is anything that is too juicy than I will not reveal it.

Travelling to other times as an escape route can't tell you that because that's actually a part of the first episode (this also includes cache of supplies and weapons at certain locations).

Didn't really think about someone stealing his watch but even if it was stolen the thief wouldn't know how to operate it plus its password protected.

If he dies in the past, he dies in the past there's nothing more to it.

Brain technology can't go into details.

The watch is more than just for time travel.

For end goal I'm not sure, I'm hoping to make it last 7 seasons and I have some ideas for future episodes but nothing final.

 

[IroncladMarshmallow]

Excellent. Do you plan to make the pilot episode completely stand-alone as a mini story, or will it rely on the full season to be complete? I'm thinking about funding and selling the idea to studios.

Is the Chinese woman his only time traveling accomplice? How do they communicate remotely? Are they concerned about radio communications being intercepted since it's a war zone?

Do they fight on the front lines, develop strategy, engage in sabotage, or something else? Maybe some combination of them?

Aside from the watch, do they use any other future technology on a regular basis?

Do they disguise themselves to hide from the other time travel organizations? Do they try to hide the changes they've made to the past/future?

Are there any aliens? Bases on the moon or other planets?

Do the main characters have any health problems, tattoos, implants, etc?

 

[Alias Elysum]

Excellent. Do you plan to make the pilot episode completely stand-alone as a mini story, or will it rely on the full season to be complete? I'm thinking about funding and selling the idea to studios.

Is the Chinese woman his only time traveling accomplice? How do they communicate remotely? Are they concerned about radio communications being intercepted since it's a war zone?

Do they fight on the front lines, develop strategy, engage in sabotage, or something else? Maybe some combination of them?

Aside from the watch, do they use any other future technology on a regular basis?

Do they disguise themselves to hide from the other time travel organizations? Do they try to hide the changes they've made to the past/future?

Are there any aliens? Bases on the moon or other planets?

Do the main characters have any health problems, tattoos, implants, etc?

Not sure whether it should be stand a lone or not still thinking.

The Chinese Woman is his current time travelling accomplice. I was thinking they would communicate via radio but on a different frequency those available in the time period they are in.

All of the above and more.

The watch is the only thing allowed to be brought to the past to avoid "contamination".

The only disguise is the clothing of the time period.

Aliens possibly you are not the first person to suggest this. If there is going to be any space travel it will be very limited since at the rate our space tech is progressing I doubt we would be able to create colonies past our solar system at best our galaxy.

Implants but they are not a health problem can't reveal the nature of the implants since it is crucial to the story.

You said you are thinking of funding, if this does go past the pilot I would hope to do it in Canada, I'm assuming your in the US if it does get that far than I would need to meet you in person. I live in Toronto, Ontario.

 

[IroncladMarshmallow]

What kind of power source does the watch use?

Does he have a boss/employer making sure he doesn't get out of line?

Does he have a sense of humor?

Since the woman is Chinese and they're in China, do any paradoxes occur? Do they meet their younger selves?

 

[Alias Elysum]

What kind of power source does the watch use?

Does he have a boss/employer making sure he doesn't get out of line?

Does he have a sense of humor?

Since the woman is Chinese and they're in China, do any paradoxes occur? Do they meet their younger selves?

Nuclear power source

There is something preventing him from changing the past too much but can't get into detail it's a very important plot point

Yes

The woman is from Hong Kong the first episode is in Manchukuo and I haven't been planning any other episodes in China yet.

If you can help me out on my pilot here is the link 1930s Manchukuo and Ma Zhanshan | Paranormalis