The idea of time travel has been a staple of science fiction, ranging from iconic films like Back to the Future to the hilarious, yet utterly heartbreaking rom-com Palm Springs. One time-travel series, Continuum, has probably flown under most sci-fi fans’ radar. It’s a shame because Continuum has a truly unique take on time-travel, not to mention a stacked cast of actors with experience in the sci-fi genre. With the series free to stream, sci-fi fans can check out this hidden gem for themselves.
Continuum takes place in the year 2077, where the United States — or the North American Union, as it’s called in the future — has annexed Canada. A group of terrorists called Liber8 conducts attacks across Vancouver, only stopping when police officer Kiera Cameron (Rachel Nichols) arrests their leader, Edouard Kagame (Tony Amendola). At Kagame’s trial, members of Liber8 use a time travel device to jump to the year 2012, and Kiera is pulled to the past alongside them. She joins the Vancouver Police Department, working with Detective Carlos Fonnegra (Victor Webster) to track down Liber8’s members and preserve the future.
‘Continuum’ Balances Traiditonal Sci-Fi Tropes With Strong Character Work
Like any good time travel story, Continuum focuses on how its characters’ actions affect both past and future. For Liber8, cracks begin to show in their team when one of their members, Matthew Kellog (Stephen Lobo), defects and starts helping Kiera. Kiera also has her own personal life to consider; when she travelled to 2012 and left behind her husband and their baby boy. The biggest twist concerns Alec Sadler (Erik Knudsen), a young prodigy who helps Kiera and Carlos in their fight against Liber8. In the future, Alec becomes one of the oligarchs who rule the North American union, which leads Kiera to oppose him in future episodes.
Your answers point to the world your instincts were built for. This is the universe your temperament, your survival instincts, and your particular brand of stubbornness were made for.
You took the red pill a long time ago — probably before anyone offered it to you. You’re a systems thinker who can’t help but notice the seams in things.
- You’re drawn to understanding how the system works before figuring out how to break it.
- You’d find the Resistance, or it would find you — your instinct for spotting constructed realities is the machines’ worst nightmare.
- You function best when you have access to information and the freedom to act on it.
- The Matrix built an airtight prison. You’d be the one probing the walls for the door.
The wasteland doesn’t reward the clever or the well-connected — it rewards those who are hard to kill and harder to break. That’s you.
- You don’t need comfort, community, or a cause larger than the next horizon.
- You need a vehicle, a clear threat, and enough fuel to outrun it — and you’re good at all three.
- You are unsentimental enough to survive that world, and decent enough — just barely — to be something more than another raider.
- In the wasteland, that distinction is everything.
You’d survive here because you know how to exist in moral grey areas without losing yourself completely.
- You read people accurately, keep your circle small, and ask the questions others prefer not to answer.
- In a city where humanity is a legal designation rather than a feeling, you hold onto something that keeps you functional.
- You’re not a hero. But you’re not lost, either.
- In Blade Runner’s world, that distinction is everything.
Arrakis is the most hostile environment in the known universe — and you are precisely the kind of person it rewards.
- Patience, discipline, and political awareness are your core strengths — and on Arrakis, they’re survival tools.
- You understand that the long game matters more than any single victory.
- Others come to Dune and are consumed by it. You’d learn its logic and earn its respect.
- In time, you wouldn’t just survive Arrakis — you’d begin to reshape it.
The galaxy far, far away is vast, loud, and in a constant state of violent political upheaval — and you wouldn’t have it any other way.
- You find meaning in being part of something larger than yourself — a cause, a crew, a rebellion.
- You’d gravitate toward the Rebellion, or the fringes, or whatever pocket of the galaxy still believes the Empire’s grip can be broken.
- You fight — not because you have to, but because standing aside isn’t something you’re capable of.
- In Star Wars, that willingness is what makes all the difference.
Continuum also boasts an incredible cast, with each actor either having plenty of genre fare under their belts or going to work in genre-based shows later in their career. Rachel Nichols had minor parts in Star Trek and G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, and shared in a Collider interview that she loved the physicality of these roles. Webster had previously starred as an electric-powered hero in Mutant X, while Lexa Doig — who played Liber8’s future leader Sonya Valentine — played the android who gave Andromeda its title. This cast didn’t just lend Continuum nerd cred, as they managed to deliver some truly emotional performances. Nichols, in particular, gets the chance to flex her dramatic chops as Kiera deals with the weight of her mission, especially when Season 3 introduces a parallel timeline and lets her play two different versions of the same character.
‘Continuum’ Was Cut Down in Its Prime
Image via SyFy- Image via SyFy
- Image via Showcase
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- Image via MGM
Image via SyFy
Image via SyFy
Image via Showcase
Image via SyFy
Image via MGM- Image via SyFy
- Image via SyFy
- Image via Showcase
- Image via SyFy
- Image via MGM
Image via SyFy
Image via SyFy
Image via Showcase
Image via SyFy
Image via MGMLike its time travel conflict, a twist of fate brought Continuum to life. Series creator Simon Berry revealed that a friend asked him for the pilot as Showcase, a Canadian network dedicated to sci-fi, needed a new series. Berry told io9:
“I gave him the idea for Continuum to pass on to the executives there. They immediately saw the potential and hired me to write a pilot script. Because it was first set up with Showcase, there was much more of an appetite for Sci-Fi and genre-bending concepts. Showcase really understood what the show could be from day one.”
“I gave him the idea for Continuum to pass on to the executives there. They immediately saw the potential and hired me to write a pilot script. Because it was first set up with Showcase, there was much more of an appetite for Sci-Fi and genre-bending concepts. Showcase really understood what the show could be from day one.”
Sadly, Continuum would be cancelled after running for four seasons; Showtime gave Berry a fourth and final season to wrap the storyline up. Unfortunately, even during the height of its run, Continuum never got the attention it deserved. Although it found international distribution outside of Canada — the series aired on Syfy in the U.S. — the timing for the series was just wrong. At a time when sci-fi series had minuscule budgets and were relegated to a couple of genre channels, Continuum felt doomed to fail.
Berry would go on to create another genre-bending hit on Netflix: Warrior Nun, though he said he’d love to come back and continue Continuum‘s story in another medium to explore the mythology that never got to make it on the show. In an era of reboots and high-quality sci-fi television, it feels like Continuum is once again being forgotten. While Continuum might have followed in the footsteps of other great sci-fi series that were cut down in their prime, the unique concept makes it an ideal TV series and one that could surely find new fans even over a decade after its premiere.
Continuum
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