So I finished watching Travelers season 2 on Netflix, and it’s still… I think I’ve mentioned before in some random A/N after watching season 1 that it’s an interesting premise but overall not… I like it, but I’m not moved by it, if that makes any sense? Mentally, everything is good, A or B for the most part, but it’s not something I would enthusiastically recommend. (Like, if someone didn’t have Netflix, I would tell them to get Netflix in order to watch Stranger Things, but I don’t know if I would do the same for Travelers. Whereas if someone who already has Netflix just wants a recommendation for something interesting to binge watch I’d maybe say Travelers, it depends on their taste)
Anyway, so the reason that I bring it up is that while the canon show itself isn’t exactly compelling, I just watched the finale and had an idea for an AU that I personally think would be based on the same premise.
So this is spoilers for Travelers season 2 finale–if you care to watch any of the show and don’t want to be spoiled, TURN BACK NOW.
Basically, different hosts!AU. In which instead of the canon hosts, it’s the “loved ones” kidnapped in the finale that are the hosts for the time traveler team instead.
And certain storylines carry over still–Travelers 3468 and 3465–are still in love, but instead of Grant MacLaren and Carly Shannon they’d be in the bodies of Kathryn MacLaren and Jeffrey Conniker. Traveler 0115 still marvels at the potential of youth but instead of being in teenage Trevor Holden, she gets to help shape multiple teenagers as guidance counselor Grace Day.
And, yes, that does remove the storyline of Traveler 3569 being sent into a “compromised” host of Marcy Warton, but considering she was tortured and traumatized by Traveler 001 it would be an interesting ongoing mission from the get beginning. As Marcy’s social worker, David Mailer is the closest person to her and the best one to protect her and figure out Traveler 001’s whereabouts as Vincent Ingram.
That would also remove the addiction storyline of Traveler 3326, although Ray (last name unknown?) being a gambling addict with known debts would be an equally as good target for the team’s historian. And it’d be pretty easy to tweak his and Philip Pearson’s backstory such that they know each other anyway…
Because, see, imagine it: instead of being an FBI agent, the team leader is married to an FBI agent instead. The whole “secret organization of terrorists” thing would feel much closer to home if it’s Traveler 3468’s husband doing the investigating rather than some kind of throw away thing in the last few episodes.
Traveler 3465 whose entire job is to keep his team safe is living a life of a man who abused his girlfriend and is absolutely scared of him–and also, it kind of makes sense to have the tactical officer be a cop.
Instead of Traveler 0115 being devastated at losing his guidance counselor who he (maybe?) had a thing for, it would be Grace Day trying to help Trevor Holden cope with the fact that the football coach molested his players and convince him to testify. And when Traveler 0027 overwrites him it’s a greater blow–she was helping him heal. And yes, the team can still just hack the coach’s computer, but that doesn’t help the fact that a teenage boy died before justice could be done (instead of bringing in a new character entirely).
… Anyway. IF I were to write this different hosts!AU, I would probably do it from the POV of the canon!hosts being interviewed/interrogated by Traveler 001, interspersed with flashbacks of how certain missions or plot points would be different because of the different hosts.
Also, imagining actual!FBI Agent Grant MacLaren stuck in a kidnapping situation with four of the most civilian civilians to ever civilian is pretty hilarious.
JackSGreyson Says 