Travelers is a Canadian television show available for streaming in Netflix. I discovered this in Netflix tagged as a Netflix Original. The show introduces our five main characters who time-travels from the future to their host body in the present. Travelers from the future train to prevent the supposed death of their hosts and will therefore takeover their lives from there on. Why do they travel back in time you ask? It’s the end of the world and now they are going back to correct all the things in that past that were wrong in the future; preventing the development of a virus, preventing a massive nuclear explosion, every major event, the Travelers are educated and trained to make changes.
It is a whole different blog to discuss more on the plot of the show, and what I want is to focus on the characters. All of them are actors and actresses I never even heard of until I’ve watched Travelers.
Let’s see why I love them! We will start with the bottom of the list. Brace your memories because I am certain there are people here you don’t even know or remember until you ask Mr. Google for assistance, I know I did.
Also, please be warned of possible spoilers as I introduce the characters.
14 CARRIE
Carrie appeared in only one episode in Season 3 (“17 Minutes”), introduced and died seven times. Prior to being overwritten by a Traveler, Carrie was a skydiver who was skydiving with her brother before her supposed death. She was the nearest to prevent the assassination of Grant MacLaren (Traveler 3468’s) team. As you can guess she has 17 minutes to warn the team and save them. Traveler 5001 was the first to attempt, only to end up being killed on her way to the team. The same happened to the rest of the travelers who used the same host, ending up damaging the host in the process.
I shared this background to you because I want to appreciate the work done here. This is almost like Vantage Point or Hoodwinked, only that this is a time-traveling version where everything restarts when the mission has failed. Imagine how many times they have to shoot and repeat the scenes and try to play things differently and stretch an entire episode about this!
This episode is skippable, in anime terms, this feels like a filler episode.
Like I said, I appreciate the actress has done in her role here and I believe that deserves attention and appreciation as I am doing in this blog. Melissa Roxburgh, salute!
13 ALEKSANDER (PATRICK)
Another special appreciation to the actor of Aleksander Andrieko, a Romanian boy (I could not find and verify who the actor was). Aleksander appeared in 2 episodes. In Season 1 “Aleksander” and Season 3 “Protocol 3”. He was first introduced as Patrick, the “son” of the two suspects who kills children. While MacLaren and Carly were talking to the “parents” about Patrick, Philip and Marcy were in the basement to search for the missing children (or probably the corpses). MacLaren speaks to the boy in Romanian so the “parents” won’t understand and he finds out the truth. Aleksander was rescued and he owes his life to MacLaren and his team. Mostly MacLaren though, this was emphasized on Aleksander’s return in Season 3.
Now that we have discussed the background, let’s talk about why he is in the list. This is more of a special-mention really.
We met Aleksander when he was just a little boy and that’s history. At first he was just like any other very, very minor characters the team saves in the series, it did not feel like he mattered. But he did matter. When he appeared in Season 3 he was already a young man who was reported to have become evil, one of the reasons why the future has gone worse and MacLaren is ordered to kill him.
Here is another background on what happened to Aleksander in Season 3. We did not hear about him or seen him since he was rescued but “Protocol 3” shed light on that. Turns out, Aleksander was transferred from foster home to foster home just like any other foster background. He did not belong anywhere and he was more of an outcast, treated like a rascal by the people around him. No wonder the child turned bad. He was not treated well! Going back to my point!
The thing is, MacLaren spent his time with Aleksander after tracking him down and the love that Aleksander lacked as he grew up, he felt and found from MacLaren. He was like a father-figure to Aleksander. In the moment before MacLaren was going to shoot him, the Director (introducing him would be a long story so let’s just call him like the boss of all Travelers) stopped him, saying that the future has changed once again. MacLaren has changed Aleksander into a good man. Aleksander was a good character and I do hope to see him involved with the team, not overwritten please.
12 PHILIP PEARSON
Or Traveler 3326, the Historian, is one of the main characters of the show. Traveler 3326 arrives to his host before he is overdosed. Throughout the show we know him mostly as Philip, the junkie. As Historian there are things he needs to do or take to update his memory, like taking medicine pills or eyedrop chemicals prescribed to historians, which he is having a problem to control because of the drug problem he inherited from his host.
There is so much to talk about with this guy because he is of the main characters, but let’s just focus on how he is the guy who cares about every person in the show. He has this burden of knowing who are the candidates as host for arrival of new Travelers in the 21st century, which basically means he knows and can list the people who, how and when they are going to die. In season 3, he also developed the ability (not really I just call it that, but it’s more of the side effects of the pill he is taking) to see events that happened in a different timeline (more on this soon).
He is very compassionate to the people around him and is burdened with knowing all of this information but unable to take action. I am not much of a fan with his backstory but what he had to go through, now he just needs a hug. When he saw the timeline where Carly and Jeff killed each other or when he thought Marcy committed suicide, the frustration was so real.
This guy needs a hug!
11 RICK HALL
This guy started out as one of the characters I really disliked. Especially the way he treated MacLaren and his team. Although I have to admit, I loved how he said Carly (who is their tactician) is bringing a baby to their mission, Trevor (who is their engineer) being afraid to be grounded by his parents, Philip (who is their historian) is a junkie and Marcy (who is their medic) no older than 25 (although I don’t think this was an insult lol). It was funny when he said in the middle of it such dire situation. He just likes to boss everyone, he complains a lot and be in-charge all of the time.
His traveler number is unknown.
The thing about Hall is that through the course of time from Season 1 to Season 2 (being off-screen) and up to Season 3 (“Philip”), his final moment was crucial and a little bit selfless which was the opposite of how he started. He has information on finding the historians that has gone missing (including Philip). This was an emotional episode and to think Hall was capable of being the better man than Luca (who was assumed as the unconfirmed brother of Marcy).
10 ABIGAIL PARIS
Now who is this person? Abigail Paris appeared in only one episode (Season 2, Episode 4 “11:27”). She is radical environmental activist that Trevor befriends to make sure she succeeds to bombing a research facility (the facility seems to be bad for the future so if she bombs it successfully, the facility won’t be a problem in the future). She’s not in the list because of her potential crush on Trevor. She’s here because she was a character who deserved more than being overwritten by the Director.
Being overwritten by the Director means that the Director will use the body as a host to be able to manifest its AI self as a person. But the thing is, when it is done to adults, the hosts die (for reasons I forgot). It only works for kids (who won’t die even after being used as host).
There are countless of overwritten deaths throughout the show and this is one of those deaths that I believe does not have to happen. She has potential to be something else (just not Trevor’s lover please). She is an activist and a known person in an online community, she can make changes in the 21st century and for once it does not have to be a Traveler who saves the day.
9 D13 (DEREK)
D13 is a Traveler with a unique traveler name. Unlike the rest of them like Traveler 3468 or Traveler 3569, D13 is called Traveler D13. (I forgot what it means) but the letter has a meaning just like the Archivist who was Traveler A18. A means Archivist (not Android, you guys). D probably means something related to his profession.
He appeared a couple of times throughout the show, anything involving heavy surgical operations, he is there. He is better than Marcy (probably a higher version of a Medic) and is good acquaintances with Marcy.
He’s in the list because hello! He’s like the personal surgeon for MacLaren’s team. He shows up just in time whenever he is needed. While I noticed that the Travelers does not give priority to romancing fellow Travelers (except Carly and MacLaren or Grace to Trevor), it is actually more acceptable if it was D13 and Marcy who hooked up than Dr. Barker who appeared out of nowhere and disappears after he got what he wanted. It felt unnecessary. Given that David and Marcy were having a tough time splitting up, David has Blair and Marcy had no one. Blair was David’s previous girlfriend so it was easier to click. It would have made impact if it was D13 and perhaps even give more personality to D13 than the on-call Medic.
I don’t remember which episode it was, but he later calls himself Derek. D for Derek.
8 WALT FORBES
I liked him better as the pre-overwritten guy. He and MacLaren are partners and friends and are in the same office in the FBI. He always has MacLaren’s back even after MacLaren became Traveler 3468 (although he does not know this). He is like the best-friend-goal guy.
While it was humorous to watch the new Traveler in Walt’s body try to adjust to the 21st century, no one can replace the partnership that MacLaren has with Forbes.
To be honest, I think majority of the characters are overwritten one way or another in this series and that is just sad. It would have been nice to have another David in the gang. Someone who accepts and understands who the Travelers are and what they do. I think Forbes would have adjusted after a while the same way David did. And he would have been a great partner to MacLaren as just himself and not as another Traveler.
7 BETH
She is like the Donna Paulsen from Suits. She showed up a couple of times whenever MacLaren is in the FBI and her short screen-time is not enough to highlight her personality. What we know is that she works for MacLaren and is doing her job like Donna would for Harvey.
One of the character that could have been something more than a minor supporting character. She could have been just like Forbes, since they are in the FBI together, she can be of help to track down or cover up for MacLaren when he goes out to perform Traveler-related missions.
6 DR. DELANEY
Ah yes, Dr. Delaney. I never found out if she had a first name or if I missed it. At first I assumed she would be one of the main supporting of the series (probably because it’s the first season). There was chemistry of her acquaintance with MacLaren (Traveler 3468) although she is not aware that he is a Traveler. I love her guts and she has good instincts, she knows who to trust and manages business well.
After her arc, she just totally disappeared. It was not like MacLaren and the gang moved far away. There was just not any contact with her afterwards. Unless I missed her goodbye or something.
5 VICTORIA BOYD
Wow we are down to our last 5 favorites!
The fifth one is Victoria but most of us know her as Officer Boyd (Traveler 3185). She is from another team of Travelers, sadly though her team leader died so she took over as leader (she is actually the Medic). To make things sadder, all of her teammates died and now she is the only one left in her team. She has been of great help for MacLaren especially when he just started out in the 21st century and has been appearing to help out whether as a Officer Boyd the police officer or as Traveler 3185 the Medic.
I am glad she is one of the few people who was not overwritten or killed in the series. There can only be very few of them who were not scratched off after being such awesome support characters in the past.
She’s been with the team through tough times and in good times. She also substitutes as Medic for Marcy at times (since they are both Medics). Their friendship was not elaborated much because apparently Marcy’s life revolves around the Mission and David. So instead of exploring her friendship with Boyd or possible flair with D13, we get nothing but subtle acquaintance as Medic professionals.
Boyd is a good character and if there would be a reboot or a season 4, she better be there!
For the remaining Top 4, it is possible that I would rant a lot about how awesome their character is and how much I love them but I will shorten it because this blog is not about highlighting their life stories.
4 TREVOR HOLDEN
Jared Abrahamson who played Trevor Holden (Traveler 0115) is the Engineer of MacLaren’s team. He is the oldest of the group but the irony is that he is in the body of the youngest in their group. It has been a running joke that he has to take classes again and does not have to review for history because he is from the future. He is also the wisest and calmest of them all, no matter the situation. He is dedicated to the Director and their Mission unlike the rest of the team who gets swayed by their host’s lives. He does not continue the life of Trevor (the athlete) as before. He became a whole new person as his parents and girlfriend had noticed.
The real Trevor was said to be a jock, a bully and you could say one of the cool kids in school and the way his parents reacted to his polite and respectful personality, hints that he is also not very polite to his parents. But our Travel 0115 who now continued Trevor’s life changed it all. And he did a pretty good job at it because the suspicion did not cause a ruckus.
He is willing to put his life on the line in order to accomplish their Mission, even willing to be overwritten when he was proven a liability when his illness (temporal aphasia) begin to manifest and is getting worse.
One of the things that I love about this guy is his appreciation to the 21st century. Mostly we see how he savors the food he eats.
There is so much more to this guy but we are probably going to save that for another blog.
3 MARCY WARTON
Mackenzie Porter who played Marcy Warton (Traveler 3569) is the Medic of MacLaren’s team. Just like Philip, she struggled to cope up with her host. I will call her by her Traveler number so we won’t get confused in this one.
Prior to her arrival to the 21st century, it is procedure to study the host’s background to be able to blend in to the host’s life and environment. Traveler 3569’s resources is Marcy Warton’s Facebook account (what a reliable source, eh?). Upon arrival, Traveler 3569 later learned that the Facebook account was just an activity for Marcy, the intellectually disabled host. Because of this, the host is not capable of keeping Traveler 3569’s consciousness. Nose bleeds and seizures happen occur at times. In layman terms; she is dying. She kept it secret from the team.
Traveler 3569 also fell in love with David Mailer (Marcy’s social worker). Which we will discuss separately because the romance between them is a long discussion (especially that we have Marcy v.1, v.2, v.3, v.4 to discuss, and that is a long story my friends, which I will be willing to discuss in a separate blog).
She is in the list because of the character development that happened to her and because the series seems to have delved more into detailing her life compared to the other Travelers. So it means I got to know her better than the rest.
We mostly know and call her as Marcy instead of Traveler 3569 (which by the way this number has new meaning to me lol), even David did not care much of her real name (yes the Traveler number is their real name) and prefers to call her Marcy.
Okay this time I will just call her Marcy now that we have finished talking about the host.
Marcy also seems to be catalyst in the show. Her experience arriving to the wrong host, how she was rebooted, operated on by herself, experimented by Vincent, Ellis’ code, has an unconfirmed brother (and many more) have been either a sub-plot or a key to the mystery. And like I said, I found out more about her life as Traveler 3569 and life as Marcy Warton than we ever did with the rest of the cast.
P.S. no matter how many times she dies she manages to come back in a different version lol.
2 DAVID MAILER
Patrick Gilmore who played David Mailer is Marcy Warton’s social worker. He is probably the cutest, most adorable cinnamon roll in this entire series. Every single line is humorous and wholesome! He is also relatable in a way that he is just a normal citizen who got involved with the Travelers (thanks to his romance with Marcy). He is not some guy who magically learns how to be a badass character just because he got a couple of practice sessions, no. He’s the guy who just wants to learn how to clean a gun, learn how to flip people, make pancakes and not detonate a nuclear bomb.
I’ve never seen this guy angry before and even if he tried, he’s still adorable. His struggle as a character is that he gets beaten up or kidnapped or taken hostage whether by normal circumstances or Traveler-related circumstances, and he does not want to always be saved by Marcy.
David and Marcy lived together in his apartment with a platonic relationship until eventually, the two started their love story.
The thing about David is that he knows the risks, the extremities, he knows Marcy was not just FBI Doctor (her new cover story which I won’t explain here) and he knows there is danger by just being with her but David does not let that get in the way. He is determined to keep the relationship and he said that “if something is gonna give but I don’t want it to be us” when he and Marcy were discussing about his safety.
He’s an ordinary guy with no training, he easily gets scared, he gets hurt, but he has a big heart. He’s lovable and he’s wholesome.
SPOILERS! This one I will put a special warning.
It’s sad what happened at the end of Season 3, how David saved millions of lives and was not saved by the Director. I understand Marcy’s frustration because while the Director interjected with Kathryn’s pregnancy (MacLaren’s wife) who was not part of the Traveler program and sent D13 to heal MacLaren when he had an impromptu plan to save the Minister and his wife (from the plane crash), the Director did absolutely nothing to save David Mailer who by fateful coincidence was inside the Archive, successfully detonated the nuclear device and saved millions of people. If there was nothing their advanced technology could do, then a courtesy of notice would have sufficed.
David’s death was the most emotional in the entire show. It was probably planned all along because the finale episode we get to see MacLaren restart the entire timeline and so David is alive again. Still though, many believes that David may have been the same David Mailer we’ve watched in the series but the Marcy Warton he met is not our Marcy (Traveler 3569), she was the original Marcy (which I won’t discuss) whom we know little about. It’s not the same directors!
Even if it’s sweet to see them together again in that last clip!
SPOILER END
1 GRACE DAY
Last but not the least, the final best character in this series. Jennifer Spence who played Grace Day (Traveler 0027) who is a Programmer from the future who illegally (without permission from the Director and) traveled back to the 21st century with the intent of resetting the Director to save it.
In the Traveler program, the lower the Traveler number, the higher the position they have. And the Programmer is one of the crucial roles they have because Programmers are in-charge with handling how the Traveler program runs and are assistance to the Director.
Now let’s separate the two for now because Grace Day is a high school guidance counselor and Traveler 0027 is a Programmer from the future.
We met Grace as Trevor’s guidance counselor and has shown concern for Trevor’s grades and standing in school. Trevor felt attached to Grace. She was a nice person. So, when he saw from Philip’s list of candidate hosts that Grace Day was supposed to die at some point, he tried to prevent it from happening by kidnapping Grace and keeping her tied up in the middle of nowhere until the time of her death has passed. Unfortunately, Grace escapes and as she rode her car to escape, she picked up her phone which became the key for Traveler 0027 to overwrite Grace Day.
It was Traveler 0027’s excuse that Grace Day was supposed to die and therefore it was not wrong to use the host as her body in the 21st century.
The thing about them is that they have opposite personalities. Grace is a kind, patient and compassionate woman while Traveler 0027 is a proud, blunt and rude. So when it came down to blending in as Grace Day in future episodes, she was a terror kind of guidance counselor.
Grace is very proud of her programming skills and is proud of her part in creating the Director. She spouts a lot of science stuff that I don’t understand but sounds cool. She either disregards or forgets when she is supposed to be acting as Grace Day (Protocol 5: In the absence of direction, maintain your host's life). This is probably because prior to sending a Traveler to the 21st century, they undergo years of training but Traveler 0027’s arrival was sudden.
This time let’s just call her Grace.
Grace appears mainly when programming is concerned or involved but every time she shows up on-screen, her bluntness and rudeness and sarcasm mixed altogether makes her a really funny and lively character in the show, especially that most of the time everyone is serious-faced. She has her faults and she takes matter into her own hands most of the time (like when she disobeyed Marcy’s instruction to save the nanites for later because they don’t have stocks left but Grace spent it and it backfired on her) but she has her moments (like when she initiated the idea to save Trevor and create a device to counter his temporal aphasia).
This character has flaws and she is not a people-person, but the way Jennifer played this role, really sells. If there is a season 4, she better still be there played by Jennifer Spence.
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