Jane Espenson

The secret service does more than just protect the president: Agents Myka Bering and Peter Lattimer (under the guidance of Artie, not to mention the help of girl genius sidekick Claudia and slightly psychic landlord Leena) also gather and protect remarkable scientific artifacts from throughout history. H.G. Wells shows up at the start of season 2, but time travel didn’t appear until episode 10 of that season, when Myka and Pete head to 1961. Later, in the first episode of season 4, after the deaths of all and sundry (not to mention the demolition of the warehouse), Artie goes back in time again (at great expense to himself). I was expecting more time travel in season 5 and was not disappointed when our favorite agents follow the evil Paracelsus back to 1541 (“Endless Terror”) to prevent the creation of a warehouse of horrible human experimentation; plus there’s a smidgen of 1942 time travel in the mushy (in a good way) series finale.

As with the first episode of the 2021 Fantasy Island revival, the second has no actual time travel, but the side-plot (“The Heartbreak Hotel”) does have a time-related phenomenon when Elena and Mr. Jones try to connect with a grieving widower who wakens only once every five years to see whether life is worth living. —Michael Main