Timeslip

''Timeslip'' is a British children's science fiction television series made by ATV for the ITV network and broadcast between 1970 and 1971. It was first broadcast on Friday evenings at around 5:10-5:15pm in the ATV region with the other ITV regions broadcasting the series on the following Monday.

Overview

The series is centred on two children, Simon Randall (Spencer Banks) and Liz Skinner (Cheryl Burfield) who discover the existence of a strange anomaly, known as the Time Barrier, which enables them to travel in time and visit the past and alternative futures. Although only described as a means for time travel, and the time barrier generally originating and ending their adventures in a field at a disused military base, the barrier can also move the children through locations. For example, they travel from St. Oswald's 1940 to the Antarctic 1990 in one journey through the barrier.

The children have contrasting personalities; whereas Simon is studious, Liz is something of a crybaby. This often leads to conflict. As the series progresses, their antagonism matures into a deep bond of friendship.

The main theme of the series is concerned with the way mankind uses – and abuses – science and technology. It explores how the pursuit of scientific knowledge and advancement can lead to the depersonalisation of individuals and the abandonment of moral principles. A secondary theme – explored in the instances where Liz and Simon encounter potential future versions of themselves – concerns the extent to which an individual can change according to the situations encountered in his or her life.

''List of serials''

Summary

''Wrong End of Time''

Simon, whose mother has died recently, has been taken on holiday in 1970 by the Skinner family – father Frank (Derek Benfield), mother Jean (Iris Russell) and daughter Liz – to the village of St Oswald. Frank had served at the (now abandoned) naval research base in St Oswald during World War II, where he had suffered amnesia. This has left him with no recollection of what happened during his time there. A local girl, Sarah, disappears through an invisible time barrier, witnessed by a local man, but nobody believes him when he tells the story in the pub where the Skinners are staying; but his story attracts a man called Charles Traynor (Denis Quilley), who arrives in the village and reveals that he was Skinner's commanding officer at the base during the war. Traynor had ordered Skinner to destroy the apparatus which the scientists at the base were working on, and he is eager to learn from Skinner if he succeeded in the task. This is because a German expeditionary team attacked and took over the base for a short time in 1940. The German commander, Gottfried (Sandor Elès), is now a prominent scientist, kidnapped and forced to work on the other side of the Iron Curtain, and Traynor is concerned that if the research work done at the base had fallen into his hands, it could be used against the West. While out playing near the ruins of the naval base, Liz and Simon encounter the Time Barrier for the first time. They are transported back to 1940, to the very day the Germans took over the base. There they encounter both Traynor, who is commander of the base, and Liz's father, a young naval recruit (played by John Alkin). A link is maintained to the present via Liz's mother, who is able to communicate telepathically with her daughter. After crossing the Time Barrier Liz and Simon encounter the teenage girl Sarah who fell through the barrier and help her return to the present day. When the Germans arrive, Liz and Simon are initially captured, but then escape and succeed in helping young Frank Skinner carry out Traynor's orders to destroy the secret apparatus – a prototype laser weapon – before the Germans can seize it. They escape back through the Time Barrier, but instead of returning to St Oswald in their time of 1970, they find themselves in an icy wilderness.

During their experience in 1940, Liz is shot yet the bullet does not harm her, which seems to confirm Traynor's advice to Liz's parents (in 1970) that the children are not actually in any danger from the time travel because they are only hallucinating about it and the past cannot harm them.

''The Time of the Ice Box''

The icy wilderness is revealed to be Antarctica in the year 1990. Liz and Simon are rescued from the ice and brought to a research base – the International Institute for Biological Research, nicknamed the "Ice Box" - headed by Morgan C. Devereaux ( John Barron). Liz and Simon manage to escape and return to the present time, but only just after Liz believes she has seen her mother in the Ice Box. In the present, Traynor is amazed to learn of Devereaux's presence in the future; he had been a student of Devereaux's and believed he had died in 1969. Using Simon's curiosity about these events, Traynor persuades the children to return to the Ice Box and Liz is stunned when she encounters first her mother, and then her future self – a cold, emotionless, scientist going by the name Beth (Mary Preston) – working in the Ice Box. The staff of the Ice Box are conducting controlled experiments on human volunteers, including tests of longevity drug called HA57. A catalogue of failures has been plaguing the research effort, but Devereaux refuses to entertain the possibility that the base computer is making errors. The failures get worse, and Devereaux's behaviour becomes more and more erratic. Liz and Simon learn that Devereaux is a clone of the original Devereaux, the first in the world. Investigating further, Liz and Simon discover that the purpose of the computer is to create a new clone of Devereaux. This is so that the formula for the longevity drug, which is known only to Devereaux and not written down, can be preserved and kept secret. Liz discovers to her horror and disgust that her father Frank is also in the Ice Box, but has been buried under the ice for ten years as part of an experiment, but the experiment fails when the Ice Box temperature controls fail. The Ice Box researchers confront Devereaux, attempting to convince him that the computer is malfunctioning. Devereaux is unable to accept his failing and, suffering a mental breakdown, escapes out into the Antarctic ice. As the computer fails, the base begins to freeze over. The staff, including Jean and Beth, each take a dose of an anti-freeze formula in the hope of surviving the cold until rescue arrives. Liz and Simon depart; as they approach the Time Barrier, they discover the frozen body of Devereaux.

''The Year of the Burn Up''

The Time Barrier returns Simon and Liz to 1970. Traynor warns them not to use the Time Barrier again. Determined to prevent the future of the Ice Box that they have witnessed, and curious as to what Traynor is afraid they might discover, they disobey him and once more enter the Time Barrier. Once again, they end up in 1990, but in an alternate future from that of the Ice Box. In this future, England is covered in tropical rainforest. Once again, Liz encounters her future self, Beth (once more played by Mary Preston). This time, however, she is a hippy Earth mother type who has rebelled against the technocracy that rules this future world, and lives in a primitive village with similar misfits. Simon also encounters his future self – a technocrat known as Controller 2957 ( David Graham), charged with implementing the Master Plan intended to reshape the Earth to the benefit of mankind. The Master Plan had originally been devised in 1970 by Traynor. However, 2957 has since usurped him, and now Traynor, who is still alive in 1990, is determined to wreak his revenge. Traynor sabotages the computer managing the Master Plan. His interference ruins the Earth's climate, causing global temperatures to soar and leading to an environmental collapse of devastating proportions. Beth aids Liz and Simon in returning through the Time Barrier before heading for the safety of some caves with the misfits and 2957, who has seen the error of his ways, where there is water and they might stand a chance of survival.

''The Day of the Clone''

The final serial ties together many of the elements of the previous serials. Believing that Beth needs her help, Liz attempts to return to 1990 via the Time Barrier, but is kidnapped by Traynor. Simon goes looking for Liz and tracks her to R1, a secret research establishment under Traynor's command, that is located at St. Oswald's and next to the Time Barrier. The children learn that R1 was established by Morgan C. Devereaux to research into the longevity drug – HA57 – that the children previously encountered in the Ice Box. They break out of R1 and, with Traynor in pursuit, they make their escape through the Time Barrier, which transports them to the year 1965. Realising that Devereaux would have been alive in this time, they return to R1. There the children learn that R1 is not only researching longevity, but also cloning. Devereaux believes that for the cloning and longevity process to be a success, subjects must also undergo psychological reconditioning, but Traynor, who is working at R1 as the Government's representative, disagrees, believing that Devereaux is turning the volunteer subjects into brainwashed puppets. When Traynor threatens to shut down R1, Devereaux has him detained and replaced by a clone. Devereaux's experiments fail and the young people Simon & Liz encounter at R1 in 1965, they meet again in 1970 only now they are all very old men and women on the point of dying. Simon realises that it is Devereaux who is the source of the dystopian futures they have witnessed, and that the Traynor they know has been a clone all along. The Time Barrier created a clone projection of Devereaux in the Ice Box in the hope that the children could return a working formula for HA57 to the Traynor clone in 1970. The Traynor clone is also a projection of the Time Barrier, charged with implementing Devereaux's vision of the future: the catastrophic Master Plan that will lead to the "Burn Up". Returning to 1970, Liz and Simon discover the real Traynor, locked up in a secret room in R1 since 1965. The children and the real Traynor confront the clone Traynor at the Time Barrier at St Oswald. Traynor tells the clone that he doesn't exist, that he is a projection. As the clone nears the Barrier, an invisible force grabs him and he disappears into the Time Barrier. Liz and Simon return to their families, leaving the real Traynor alone...

Production

''Timeslip'' was devised by ATV script editor Ruth Boswell, who developed the format and the outline of the first story with her husband James.Arnold, ''Breaking Barriers''. Its development was instigated by ATV producer Renee Goddard, who wanted to produce a programme that could challenge the popularity among children of the BBC
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