The time travelers
| Television series | |
|---|---|
| German title | The time travelers |
| Original title | Voyagers! |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Year (s) | 1982 |
| length | 45 minutes |
| Episodes | 20 in 1 season |
| genre | Adventure , science fiction |
| idea | James D. Parriott |
| production | James D. Parriott , Robert Janes , Dean Zanetos |
| music | JAC Redford |
| First broadcast | October 3rd, 1982 on NBC |
| German-language first broadcast |
January 12, 1989 on RTL plus |
| occupation | |
|
Jon-Erik Hexum : Phineas Bogg
| |
The time travelers (original title: Voyagers! ) Is an American television series , which was broadcast from 1982 to 1983 on the US television station NBC . In Germany, the series was shown in 1989 on RTLplus.
action
Phineas Bogg is a member of a society of time travelers who call themselves "Voyagers" (travelers). Phineas and 11-year-old Jeffrey Jones travel through time with the help of a small portable time machine called an Omni, which resembles a pocket watch, making sure the story unfolds as we know it. In the first episode, for example, they help Moses as a baby so that the Pharaoh's daughter can find him in his basket on the Nile. Bogg first met Jeffrey when his Omni brought him to 1982 due to a malfunction (the Omni was programmed not to allow travel to the time after 1970) and he ended up in Jeffrey's room, who was with his after his parents died Aunt lives. In episode 13 ("Innocent in Court"), however, it turns out that Jeffrey from Voyager Head Quarter was scheduled as a time traveler and that Bogg's landing in 1982 was not an accident. While trying to save Bogg's "Handbook of History" from Jeffrey's dog Ralph, the boy falls out of the window and Bogg has no choice but to jump after him and take him back to another time. Bogg's manual, however, remains behind. It turns out that Jeffrey's father was a history professor and therefore Jeffrey himself has a great deal of historical knowledge, which is why he now accompanies Phineas on his travels, who has to rely on Jeffrey's knowledge without his manual in order to correctly interpret the historical events.
"Running gags" of the series are Phineas Bogg's downright embarrassing ignorance of contemporary history, which makes his dependence on Jeffrey after the loss of his manual all the more clear, his panic about dogs, as well as his way of playing poker, in which he follows the rules of an old Hungarian Card game called "Schnibbitz" and still always wins. Plus, Bogg is a charmer who manages to fall in love with a contemporary beauty in almost every adventure.
The series shows many historical personalities, such as Marco Polo , Albert Schweitzer , Cleopatra , Thomas Edison and Benjamin Franklin and makes them familiar to viewers (usually children) in a simple way.
During the credits of each episode, actor Meeno Peluce says, “If you want to know more about [whoever appeared in the episode], take a trip to the nearest library. It's all in the books! "
The name Phineas Bogg is a reference to Phileas Fogg from Jules Verne's Journey around the Earth in 80 Days . In the last episode of the series, Bogg is asked about the similarity of the name, whereupon he explains to have met Jules Verne himself and to have provided him with the inspiration for the character of Phileas Fogg .
The time machine
In the series, the Voyagers' small time machine is referred to as the "Omni" and is shaped like a gold pocket watch. Phineas Bogg usually wears them on his belt. In the middle of the device there is a miniature version of a globe, which is surrounded by sliders, with which you can determine the exact time and the location on the basis of the globe to which you want to travel. Two light signals - one red and one green - provide information about whether the events in the respective time period are correct or whether the Voyagers must intervene.
Omnis must be kept safe by the Voyagers, because in principle anyone can use the device who can find it. In the episode "Worlds Apart", Thomas Edison dismantles the time machine into all its individual parts to find out how the red and green lights work. However, he was able to reassemble the device after cleaning it properly. The function of the Omnis is explained in the opening credits of every episode by Phineas Bogg: “We travel through time, to help history along, give it a push where it's needed. When the omni's red, it means history's wrong, it's our job to get everything back on track "(" We travel through time to help the story on the jumps. If the omni is red, it means the story is developing incorrectly, and it is our job to get them back on track. ”) The omni of Phineas' opponent, the Voyager Drake, is silver.
The omni bears the engraving: “Time Waits for No Man” (“Time waits for nobody”).
To the fact that the course of history as we know it and the Voyagers are trying to maintain it cannot be correct if the story would have developed differently without the intervention of the Voyagers and therefore cannot be assessed as right or wrong from a future perspective, will not be discussed further throughout the series.
The "Guide Book"
The Voyagers manual was given to them as part of a “time travel course” at the “Voyagers School”. It must be kept strictly secret because it contains important events from the past, present and future. Using the manual, the Voyagers can figure out what goes wrong in the story when the Omnis indicator light turns red. In the pilot episode, Phineas loses his “guide book”. The book is mentioned in different episodes (e.g. Voyagers of the Titanic).