REWIND: Cool WiFi TV Opportunity: A SyFy Reject That Really Makes It

For your convenience, this post provides the whole link. You can just start here, I'm pretty sure.

This is the pilot for an un-produced SyFy TV series from 2013. It's better than 95% of the stuff that I've seen from SyFy.

It's a time travel, let's fix the past kind of story, with a Shaun played by a Shane, a black side-kick, a very cool chick scientist, and Jeff Fahey. Or should I say, Jeff Fahey !!! He's usually very good, and here is no exception. Dude brings the cool. Here, his nickname is "Jazz," because he constantly plays LP records by classic jazz artists and names his micro-robots "Miles," and "Trane," and "Chet." They should have produced the series just to take advantage of his participation.

All of the characters are good. The whole supporting staff are well drawn and engaging. The dialog is very crisp and the badinage is funny. The story is strong, with tons of possibilities for future episodes. If something went wrong with this project, it is not evident on screen this time around.

In this pilot, the team return to 1929 to change something and prevent New York being nuked in 2013. I was worried about the black agent being sent with the three person team back to 1929, but there was no need. They steal a car, and the black guy says, "I'm driving." When the alpha-male white agent says no, the black guy says, "1929, south of the Mason-Dixon line, I'm the driver." That's a level of sophistication that we don't always see in B Movies.

And there's a very nice trick ending! After the team has sorted everything out and avoided the destruction of New York, some pain-in-the-ass colonel strolls into the device and intentionally fucks everything up. How great is that! A pilot with call-backs! But no, it was not to be.

This is one pilot that went nowhere but which is worth watching on its own. Highly recommended.