Loveday Writing

The pilot kicks off with Henry and Clare being interviewed on video by an unseen person (although we don’t hear this person, they are answering questions, so I’m assuming there is an interview of some kind going on, for so far undetermined reasons). Henry and Clare tell the interviewer about how Henry’s time travelling condition has affected their relationship and lives. Henry talks about how travelling affects his ability to live his life and survive on a primal level, whereas Clare talks about her inability to follow him and her concerns about his safety. We are then show a montage of ostensibly random times Henry has travelled, arriving naked, and having to commit crimes to survive.

We see Henry and Clare’s first meeting (from Henry’s perspective) at the Newberry Library. How the meeting plays out is incredibly loyal to the novel, from the book Clare is looking for, to the name of the library staff member (Isabelle), to the subjects that Clare tells Henry they’ve talked about, and her whooping with joy after meeting him. Henry is understandably overwhelmed but true to the novel, he plays along and agrees to meet up with her for dinner. Later, he goes back to his messy apartment and “cleans up”, which is also true to the novel.

When Henry and Clare meet up for dinner, she gives him a notebook with a list of 152 dates (also true to the novel, including the number of dates) where they meet up at the clearing at the back of her house. When he asks her how and when they met, we are then shown their first meeting (from Clare’s perspective) when she is six and he is 36 years old. When she hears movement from the bushes, Clare thinks Mark is there and throws a shoe at Henry, when he comes out of the bushes, he asks her to get clothes for him. Clare runs back to her house, where we briefly meet her family and Nell, before she gets clothes from her father’s closet. He puts the clothes on and comes out, revealing that his 36-year-old self has shorter and greyer hair.

In their first meeting, Clare makes the comment about his squashed strawberry-like birthmark on his foot which adult Clare mentioned earlier, and she asks him about his time travelling and whether he’s seen dinosaurs. This leads to a flashback of Henry’s first time traveling experience after visiting a museum with his parents when he was seven years old. After being put to bed by his mother, he time travels to the museum and meets his 28-year-old self who gives him some guidance. Seven-year-old Henry coughs, indicating he’s about to leave, and his 28-year-old self tells him he’ll be back in his bed. Adult Henry coughs moments later and leaves.

Adult Henry travels back to the present day, we see him fall on the car in front of a couple (shown in the montage earlier in the episode), he asks the couple for the time and date, before beating the man for his clothes, and takes a bouquet of flowers the man bought for her, the flowers which he gives adult Clare at the beginning of the date.

Also true to the novel, Henry and Clare end up going back to Henry’s apartment and hooking up. With Clare eventually discovering a bra in a bathroom drawer that he tried to hide. They end up fighting about Ingrid, Henry’s current girlfriend, with Henry pointing out to Clare that from his perspective, they’ve only just met. At one point during the argument, Clare throws one of her shoes out the window, before she leaves. We then cut to 36-year-old Henry leaving, telling Clare to bring a notebook with her next time so he can give her a list of dates of when he’ll visit. When he lands, he finds himself outside of his old apartment, with Clare’s shoe hitting him. Both versions of Henry yell after Clare but she walks away, going to a nearby bar.

When she sits at the table, 36-year-old Henry sits down with her. He tells her that he didn’t mean any of the things he said, she says that he did. He says his past self ran to the bar to tell her this, but he stood outside for ten minutes watching her, as he chickened out. Henry and Clare talk about his past self and the affects of time travel on their relationship. Henry points out how dangerous his time travelling is and that’s why his younger self was an arsehole to her. Clare asks why he wasn’t honest about it, he says he did tell her, it just took him a while.

When he leaves to go back, he tells his 28-year-old self that he’s met the love of his life and that he needs to grow up. His 28-year-old self dismisses him and watches him leave. He then hears his signature whooshing from an alley. When he goes there and calls out to himself, he finds his amputated feet.

Overall I felt that the pilot did a superb job in establishing the show’s premise and characters for the viewers, especially for those unfamiliar with the novel and/or movie. I read the novel for fact-checking purposes and the pilot roughly brought to life the first 44 pages. The pilot also threw a few cookie crumbs our way to hint at what’s to come – the blood in Henry’s bathroom, his amputated feet, his pile of clothes at work in the stacks, and his 36-year-old self mentioning a pile of blood to his 28-year-old self that they repeatedly encounter throughout their lives. Those of us who read the novel know what’s coming, that being said, for those who are unfamiliar with the material, these cookie crumbs will come with a fantastic payoff. One fantastic payoff I personally enjoyed was the montage of Henry’s travels at the beginning of the episode tying into all of the travels that the episode focused on.

One of the best decisions I believe was made was the choice to hire Steven Moffatt as one of the show’s writers and executive producers. Moffatt has many writing credits to his name, his most well-known being his tenure on Doctor Who. As he has many years of experience writing science fiction and even created a character and story arc on Doctor Who that was inspired by The Time Traveler’s Wife, as well as his clear love for the novel, he was the perfect choice.

On a smaller note, despite the story as a whole being tragic, there were plenty of humorous moments throughout the pilot that I loved. My favourite had to be Henry’s 36-year-old self waving to his 28-year-old self, with his 28-year-old self giving him the finger in response. Other humorous highlights included Henry taking Clare’s suggestion of putting lights on her when she comes back from the bathroom as she’s naked, as well as 36-year-old Henry interacting with his 28-year-old self before he goes back to the present.

On another smaller note, I appreciated that Henry’s and Clare’s ages were constantly stated throughout the episode (although this didn’t seem to happen during Henry and Clare’s first meeting from Clare’s perspective when she’s six and he’s 36, but maybe I missed it). It’s a subtle cue to viewers who aren’t familiar with the source material on where the episode is, timeline wise, and will help them keep up. I would like to know why the writing team decided to shift the setting – Henry and Clare’s first meeting in the novel is in 1991, whereas in the pilot it’s 2008. Also, Henry’s first time travel experience was in 1968 when he was five years old, whereas in the pilot, he’s seven years old in 1987. In all honesty, I can forgive this, I don’t expect complete loyalty to the novel, but I am curious.

I thoroughly enjoyed the pilot and I’m looking forward to reviewing the rest of the season.

Stray Observations:

-There is a shot at the beginning of the episode and later when six-year-old Clare meets 36-year-old Henry, that mimics the cover art of the novel.

Best one liners and interactions:

• “Time travel, it’s not a superpower, it’s a disability, it’s what’s wrong with me.” (Henry)
• “If you’re not a time traveler, the past is what you’re stuck with. If you’re an artist or think you might be, the future is what you’re gonna make. Sometimes you can see the future in a bowl of slop, other times, you remember that the future is just what shows up when you’re looking for something else.” (Clare)
• “Dr. Felman I need to go to the library.” “Okay.” “The Newberry Library.” “What’s there?” “Porn.” (20-year-old Clare-Dr. Felman going back-and-forth during her one of her art classes)
• “People think libraries are quiet places. To me, a library is a crowd. If you’re a time traveler, the past is alive. It’s still happening, still dangerous. Those books on shelves are like bars on a cage and the beast inside is still pacing. For everybody else, the past is over, for me, well I’m trying to survive it.” (Henry)
• “Time isn’t a problem for me.” “Lucky you.” (Librarian-28-year-old Henry)
• “You know the best thing about a dictionary, it’s the only book with words in the right order.” (28-year-old Henry to a woman at the library he is flirting with)
• “What kind of look?” “I’m trying to think of a better word than concussion.” (20-year-old Clare-28-year-old Henry on a look Clare is giving him)
• “Have you been in a fight?” “Sure, how do you think I got the flowers.” (20-year-old Clare-28-year-old Henry when Clare asks about blood on his knuckles)
• “Nell, you know what an imaginary friend is.” “True.” “I found one in the woods and I’m gonna dress him up because he’s naked.” (6-year-old Clare-Nell-6-year-old Clare)
• “Why aren’t you permanently terrified?” (20-year-old Clare to 28-year-old Henry)
• “When were you?” (28-year-old Clare to 36-year-old Henry when he returns home)
• “Was it love at first sight?” “God I hope not.” (6-year-old Clare and 36-year-old Henry on their eventual romance)