Image via Showcase
Updated Oct 24, 2026, 9:01 PM EDT
Collier Jennings is an entertainment journalist with extensive experience. Collier, or "CJ" to his friends and family, is a dedicated fan of genre films - particularly science fiction, fantasy, and comic book adaptations, not to mention all forms of animation. This stems from a close bond with his father, who introduced him to these genres via copies of X-Men comics and reruns of the original Ultraman series. With his near-encyclopedic knowledge and bottomless love of genre, he's tackled a wide variety of articles.
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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.
Collider Exclusive · Sci-Fi Survival Quiz Which Sci-Fi World Would You Survive? The Matrix · Mad Max · Blade Runner · Dune · Star Wars
Five universes. Five completely different ways the future went wrong — or sideways, or up in flames. Only one of them is the world your instincts were built for. Eight questions will figure out which dystopia, galaxy, or desert wasteland you'd actually make it out of alive.
💊The Matrix
🔥Mad Max
🌧️Blade Runner
🏜️Dune
🚀Star Wars
TEST YOUR SURVIVAL →
01
You sense something is deeply wrong with the world around you. What do you do? The first instinct is often the truest one.
APull on every thread until I understand the system — then figure out how to break it. BStop asking questions and start stockpiling — food, fuel, weapons. Questions don't keep you alive. CKeep my head down, observe carefully, and trust no one until I know who's pulling the strings. DStudy the patterns. Every system has a rhythm — learn it, and you learn how to survive it. EFind the people fighting back and join them. You can't fix a broken galaxy alone.
NEXT QUESTION →
02
In a world of scarcity, what resource do you guard most fiercely? What we protect reveals what we believe survival actually requires.
AKnowledge. If you understand the system, you don't need resources — you can generate them. BFuel. Everything else — movement, power, escape — runs on it. CTrust. In a world of fakes and informants, a truly reliable ally is rarer than any commodity. DWater. And after water, information — the two things empires are truly built on. EShips and credits. The galaxy is big — you survive it by being able to move through it freely.
NEXT QUESTION →
03
What kind of threat keeps you up at night? Fear is useful data — if you're honest about what you're actually afraid of.
AThat reality itself is a lie — that everything I experience has been constructed to keep me compliant. BA raid. No warning, no mercy — just the roar of engines and then nothing left. CBeing identified. Once someone with power decides you're a problem, you're already out of time. DBeing outmanoeuvred — losing a political game I didn't even know I was playing. EThe Empire tightening its grip until there's nowhere left to run.
NEXT QUESTION →
04
How do you deal with authority you don't trust? Every dystopia has a power structure. Your approach to it determines everything.
ASubvert it from the inside — learn its rules well enough to weaponise them against it. BIgnore it and stay out of its reach. The further from any power structure, the better. CAppear to comply while doing exactly what I need to do. Visibility is the enemy. DManoeuvre within it carefully. You can't beat a system you refuse to understand. EResist openly when I have to. Some things are worth the risk of being seen.
NEXT QUESTION →
05
Which environment could you actually endure long-term? Survival isn't just tactical — it's physical, psychological, and very much about where you are.
AUnderground bunkers and server rooms — cramped, artificial, but with access to everything that matters. BOpen wasteland — brutal sun, no shelter, constant movement. At least the threat is honest. CA dense, rain-soaked city where you can disappear into the crowd and nobody asks questions. DMerciless desert — extreme heat, no water, and something enormous living beneath the sand. EThe fringe — backwater planets and busy spaceports where the Empire's attention rarely reaches.
NEXT QUESTION →
06
Who do you want in your corner when things fall apart? The company you keep is the clearest signal of who you actually are.
AA tight crew of believers who've seen behind the curtain and have nothing left to lose. BOne or two people I'd trust with my life. Any more than that and someone talks. CNobody, ideally. Alliances are liabilities. I work alone unless I have no choice. DA community bound by shared hardship and mutual survival — people who need each other to last. EA ragtag team with wildly different skills and total commitment when it counts.
NEXT QUESTION →
07
Where do you draw the line — if you draw one at all? Every survivor eventually faces a moment that tests what they're actually made of.
AI won't harm the innocent — even the ones who'd report me without hesitation. BI do what I have to to protect the people I've chosen. Everything else is negotiable. CThe line shifts depending on who's asking and what's at stake. DI draw a long-term line — nothing that compromises my people's future, even if it'd help now. ESome lines, once crossed, can't be uncrossed. I know which ones they are.
NEXT QUESTION →
08
What would actually make survival worth it? Staying alive is one thing. Having a reason to is another.
AWaking others up — dismantling the illusion so no one else has to live inside it. BFinding somewhere — or someone — worth protecting. A reason to keep moving. CAnswers. Understanding what I am, what any of this means, before time runs out. DLegacy — shaping the future in a way that outlasts me by generations. EFreedom — for myself, for others, for every world still living under someone else's boot.
REVEAL MY WORLD →
Your Fate Has Been Calculated You'd Survive In…
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.
The Matrix
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.
Mad Max
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.
Blade Runner
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.
Dune
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.
Star Wars
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.
↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ
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
Like 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."
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.
Release Date 2012 - 2015-00-00
Network showcase
Directors Pat Williams, David Frazee, William Waring, amanda tapping, Mike Rohl, Jon Cassar, Simon Barry, Paul Shapiro
