I'm a sucker for time travel shows. I loved it when Star Trek did it (all of the Star Trek shows did it, several times) and Back to the Future is one of my favorite films. So I'm really enjoying Lost this season, with it's time-tripping and skipping. But I have some problems with it, and so does Jeopardy champion Ken Jennings.Jennings mentions on his blog that he thinks the writers have actually answered too many questions, which isn't a complaint that you hear from Lost fans too often. He thinks if they had left more plot questions, some of the things that happened in previous seasons "could now be explained as the actions of Future Juliet or Future Sawyer or somebody."
Jennings thinks it's smart that the show has the rule that you can't change what happened, because if something happens a certain way it will always happen that way. But I think the show is breaking that rule here and there.
Right after Daniel told the others (small o) about the time rule, he immediately went to the hatch and talked to Desmond about how he can change things. And then he and Desmond saw the bright light that signaled another time jump. Or how about this week's episode, when Sawyer saw Kate helping Claire deliver her baby. A bright flash happened then too. Wouldn't Kate and Claire have seen that back several seasons ago? (And was Claire alone with Kate when that happened? That's a different post altogether...). Didn't Juliet shoot someone in the canoe?
I don't think the show is playing 100% fair with the time travel stuff (nor do I think the writers knew where the show would be in season 5 a few seasons ago), but I don't think it's hurting the show either.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
2-06-2009 @ 2:43PM
framo said...
Desmond is a completely special case. Desmond has been unstuck in time before, you can't forget that is how we know about constants and have any little inklings about how this whole thing works. Faraday wrote SOMETHING in his journal so he knows it's safe. If he was going to create a paradox he would have flashed out before then. Personally, I think Desmond is the only non-current time-traveler who would be able to see the flashes.
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2-07-2009 @ 1:28PM
Vito said...
Not just that, but Faraday actually wrote that Desmond was HIS constant. So perhaps he was able to talk to Desmond and alter his future memory in a way that Sawyer could not.
2-06-2009 @ 2:45PM
Kat said...
Kate wouldn't have seen the light Sawyer did, and he never talked to her or interacted with her, so that doesn't break the rules. In terms of Lost's time travel rules, Sawyer was always watching Claire give birth, we just didn't see it in season 1 when it first happened. And if Juliette did hit someone in the canoe, then whether they were in the past, future, or present, that always happened, though the person who was shot might not have known who shot them. The reason Desmond saw the flash and why Daniel was able to talk to him is because, as stated by Daniel, Desmond is 'special'. the regular rules don't apply to him. Why that is will probably be addressed if/when Desmond gets back to the island.
As for Jenning's complaint...eh. I think there's more than enough mysteries hanging for them to do similar things. I trust the writer's plan a lot more than I care about what a single fan wished would've happened.
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2-07-2009 @ 8:42PM
Johnzo said...
that person Juliet shot might turn out to be "Joanna" who they found dead in the water in season 1?????
2-06-2009 @ 2:48PM
JPN said...
You could easily say that the lighting effect with the time travel is somehow only viewable to those jumping - easily explained by showing it from the POV of a non-jumper, the time traveller would just look like they're being blinded then disappear.
Desmond is a special case, as mentioned earlier - also, poor Lost writers, can't answer enough questions, or they answer too many!
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2-06-2009 @ 3:05PM
MERVE-THE-PERVE said...
I'm sure the writers will have us asking at least a few more new questions before they wrap this up, esp after this years finale, to make up for all the ones they are answering now.
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2-06-2009 @ 3:07PM
Randy said...
One issue I have with the time travel is what travels WITH them. Obviously, clothes and backpacks (and their contents). But when they jumped into the canoe, I had visions of them time shifting on the open ocean, canoe disappearing, and them dropping into the water.
But if the canoe travels with them, why not a tree or bush they are touching when they shift? Or a chair they are sitting on? Or some of the ground they are sitting or standing on?
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2-06-2009 @ 3:12PM
Malren said...
Because those things are part pf the island. They go where, when and with the island.
The other stuff is disconnected and/or man-made. Just a theory....
2-06-2009 @ 3:21PM
cdawg said...
i was totally thinking the same thing - I really expected the canoes to disappear.
MY THEORY is that that time jump - when the group found the canoes - was present day - the correct time (two days after the boat blew up or whatnot), so those canoes were present day and everything present day could time travel.
However, if that were the case, the people in the other canoe would also time travel.
yeah forget my theory. i'm bonkers
2-07-2009 @ 3:39PM
Echy said...
The are in the same spot after the jump. So the land did travel woth them.
2-06-2009 @ 3:39PM
Harry said...
I thought the same thing about the canoe. I mean all the huts and tents disappeared with each jump.
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2-06-2009 @ 3:40PM
StillBash said...
He's right. Lost has not enough compelling questions at the moment.
But it doesn't suck as much as Season 4 from 4x07 to 4x12 yet (after those 6 episodes in fall '07) so I'm patiently waiting for what's in store.
Lost is still better than Heroes. God that show is really employing timetravel in a crappy crappy way.
Oh and they way Enterprise used timetravel was idiotic to. *shakes fist at Rick Berman*
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2-06-2009 @ 4:15PM
mdisloki said...
Funny, because I know some very smart Lost fans who are losing touch this year because they want more answers.
I think Heroes' writers realized how convoluted TT was making their show, and I don't expect to see much, if any at all, this season.
2-06-2009 @ 7:10PM
Jason said...
Umm, huh? Lost didn't run any episodes in Fall '07; the 4th season started in January '08. Season 3 had the 6 episode "pod" in Fall '06 that focused on Jack, Kate, and Sawyer being with the Others, with the rest of the episodes coming at midseason that year. Assuming that's what you're referring to in your comment, yes, there were a lot of problems initially, but they righted the ship very quickly in the later portion of that season.
Lost is WAY better than Heroes, though the new volume looks very promising, especially since they're not doing any time travel for a while. Here's hoping...
As much as I love Star Trek, the time travel eps were always hit-and-miss. Some rocked (TOS, TNG, DS9 entries in general) and some sucked (VOY and ENT). Very generalized obviously, but the later series' always seemed to be more focused on getting to that reset button than on using time travel to tell great stories ("City on the Edge of Forever" and "Past Tense" I&II being personal faves). Here's hoping Berman doesn't try to send Jack Bauer through time. Then again, a "real-time" time-travel show could be interesting in the right hands... OK Team Darlton, have at it; you're welcome!
2-06-2009 @ 4:23PM
Chris said...
They should just adhere to TimeCop rules.
"Dere's never enough time... to satisfy a woman." - JCVD
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2-06-2009 @ 4:54PM
Joe L. said...
I think it's pretty clear that the light-flashes are only visible by the time-travelers. For example, when they left 1954, Alpert and all the British military people didn't react to the light.
Also, i'm not sure they are breaking the rule. Just because Julliet shot someone in the past doesn't mean the rule is broken - have you seen the person she shot in the future? Just like the soldier that Locke killed back in episode 1 - Locke *always* killed that soldier in 1954. It's not like there's a 1954 where the soldier lived, then an alternate 1954 where Locke killed him. There's only one 1954, and that soldier was always killed by Lock in that 1954.
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2-07-2009 @ 2:57AM
Matt said...
I'm not so sure that the point in time with the canoe WAS the past (at least, not the past as the castaways are currently experiencing it). I seem to recall the camp being more or less intact the last time we saw it, so whenever they were, I think it was sometime after Ben moved the island (chronologically, I mean). My only question is - were there more survivors who DIDN'T get unstuck in time? Did whoever trashed the camp perhaps come across a small group of unfortunate redshirts?
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2-07-2009 @ 1:34PM
Vito said...
I think the canoes WERE in the future. Which could mean that the Losties were able to kill the future people, but the future people could never have killed them.
2-06-2009 @ 9:45PM
Smithee said...
The whole attempt to apply this "not change anything" rule is flawed. The moment your presence in the past displaces one molecule of the atmosphere, or keeps one photon of light from hitting the ground under your foot, you have changed something. The difference is just a matter of degree. Are we to believe that mother nature has a referee who enforces the rule or lets it slide based on whether it seems like it's going to be a big deal?
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2-07-2009 @ 3:35PM
Franklin said...
As Joe L. above you stated, the time travel theory with the show is a "which came first -- the chick or the egg?" conundrum. It's circular and recursive. Not like the Back to the Future "the present can be altered by going back in time" idea.
So, for example, Jin is not altering the timeline as he interacts with young Danielle and her crew. He always existed in Danielle's past.