In the preceding year , Continuum has become a must - watch television show . This meter - locomote cop show has been blowing our judgment with winding storytelling and a complex mythology . We were excited to inquire Godhead Simon Barry what ’s coming next on the show , and here ’s what he tell us .
We check with Barry via email , and here are the answer to our questions that he sent back .
You recount us back in January 2012 that you conceived of Continuum as a blend of skill fabrication and constabulary procedural . Was there a conscious decision to de - underline the “ police adjective ” scene and the subject - of - the - week stuff in season two ? Are those aspects basically gone now ?
Not at all . The Police elements were always connected to the percieved Liber8 threat and this allow Kiera to be involved with a tumid group of characters in her cause , rather than rifle at it alone . The serial was not sell as a 100 % serialized show , and we have always tried to use the adjective structure to engraft a closed ended story every hebdomad , that was entertain first , and moved the serialized and mythological element forward a little at a time .
Naturally as the show developed and the core fan base stay upstanding and growing , it was soft to convey the procedural and serial element into more of a 50/50 balance .
The core of the show ’s storytelling has always seemed to be the struggle between collective dominance and the lawlessness of Liber8 . How do the Freelancers fit into that theme ?
You will find out in the first episode of Season 3 .
When did you guys make up one’s mind that the show needed another group of sentence travelers in the premix ?
The notion of Freelancers was introduced betimes in the authorship room of season 1 . We were going to bring it in then , but decide to contain back until Season 2 .
My favored episode this time of year was in all probability the one where Julian and Alec string up out and play pool , because their relationship finger very real . Now that Julian has made his option , are the half-brother go bad to keep getting pushed further apart ? Or will we get to see them interacting like that again ? Do you conceive we ’ll keep being offered the possibility that the two of them could become friends ?
I always liked the Shakespearian feeling of brother ( step - brothers if you want to be specific ) who end up on opposing sides of the equation 60 years from now .
The time travelling mythology we are building has an incestuous tone to it , which is not by stroke . I think that fellowship connections should play a key persona in the direction thing play out if we are to believe that this applied science was educate by a person , not a corporation or governing . Because Alec Sadler made a conclusion to develop and apply this tech , it would naturally impact him and his syndicate flat , and this would have a ripple effect through time .
The connection between Alec and Julian will always play a part in the show , but it will shift into unexpected places .
We keep getting hint that some form of societal crash is on the sensible horizon , and thing get really big between now and the horrible dystopia we witness in 2035 . Are we buy the farm to see more of that befall in season three ?
Our ‘ writer ’s elbow room bible ’ admit a arrant history from today through 2077 and even a small beyond then . We saw the collapse in the 30 ’s as a precursor for the corporation to make their defining move and replace civilian political science . There may be more snippet of that earned run average when it ’s thematically relevant to the story we are tell in the present .
In one episode , someone shoots Kellog ’s grandmother and he ’s unharmed . In another episode , Kiera work out a sequential sea wolf case that was never solve in her original timeline — and she still remembers seeing it as an unresolved casing , back in 2077 . Also , in one episode Old Alec tells Young Alec that he ’s not Young Alec ’s future self , but just a variation of Alec that shares some experiences . So is it fundamentally sustain that you could change the past , but you ’ll just create a brand raw substitute timeline ? Is that definite now ?
The last instalment of time of year 2 certainly point to that , but ‘ definite ’ is a dangerous word . Do n’t get too hang up on the limit “ multiverse versus shut grommet ” debate just yet .
We like to think of time in the circumstance of our story : two points , 65 years aside . The belief that one can make small changes to the timeline now and that will upset 100 % of the events in 65 eld , is too simplistic . We ’ve used the Tsunami metaphor in the show and I think it ’s an appropriate one in this case . Small change to that waving are certainly go to have an impact on the damage it does , but that does n’t mean the undulation does n’t do what it ’s supposed to do .
I conceive because the stories are Kiera - centrical , we are tempt to believe that the variety to the timeline will affect her life more than others , but there ’s no reason to think this way . Unless Kiera or Liber8 piddle changes that are directly related to her family and Greg ’s home , then there is still a good chance that she will be born and Greg will be have and they will conform to .
The approximation of multiple timeline in itself open up the door to connected timelines that could separate like tree branch but then wrap around each other like vines , eventually flux again . That ’s one of the amazing things about fourth dimension travel ; because it ’s not a pure science , there is room for rendition and the introduction of larger military unit at workplace , be they innate or un - natural .
Even if Kiera is on an substitute timeline , she could theoretically render to a adaptation of 2077 where her life play out 99 % as it did . Now it ’s true she would run into a version of herself that never went back in sentence and that would be complicated … But it would be deliciously complicated .
If so , then what does Old Alec have to arrive at by sending Kiera and the Liber8 gang back in clock time ? Wo n’t he just create a different timeline that he ca n’t ever visit ? From his standpoint , how can Old Alec even know what changes befall as a answer of that time travel ?
Perhaps Old Alec understands more about what ’s at stake than we ’ve revealed to date . The final instalment of time of year 2 will introduce the first train of thought of this gravid storyline .
Here ’s something that still tease me a bit from time of year one — why does Kagame have to blow up that building ? Kiera recall it being blown up , which mean someone already blew it up in the “ original ” timeline , before Kagame journey back in metre . Who blew it up in the original timeline , and what happened to that soul ? Also , why could n’t Kagame just define a timer and get out before the explosion ?
If I narrate you to go back in time and interchange things , I would get it on which event had retentive term impact and which result were simply insignificant in the foresightful running . Your job then would be to ensure certain event took position in order for my recipe to work out the agency I desire it will . Others could be changed or even left alone . It would n’t be 100 % reliable , but it might preserve certain things the way I needed them to be preserved based on my personal design .
Old Alec and Kagame intelligibly had an intellect of this formula . Kagame would have never go along with this architectural plan otherwise . I do n’t require to get into too much of how this work , but suffice to say , ritual killing is part of every War , but forfeiture is at long last redefined in a creation where prison term travel exists .
One of the big shifts in season two was the Vancouver Police Department coming under the control of Piron , or at least a big part of it . Do the police basically just become another gang in the city ’s work party war at some point , and mislay their legitimacy as cop ? Have the police already cross too many lines to be able to claim they ’re uphold the law ?
Well the Piron deal is really only with Dillon ’s Liber8 task force so it was never meant to be a complete take - over ( yet ! ) – What we are setting up is the very minuscule moves that might lead towards an eventual incarnate hold police department a - la Robo - cop OCP scenario .
It seems as though the drive force behind the corporate takeover of the police was the arriver of Liber8 . Are the Liber8 terrorists basically causing the corporate - controlled future they were attempt to preclude , only ahead of agenda ?
There ’s a timely caustic remark in that , and it ’s not an chance event .
And last , it ’s seemed as though Kiera is n’t certain what her finish is any more . At times she wants to preserve the timeline she comes from , but at other time , she ’s willing to make some pretty big changes . ( For example , being willing to fool away Julian , which would get a pretty big change . ) Are we go to see her recover more of a unclouded sense of purpose in season three ? Is her development as a fibre taking her someplace ? And will we be learning more about Alec ’s “ aim ” for her ?
One of the unique aspect of Kiera Cameron in the Time Travel custom is that she is one of the few characters in the genre who are not travelling by pick . Most Time Travel is driven by a character who understands the stakes and scientific discipline of Time Travel , therefore their actions are determine based on their self aware purpose within the prison term continuum . They are willing venturer who know the rules and unremarkably have a goal and apprehension of how to attain it in context of their situation .
That is not the tarradiddle of Continuum .
Kiera is an modal person in 2077 . She ’s not a scientist or engineer . She ’s not a theoretical physicist or even a devotee of Science Fiction ( unlike many of our fan who I consider would know what to do , and what not to do , if they found themselves in her horseshoe ) . Kiera is an unwilling dupe of another individual ’s designs … She is us .
Kiera is fumble her way through this experience using her humanity and experience as a guide , not a hardening of meter travel rules or cognition of paradoxes and wormholes . On occasion Alec will remind her of the opening and pitfalls , but without proof of anything , who ’s to say what ’s right or wrong . As Kiera evolves , so will her decisions .
For Kiera , this entire adventure is also a erudition experience , and the lessons will mould a critical itinerary towards her becoming the person she needs to become in this mythology , and illuminate the “ design ” Alec had in creative thinker for her .
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