Question: With all the creative minds working on themes and ideas, I do not understand why two sets of series have had the same themes. On Timeless, we had the time machine and some fun jumping back in time. Then came Time After Time, and we have the time machine again. And then on Grimm, we got the staff of life, followed by DC’s Legends of Tomorrow with the spear of destiny. Couldn’t the copycats have waited at least until next season? —DP
Matt Roush: There’s a fairly big difference here between theme, genre and narrative devices, though the real issue here is that with so much TV being produced, there’s going to be inevitable overlap, especially in the sci-fi arena. Nothing new about that. TV has turned time and time again (sorry) to the time-travel genre—Syfy’s 13 Monkeys has been playing in that sandbox the last few years, and will be back for its next-to-last season in May (which you can binge over three days when all ten episodes premiere from the 19th to 21)—but otherwise, Timeless and Time After Time couldn’t have been more different. Regarding the “staff of life” and the “spear of destiny,” such hokey-sounding devices are the MacGuffins (look it up under Hitchcock) fueling the action of their respective storylines, no different than shows of this sort needing a Big Bad to team up against. It goes with the territory.
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