Time Trax

Alright! Here's a show that I started to watch a few years back during the COVID lockdowns, which I put to the side due to the camp-factor, and now I decided to slog through in 2023 and watch it.  The show? Time Trax! This show has two seasons (44 episodes) and it was originally on the Prime Time Entertainment Network in 1993-1994.  This was supposedly an affiliate of TV38 in Boston, but I don't recall this show ever being on.  PTEN also had Babylon 5 as one of its original shows, but I remember my sci-fi friends watching B5 on cable TV...sooooo... who knows what the actual availability in my area was.

The premise of the show was that a cop was sent back two hundred years, into a parallel universe, to find, apprehend, and bring back convicted criminals who have escaped prison in the future. 

In the year 2193, over a hundred criminals became fugitives of law enforcement by traveling back in time two hundred years to a parallel Universe, using a time machine called Trax. Darien Lambert is a police detective of that period who is sent back to 1993 to apprehend as many of the fugitives as possible. He is assisted by the Specified Encapsulated Limitless Memory Archive, or SELMA, an extremely small but very powerful computer (described as equivalent to a mainframe) disguised for the mission as a credit card; SELMA communicates through a holographic interface that takes the visual form of a woman (spoiler alert: SELMA looks like Darien's mother). Lambert is also equipped with a Micro-Pellet Projection Tube disguised as a keyless car alarm remote, which can stun targets or engulf them in an energy field, rendering them transportable to the future. This process, executed by SELMA, incorporates a transmission sequence to send the criminal on his way. Dr. Mordecai Sahmbi, who was responsible for sending the fugitives to 1993, and who tries several times to kill Lambert.  Captain Lambert, fearing the possible consequences of altering the timeline, does not actively attempt to interfere with the natural flow of history, although he frequently leaves messages for his colleagues in 2193 (via the personals sections of assorted newspapers).

Why this show was set in a parallel universe is a bit beyond me, but the "differences" between "present day" and this fictional 1993 are interesting.  This show also had A TON of product placement.  I get the sense that Continental Airlines and AT&T probably bankrolled the show!  In the first season, Lambert seemed to also try to be more covert in his actions in the past, but in the second season he's flashing his badge (LOLWHUT?!) he seems to be flirty with many more women, he's wearing a baseball cap that says "TRAX" on it for an episode (?!?!). On top of his more visible presence in the past (and not staying under the radar), there are also thematic episodes like Darien finding his mother (yup), a Terminator that looks like him being sent to the past to kill him and take his place (oy), and an aliens-on-earth (similar to Star Trek Enterprise's Carbon Creek episode IMO, but about 10 years before that came out).  Season 2 was definitely a bit more off the rails.

I wonder what a third season would have looked like...