Crime Traveller: The Complete Series (1997)

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General		Extras
Category	TV Drama Series	Trailer-Original Sales Trailer Gallery-Photo
Rating
Year Of Production	1997
Running Time	391:20 (Case: 400)
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Brian Farnham Richard Stroud
Studio Distributor	Madman Entertainment	Starring	Michael French Chloe Annett Sue Johnston Paul Trussell Richard Dempsey
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Dual
RPI	?	Music	Anne Dudley

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	Full Frame	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.29:1
16x9 Enhancement	No
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.33:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	None	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

     Crime Traveller is a TV series written by Anthony Horowitz (of Foyle’s War fame) that ran only 8 episodes in 1997, each episode just under 50 minutes in duration. The central premise is that the father of Police Science Officer Holly Hunter (Chloe Annett) had invented a time machine before disappearing, lost in a time paradox. In the series, Holly reluctantly teams with maverick Detective Jeff Slade (Michael French) to travel back in time to find clues with which to solve crimes. Other on-going characters in the series include the pair’s boss, Detective Chief Inspector Kate Grisham (Sue Johnston), thick as a brick Detective Morris (Paul Trussell) and bright young Graduate Trainee Nicky Robson (Richard Dempsey).

     Any series dealing with time travel is intriguing and requires its own rules to succeed. In this show the machine cannot take you forward, as that time has not happened. Instead, it can take you back but only a short time, maybe up to 12 hours maximum. The catch is that you must be back in the time machine room at the specific time you left to travel back else you become lost in an endless time loop from which there is no return. When travelling back, you actually exist twice in that same time period, and can see yourself, but you cannot meet. You also, in theory, cannot prevent or alter events but you can gain knowledge that allows crimes to be solved or see scenes repeated but from a different perspective.

     Crime Traveller certainly has its moments and some episodes are amusing, but the plotting is often predictable so one is pretty sure where the episode is going. As well the characters never rise above the one-dimensional, in contrast to the rounded and believable characters that made, for example, Foyle’s War so compelling. In Crime Traveller the characters remain one-dimensional throughout; the thick policemen, the critical boss, while Michael French as the hero is far too smug. Better are Chloe Annett, who is charming and has some charisma, and Richard Dempsey is sweet and funny. The main interest in the series, other than the time travel hook, is the development of the relationship between Slade and Holly. This is also uneven. For example, in episode three they get quite close to each other yet in later episodes this closeness is not apparent. I suspected that maybe this was a reflection of the sequence the episodes appear on the DVD, but the order is indeed the order in which the episodes were shown on TV. Either way, it is not as satisfying an arc as it could be.

     The 8 episodes in the series are:

• Jeff Slade & the Loop of Infinity: Slade is suspended by Grisham when an undercover operation goes wrong. Holly uses the time machine to go back to the operation and finds the clue that gets Slade off the hook. They are then assigned to what seems a case of suicide: industrialist Guy Lombard (Terrence Hardiman) is found shot in a locked room. However, it seems it was murder so Jeff and Holly use the time machine to investigate.
• A Death in the Family: Holly’s rich Aunt Mary (Mary Tamm) dies from cyanide poisoning while dining in an exclusive restaurant and Holly is named in her will. Slade and Holly use the machine to infiltrate the restaurant to try to stop her poisoning. They fail, and Holly is arrested as a suspect; Slade has only 4 hours to find the real murderer before the time loop closes.
• Fashion Shoot: Fashion designer Sonja Duvall (Carol Royle) has been receiving death threats. A few days before her big show a sniper attempts to shoot Sonja in her home, so Grisham orders the team to protect her. Slade gets closer to Sonja that Holly likes but on the night of the show the police are unable to stop Sonja being shot. Holly and Slade use the time machine to try to sort out what had happened.
• The Revenge of the Chronology Protection Hypothesis: Holly is giving a paper on time travel at a university conference when she sees on the news that Slade has been shot by a man named Crowley and is in hospital in a critical condition. Holly breaks her own rules: she time travels and tries to warn Slade. He is in the midst of an investigation into the murder of a prominent artist, and the more Holly tries to steer him away from his fate, the more she brings it closer: “ at 6 o’clock today you are going to get shot and there is nothing we can do about it!”
• Sins of the Father: Five years ago Detective Gareth Oldroyd (Ray Lonnen) had been the partner of Jack Slade, Jeff’s father, when Jack had been convicted and gaoled for stealing part of the proceeds of a robbery he had investigated. Now Oldroyd comes to Grisham with a tip about a diamond fence that is to take place in a warehouse on her patch. The team stake out the warehouse and capture the suspects but the diamonds go missing and some are found in Slade’s flat. Oldroyd suspects that it is like father like son, but Holly and Slade use the time machine to try to find out who had set him up, and who really has the diamonds.
• Death Minister: Holly gets annoyed that Slade has become over-reliant upon the time machine to solve crimes, taking the easy option rather than using old fashioned detective work. Grisham, meanwhile, is wondering how Slade is managing to be so successful and sets Morris to watch him. But when an ex-Government Minister is shot in his home Slade breaks into Holly’s flat while she is out and uses the time machine. But things go very wrong; Slade loses the time watch he needs to travel back and is captured by the killer. It is up to Holly and Nicky to solve the crime and rescue Slade in time for him to return to the present.
• The Lottery Experiment: The time machine is proving fragile, and parts expensive. Slade concocts a plan; he sees the 6 winning Powerball numbers on TV and goes back in time 12 hours to tell Holly the numbers so she can buy a ticket and win the jackpot prize. However, time is not easily duped, and after going back Slade and Holly consistently miss each other and messages go astray when Slade gets assigned to a gold robbery. Slade, in fact, solves the robbery by detective work but is less successful with the winning numbers. It seems time has its own defences against such manipulation!
• The Broken Crystal: A scientist working at Webb Biotech is murdered in this bath, another killed by a hit and run driver as he tried to speak to Holly. Holly’s time machine is out of action and she does not have the money to repair it, so the team investigate the old way! At Webb Biotech Holly is surprised to find that the boss of the two murdered scientists is Stephen Marlowe (Christopher Villiers), a colleague of her father’s and her old flame. Slade thinks Marlowe is implicated in the deaths but cannot prove anything as Marlowe has perfect alibies both times. Has Marlowe, in fact, been able to dabble in time travel himself or is Slade just jealous?

     Crime Traveller certainly has its moments, but in truth the characters never rise above the one-dimensional and the plotting is also often predictable. Diverting enough for those who like English drama.

Video

     This TV show is presented in an aspect ratio of approximately 1.29:1, close to what I believe is the original ratio of 1.33:1, and is not 16x9 enhanced.

     The print is pretty much as expected. It can be fairly soft in places, with some loss in detail. Colours are natural, if flat, and brightness and contrast can vary. Blacks do show evidence of noise reduction and grain is also evident, sometimes quite prominent such as at the start of episode 4. Shadow detail is acceptable, although not on the great side. I saw no marks but MPEG ghosting with motion is very frequent.

     There are no subtitles.

     The layer change on the Disc 1 results in a slight pause. It is badly placed, occurring just 0:53 into Episode 3; why not between episodes. I did not discover the layer change of Disc 2.

Video Ratings Summary

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Shadow Detail
Colour
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Film Artefacts
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Audio

     Audio is English Dolby Digital 2.0 surround encoded at 192 Kbps. It gets the job done.

     Dialogue is easy to understand. Effects lack much depth but are acceptable. The surrounds were limited to music as far as I can tell. The sub-woofer is not used.

     The music by Anne Dudley is used sparingly.

     Lip synchronisation was fine.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
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Overall

    The DVD packaging indicates that Script PDFs DVD-ROM content is on Disc 1. I was unable to find it.

Original Sales Trailer (3:11)

    On Disc 1.

Photographic Evidence

     On Disc 2 is a gallery of 22 stills from the series. No music, they advance automatically and take 2:12 to go through.

     In Region 1 US the 8 episodes are available in a three disc set. In Region 2 UK you can get the show in two volumes, each volume being a 2 disc set, or a complete series 4 disc set. There are some minor extras, but the real difference is that there are only two episodes per disc, not four as is the case of our Region 4 release. I have not seen a review of the video, but I would expect that the greater room given could alleviate some of the ghosting evident in our release. On that basis, I’d suggest Region 2 is the winner.

     Crime Traveller certainly has its moments and some episodes are amusing, but in truth the characters never rise above the one-dimensional and the plotting is also often predictable so one is pretty sure where the episode is going.

     The DVD has acceptable video and audio for a TV show that ran one series in 1997. Extras are limited.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall