Time travel stories can get complicated quickly, but this 2013 SYFY original series found the perfect concept and nailed the execution from start to finish.
The sci-fi series Continuum, which ran for four seasons from 2013 to 2015, followed 2077 police officer Kiera Cameron (played by Rachel Nichols) after a daring prison break in the future results in her being pulled decades into the past, landing in the present day — along with a terrorist cell who have traveled to the past in an effort to change their eventual future before it even comes to pass.
It’s a concept that gets plenty of nuance once you get deeper into it, but the pitch is elegant and easy to follow. If you’re a fan of shows like 12 Monkeys, Timeless, and Travelers this is right in that same vein. Even better, all four seasons are streaming on Peacock right now.
Remembering Continuum, SYFY’s underrated time-travel series
Once Kiera lands in her past, our present, she makes contact with a teenage tech savant who will grow up to be a major player in the future, where corporations essentially run the world in place of government. It’s that corporation-controlled future that the terrorists, under the moniker of Liber8, are fighting to prevent. Sure, their methods are obviously bad, but the show isn’t afraid to ask the question of who are the “good” guys and “bad” guys in this scenario? Does the future need to be changed, albeit with different methods, but is this still a worthy cause?
As the seasons roll on and the mysteries start to unravel, Kiera links up with law enforcement in the present day and crosses paths with members of Liber8 as they realize that — sometimes — their motivations might overlap. And they eventually come to realize that Kiera being sent back might not have been an accident after all.
It’s all incredibly well-executed for a cable budget, making deft use of its VFX shots as needed, and looks like a show that was shot on twice the budget. For a series already more than a decade old, it holds up surprisingly well, and some of its themes are more timely now than when the show was on the air.
Continuum is a perfect sci-fi binge
Though it stuck around for four seasons, the full series is still a relatively tight 42 episodes, which helps it to never really get bogged down, and makes it incredibly binge-able. Even better, the creative team (the show was created by Simon Barry) knew the end was coming, and were able to craft an ending that fittingly brought the full series to a close.
So, you can safely go into this binge knowing you’ll have a complete story.
As for the cast, Nichols is surrounded by faces who should be familiar for sci-fi (and SYFY) fans, as the series was filmed in Canada and features plenty of the stars who make the rounds through the genre shows shot there in that era. Victor Webster (Mutant X) plays Kiera’s cop partner; Stephen Lobo (Painkiller Jane) is a fellow time traveler and sometimes-ally; Roger Cross (Dark Matter) and Lexa Doig (Stargate SG-1) are members of Liber8; Tony Amendola (Stargate SG-1) is the leader of Liber8; Jennifer Spence (Stargate Universe) is a researcher for the local police; and there are just so many more in the guest star cast — where Battlestar Galactica, Caprica and X-Files alums pop up week-in and week-out.
Stream the full run of Continuum on Peacock right now.
