“Collider: Where did the idea for this show originally
come from?
SIMON
BARRY: It started with an approach to
the structure of the show, more than any specific characterization. For me, the idea of blending genres and
trying to do a little twist on the time travel genre with something that was
grounded, so that it could be produced.
Going into the sales mode, you position everything to be as least scary
as possible. When you’re selling shows,
and I’ve sold quite a few ideas, I know some of the pitfalls that get in the
way of people moving forward with your ideas.
So, I wanted to include things that I wanted to do, which is more of the
sci-fi and time travel stuff, but package it in a way that is a little bit more
appetizing for a network that was looking for something familiar but different.
And
so, structurally, the original idea of time travel terrorists is where it first
started, and that they would be pursued by one cop who actually went through
with them and was forced to deal with the local law enforcement when she
arrived, or he arrived, at the time. It
set up a very, very simple, easily understandable TV show structure that had a
progressed of storytelling arcs built into it, with discovery and
fish-out-of-water elements. Once that
was fairly squared away, in my mind, then I started building the initial
characterizations for the pilot, which were some of the prototype
characters. I built Kiera’s backstory,
and who she was and where she was coming from.
And then, in the writers’ room, in Season 1, we started building on that
and adding new characters and expanding the universe.
…
Is
there one particular character that you found changing the most, after you cast
the role?
BARRY: I think they all changed, in their own
way. Once the cast is put together, it
becomes tangible in a way that it never is and you start to play to the
strengths of the actors themselves.
Certainly in the initial stages, with characters like Kellog and Garza,
I might not have been able to predict how deep we’d go and how many surprises
we could have mined from them. Also, the
performances are so good that they’re characters the writers love to write
for. But, I would say that it applies to
almost everybody. You start with
prototypes, in a way, and you have characters who have a direction, but when
you only have a pilot to work off of, there’s a lot of room for building. We had a bible, going into the session, but
we were all collaborating on the bible, so it wasn’t a road map that the
writers were necessarily following. We
were all contributing to it, as we broke the season, in the first season, so it
became more of a record of our ideas and less of a guideline. It very much took on its own life, in many
ways, and a lot of the characters took on their own lives, as a result of that.
Had
you always known when Kiera would reveal the truth to Carlos, or had you even
known for sure that that would actually happen?
BARRY: In the original draft of Episode 10 of Season
1, I had originally written that Carlos saw Kiera go invisible. On the day, we decided to hold off and make
it more about what Gardiner witnessed.
We’d discussed, early on, the appropriate time to do it, when it would
have the most impact. I think the reason
we didn’t do it, at the end of Season 1, was that we realized that we were
juggling too many balls in the air to come back to Season 2, and we really were
not servicing that reveal in the way that I thought was best for the show. So, I was really glad that we chose to not do
it then. I was really happy with the way
it turned out in Season 2.
…
By
the end of Season 2, alliances have really shifted, and Kiera, Carlos and Alec
are really pulled in very different directions.
Can any of them truly be friends or allies again, especially when
they’re all seeking or fighting control and power?
BARRY: Well, that’s a good question. It’s funny with friendships. Sometimes they are defined by the dynamic in
the relationship, and sometimes they’re not.
We always try to never think of anything on the show as working on one
level. We’re always looking at the many
layers, not just for defining things, but for the truth of things. It’s been our mandate to complicate things,
and we like that. We feel that life is a
very nuanced, complex experience, and our characters were always looking for
that element of complexity and nuance.
Whether it’s friendship, story, plot or morality, we never want to feel
like we have a very clear-cut approach.
That allows for characters to do things that are unexpected, which is
great, but it also complicates relationships in a way that I feel is better for
the show. The stakes of the show should
never be so simple that it’s just, “Well, I’m your friend, so therefore this is
going to happen.” Everything is in
motion and people’s decision making is shifting with the stakes.
Where
do you see Julian’s role in Season 3, and what is Carlos’ place in that now?
BARRY: I don’t want to talk too much about
that. I actually do know what’s going to
happen to Carlos and Julian, and they’re both going to have interesting lives
in Season 3. But because of the way we
finished Season 2, it would ultimately tip our hand, as to what we’ve chosen to
do, at the beginning of Season 3, and I don’t want to spoil it. Julian’s role is going to evolve in a way
that’s surprising, and I think Carlos is certainly going to show a different
side of himself that will challenge everyone.
They are both rich characters who should not be stagnant. I think we try to hold every character up to
that standard and the objective not to change them for the sake of changing
them, but to mine the little shades that we’ve revealed in the past, and see
where those shades can go.
…
Up
until the Season 2 finale, you’ve never really explored the possibility of any
of these characters traveling to yet another time period, whether it be
backward or forward in time. But, now
that Alec has used the time travel device presumably to go back and save Emily,
how will you handle that in Season 3?
BARRY: There’s this horrible two-sided blade with
time travel. By not exploiting it, you
can be safe and solid in your foundation.
If you do use it, it can get really messy, really quickly. It is a time travel show, after all, and
we’ve always wanted to explore more time travel on the show. So, we really planned ahead, that this would
be our second use of time travel, after the original incident in Season 1. We felt very confident that the storytelling
would support the way this would play out and how we would be able to portray
what Alec has done. I think in the first
episode of Season 3, there will be no more questions about how this works or
how to tell stories using time travel.
We have a fairly straightforward and fun approach to the reality of time
travel that allows us to have our cake and eat it too.”
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